A look back at local gold dredging in the early 1900s

While the Burrangong Gold Dredging and Sluicing Company was the first company to employ dredging along Burrangong and Spring Creek from 1900, there were other attempts to dredge in this area in the early 20th century. The Deep Leads Company, represented by Thomas Clements, applied for a dredging lease of 42 acres, one rood, 17 perches along parts of Burrangong Creek and Spring Creeks in 1906. Mr Campbell was also acting for the company and he noted that an electric plant worth £14,000 had been ordered from England. The Deep Leads Company bought the 70 ton dredge from the Burrangong Gold Dredging Company and made plans to move it to their other gold dredging lease which stretched from the town of Wombat to what is now known as Redbridge. However, moving the dredge proved too difficult, so it was broken up and auctioned off in parts. During trials, the Deep Leads Company found that light gold was obtainable with an average of 15 feet of alluvial sinking on their Wombat lease and worked with their smaller dredge into 1907. The Wombat Dredging Company later had some success from 1939 at Wombat before being wound up in 1941. Along Burrangong Creek, the Phoenix Dredging Company Ltd had a centrifugal pump dredge in operation in 1902. The dredge went down 48 feet from the surface. The company’s owners were Allan Campbell, a Young solicitor and James Ceeril Rankin, who also owned the Burrangong Dredging and Sluicing Company. In 1903, the Small Debts Court at Young seized their dredging plant for non-payment of £15 5s 1d for meat supplied for the company. The company disappears from the record after 1904. Under engineer Rudolf August Kudnig, the Morobe Gold Development Company took out a lease of ground along Burrangong Creek from Penrose Bridge to the Rifle Range in 1936. The company started dredging in October using electric and hydraulic suction plants worth £2500. These could be worked with only a handful of men. The false bottom which troubled the Burrangong Dredging and Sluicing Company earlier in the century was pierced with a hole nearly 60 feet in width and breadth. The company soon found about £400 worth of gold, but it was not enough. They only recovered 8oz in 1936 and a further 27.5oz in 1937 when the company ran out of money and entered into liquidation at the end of that year. If you have further information about it, please contact us.