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Moschetti Track Gold Puddler

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  • 20180523 103501
  • 20180523 103556
  • 20180523 103609
Moschetti Track, Lillicur VIC 3371

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Features

  • Gold Puddler
  • Historic Diggings
  • Bushland
  • Birdwatching
The gold puddler alongside Moschetti Track, Lillicur lies within the Talbot Nature Conservation Reserve. 

It is surrounded by scattered quartz and historic gold diggings. This puddler is fairly small and in reasonable condition.

A larger gold puddler can be found nearby on Peters Hill Track.

WHAT IS A PUDDLING MACHINE? 


Puddling technology was developed entirely in Victoria from 1854. The need for these machines arose due to the enormous amounts of clay soil in the region which needed to be broken up to retrieve the gold. 

Puddling machines are a very significant development in the history of Victorian gold mining, as they are the only technology or method developed entirely on the Victorian Goldfields. (source)

Information sign at the nearby Battery Dam, an old mine site turned eucalyptus distillery, regarding puddling machines.

Earth Resources offers the following concise description of a puddling machine:

Puddling machines were pioneered on the Victorian goldfields in 1854 as an affordable means of processing gold-bearing clay on a large scale.

A horse dragged a harrow repeatedly through a circular, barklined trough full of clay and water, 'puddling' the mixture into a thin sludge. 

Any gold freed from the lumpy clay would sink, remaining behind on the bottom of the trough after the watery sludge was drained off. A clean-up of the residue, using tin-dish or cradle, would bring the gold finally to light.


Photograph of a gold puddling machine used in Victorian gold mining.
Image source: Federation University Australia E.J. Barker Library (top floor) Mount Helen Victoria



 

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