9 
\ 
THE STAWELL GOLD-FIELD. 
By E. /. Dunn , F.G.S., Director, Geological Survey . 
Stawell is 150 miles from Melbourne, on the railway line to Adelaide. 
The town is 759 feet above sea-level. The Black Range to the south-east 
of Stawell is of granite, and this rock underlies the schistose rocks in 
which the productive reefs occur. 
On the north-east side of the town there is a low range that runs with 
the general strike of the schists, W. ao deg. N. The highest portion 
is at the end of the principal street, and is called Big Hill. The 
principal mining operations have been on the town, or south-west, side 
of the ridge and on top of it. 
Some of the salient features are the large bodies of quartz and the 
abundance of sulphides that occur in some of the lodes. The surface of 
the ground between the Sloane and Scotchman’s and the Newington mines 
is thickly strewn with limonite that has resulted from the oxidation of 
iron sulphides. These large quartz lodes conform to the containing beds 
in dip, strike and pitch. It is also noticeable that on Big Hill there are 
two very large excavations from which the material has been removed in a 
face over large areas to a depth of as much as 50 feet, indicating that the 
decomposed schist with its net-work of quartz veins was profitable to- treat 
in bulk. 
The structure of this gold-field is of interest, for the top of the low 
range about coincides with an anticlinal axis. The arch has a wide 
radius and nearly corresponds with the present surface of Big Hill, where 
an excellent section of the saddle reef, called the Scotchman’s reef, is 
exposed. The south-west “ leg ” and the saddle reef are well shewn 
in the open cut, but the workings do not extend far enough to- shew the 
other leg. The north-westerly pitch of about 25 deg. is also very clearly 
shewn. Going south-east from Big Hill along the ridge the same leg is 
well exposed for some distance, and at the Hampshire reef it attains a 
thickness of 12 feet and upwards. Very rich quartz is said to have been 
obtained on the footwall of this reef which was worked for a length of 
400 feet. 
The workings of Stawell have been principally on three parallel legs on 
the south-west side of the anticlines. The abnormal strike of the anticline, 
W. 30 deg. N., is no doubt due to- the proximity of the granite mass. 
The three lines worked are known as the Magdala (the lowest), Scotch¬ 
man’s, and the Cross reefs ; they are all worked between the town and the 
top of Big Hill. Verv extensive operations were carried on along these three 
lines, but the corresponding legs that should exist on the opposite side of 
the anticline have received very scant attention. It is stated that in 
a crosscut run out 1,300 feet north-easterly from the Scotchman’s shaft, 
the other leg of the Scotchman’s reef was cut. It was 31 feet thick, 
highly charged with sulphides and carried a little gold. This reef 
apparently was not further prospected. 
The lowest of the three saddle reefs is the Magdala, and this was 
worked in the Scotchman’s mine and in the Magdala cum Moonlight mine. 
The Scotchman’s reef has been worked at the surface as at the Hampshire 
reef, &c., and on Big Hill, in the Sloane and Scotchman’s mine, and in 
the Magdala mine. The Cross reef has been worked along through several 
mines, and is now being worked in the Three Jacks mine. 
I 
