Oriental Claims Goldfields
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The company did not commence full production until 1886 after considerable work was carried out to finish the race and clean its course. To be effective races had to be kept free of fallen timber. Breaches in the walls, caused by animals, such as wombats, had to be filled and this usually entailed one person working non stop on the race seven days a week. The race provided enough water to supply two hydraulic hoses and twelve 36" sluices The Oriental Sluicing Company showed a similar return to the Pioneer Company, the ground averaging about 9d per cubic yard or in excess of five grains or 1/5 of a dwt per cubic yard.  Oriental Claims today showing depth to which ground was worked. Click on image to enlarge These of course were not the only parties working in the area, many of the claims along Mountain Creek and Dry Gully were operated by the Chinese. Ah Fong and his party were perhaps the most successful of the Chinese miners. Although only working a small claim at the Junction of Dry Gully and Living-stone Creek opposite the Pioneer, they had won over 2000 ounces of gold prior to 1886. Ah Fong had a race cut on the north side of Dry Gully branching to Mountain Creek. This was as a high race and by means of fluming he crossed the gorge washed out by his and the Starlight Claim and so could work in two directions. Ah Fong washed into Dry Gully while Dan Ah San who owned the Starlight washed into the Livingstone Ah Fong and his party of four made a small fortune, which enabled him to go into business in 1896. They washed up 500 ounces of gold in eight weeks. It is estimated that production from individual claims other than companies in this area, totalled 21,000 ounces. The Pioneer Company meanwhile having worked for just on twenty five years for 7,500 ounces of gold decided to sell up. The claim was purchased by a Chinese Co operative for £1000, but in their first years they were beset with misfortune. The years 1883/5 were almost drought years and so most waterworks were brought to a standstill. Work did not therefore seriously start until 1886 and by 1888 the claim had only produced 1000 ounces of gold. The ground in which the Claims are found was graphically described by 'Fossil' a correspondent to the Omeo Standard in 1891. '...different varieties of washes in their stratified like layers run to a length somewhat irregularly, other portions resembling the bed of old streams. The former are generally what are termed the red washes, and are mixed occasionally with basaltic boulders. These at Dry Hill undoubtedly have been swept down from the miocene deposits about Cobungra. The latter (white washes) are more quartzoze than the former, and must have come down the Livingstone, and the other washes, granitic, schistose and less quartzoze from the Dry Hill and surrounding locality.. At the Oriental Claim there appears to be six layers of washes, and the average depth of these at the present face to the false bottom is from 45 to 50 feet. Much of the above was sluiced as surface workings, however, there was stilt a considerable area of deeper ground that could be worked. The only efficient way was by hydraulic sluicing. 'At delivery of head race there is 60 feet of pressure, but 10 feet more are available. This pressure is increased by the water being conducted through pipe columns 100 yards in length. The first one foot, the second nine inches and the third six inches. Then the water passes through a nozzle from two to three inches as required. The sluices are wooden, thence through a paved ditch to the gateway, with ample fall all the way. |
The Oriental Company purchased a Number 1 Giant hydrant and nozzle in 1889, this allowed them to work deeper ground. Their rail race was deepened accordingly As a result production of gold, which had varied from 40 to 100 ounces in the three preceding years rose to 275 ounces in late 1889. The wash faces were, now sixty feet high and the tall race 600 yards long. With such good prospects a number of groups showed interest in buying the claim. They were all rejected which is perhaps surprising when considering the age of the shareholders, all of whom had been working on the field since the earliest days . In fact most of the shareholders worked only about half time and employed labourers to fulfill their work committment. Even this was still a lucrative arrangement as wages never exceeded £2/5/- and gold production hovered around £5 per man per week. As the partners grew older and changes took place in the shareholders, disputes arose in respect to the equitable distribution of income in relation to hours worked by shareholders. In 1901, one of the new shareholders, Rudolph Von Knuth took the others before the wardens court on just this issue. The bickering finally took second place in 1904 when the Sludge Abatement Board stopped all works, until tailings could be prevented from flowing into Livingstone Creek and polluting the water W. Tracey an* hydraulics engineer solved the problem but not until 1911 when a new company, the Orient-at Gold Mining Company Limited, was formed in Adelaide. It took up 232 acres of leases.  An old drive in the Oriental Claims. Click on image to enlarge There was still a face of 120 feet available for working if the tailings could be put somewhere. Tracey found that he could sluice 50 feet of it by gravitation, running the tailings over elevated boxes and depositing them in ground already worked. This overcame the difficulty of providing expensive settling dams. A 150 h.p. engine was imported and a 14" elevator pump allowing the tailings to be deposited to the north of the working area by the elevator. The elevator pit can be still seen today as a deep waterhole surrounded by rushes. Using the water pressure the ground could be undercut bringing down blocks of top wash, one of which was estimated to contain 1000 tons. The tailings from the pump were then distributed over the worked ground, by carrying up the old tall race under the tailings, the plant could be moved forward as desired. There was always a new depository for tailings upon the bottom last worked. Despite high hopes, by June 1912 product-ion realised only Just over 54 ounces valued at £191 and so after more than fifty years all operations on the Oriental Claims ceased. The only other major attempt to work the area was in 1883 when the Omeo Deep Lead Gold Mining Co. was set up to search for deep leads. Several shafts had been dug in the '60s and '70s and one, in search of a reef went down 268 feet - 68 feet below the level of the Pioneer which shows how deep the company had gone. Rodgers and France of the Oriental were principal shareholders. They sank a shaft 170 foot but were beaten by water - it was a short lived venture. The area generally referred to as the Oriental Claims was certainly one of the richest alluvial deposits in Victoria and was unique in the period of time that it was profitably worked. The average return from this type of mining in Victoria between 1900 -1912 was 2.23 grains per cubic yard or 1/10 dwt. At the Claims they registered five grains or. 2dwt. This shows the Claims to be an exceptional area of rich alluvial workings and an example today for what lengths men were prepared to go to, to secure the wealth from the ground. |
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