Victorian Goldfields Maldon to Castlemaine
The North British Mine and Quartz Kilns are located in Maldon. There are two walking tracks from the picnic area, one is the Parkins Reef Circuit Walk (2.3km return), and the other is a short walk which takes you through the ruins of the North British Mine ending at the Quartz Kilns.
The Old Castlemaine Gaol is a prison located in Castlemaine, Victoria. From 1861 to 1908 (the colonial era), the gaol housed all manner of criminals, including lunatics, debtors and ten men that were hanged within the walls. In the later of these years however, the gaol housed mostly short term sentenced prisoners and first time offenders. The gaol then closed for a number of years, before reopening in 1954 to accommodate medium security prisoners from across the state once again. It remained open until August 1990.
The Nuggety Reef at Maldon Victoria
A walk around the gold dredge at Maldon Victoria
Mr George Heywood commenced working the site at Porcupine Flat in 1958 where he developed the dredge operation on Porcupine Creek. He purchased the dredge sometime after 1958, and it may not have been fully operational until after 1973. Operations ceased in 1984, after moderate success. This dredge is a smaller reconstruction of the one that operated in the Jim Crowe Creek south of Newstead, from 1948 to 1954.
The dredge originally worked to the north of its current site, the existing dam being constructed when the Porcupine Flat Gold Treatment Works were constructed over the original workings. The dragline standing on the bank of the dam was brought from the Yallourn Coal Mine to assist in creating the initial dam and the ongoing operation. It proved to be of little value and was abandoned in its present position early in the operation.
maldon gold mine...part 1
found this one last year on our trip to maldon.great mine.near darkys hut.this is part 1
Maldon gold mine
Darren and i went into this one while pauly stayed out.and kepted guard.ha ha
44 Maldon Trip 2019 Drummond Mines Part 2 Is it Haunted
My son (Spencer) and l Explore the Maldon area over a week from 2 to 9 Jan 2019. We look at every thing we can find historical including Mines.
Now we are looking at mines in Drummond in this three part series. In part to we have some strange happenings and then the photo. Comment on what you think is in the Photo. Enjoy Part 2.
Finding Chunky Gold and my First Specimen at Maldon
Got Back from Maldon and had to wait a couple of days before I could process my dirt. Well it was well worth the wait. Got my first specimen and some really nice (but small) pickers. Now I need to get back there and do some serious digging.
Edit 23/04/2018
Got back to this spot the other day and you can see the video here. Found a bunch of gold on that bench.
I produce videos on a bunch of topics from bees to prospecting and a stack of stuff in between but many of them show off the use of traditional vintage tools. If you see a tool that you would like for your own I probably won't sell you mine but I may have another in stock or I can get one from France, Germany, Japan or wherever. I make little bit of money from selling tools but mostly I just like to share them and share how to use them.
My ebay store
If you like what we do maybe you could show your appreciation.
What we are about.
The problem I want to solve.
Social media stuff.
Thanks to Jayendra Birchall for the intro music.
Goldfields of Victoria, Australia
Jo & Mick visit the Goldfield towns of southern Australia in the state of Victoria. There was a goldrush here in the 1850's which was Melbourne grow to one of the richest cities in the British Empire.
Maldon Gold - the Victorian Goldfields Railway
Extracts from this Railstuff film on about The Victorian Goldfields Railway
between Castlemaine and Maldon in Victoria, Australia which is a near
perfect example of a 5¹3² gauge Victorian branch line of the late twentieth century. Around 10 miles long and running over quite difficult terrain at its Maldon end, with numerous timber bridges, operations on the line are seen in this entertaining film with ex Victoria Railways ŒJ¹ & ŒK¹ class 2-8-0s on passenger and Œfreight¹ trains, much of the freight train run being shot on the footplate. Not that well known outside Australia, this isclearly a neat preserved line. See:
or:
railstuff.com.au/
Steam Trains Australia - Maldon Twilight Dinner
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January 16th 2016 saw the 10th annual Maldon Twilight Dinner in the main street of the historic town. In conjunction with the event, the Victorian Goldfields Railway ran a special train for passengers attending the event. The train operated from Castlemaine to Maldon along the preserved tourist railway behind heritage steam locomotive J549.
