Long Tunnel Mine

The above ground buildings to the Long Tunnel Mine were extensive. The mine produced over 52 tonnes of gold during its 50 years of operation. The building in the centre behind the chimneys is the mine's battery house. Here the quartz ore was crushed to a fine powder and the gold dust separated by creating an amalgam with mercury. The battery house ran 6 days a week, 24 hours a day. It was said that Walhalla residents couldn't sleep on the Sunday because it was so quite compared to the noise of the crushers. Timber was the only source of fuel, and line in the middle of the photo is the Long Tunnel's timber tramline. This went as far as the Thomson River at Poverty Point in order to collect timber to feed the furnaces of the boilers. The hill around Walhalla were stripped bare which is hard to believe when you see the lush bush that surrounds the town today. The buildings and equipment for the Long Tunnel Mine were sold in a "fire sale" auction after the mine closed in 1914. They were all removed following their sale at auction. All that remains today are some stone foundations to indicated the site of Victoria's richest gold mine. The former wood yard is now a park and the old tramline formation is a walking track to Poverty Point.