In 1863, a group of prospectors led by Ned Stringer travelled down the Aberfeldy River from the Goulburn valley at around the same time as the goldfields of the Jordan and Jericho were being opened up. The group reached the Thomson River and followed it downstream exploring tributaries as they travelled. Just past the tributary now known as Stringer’s Creek, they found good gold prospects. By following this creek upstream for a day, the gold in the creek was reaching significant levels, each man in the party was finding around an ounce of gold daily and the news soon got out, inspiring a rush to the area to the place that is now called Walhalla.

Men experienced in quartz reef mining soon came to the site and realising the gold must have come from a nearby lode began a search that soon revealed a number of gold bearing quartz reefs, among them the now world renowned Cohen’s Reef.

A number of mines commenced operation in 1865 including the Hercules Mining Company which opened up the Long Tunnel Extended Adit. This tunnel reached Cohen’s Reef in 1867 at a distance of 160m from the entrance and a depth of about 120 meters below the surface. Unfortunately, the gold content in the quartz reef at this point was quite low at about 5gm to the tonne. Some exploratory work continued along the reef and to lower levels but in 1871 the operation was sold to the newly created Long Tunnel Extended Mining Company N/L. This company was managed by more experienced mining people and was well financed. The adit was continued to a point some 230 metres from the entrance. Chambers were excavated for machinery and boilers, chimneys were constructed to the surface and the boilers and machinery were installed. The LTEM Company used ‘state of the art’ methods and equipment of the day and kept abreast of developments as they occurred. During periods of full production, the five large Cornish boilers burned in excess of 30 tons of wood daily.

By the time the mine closed in 1914, a total of 859,540 tons of Quartz had been mined from which 13.7 tonnes of gold had been extracted. During the 1890’s the Long Tunnel Extended Mine was the biggest gold producer in Victoria for five consecutive years and in one of those years it was the biggest producer in Australia. Its 8.5 kilometres of underground workings extended to a depth of 923 metres below the machinery chamber which in turn is some 150 metres below natural surface.

Diagram of Winding Gear
(Click to download the diagram below)