The event was attended by the current Governor of Victoria, Her Excellency the Honourable Linda Dessau AM who rode the train in first class carriages Macedon and Tambo.
Upon arrival at Maldon, Her Excellency was greeted with a horse and carriage and travelled to the town centre whilst being escorted by the Bendigo Golden City Pipeband.
For more information about upcoming events, please visit:
Crazy Gold from Secret Spot - 1of3
What I found from my new spot on a secret creek. I'm finding 1 - 4 pickers per pan with 15 - 40 small pieces of beautiful chunky course gold!!! Oh if I could move more dirt!
The Australian Gold Rush
This is an educational video for Stage 3 students studying HSIE in NSW schools under the old HSIE BOS NSW Syllabus. This content is still relevant to the national curriculum, under the History K-10 Syllabus. This video introduces events that had a significant impact on shaping Australia and its colonies. Students develop an understanding regarding the evolution of the colonies and early migration to Australia in the 19th century (See ACHHK095 & ACHHK096).
The purpose of this video was to be used in conjunction with an IGASAR (a process model for inquiry) learning sequence as part of a university assessment for unit EDSS223 at the University of New England (UNE), Armidale NSW.
Evaporating seawater to make salt crystals
Learn how salt is harvested from the sea using the age-old process of evaporation.
A history of salt in Britain:
Harvesting Britain's sea salt:
Evaporation experiment:
Craigielee by T. E. Bulch - the march that inspired Waltzing Matilda
Thomas Edward Bulch was born in December of 1862 on Strand Street, New Shildon (which was incidentally the same street from which the world's first passenger steam locomotive service started out on the 27th September 1825). Young Thomas learned to play brass instruments from his grandfather Francis Dinsdale and uncle Edward Dinsdale, and also learned piano and violin. Despite a poor start to life in a hardened industrial town these musical family connections helped to ensure that he was destined for a life in music. He composed his first published march The Typhoon at the age of 17. The young bandsman played alongside schoolmate and fellow Shildonian composer George Allan before the two became masters of rival brass bands. Both also became blacksmiths at the railway works in New Shildon, though Thomas felt sure his future lay elsewhere. In 1884, Thomas, then resident at Adelaide Street, and three of this bandmates left New Shildon by train bound for Australia. His great uncle had perished there a couple of decades earlier when his ship The Nashwauk crashed into the shore. This didn't deter Thomas who had been promised control of a band near Creswick close to the gold mining city of Ballarat. The four friends arrived safely after experiencing some troubles at sea - their ship the Gulf of Venice having shed propellor blades on the journey, delaying their arrival.
Thomas first set up home in Ballarat and went on to be master of a number of bands over his Australian career, dwelling for periods of time also in Melbourne, Albury, Geelong, Sale before ending his days in Sydney. He achieved great respect as one of the most influential figures of the Australian brass movement, justifying his decision to relocate (being from a poor family he may have struggled to create the same impact in Britain)
Though Craigielee is not an entirely original piece of music (it is based upon James Barr and Robert Tannahill's traditional Scottish song Thou Bonny Woods of Craigielea which Thomas may have come to know through a version as part of the published works of Carl Volti, a Glaswegian violinist often mistaken for Bulch on account of the fact that Bulch arranged some of his works for brass band) his arrangement is extremely catchy. It certainly caught the ear of Christina MacPherson who heard a band playing it at the Warnambool Races and later played it from memory to Banjo Patterson who found it the ideal accompaniment to his lyrics for a new song Waltzing Matilda. MacPherson was kind enough to have acknowledged this in writing, though did not name Bulch in doing so. To add to the intrigue - Thomas Bulch composed the march under a pseudonym of his own - Godfrey Parker.
On Sat 4th August 2018 the group The Friends of The Wizard and The Typhoon (a society based in Shildon dedicated to uncovering and celebrating the stories of both Thomas Bulch and George Allan, whose compositions and achievements are of comparable merit back in Britain) hosted a concert at Ushaw College, County Durham, featuring only works by these two men.
You can see that at our small exploratory concert it was very much done justice by our band for the evening The Felling Band and their conductor for the evening Andy Hunter. We hope that now this has been 'rediscovered' in the North East of England you may well get to hear it more often
To find out more about the 'Wizard and the Typhoon' go to wizardandtyphoon.org and if you know anything about either Thomas Bulch or George Allan that might interest us then please do get in touch.
