Research Guides: Gold miners and mining: Mining techniques & machinery

Mining techniques & machinery

Online resources

eGold: electronic encyclopedia of gold in Australia explains and illustrates mining techniques from the 1850s and 1860s.
Life cycle of a goldmine an account of the gold mining process that includes information of current gold mining across the world.

Books

Gold! Gold! Gold! The language of the nineteenth-century Australian gold rushes the names of many types of mining techniques and machines are listed and defined in the book.
The gold fields and mineral districts of Victoria (available online) Robert Brough Smyth's 1869 book includes detailed descriptions and diagrams of mining processes and machinery.
Life on the Australian goldfields includes a chapter on early gold mining techniques from across Australia, and includes a wide range of images showing mining technologies from the 1850s onwards.

Articles

The following articles may be of interest. They are both available online:

Davey, C 1996, 'The origins of Victorian mining technology, 1851-1900', The Artefact, vol. 19, p.52-62. Available online and in print.
Davey, C & Mc Carthy, P 2002, The development of Victorian gold mining technology, Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 73, no. 1, April, p. 64-92.

Patents

The Library has a research guide to patents which is useful for researching mining machinery. Many inventions relating to mining were patented in Victoria. Patents will include descriptions and illustrations of these devices and machinery. The following book is a useful source for finding patents:

The mining machinery & processes patented in Australasia. Part 1, January to June, 1899

Images from the Library's collections

Drawing, viewed from rear, two men digging at wall in square cut tunnel, one man standing with a pick, other other kneeling at his feet, space lit by candle, shadows on wall.

Tunnelling in White Hill H87.63/1/22B

Photograph, Looking across earth works with miners using a gold washing cradle in foreground, man standing beside horse-drawn whim and crushing battery and conveyor in background.

Mining scene showing horse-drawn whim and crushing battery H2009.84/36

Watercolour of two miners standing beside water, one handling a wooden cradle used for sifting the sand and gravel from the gold, the other holding a bucket on a long handle.

Cradling / S.T.Gill H86.7/8

Lithograph, print, The Black Hill Quartz MininLithograph of elevated view of buildings with brick chimney, tracks with rail trucks up hill in background

The Black Hill Quartz Mining Company's claim, Ballarat H. Deutsch. [Detail] H26049

Lithograph of the interior of building showing revolving stamps, man with rail truck in foreground.

The Black Hill Quartz Mining Company's claim, Ballarat H. Deutsch. [Detail] H26049

Images of mining techniques & machinery

Detail from [Group of miners cradling for gold], H37604

To find digitised drawings, etchings, paintings and photographs of mining techniques and machinery, search our catalogue using combinations of words like: