Heritage
Gold in the Omeo district was first discovered in 1851 and recorded in the Sydney and Melbourne press. Miners were soon heading to the high country to stake a claim.
The Oriental Claim Historic Area is approximately 500 acres. In the 50 years that it was consistently worked, estimates total the gold production at 58 000 ounces, which at today's prices would equal about 23 million dollars.
The Wardens report of 1854 stated that there were 50 men working around the site of Omeo only receiving half an ounce a day for their efforts. Daily success rewarded employed miners with a weekly payment of up to seven pounds. Gold fever struck the area with a vengeance and by 1856 a town was emerging with two stores and a hotel, soon to be known as Omeo.
Water played a key role in the sluicing process of mining at the Claims. Even the most basic prospector required water to wash dirt from gold in a pan. Miners in this area owed much to the development of a water race system.
With a distribution of one ounce of gold to every hundred metres, a cubic metre would only yield about five dollars at today's prices. Since man can only pan about a cubic metre per day, faster methods of recovery were welcomed.
The new system ensured that water from above the claim either flowed down the face, or through pipes and a nozzle was sprayed against the face washing gravel through sluicing boxes and down a tail race to the creek. As you walk through the Claims you will notice from telltale gullies and crevices that much of the work was directed by streams and gullies.
By 1873 the additional high level of water allowed working in the Claims to alter from common ground and box sluicing to hydraulic ground and box sluicing with a pressure hose. This new technique formed the impressive cliff faces that are still evident in the Claims today.
This new technique also created significant problems with the discharge of sludge into Livingstone Creek. This led to the formation of the Sludge Abatement Board, which placed restrictions on the Oriental Claims area and eventually ended hydraulic sluicing in 1904. Common box sluicing and hydraulic sluicing also led to the construction of caves in the clay soil which were built by miners following layers of alluvium.
Today the Oriental Claims Historic Area takes us back to a time when this part of the high country showed sufficient promise for future settlement and prosperity, encouraging pioneers to forge out an existence in remote areas of Victoria. Aboriginal Traditional Owners
Parks Victoria acknowledges the Aboriginal Traditional Owners of Victoria - including its parks and reserves. Through their cultural traditions, the Gunai - Kurnai and Jaithmathang identify the Oriental Claims Historic Area as their Traditional Country.
Further information is available from Aboriginal Affairs Victoria AAV and Native Title Services Victoria .
|
