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36-644: Mongarlowe is a village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales , Australia in Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council . In former times, it was also known, in various contexts, as Little River, Monga, and Sergeants Point. The name, Mongarlowe, also applies to the surrounding area, for postal and statistical purposes. It is situated on the Mongarlowe River and about 13 km east of Braidwood . At

72-534: A 70-year-old dredge (as seen in the popular TV series, Gold Rush , on the Discovery channel.). As of 2016, this is the only operating large dredge in the Klondike. However, he is currently working on fixing up a second dredge 33% larger than the first one. In Season 7 Episode 20, titled Dredge vs Washplant, it was shown that in a 2-day test the running costs of the dredge were approximately 25% of those of running

108-824: A boom in gold dredging in the South Island ; in Otago rivers like the Shotover River , Clutha River and the Molyneaux River, and in West Coast rivers like the Grey River (where the last gold dredge worked until 2004). A New Zealand born mining entrepreneur, Charles Lancelot Garland , bought the technology to New South Wales, Australia, launching the first dredge there, in March 1899, resulting in

144-405: A group of Yuin . Dispossessed of their best land during settler colonisation, individual Aboriginal families sought land on which to live. 140 acres of land was set aside as a reserve for Aborigines , in 1879—north of Mongarlowe in the neighbouring Parish of Mongarlowe—in the name of an Aboriginal woman, Mary Ann Willoughby. In 1885, a second reserve, of just under 9 acres, was set aside there, in

180-546: A major revival of the alluvial gold mining industry. Gold dredges also operated, extensively, in Victoria and in Queensland. Dredges were also used to mine placer deposits of other minerals, such as tin ore . In later years, some dredges were electrically powered. A gold dredge was working at Porcupine Flat, near Maldon, Victoria , until 1984. From Australia, in turn, gold dredging technology spread to New Guinea, at

216-469: A population of 1,332, of whom 350 were Chinese. As a result of the Crown Lands Act of 1884, the boundaries of the village of Mongarlow were officially proclaimed on 29 July 1889, although the settlement had been in existence for many years before then. The haphazard arrangement of the village's street plan reflected the original settlement, rather than a carefully planned village. A bridge across

252-670: A tributary of the Shoalhaven River ), as early as December 1851, and there were miners working the Little River diggings by March 1852. The river was called the Little River, because another name for the Shoalhaven was the 'Big River'. By 1865, there were alluvial gold diggings from the village to the river's confluence with the Shoalhaven River and, in the other direction, upstream for about seven miles, as well as in gullies, particularly that of Tantalean Creek. The gold

288-637: Is a prominent vegetation community in the region. 93.5 Eagle FM , a radio station based in Goulburn , broadcasts to the majority of the Southern Tablelands. This Southern Tablelands geography article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gold dredge The original gold dredges were large, multi-story machines built in the first half of the 1900s. Small suction machines are currently marketed as "gold dredges" to individuals seeking gold: just offshore from

324-880: Is easily accessible to the Australian federal capital city of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory . The area is included with the Southern Highlands and parts of the South West Slopes in the district that is known as Capital Country . In a wider sense, the term "Southern Tablelands" is also sometimes used to describe a broader region that includes the Monaro , the Southern Highlands and Australia's capital Canberra. The Southern Tablelands Temperate Grassland

360-412: Is sloped downward toward a rubber belt (the stacker ) that carries away oversize material (rocks) and dumps the rocks behind the dredge. The cylinder has many holes in it to allow undersized material (including gold) to fall into a sluice box. The material that is washed or sorted away is called tailings . The rocks deposited behind the dredge (by the stacker) are called "tailing piles." The holes in

396-493: The 2016 census , the village and the surrounding area had a population of 117. Several buildings have survived from the 19th century, when it was much larger, as has the village's cemetery. Mongarlowe was a substantial mining settlement during the mid-19th century due to the New South Wales gold rush . It was called Monga until 1891. The area now known as Mongarlowe lies on the traditional lands of Walbanga people,

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432-574: The Braidwood Museum . In January 1919, the village was severely affected by bushfire, losing its police station, both its Anglican and Catholic churches, several residences, a crushing battery . and the Chinese temple (or 'joss house'). It was a catastrophe for a village already in decline. At the time of the fire, the population was 'around 100" and only one Chinese resident remained by 1922. Another minor population boom occurred, during

