280 
THE WALLABY AND RECHABITE REEFS, HURDLE FLAT, 
NEAR BEECHWORTH. 
By E. J. Dunn , F.D.S., late Director , Geological Survey. 
The Wallaby reef is on the west bank of Nine-Mile Creek, about i mile 
higher up than Rocky Point, and 6 miles in a direction a little south of 
east from Beechworth. The top workings of the mine are 1,970 feet above 
sea-level by aneroid measurement, and the bottom tunnel is about 1,820 feet 
above sea-level. On the top of the hill is a great excavation, 150 feet in 
depth and over 100 feet in length at the surface, and 30 to 40 feet wide, 
tapering in at the bottom. Many thousands of tons of quartz and mullock 
must have been crushed from this huge quarry. The general features are 
that a belt of country rock, penetrated by numerous veins of auriferous 
quartz, has been faulted in blocks. The general strike of the altered 
Ordovician beds is about N. io° W., and faults that run nearly east 
and west have severed the belt. The faults have a general southerly 
dip, and have thrown the blocks to the east, going south. Besides the 
Wallaby Reef, which is the most northern of these blocks that has been 
worked, there are other minor workings on other blocks, such as the Marco 
Polo and the Kingston, and possibly the Rechabite Reef on the east side 
of the creek. The soil is red. 
It is evident from the workings that a great deal of payable stone 
was obtained, but the method of working, by which each spur and vein 
of auriferous quartz was followed until it ran out or became poor, was 
unsuitable for this class of occurrence. The pitch of the shoots is to the 
south. 
The Rechabite outcrop was a few feet above creek level, and is reputed 
to have been extremely rich. The shoot pitches south at about 20°; 
the strike of beds is N. io° W.; and the dip, 75 0 W. The shoot 
was worked underfoot, but to what extent is not known. An adit was 
also carried southerly into the hill for 100 feet, and the auriferous quartz 
and mullock was stoped for a width of 12 feet and to a height of 80 feet 
above the floor of the adit. 
The country on the east side of the creek is well settled, and the 
locality is suited for economical working, and hundreds of feet of backs 
could be gained by continuing the workings southward. The Rechabite is 
more to< the east than the Kingston workings on the west side of the creek, 
but is probably the continuation of the same belt of auriferous country. If 
so, the continuation of the rich shoots worked on the west side of the creek 
at the Wallaby, &c., would be deep underfoot at the Rechabite, if they 
continue. 
On the Wallaby side of the creek there are two tunnels driven into the 
hill just above creek level. One into the Kingston workings opens out 
into a large quarry, in very hard rock seamed with spurs. In this quarry 
a whim was erected, and a shaft sunk 80 feet below the tunnel level. The 
spurs and rock removed for crushing were about 8 feet wide. This shaft 
requires to be pumped out, and the old workings to be explored and 
prospected. 
Three chains lower down the creek, and a few feet higher in level, is 
the Wallaby tunnel, and just below the tunnel is the remains of the old 
battery which has been burnt by a bush fire. The Wallaby tunnel is 
600 feet long, and runs into the large open workings already noticed. 
A southerly branch from this tunnel is being driven into new country, and 
a little gold has been met with. 
