50 
The Dan O'Connell shaft, on the Dan O’Connell line, is situated on the 
east bank of Campbell’s Creek, about midway between Castlemaine and 
Campbell’s Creek stations. The reef here was worked with payable results 
from the surface to a depth of 110 feet, the highest yield being 8 oz. per ton. 
It strikes N. 13° W., pitches south and dips west. It is said that when water- 
level was reached and the workings abandoned in the year 1868 payable 
quartz was dipping underfoot. 
On the same line, but about half-a-mile north, is the London shaft, in 
which no work has been done since 1862. Mr. Wilson, of Castlemaine, who 
with others worked here, informs me that the reef was a “ clay and quartz 
jumble,” which was rich but patchy. One crushing of 2 tons yielded 25 oz. 
of gold. The pitch is south, and the dip west. 
Going south from the Dan O’Connell shaft, the reef does not outcrop, 
being covered by the Campbell’s Creek alluvial deposits, but along the strike of 
the line specimen gold is said to have been ploughed up in a paddock 
a few chains south of the shaft. Still further south the line crosses the channel 
of Campbell’s Creek, and in proximity to this spot the Campbell’s Creek dredge 
is said to have obtained its best returns and coarsest gold. 
On the western bank of Campbell’s Creek, due west from the railway 
station, dredging operations have laid bare a massive spurry formation in 
eastern country, known as Harvey’s Jumble. Little work has been done on 
this, and it has not an attractive appearance. The alluvial surrounding it 
was rich, an enclosing paddock yielding 250 oz. of gold. The gold is said to 
have been found on the bedrock immediately adjacent to the quartz outcrop, 
and was coarse, rounded pieces weighing 5 dwt. being common. Some years 
ago Baker and party received a Government grant of £50 to drive to 
these spurs from the bottom of an alluvial hole, but the work was 
not successful. 
The three other reefs along which prospecting work has been carried on 
traverse the spur which divides Campbell’s Creek from the tributaries of 
Muckleford Creek. A dozen or so shafts have been sunk at irregular intervals 
on these reefs, but only in two or three instances were the prospects encourag¬ 
ing. The best result was obtained from Bennett’s Western reef, from which a 
few loads yielded 18 dwt. per load. 
Diamond Hill, due west from the Dan O’Connell shaft, forms part of the 
spur just mentioned. From all directions it is a conspicuous feature in the land¬ 
scape. It is capped with Older Pliocene gravels and cement, which have been 
extensively worked for alluvial gold. It is of a rich red colour, and quite 
destitute of timber. At a distance it might easily be mistaken for an inlier 
of “ Bendigo ” beds, but a close inspection shows that it has derived its colour 
from deposits of iron leached from the over-lying cement. The surface of 
the hill, and, in fact, the surface of the whole of the area inspected, is prob¬ 
ably high up in the Castlemaine zone. All of the gullies (Boyer’s, Specimen, 
and others unnamed on the eastern side, and Adelaide and Place’s on the 
western side) heading from the Diamond Hill spur are more or less auriferous, 
the gold being generally coarse (a 3J-dwt. piece found in Boyer’s Gully 
between Coolgardie and Bennett’s reefs was shown me by Mr. Stowe, 
a prospector), but between Bennett’s Western reef and Gowar, 2 miles to 
the west, and Place’s Gully and Guildford, 2 miles to the south, the 
surface rocks are, so far as is known, barren, and apparently above 
the auriferous zone. 
On the reefs occurring within the area in question the Dan O’Connell 
outcrop is the deepest in the series, but it would seem that even 
