In November 1884 the Cobungra GMCo. suddenly dismissed the majority of hands employed in the construction of the water race that was to provide water for the hydraulic sluicing operations of the company. In protest the workers held a march.

Reference courtesy Luke Steehuis (Ghost Towns of the High Country)

The Freeburgh School opened in 1865 but didn't become a State school until 1st July 1867. The school committee built a 24ft x 18ft timber school room and two room residence. The school was extended by 20ft in 1870. A new 36ft x 20ft timber schol was completed in may 1878. the old shcoll building was sold for one ound and used to build the Freeburgh Public Library. In 1948 enro;ments at the school drpped from 5 to 4 and the school was closed in April 1948. The building was moved to the Myrtleford School in May 1951 by the Dept. of Public Works.

The main leader of the Buckland riot was Jonathan Thomas Bell. His words at the end of the meeting on the morning of the riot out the front of Tanswell's hotel below the Buckland Junction were, "Either the whites or the Chinese will have to go".

Advert from the White Star Co. calling for tenders to continue their main prospecting tunnel. Such tenders were good opportunities for unemployed miners to get a bit of extra work. This was published in the Alpine Observer, 2nd September 1910.

Advert from the White Star Co. calling for capital to do further prospecting work at the mine. This was published in the Alpine Observer, 2nd September 1910.

High on the eastern range over looking the township of Wandiligong slumbers an ancient giant, one of the largest goldmines on the Upper Ovens Goldfields, the great Oriental goldmine.


A short time after the discovery of the Pioneer reef in Bright, rich specimens of gold in quartz were found on the hill overlooking the Growler's Creek diggings. George Holstein, later mill owner at Freeburgh and Bright Shire councillor, was said to have been the first to make these discoveries, though was doing so well in alluvial mining at the time that he didn't bother pursuing it. Dick Wood, George Butler and Edward Cotsworth were known as the official discoverers of this reef in about mid 1858 and took up claims along the reef that was christened the Oriental. Among the first crushings a parcel of 16 tons carted to Rossiter's mill at the Pioneer mine in early October 1859 by Butler and company yielded an inspiring 142 ounces of gold. Arrangements were rapidly being made in every direction to open up the reef.

The Oriental reef was solid quartz and in places was up to 50 feet wide and extended for a distance of 1300 feet, the biggest such formation in the district. The first two years on the Oriental were the most dynamic and rich, and a host of partnerships and arrangement of claims took place, with some nine claims taken out along the reef during this period. A complex web of individuals, shares, claims and machines existed, with partnerships and shares regularly changing hands, leaving a layer of jumbled facts looking like an upturned bowl of spaghetti on the kitchen floor.

During the heydays a small settlement sprang up about the hillside workings with each of the claim holders erecting their own buildings.
The most impressive building would have been that of Henry Teed, an enterprising businessman and restaurant keeper who was close on the heels of the first prospecting parties.

The only death associated with the Oriental, that I am aware of, was associated with the incline tramway network that brought the gold bearing ore down the hillside to the stamp batteries situated within the township. The accident that occurred on the Oriental tramway in 1869, happened on the top section of the line. Four men, F Crabbe, R Pascoe, W Smith and J Barnett were riding up in an empty truck for afternoon shift when at the steepest part of the incline the rope or coupling broke and the truck bolted back down the hill at terrific speed. All the men were thrown out; Barnett was killed instantly while the other three were seriously injured.

In the mine's earliest days upwards of 200 men were employed on the Oriental. Their jobs were numerous; including underground mining, quarrying, trucking, blacksmithing, cutting firewood &c.

The scale of the open cut workings on the Oriental the quantity of ore crushed were the greatest in the district. And the mine was the second largest gold producer in the district with the total recorded production from the Oriental up until 1908 was 59,097 ounces (1.9 tonnes) of gold from 125,902 tons of stone crushed. This record is far from complete, with many of the earliest rich crushings never recorded.


The great Oriental once reigned supreme amongst all the mines of the Upper Ovens. Famous throughout the district the reef was once the backbone of the Growler's Creek (Wandiligong) community, its sights and sounds dominating the valley. This ancient giant now slumbers, largely forgotten, after many years of hard toil, having laid the foundations of the township and set many early pioneers on successful financial paths.


The mine was last worked in about 1933, though was not very successful.

Over the years about seven different stamp batteries crushed the ore from the Oriental mine, nearly all were along the main Wandiligong road and situated amongst the homes and shops of the small mining town. The biggest battery was know as the Oriental Perseverance Mill. This was the largest battery in the district with 32 head of stamps. It was later bought by a man named Charles Fraser in 1875, and from then until the mill's closure in 1919. The mill was powered by a large waterwheel.

Here's a detailed section from the Harrietville Goldfield map showing the locality known as the Black Hole and a quartz reef mine there known as Walsh's and also the Star Extended or New Star.