Academic literature on the topic 'Gold mines and mining Victoria Ballarat'

"The inside front cover of this publication carries an image of CRCAH's front door, the main gateway to the former Ballarat Gaol. It is a magnificent example of nineteenth century masonry work. The massive bluestone blocks were carved and chiselled into a grand classical edifice, making a fitting southern finale in scale and significance to the great range of buildings on either side of Lydiard Street. The remarkable architectural statement of a confident gold rich city runs from the os­tentatious neo-classical railway station at the northern end past the Art Gallery, the Mining Exchange, the palatial former Post Office (now housing the studios of the university Arts Academy) and on along the facades of banks, hotels, theatres and churches, in a melody of styles from palladian to gothic (with some 20th century intrusions) down to the suitably 'redbrick' buildings of the Ballarat School of Mines. Here the road swings round to the west so the range of prison buildings bookend the whole composition with a dramatic solemn coda " -From forum article

Health and ecological risks associated with the use of mercury in gold mining are well known, with much recent attention focussed on contemporary small-scale artisanal mining. Legacy tailings from historical gold mining may also present ongoing risks, as the industry used large quantities of mercury with minimal environmental regulation to limit its discharge. This occurred in both alluvial (placer) mining and in processing auriferous ores. Analysis of historical data on mercury use in the mining industry in Victoria, Australia, indicates that at least 131 tonnes of elemental mercury were discharged into the environment as mine tailings between 1868–1888, with the total amount lost over the historic mining period likely to be much higher. The processing of pyritic ores also concentrated mercury losses in a small number of mining centres, including Bendigo, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Clunes, Maldon and Walhalla. This analysis provides a basis for further research needed to support improved management of legacy mine tailings.

There are numerous histories of the Victorian goldfields, individual digger�s experiences, and the digging community as a whole. By contrast, very little has been written about the early gold mining companies. This thesis seeks to address this dearth in part, with a longitudinal study of one of the leading gold mining companies in nineteenth-century Victoria. The Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Company (�Port Phillip Company�) was one of many �gold bubble� companies formed in England during 1851-3 to undertake gold mining in Australia. Within a few years it was the only survivor of this episode of British corporate gold-fever. The thesis argues that the influence of Rivett Henry Bland, the company�s managing director, was instrumental in its success, particularly in its early years when faced with anti-company sentiment and unfavourable mining legislation. The company established a large-scale operation at Clunes in 1857, rapidly assuming a pre-eminent position in colonial gold mining with its superior technology and mining practices. Historians generally portray Australian gold mining operations as small, locally funded and inefficient, prior to British capital investment in the late 1880s. While true of the larger picture, this simply emphasises the uniqueness of the British-owned and funded Port Phillip Company, the largest and most efficient gold mining operation in Australia from 1857 until the early 1880s. The company and its investment offshoot, the Victoria (London) Mining Company, invested in over thirty Victorian gold mining companies during the 1860s. Again, this runs counter to the general view that British investment in Australian gold mining began only in the late 1880s. Although the two companies� investments equalled only a fraction of the later wave of British capital in absolute monetary terms, their contribution to the growth of the Victorian gold mining industry at the time was significant.