St Arnaud - Lord Nelson Mine
The Lord Nelson Mine was St Arnaud's largest mine. It opened in 1884 and closed in 1915, when it became too expensive to keep out the water. This water contains several minerals and salt, thus making it unsuitable for irrigation.
It was reopened in 1922 and was known as the Welcome Nelson mine but closed in 1925.
The Lord Nelson mine processed 640,000 tons of ore, which produced 330,000 ozs of gold. The main shaft went down 2,570 ft, with tunnels at the 100 ft levels. These tunnels branched out in many directions, under the shops and the school. It is said that if you went to the end of one tunnel you would be standing under the bar of the Botanical hotel.
The chimney contained 700 bricks. The mine employed hundreds of men and worked day & night. The mine manager for many years was Zabina Lane. He was appointed mine manger in March 1887. He pulled the mine out of a slump and insisted the miners obey the safety rules. In 1905 ill health forced him to retire. He died 12-4-1906, age 75.
The miners of this mine had their own band - The Lord Nelson Miners Band. They won the first South Street band competition in 1900 and were declared the champions of Australia. They also had their own minstrel troop and footy team. When the mine closed, a terrible wasteland was left. The CWA ladies cleaned up the area and created Pioneer Park on the site. This took from 1939 to 1955 to complete and was done by hundreds of volunteers.
There are many information panels throughout the site including:
Foundations of Lord Nelson Poppet Head
When the surface gold ran out it was necessary to sink shafts to greater depths to extract the gold from the deeper reefs. Up until 1887, the Lord Nelson shaft had a single cage taking over an hour for all miners to be lowered to their work area at the beginning of their shift and another hour to be raised again at the end of their shift. By the late 1887 the single cage was replaced by two cages in balance, so the time to lower and raise men was much reduced. By 1915, the mine had been sunk to a depth of 2570 ft (783mt).
Foundations of Lord Nelson Battery
In 1904 the old 42 head stamper battery was replaced by a 10 head battery with heavier stamps and a capacity of over 1000 tons of ore per month. The battery, consisting of a set of heavy stamps held vertically within a frame, crushed the gold-bearing quartz using a pounding action. The individual stamps were lifted by cams on a rotating horizontal shaft, then released as the cam rotated out from under them, causing the stamps to fall and crush the rock below. This was repeated continually to crush large amounts of gold-bearing quartz. The new Battery doubled the efficiency of crushing.
We've Struck GOLD
St Arnaud Goldfields - For some sixty years in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the hills and gullies around St Arnaud were filled with activity, with people and horse drawn vehicles continually on the move, and the noises of mining machinery. All that now remains are isolated remnants of machinery foundations, large scars in the ground where rock has been removed, and a few sand dumps. These are the sites of the many gold and silver mines, which were the backbone of the St Arnaud goldfields. (Ralph Birrell - A New Bendigo)
The Rush is on ....
Alluvial Gold - 10th January, 1855, seven prospectors struck gold and named the area New Bendigo. Miners poured to the new gold field, with 20,000 diggers reported for a brief two weeks in early April. But, many left when the creeks and water holes dried out.
Quartz Roof Gold - Over the following years miners discovered the Bristol quartz reef in this area, and to the east, the New Chum, along with the extensive Nelson line of reefs.
Quartz Mining - Originally occurred by open cut, then sinking of shafts until the water table was reached around 300ft. Pumping was expensive and so larger companies were formed to work these mines. Local prosperity in the 1880s resulted in businessmen in the town, miners, and farmers in the surrounding district, investing their surplus funds in the mines on the St Arnaud reefs.
Open Cut Mining - Limited mining was undertaken after 1920s until 1990s, when the price of gold was high. Glenburn Manor Pty Ltd took out a 50ha mining lease over Stuart's Hill, as well as the area of the former Lady Nelson Extended lease. They dug an open cut at Lady Nelson mine and another over the Comstock and Walker's Mines, as well as reprocessing the Lord Nelson mine tailings dumps.
Navarra Minerals - In 2018 Navarre Minerals took out a mining lease on the Bristol, New Chum and Nelson lines of reef. In 2020 they were awarded 'Priority status' for gold licence to expand the scope of the St Arnaud Gold project in the Bendigo-Stawell zone.
Lord Nelson Mine History
1859 Chrysolite Hill Mine
In 1859, the Chrysolite Co. was formed to buy out a number of claims on Chrysolite Hill (to the south of Wilson's Hill). The Chrysolite mine and adjacent Rising Star mine continued their separate operations until 1883. By then the Chrysolite mine was 235mt deep.
1883
The Lord Nelson Gold Mining Co NL was floated in 1883 and took over the assets of the Chrysolite and Rising Star mines. The Lord Nelson Co. developed the Chrysolite mine into one of the most successful mines in Victoria.
1887 Zebina Lane
In 1887 Zebina Lane Snr (an engineer) was appointed General Manager. He started in the Californian goldfields before joining the Victorian gold rush in 1853 at Bendigo. He introduced new working practices and although initially opposed by miners and owners, he proved the efficacy of his mining methods by reviving the Lord Nelson mine which remained profitable through Lane's 17-year tenure.
He installed electricity both above ground and underground in 1895. During his management he deepened the mine from 268mt to 491mt. Lane was heavily involved in community and civic affairs; rifle-shooting and brass-bands. Zebina Lane retired in 1904 after a stroke.
1893 Wilson's Hill No 1 Mine
In 1893, the Wilson's Hill No. 1 mine lease and plant were purchased by the Lord Nelson Gold Mining Co. NL. A ten head crusher was removed from the Wilson's Hill mine and relocated to the Lord Nelson battery house in 1894.
1897
In 1897, the Lord Nelson Company connected to the Wilson's Hill No 1 shaft (190mt deep) to improve ventilation of the Lord Nelson mine.
1909 Lord Nelson North Mine
When the Lord Nelson and Lord Nelson North mines amalgamated in 1909, the Lord Nelson North mine was working a 635mt deep level. The ore from this level was hauled to the Lord Nelson North shaft, raised, and carted to the Lord Nelson battery for processing. Lord Nelson mine deepened their shaft from a depth of 588mt and cut a crosscut from the 635mt level. This enabled the Lord Nelson mine to work the 635mt level from their shaft.
Lord Nelson Mine
Lord Nelson Mine had advanced to 783mt by 1915 but there was greatly reduced tonnage removed, ore grades began to drop, miners were scarce due to the outbreak of World War 1 and the company ran out of capital.
1915
Lord Nelson Mine closed in 1915 having produced in excess of 10 tons of gold valued at AU$1 billion today. With 25 levels and a depth of 783mt it is placed among the very deepest mines in Victoria (aside from Bendigo). It was during the life of the mine that St Arnaud prospered and expanded.
Lord Nelson Dam & Recreation Park
After the Lord Nelson Mine closed in 1915, the northern dam (coloured blue) was cleared to make a large swimming pool for the town. "The Lord Nelson Dam was granted to a Swimming Club formed in 1917 but it was little more than a muddy water hole. A large overhanging tree provided the only shade, and, in a dry summer, the dam bed became a swamp except for a deep hole at one end. An unsavoury, unsafe water hole, it was even then of value as the only place where people might swim and the Swimming Club members did their best to keep it clean and safe" (from 'Track of the Years' by Yvonne S Palmer, 1955).
Behind the old swimming pool and separated from it by a narrow strip of ground was the Red Dam, a smaller fresh-water dam from which the Lord Nelson Co had obtained the water for its engines, and which then provided water for the cyanide plant operated by Mr Bert Runge. Runge Bros. purchased the sand on this narrow strip of ground, which they cleaned and gave back to the Swimming Club to level the surrounds of the old swimming pool.
A dam filled by catchment water, was doubtful as a swimming pool, but less than fifty yards away was unlimited supply of water. Since 1915 the shaft of the Lord Nelson Mine had been filling with water from 2,500 feet underground. With the money from the Runge Bros, the Swimming Club bought second-hand pumping machinery and installed it in the mine shaft. The water brought up is so heavily mineralized that it has not need for chlorination; it cannot be used for watering plants or lawns and the runoff from the pool is drained by a pipeline into the main drain.
By 1941, the pool was really functioning - 121 yards by 84 yards ? but its surrounds were a dreary waste of mullock heaps, its natural scrubland deformed and made barren by the waste from the mines. In July, a complete plan for the beautification of the surrounding area was drawn up by the Curator of the Horsham Gardens. Donations for playground equipment came in and a start was made to the terracing the western bank. Mr Runge, who had fore sawn that the day would come when Wilson's Hill would be covered in people and the opposite hill covered with cars was not present on Boxing Day 1944 when a thousand people stood on Wilson's Hill to watch a swimming carnival and sporting events held on the playground. He was in hospital and died two days later. No one was in doubt that Mr Runge was the inspiration behind the project which kept men and women working for fifteen years to turn the old dam and the mullock heaps into a recreation centre which would be a credit to a town five times the size of St Arnaud. Huge swimming carnivals were held during the 1950s. Swimmers came from all over the state to compete - the salt made it easy to swim. Prior to the 1956 Olympics, a Japanese world champion swimmer agreed to give a demonstration swim. As it was not that long after the war, there was a lot of talk as to whether he would be welcome. St Arnaud's ex- POWs wrote in the newspaper saying they held nothing against him, as he was only a child at the time. So Furushahi came and jumped in. He had never swum in a deep pool and could not see the bottom to swim in a straight line. Then the Pipe Band terrified him when they marched in the gate. He had never seen or heard anything like it. That evening a formal dinner party was arranged for him, but he didn't show up. He went to the pictures instead. Not a good day for him. The men who worked the hardest to transform the old dam into a pool of Olympic standards were not themselves swimmers, but it was for the benefit of the children of the town. The pool closed in 1972 and was replaced with a new Olympic size pool and is not used now.
2021 - Plans are currently being made for the renovation of the pool into the Lord Nelson Lake and the beautification of the surrounds into a Rest and Recreation area with native trees and shrubs, walking paths, Lord Nelson Mine Information Shelter and replica Poppet head.
Location
Alma Street, St Arnaud 3478 Map
Web Links
→ The Lord Nelson Mine (St Arnaud Historical Society)
