Photo of the Day

Bakers Creek Gold Mine – boom to bust

June 22nd, 2012 by Lynne McNairn

This image shows the plant at the Bakers Creek Goldmine near Hillgrove in the New England Region of New South Wales. In 1887 a rich reef of gold bearing rock was discovered in the Hillgrove Gorge by George Smith. The Bakers Creek Goldmine was the first mine established to exploit this resource in 1887.

The mine met with enormous initial success. Over the following decade 311,225 ounces of gold were mined at Bakers Creek and by 1897 the company’s shareholders had received dividends of 247,500 pounds on their paid up capital of 87,000 pounds. However this spectacular success could not last. In the frantic climate of the late 1880s and early 1890s little if any consideration was given to the mine’s expensive mining techniques and no capital reserve was put aside. As the initial deposit was depleted and costs skyrocketed in the difficult terrain, the mine could not produce enough gold to meet the monthly expenses. In 1906 the Bakers Creek Mining Company was wound up.

In this image, the plant looks in poor repair with cladding missing from walls and roofs and only a small amounts of smoke rising from a few chimneys. It seems likely that this photograph was taken towards the end of the Baker Creek Mining Company’s operations in 1906.

This image is one of number of enlarged photographs donated to the Museum collection by the Government Printing Office in 1906.

Post by Lynne McNairn

Enlarged photographic print, ‘W. A. Gullick, Government Printer, Sydney’, 1906.
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Tags: Australia, Bakers Creek, Bakers Creek Mining Company, Gold, gold mines, Gold mining, gold rush, gold rushes, goldrush, goldrushes, Hillgrove New South Wales