Visit to North Dandalup "goldfield"

Hi Folks,

New member and all that. I went up to Magnet/Cue for a few days last week but did not find anything at all

I decided to do a bit of research on the North Dandalup goldfield and visited it yesterday.

To cut a long story short, for a few months in 1896 there was a bit of a gold rush at North Dandalup, with up to 120 men working on the hill. All sorts of promises and specimens were "found", but most believe they were found from elsewhere far away. The area was soon abandoned and the newspapers and government rescinded their declaration of a goldfield. In the end, it is not known if any of the gold found was actually from the area.

I found the co-ordinates of the 19 gold shafts that were dug. Most were on private property but a few are within the bushland of "Goldmine hill". 2 mines are just north of my map here, pretty much on the corner of Del Park Road and Whittakers Road. There are also a few south west of this area, on the other side of Del Park Road.

To get to Goldmine hill, take the South West Highway. North Dandalup is approximately 35km from Armadale and 15km from Pinjarra. Turn down Del Park Rd then left down Whittakers Road. This road is quite steep and fun to drive. Up the hill about 2km's you will see a picnic area on the right hand side - can't miss it. This is Goldmine hill (no signage).
The only indication that anything is here is the following sign at the start of the 200m walk. This entire area has Telstra phone reception (and probably Optus too).

Pictures are crap quality as my phone lens is scratched badly.

After a 5 min walk (dotted line on map), I arrived at Daisy mine, a 7.5m shaft. There are tracks leading other directions from here but I didn't find any other shafts around this way, and my maps don't show anything around that area.

I headed back to the main area then went South looking for Lovett Menzies west. Before I could reach the shaft, I came across a fence and private property. I followed the fenceline for a bit, then spotted some interesting ground - followed it up and saw a pile of tailings and another shaft. This MAY be Lovett Menzies west, as it was only about 50m off the co-ordinates I have for it. I then spotted some more tailings in the distance and came across another 3 shafts, all only 2-3 metres deep, within 10m of eachother.

After getting attacked by about 5 spiders, I decided this would be the end of my tour and headed back for the carpark.

In hindsight I should have tried to visit the main mine in the area - Lovett's Reward. On Google Earth it looks like it is on private property, but it may just be within the boundaries of the park. Lovett's Reward was also known as Mount Lovett and had 2 shafts and a tunnel between them.

Edit: No pictures as "New members are not allowed to post external links or emails for 7 days. Please contact the forum administrator for more information.". Tried everything and it won't let me. I have a map with locations of all of the old shafts, not just the ones I found

It looks like we will have to wait for your pics looks like they be intresting, did you end up finding any thing? hope you had some sucess

I will post up the pics when the 7 days has expired.

Didn't find anything at all, but there are some interesting sections (particulary where the 3 shafts are in close proximity, about 75-100m west south west of the carpark).

Some of

Welcome revolt, interesting, did you detect?, I will watch out for your pictures.

Wayne.

G'day Revolt

Any word on the pics mate?

I live just up the road from Dandalup, in a little place called Jarrahdale.

Look forward to seeing the pics, till then.

The in-laws live in Jarrahdale.

Ok, here's the pics. First couple show where Goldmine hill is and the rough location of the old mineshafts that I have worked out from various sources.

Blue Dots = Shafts according to my sources
Red Dots = Shafts I found while in the area

The 3 red dots in a triangle shape are approximately 5 metres away from eachother and there appears to be a fault or fracture going North/South. I didn't get any pictures of this area as my this stage a second spider had jumped on me and I wanted to get outta there.




Third pic - The Goldmine hill sign is the only signage in this area at all and leads to Daisy mine to the East.




Fourth/Fifth - Daisy



Sixth - What I believe is Lovett-Menzies West but not certain. There are 3 other shafts within 30 metres of here.

Went back to Gold Mine Hill today (with a proper camera) and found (Mount) Lovett's reward (the original and biggest shaft out there) and a smaller one on top of it.

This shaft is near the base of the hill, just off where a creek runs through (if you zoom into the area on google earth, it's SW of the Water tanks and SE of the closest house.. it is quite close to my marking on the map in my previous post). Once I saw the water tanks I was worried I was trespassing (even though I didn't cross any fence) so I decided to head back.

There is a horizontal shaft straight into the side of a hill (at least 15 metres deep but I couldn't access it and my torch couldn't shine that far). There was also a vertical shaft straight down in front of the horizontal shaft (so the horizontal shaft was not accessible). This vertical shaft had been filled by someone in the past with tyres.

Hi Revolt
Read your post and thought about going back there again.Had a great time and found the shaft from your directions.We normally went up Dell park road to the larger area of the goldfield but unfortunately most of it is on private land.No gold yet at that spot but some beautiful Mica.
Have done a video of down in the shaft but cannot post things yet I think.If any of the people reading this would like to visit or revisit this spot would certainly like to meet you there sometime.
Found a few specks of gold from the top shaft but anything from this area will be very fine gold.

If I havent been a member long enough to upload the video I apologise and will reload when allowed.
Cheers to all of you

Hi V6essex,

I would definitely head back there at some stage. How deep was the shaft? How did you get past the vertical shaft?

I was a bit worried that the shaft was on private land (even though I didn't cross any fences) as there was a shed only about 100m to the north west of the creek/shaft.

I find the history on this 1896 goldfield fascinating.. how noone knows whether it was a total scam by Menzies, or whether there actually was any gold there at all.

I was also looking at Kronin/Cronin creek where it meets North Dandalup river. Found a few news stories about it on on Trove, gold was supposedly found (including "pea-sized" nuggets). Unfortunately, the 100m stretch of the creek is now the middle of North Dandalup dam! The government geologist that was sent out to investigate believed the gold was planted, but who knows for sure.

The tunnel was only about 40m long.The shafts off of the bottom hole didnt go anywhere,one was about 8m long.Did find a little speck of gold but it was minute.
Got into the tunnel on ropes from the tunnel side by passing the pit completely.Did stack some of the tyres in the pit to enable easier access as the rocks on the side are very jagged.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obE5ocr1ZFQ
Would enjoy going back there again as I am fascinated by the fact it was a goldfield with influential people involved like John Forest and Menzies.
I still think the main action was where the farms are off Del Park Rd.There is a beautiful waterfall there(gone now as the road cut it just before the drop off).That leads down to a creek and you can see how much action actually went on there.
We also thoroughly enjoy the Gosnells area and have found small amounts of gold there.
Have never used a gold detector to find the bits we find as there is always so much iron around.