The Mount Tarrengower Tunnelling Company commenced work in Maldon in 1865, and were the first company in Australia to use compressed air-driven rock drilling technology.
Subsequent widespread adoption of this technology was a milestone in Australian underground mining. After failing to find payable gold, the company was wound up by 1870.
There is a short walking track to the Mount Tarrengower Tunnelling Company's mine, beginning from Anzac Hill Road. The track is a narrow gravel path with a few steps on the way down.
The track brings you to a wooden barrier where you can look down a cutting towards the tunnel.
To see the tunnel itself, walk along this cutting or a minute or so to the mine entrance. A locked gate is set within the tunnel, a few metres in.
There are prickly berry bushes near the entrance to the mine, so be careful if you're wearing short sleeves or shorts.
More information and history
The Maldon quartz reefing field, although relatively small compared to others in the State, was extraordinary rich
in gold. The hardness and heavy mineralisation of the rock mined put the field's mining companies in the
vanguard for the use of new technology.
This site contains the tunnel or adit excavated by the Mount Tarrengower Tunnelling Company.
This company
was the first in Australia to use compressed air-driven rock drilling technology. The subsequent widespread
adoption of this technology was a milestone in Australian underground mining.
The Mount Tarrengower
Tunnelling Company commenced mining operations at Maldon in 1865. Their tunnel was designed to cut reefs at
a greater depth than any workings in the colony. That ambitious objective was hampered by the hardness of the
rock, which made progress by tap and hammer very slow.
In 1866, a Low's rock drill, manufactured at St Peter's
Iron Works in Ipswich, was introduced. The company nonetheless failed to find payable gold and was wound up
in 1870. The fate of the rock-drill is not known.
The Mount Tarrengower Tunnelling Company Gold Mine is of historical, archaeological and scientific importance
to the State of Victoria.
The Mount Tarrengower Tunnelling Company Gold Mine is a significant historic location where the first
compressed air-driven rock drill in Australia was used.
Although the technology did not prove successful in that
instance, a decade or so later the rock drill revolutionised underground mining in Australia and, in doing so,
reversed the fortunes of many a declining goldfield.
The rock drill also brought a social cost in the form of the
deadly lung disease, phthisis, known euphemistically as 'miners? complaint'.
The Mount Tarrengower Tunnelling Company Gold Mine is scientifically significant for its potential to yield
artefacts and evidence which will be able to provide significant information about the technological history of gold
mining.
PROSPECTORS AND MINERS ASSOCIATION VICTORIA
Established in 1980, the Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria is a voluntary body created to protect the rights and opportunities of those who wish to prospect, fossick or mine in the State of Victoria, Australia.
You can support the PMAV in their fight to uphold these rights by
becoming a member. You'll also gain access to exclusive publications, field days, prospecting tips, discounts and competitions.
BBQ
Maldon
