The Ring River Goldfield

The Rosebery – Zeehan – Dundas area is renowned mainly for its silver-lead, zinc and tin deposits. However, some decent finds of gold were also made. The main gold workings in this part of the west coast were in the Ring River area and Melba Flats. Both of these produced some sizeable nuggets in their day. The Ring River goldfield was home to one of Tasmania’s gold rushes, in 1891.

Continue reading

The Lefroy and Back Creek goldfields

Lefroy was one of Tasmania’s most important and profitable goldfields. Originally discovered as an alluvial field, it went on to become one of the main hard-rock quartz mining fields and hosted several of Tasmania’s relatively few dividend-paying gold mines.
Back Creek, immediately to the east, is often treated in the same publications, and is arguably an extension of the Lefroy goldfield. In contrast to Lefroy’s hard-rock focus, Back Creek was overwhelmingly an alluvial field.

Continue reading

The Corinna Goldfields

Gold was known in the northwest of Tasmania since at least James (Philosopher) Smith’s discovery in the Forth Valley near the modern-day Lake Cethana dam. None of the workings were on a large scale. It wasn’t until Harry Middleton’s discovery in Corinna in 1879 that the gold rush to the Pieman kicked off. It would eventually lead to the largest gold nugget ever found in Tasmania. Much of the area is still accessible to gold fossickers today.

Continue reading