Sludge by Peter Davies

Author:Peter Davies
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Schwartz Publishing Pty. Ltd

The puddlers in Bendigo were long gone, but sludge was still being produced there by sluicers and quartz mines. The sludge channel constructed in the 1860s was now full to the level of the bridges, and Bendigo Creek was obliterated at Huntly. Around Wangaratta the damage to the Ovens River was deemed ‘irreparable’ below the junction with Hodgson Creek, and both Hodgson and Reedy Creek were terribly affected. The lower Loddon River was badly filled as far as Eddington, as was the Leigh River between Shelford and Inverleigh.77 The Board found that quartz mines were just as damaging as hill sluicers. Quartz crushing in the mines at Clunes and Maryborough was sending thousands of cubic metres of tailings into the Creswick and Deep creeks around Carisbrook and down to Eddington. Sludge filling the Leigh valley at Captain Berthon’s farm came from quartz crushing at Ballarat.78

On the brighter side, the Board was heartened by the mines where it was evident sludge was being managed successfully, particularly around Bendigo.79 Quartz mines along Myers Creek were considered exemplary in the way they stacked their tailings, with the Board expressing admiration for the clear water in Myers Creek. At White Hills the sludge from puddling had filled in the shafts left by old workings, and the land now supported good crops and orchards. Tailings had been used to good effect in Eaglehawk, where old workings had been filled in and converted to public gardens. At Yackandandah, sludge was being diverted into workings along Yackandandah Creek, and the Board predicted that valuable land would soon be created there too.80

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