Trying to find out about an old reef worked in 1880 in Heathcote, Victoria

I am trying to find details out of curiosity on an old gold reef at Heathcote formerly called McIvor Diggings worked in 1878. It is on modern day geology maps as as a Reef still and has a current exploration licence out on it by Nagambie mining who have recently dug costeans near it but found nothing so the costeans have been refilled.This area was previously worked on paper only by mining companies called Sons of Gwalia, New Holland. In the 1980's as my hobby farm land abuts this area i had five companies register an interest in my land to suck dollars off investors, which they were successful at.The mine apparently was worked on and off and last operator with a licence who actually worked it was a James Dredge in early 1980's. So here we have a mine operating on and off for over 100 years. Took the trip into DPI at 1 Spring Street, Melbourne and duly put $8 in gold into the coin meter for two hours as thought would need a bit of time, the council got gold that day without much effort. On entering level 16 (DPI library room) the two burly security guys playing some game on a computer referrred me to the sweet young girl at the desk. We then went to the other part of the office with 6 or so computers and the program she used looked identical to what I had used at home on their website GeoVic. She came up with nothing on the reef. I told her that the National Library in Swanston St, had newspaper articles on the mine finds which are also on the internet for home users from newspapers from the day.She then informed me that she was new at this job. Question is surely they must have something on it, where else can I look as their were old books adorning the bookcases nearby. Anyone got any ideas or contacts within the department who might have the runs on the board to know where to look. John

Have a look through this you can use the full reader search, i put in McIvor and got many hits but nothing came up for holland or sons of gwaila but the reefs somtimes change names as the reef changes owenership, there is a lot of reference to mcIvor diggings etc its 89 pages so if you havent found it yet it will make good reading.

http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/admin/file/content2/c7/HeathcoteRegion1.pdf

John also try The History of Gold Discovery in Victoria by James Flett. there is a bit of info about Heathcote there. Every bit helps to fill in a puzzle.
Wombat

Thanks to you Wombat, gollstar for your input, both have no mention of this mine but very interesting reading all the same of the general area.
regards
John

John,

Email this bloke at the Mining Warden's office. I've found him very helpful

Ivan.Austin@dpi.vic.gov.au

Good luck

Robert

Thanks a lot Goldnomad, I will give him a try. I will let you know how I go.
Best regards
John

gooday jmp333

try this link, try and use the gold word, i put in mcivor gold diggings in the search box there is some interesting reading there. hope this helps.


http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home



cheers.. reg

Thanks Reg, I should have mentioned been down that track, the mine at Heathcote was mentioned in the Brisbane Courier in 1890 as getting 63.5 ounces of gold from eleven tons of stone. That newspaper source is great and I went to the State Library in Swanston Street Melbourne and looked at the article on microfiche and got copies. Was interesting reading the newspaper as nothing has changed in 120 years, politics,mortgagee auctions,crime, shares going up or down. For it to reach Queensland I thought the Victoria Mines Dept would have knowledge of the mine.
John