Eureka Reef Heritage Walk – Goldfields

Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park

Length:  1 kilometre
Walk:  1 hour
Start:  Eureka Reef car park
Finish:  Eureka Reef car park
Stops:  20
Nearby:  Castlemaine

This short walk around the Mt Alexander Diggings provides a fascinating insight into the miners’ struggles, and the different methods used to extract the hard-won prize of gold.

In 1851 thousands of hopeful gold miners from all over the world rushed to this quiet forested valley in the Mt Alexander area, determined to share in the fabulous wealth of what became the richest shallow alluvial diggings of all time. The frenzied activity continued into the next century, with intensive mining of the gold-rich quartz reefs taking over as the surface deposits became exhausted.

Wander through Poverty Gully, past the site of the original Eureka quartz reef and the remains of mine shafts, puddling machines, water races and the tall chimneys of old boiler houses. Evidence of much earlier occupation is here too, in the small rock wells used by the Dja Dja Wurrung people to collect life-sustaining rainwater.

Download the audio files below to your iPod or pick up an MP3 player already loaded with the tour from the Castlemaine Visitor Information Centre and discover what life was like on an 1850s goldfield.