Shaft
Definition of shaft
- A pit. A hole sunk in the ground. A rectangular or square pit sunk on a reef or on a gutter.
– The Gold Fields and Mineral Districts of Victoria, 1869.
More information
A mine shaft is a vertical access passageway to an underground mine. A shaft allows miners to enter the mine and ore to be hauled out using lifting technology such as a poppet heads, whims or windlasses.
Perhaps the most well known and obvious remnant of the region’s mining operations, mine shafts can be found almost everywhere throughout the Victorian Goldfields, with many dating back to the 1850s gold rush.
Some remain open, some have been capped off (either in modern times or long ago), and others have developed dangerous ‘false bottoms’.
Examples of mine shafts in the Victorian Goldfields
Some examples of mine shafts in the Victorian Goldfields:
- Gypsy Road Mine Shafts – Bulldog Reef, Moliagul VIC (open mine shafts)
- Red, White and Blue Recreation Area, Muckleford VIC (capped mine shaft with poppet head)
- Chinese Diggings Historic Reserve, White Hills VIC (both rectangular and circular mine shafts)
- Forest Creek Historic Gold Diggings, Castlemaine VIC (both rectangular and circular mine shafts)
- Simson Historic Area, Havelock VIC (a great example of ‘the diggings’, lots of mineshafts packed closely together)