468-567: The Great Depression , there was a minor revival in gold mining and mining activity in the area continued sporadically up to at least the mid-1990s. A settlement arose between the right bank of the river and the left bank of its tributary Sergeants Point Creek. at a location where crossing the river was easy. In its early years, there were four names used, more or less concurrently. The nearby diggings were known as Sergeants Point or Little River, and those names were also used to designate

504-488: The 1860s, although the earlier dredges were of primitive design and not very successful. Much of the New Zealand dredge technology was developed locally. The first really successful bucket dredge for gold mining was that of Choie Sew Hoy, also known as Charles Sew Hoy , in 1889. This dredge was able work river banks and flats, as well as the bottoms of streams. It became the prototype for many similar dredges, and led to

540-465: The Depression, when many returned to distill eucalyptus oil and search again for gold. A new Catholic church was opened in 1937. After some year of disuse, the church was demolished. There was a proposal for a 98 lot subdivision in proximity to the village which was cancelled in 2008 under pressure from concerned residents. Mongarlowe has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: Three of

576-483: The Mongarlowe River (previously Little River) was opened at Mongarlow in 1894. The bridge is a six-span timber trestle and beam bridge, with a timber deck. Prior to the bridge, pedestrians crossed the river using stepping stones. The old ford was just downstream of the bridge. The realignment of the main road from the ford, to pass over the bridge, left the town's hotel with its rear to the main road. In 1905,

612-422: The beach of Nome, Alaska , for instance. A large gold dredge uses a mechanical method to excavate material (sand, gravel, dirt, etc.) using steel "buckets" on a circular, continuous "bucketline" at the front end of the dredge. The material is then sorted/sifted using water. On large gold dredges, the buckets dump the material into a steel rotating cylinder (a specific type of trommel called "the screen") that

648-426: The bottom of the pan, or into the bottom of the riffles of the sluice box. The gold dredge is the same concept but on a much larger scale. Gold dredges are an important tool of gold miners around the world. They allow profitable mining at relatively low operational costs. Even though the concept is simple in principle, dredges can be engineered in different ways allowing to catch different sizes of gold specimen. Hence

684-642: The early 1900s. The last giant gold dredge in California was the Natomas Number 6 dredge operating in Folsom, California that ceased operations on 12 Feb 1962 as cost of operation began exceeding the value of the gold recovered. Many of these large dredges still exist today in state-sponsored heritage areas ( Sumpter Valley Gold Dredge ), or tourist attractions ( Dredge No. 4 National Historic Site of Canada). Gold dredges were used in New Zealand from

720-436: The efficiency of gold dredges differs greatly depending on its specifications. By the mid to late 1850s the easily accessible placer gold in California was gone, but much gold remained. The challenge of retrieving the gold took a professional mining approach to make it pay: giant machines and giant companies. Massive floating dredges scooped up millions of tons of river gravels, as steam and electrical power became available in

756-563: The four known sites, at which the critically endangered Mongarlowe Mallee ( Eucalyptus recurva ) exists, are close to Mongarlowe. Only six plants existed in 2011. Southern Tablelands The Southern Tablelands is a geographic area of New South Wales , Australia , located south-west of Sydney and west of the Great Dividing Range . The area is characterised by high, flat country which has generally been extensively cleared and used for grazing purposes. The area

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792-424: The giant dredges of the 1930s. Today dredges are versatile and popular consisting of both floating surface dredges that use a vacuum to suck gravel from the bottom and submersible dredges. Large dredges are still operating in several countries of South America (Peru, Brasil, Guyana, Colombia), Asia (Russia, China, Mongolia Papua-New Guinea) and Africa (Sierra Leone). In 2015, gold miner Tony Beets reconstructed

828-416: The gold reefs around Mongalowe. The shortcut made by the river also created a landform known as 'Sydney Heads', which would become the site of a mining camp. In the early 20th-century, Half Moon would be the location of dredge mining . The Mongalowe field had both alluvial working and hard-rock quartz reef mines . By 1870, quartz reefs were being mined. The reef mines lay to the east and to the north-east of

864-555: The name of another Aboriginal woman, Margaret Bryant. In 1893, these earlier reserves were revoked and a new reserve of 50 acres was set aside on the left bank of Currowan Creek, not far from its confluence with the Clyde River estuary, on the coastal side of the Budawang Range . That reserve, Currowan Creek Aboriginal Reserve , lasted until 1956. Probably due to reasons such as finding a viable means of sustenance, most of