Prospecting April 2019 part 1
Banjo Short by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license ( Artist:
4578s SSR Transfer between Huddleston & Peterborough (with B 61 Streamliner 2016) 2/12/16
Hello All,
Here we see a very special and rare rail movement through the Mid North of South Australia in the form of Southern Short Haul Railroad locomotives B 61, S 317, GM 27, GM 10 & S 302 in charge of 90 empty coal wagons destined for Lithgow in New South Wales.
These wagons were used to cart coal from the brown coal deposits at Leigh Creek down to the Port Augusta Power Station. Daily services of these long coal trains which usually numbered above 170 wagons in all making these trains nearly 3 kilometres long.
Services ceased from the mine to the Port Augusta Power Plant in April 2016 after almost sixty years in operation.
Line was officially closed on April 27 2016.
With the line being closed, the future of these coal wagons seem very grim indeed, with some even being sent to Adelaide by road to be scrapped.
A decision was made to transfer the remaining coal wagons that were left idle on the balloon loop at Port Augusta to be transferred East towards New South Wales.
The first transfer took place in early November with S317, GM 22, GM 10 & S 302 in charge.
Then second and last transfer was this one.
This service however was over six hours late after trouble was detected in two or three of the locos at a rail loop called Winninowie (25km south of Port Augusta).
The train waited here until the proper part could be installed by EDI maintenance crews from Port Augusta.
With that out of the way, the train proceed towards its destination.
In this rail film we catch the train at Huddleston and follow it right through to just outside of Peterborough at place called Ucolta.
Hope you enjoy :)
Locomotive History:
B 61:
The B class were the first mainline diesel electric locomotives in Victoria. They were mainly used for passenger and goods traffic before moving out to other areas around the state.
They remained in service right up until the late 80s and early 90s. In the mid 1980s however, half of the class were rebuilt as the A class.
The B class is a ML 2 model built by Clyde Engineering in Granville, NSW and was introduced in 1951. Road numbers were 60 to 85.
26 were built in the class but four only remain in service on the mainline.
Five have been scrapped and eleven 11 rebuilt into the A class.
Power is 1200kW (1610hp) from a EMD 16-567BC engine with a maximum speed of 133km/h or 82.6 miles per hour.
Our engine here B 61 was placed in service on Monday 18th of August 1952 and was withdrawn from service by V/Line (Operator of Regional Services) in 1993.
It was transferred to West Coast Rail in 1994, then transferred again to CFCLA in August 2004.
Finally, being transferred from storage at Dynon locomotive sheds to the Bendigo Workshops for restoration to service.
In 2005 she was painted in SSR yellow and black livery in Bendigo and then was transferred from broad gauge to standard gauge bogies in February of 2006.
Entering service with the SSR on Wednesday 22nd of February 2006.
Then in 2016 she was named after Bernie Baker who was the organiser of the world famous Streamliners Event which was held in October in Goulburn, NSW.
She was painted in this delightful livery as you see here. Sliver, Black and Orange Streamliners 2016 Livery.
S 317 & S302:
S 317 & S 302 entered service with then Victorian Railways on Monday 4th of December 1961 and Sunday 15th of September 1957 respectively.
The S class was introduced in 1957 and there were 18 built in the class with five still in service. S 317 was the last to be built with S 302 being the third to be built.
The S class is powered by an EMD 16-567C engine powering at a maximum of 1350kW (1810hp) with a maximum speed of 133 km/h or 82.6 miles per hour.
GM 27 & GM10:
GM 10 has a quite an amazing history in being that it's the only F class (four motor) GM class still operating.
It was the second to last of the first batch to be built with GM 2 preserved at the NRM Port Adelaide & GM 1 to be preserved at the West Australian ARHS in Perth.
GM 3 is out of traffic and stored at the Lithgow State Mine Heritage Park & Railway which SSR also uses as a maintenance facility.
The F class is capable of 1120kW and 1500hp at a maximum speed of 143 km/h or 88.8 miles per hour.
GM 27 however was built as a Six Motor diesel electric with a EMD 16-567C engine and is capable of 1340kW (1800 hp) at a maximum speed of 143km/h or 88.8 miles per hour.