900-495: The river downstream from the village. Extensive remnants of Chinese mining and sluicing works are still evident on Tantalean Creek. Downstream of the village, just below the junction with Feagan's Creek, the river had cut off a large oxbow, creating a landform still known today as the 'Half Moon', or 'Half Moon Flat'. While the Half Moon was still a part of the river, alluvial gold had accumulated there over thousands of years from

936-459: The river, near the junction of the Clyde Road and the road from Reidsdale—where a village site was officially reserved in 1881. By 1891, confusion with that other, relatively nearby Monga , was leading to mail being directed to the wrong place. Residents asked that the postal name be changed to Mongarlowe, which happened in the same year. From that time, Mongarlowe was the only official name for

972-571: The screen were intended to screen out rocks (e.g., 3/4 inch holes in the screen sent anything larger than 3/4 inch to the stacker). The basic concept of retrieving gold via placer mining has not changed since antiquity. The concept is that the gold in sand or soil will settle to the bottom because gold is heavy/dense, and dirt, sand and rock will wash away, leaving the gold behind. The original methods to perform placer mining involved gold panning, sluice boxes, and rockers. Each method involves washing sand, gravel and dirt in water. Gold then settles to

1008-467: The settlement. The name Mongarlowe (or 'Mungarlowe') had been in use, since at latest 1870, and according to the Lands Department and their maps, the village was called Mongarlowe from 1889. The village's post office was called Monga—as was its police station—and Monga was used as the village's postal address and in other contexts However, Monga is also the name of another locality —upstream on

1044-460: The surviving Aborigines living in the goldfields around Braidwood, migrated toward the coast—also Walbanga country—in the later years of the 19th-century. Mary Ann Willoughby—already living thereabouts in 1876—and her children were still living near Mongarlowe in 1902. Following other alluvial gold finds in the Braidwood district, prospectors were searching the Little River (now Mongarlowe River),

1080-549: The time an Australian territory, in the 1930s. Due to the remote locations of the goldfields and absence of roads in New Guinea, parts of dredges were carried to site by air and the dredge was assembled there. In the late 1960s and through today, dredging has returned as a popular form of gold mining. Advances in technology allow a small dredge to be carried by a single person to a remote location and profitably process gravel banks on streams that previously were inaccessible to

1116-420: The village had a " police station, hotel, three stores, public school, blacksmith's shop, three churches; a Chinese joss house , and private residence s", and a population of '' about 700 Europeans and 23 Chinese. '' The Chinese temple (or 'joss house') and its burial ground stood on the left bank of the river, just downstream of the old ford. The village had a public school from 1863 to 1963. The village's hotel

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1152-443: The village, away from the river. The Day Dawn mine was the deepest of the quartz reef mines in the area and reached a depth of 400 feet. It operated from 1884 to 1891 and again from 1900 to 1905 There was at least one ethnic-Chinese owned hard-rock mine, named for the prominent local Nomchong family, who as well as having mining interests were storekeepers in the village and at Braidwood. A goldfield of 'Mongarlowe and Shoalhaven River'

1188-493: The village. The name Sergeants Point also continued to be used locally, until at least the very earliest years of the 20th-century. The road from Braidwood to Mongalowe is still known as Little River Road. The village became the centre for a number of smaller mining camps spread widely throughout the area. By 1870, the village had " two or three hotels, a large store, a good schoolhouse, and a police station ." The goldfields area had ten hotels, nine stores, three mills, and, in 1868,

1224-453: Was known as the 'Rising Sun Hotel'. It was burned down in July 1907, in what was later found to be a case of arson. It was rebuilt but lost its licence soon afterward. It is now a private residence and one of the few remaining original public buildings in the village, the others being the old post office and schoolhouse. Another original building, the old lock-up, has been removed and reinstated at

1260-519: Was patchy and the field attracted hard-working Chinese miners who were prepared to persevere and work in teams, for a modest return on their labour and time. In a remarkable piece of work, Chinese miners constructed a water race, ten miles long, from the headwaters of Currawan Creek—in the catchment of the Clyde River —to carry water to sluice high ground in Broad Gully, on the right bank of

1296-494: Was proclaimed on 18 July 1896. Significant mining had all but ceased after 1905. There was a pump gold dredge working at the Half Moon Flat, from 1901 until late 1905. The dredge was removed and taken to Adelong . By 1917, the prospects of any future hard-rock gold mining at Mongarlowe were bleak. However, a bucket dredge operated at Half Moon, intermittently, between 1908 and 1915 and again between 1916 and 1922. During

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