Filming Locations:
Huddlestone Road highway crossing
Adams Road 13km North East of Gladstone
Wilkins Highway B79 Crossing at Caltowie
Od5 Road Crossing at Jamestown
Smart Road Crossing 9km north of Jamestown
Silos and Yard just off of East Terrace at Yongala
Outside of Peterborough going into Ucolta
Thanks for reading :)
Foreign kayakers brave the wild waters of the Panjshir River
(1 Aug 2016) LEAD IN:
A group of keen amateur kayakers is braving the white water rapids in the mountains of northern Afghanistan.
Alongside the thrills, they are also introducing the local community to the sport and hoping that others will soon follow in their wake.
STORY-LINE:
A group of Europeans in multicoloured kayaks navigate the white water.
These are the first kayakers to navigate the peaceful Panjshir Valley, some 140 kilometres (95 miles) north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
But Scottish kayaker Callum Strong, who recently graduated with a geology degree from Edinburgh University, says the Panjshir River offers some of the best kayaking in the world.
Together with three friends, he spends all his spare time and money travelling the globe in search of the best white water.
We have all been interested in Afghanistan as a country for a long time and again as we say all we hear is bad news and there is always more to a country than what you see on the news. So we were interested to come here to see the real Afghanistan and also for the rivers, Strong says.
Strong says Afghanistan's 15-year violent insurgency was not going to put them off.
I was more nervous before I came here than I have been since I have been here the whole time. Having been here, you realise it is just another place. People are the same everywhere I think, there's good people, there's bad people and it's another place. I have felt generally very safe and very relaxed here.
His three friends, Brit Joe Rea-Dickins, Scot James Smith and Austrian Kristof Stursa, are also recent graduates in their early 20s and amateur kayakers who met through their love of the sport.
They funded the trip to Afghanistan themselves, flying to Kabul with their kayaks and then employing a local travel agent to help them transport their kit, organise permission from security services to travel and move safely through dangerous areas.
Then they spent 10 days paddling the length of the Panjshir River and introducing the local community to the sport.
Panjshir is considered one of the safest regions of Afghanistan.
The roads are closed to outsiders, who must register with security forces and explain the reason for their visit to gain access.
Many people come to enjoy the peace, as well as the pristine environment and the famous produce, including yoghurt, honey and lamb kebabs.
But one day they could come here to go kayaking too, if the efforts of the four enthusiasts pay off.
After a week of paddling, the group set up a kayaking workshop to teach interested locals.
The Panjshir football team showed up to give it a try, arriving straight from training in their bright green-and-white kit.
I had heard about this sport but had never seen it before, now that I have seen it closely I feel very happy, because it is an interesting sport, says local Mohammad Karim.
Mohammad Zahir, a member of the Panjshir football team, was most excited by the possibility that kayaking could take him abroad.
I would love to reach the level of our these friends who are here from other countries, so I will be able to travel to other places for kayaking, he says.
It could be many years before Afghanistan has its own kayaking clubs, but Strong's group is hoping their visit will lay the foundations for others to follow and discover the beauty and power of the Panjshir River.
You can license this story through AP Archive:
Find out more about AP Archive:
VR legends the K class (Without narration)
* THE ONE WITH NARRATION IS AT:*
The Legendary K class is a Steam train the Origins in the 1920's with K100 then Reclassed as K140-K192. (the last one K192 is Preserved at The state coal mine in Wonnaggi) with the last loco been Pulled out of use in 1979 when K162 was the Newport Shunter and been the last Steam loco Used in Vic . They the most Successful VR loco and the most Persevered with ten loco's Surviving. The last 8 loco's had the Boxpuk wheels (the Earlier one had the Spoked wheels)
for more info good websites are
VICSIG:
Wikipedia:
Peter J Vincent's webstie:
VR webstie:
Garratt Steam Locomotive in the Hills - Puffing Billy Railway Last Beechy: Australian Trains
On Saturday 30 June 2012, the Puffing Billy Railway commemorated the 50th anniversary of the last train on the Colac to Beech Forest line by operating Beyer-Garratt locomotive G42 on the Gembrook service.
G42 was decorated with a red buffer beam and headboard similar to how it appeared on that last train 50 years ago.
This video features lineside scenes at various locations along the line for both the down and up journeys.
© 2012 James Brook
Australian Steam Trains: K190 though night to Castlemaine - 12.08.2016