Beaconsfield (Tasmania)

Beaconsfield

Headframe of the Beaconsfield gold mine

State :	Australia Australia
State :	Tasmania
Founded :	1850s

Coordinates :	41 ° 12 ′ S , 146 ° 49 ′ E Coordinates: 41 ° 12 ′ S , 146 ° 49 ′ E-41.201111111111 146.81694444444
Area :	3.4 km²

Residents :	1,054 (2016)
Population density :	310 inhabitants per km²

Time zone :	AEST (UTC + 10)
Postal code :	7279

LGA :

West Tamar Municipality

Beaconsfield is a city in the north of the Australian state of Tasmania . It is 40 km north of Launceston on the west bank of the Tamar River on the West Tamar Highway (A7). It belongs to the Local Government Area West Tamar Municipality and had a population of 1,054 at the last census in 2016.

history

The first European to explore the area around what is now Beaconsfield was William Paterson in 1804 , who led an expedition to Port Dalrymple and founded the settlement of Yorktown . The Beaconsflield site itself was not settled until the 1850s; the settlement was then called Brandy Creek . Gold was found in limestone mining in 1869. Gold prospecting began in 1877 and the area's population grew significantly. In 1879 the city was renamed in honor of Benjamin Disraeli , 1st Earl of Beaconsfield , then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . From 1881 the Beaconsfield newspaper was called Beaconsfield Tickler .

In 1953 Beaconsfield was the first city in Australia to add fluorine to its drinking water .

Gold mining in Beaconsfield

Gold was first discovered in Beaconsfield in 1847. When the gold rush began in Victoria and New South Wales in 1851, the Tasmanian government offered a premium for discovering an economically viable gold field. In 1877 the brothers William and David Dally discovered the ceiling of a minable gold vein on the eastern slope of Cabbage Tree Hill . This became the well-known Tasmanian Reef . In October 1877, the Dally brothers sold their Clain on the Tasmanian Reef for £ 15,000 and a 10% stake in the company to be founded to William D. Grubb and William Hart .

At the height of the gold rush, 700 workers were employed in the gold mine and 26 tons of gold were found.

An early settler, Mr. Campbell, described the situation as follows:

The blacks were here in those days…. On each side was nothing but thick tea tree scrub and snakes…. When the rush for gold was discovered there was only two shops, drapery and grocery but soon the little township swarmed with people. More shops, hotels, dance halls and hall were built for plays to come to the town which they did in plenty. There came circuses and the children got excited and followed to see the horses and elephants going through the town to get somewhere to camp and build their tents. Those entertainments came very often because there was plenty of money about. (German: Back then the blacks were here ... Everywhere there was nothing but thickets of South Sea myrtle and snakes .... At the beginning of the gold rush there were only two shops, a cloth shop and a grocery store, but the small town soon swarmed with people More shops, hotels, dance halls and an amusement arcade were built to bring gambling to the city, which also happened in abundance. Circuses came and the children followed them to watch the horses and elephants roam the city Circuses would find a place somewhere and pitch their tents. Such entertainment businesses came very often because there was a lot of money to be made with them.)

Initially the town was named Brandy Creek, after the color of the water in the creek where gold was first discovered. Mr. Campbell continues:

The growing civic consciousness found voice in the demand for a new name for the town and in March 1879 Brandy Creek was renamed Beaconsfield, after Lord Beaconsfield, in a ceremony conducted by Governor Weld after he rejected a suggestion that it should be named after him. (Eng: The growing self-confidence of the city population was reflected in the demand for a new city name, and in March 1879 Brandy Creek was renamed Beaconsfield after Lord Beaconsfield in a ceremony led by Governor Weld after the latter had rejected the name after him. )

In 1903 an English company bought the Tasmanian Gold Mining and Quartz Crushing Company and turned it into the Tasmanian Gold Mining Company Ltd. After water became a major problem at the Beaconsfield mines, a substantial injection of capital was required to purchase and operate suitable drainage equipment. The company prospers gold in two adjacent pits named Grubb and Hart . In 1904 machine houses and a central boiler house were built. These buildings now house the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Center .

Underground gold mining began in 1879 with the draining of the three main shafts, Hart , Main and Grubb .

Beaconsfield became the richest gold rush town in Tasmania. In 1881 there were 53 companies in this field. All of these companies were bought by the owners of the Tasmania mine.

The gold mine closed in 1914 due to regular flooding of the shafts, but reopened in 1999 with mixed success. By 1914, the mine had been driven into the gold vein to a depth of 450 meters and produced 800,000 ounces of gold. In 1982 the Grubb Shaft Gold & Heritage Museum was founded (now the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Center , where exhibits on earlier gold mining have been on display since 1984).

In the 1970s, a test drilling confirmed that the gold vein continued to at least 200 m below the old excavations. In 1991 the old Hart shaft was rebuilt and pumped out to a depth of 160 m. In 1992 the project was abandoned after a change of ownership. In 1993 deep drilling was carried out again and the Beaconsfield Mine Joint Venture has carried out the deep drilling since 1994 . A permanent pumping station at a depth of 181 m has lowered the water levels in the shaft since August 1995. The elevator and the shaft head were completed in January 1996 and at the end of 1996 the shaft was ready for use. An ore processing plant was built in the 1999/2000 financial year.

In the 2004/2005 financial year, 240,685 t of ore were mined, from which 3,890 kg of gold were extracted.

In 2006 the Beaconsfield Mine Joint Venture (BMJV) was owned by the Allstate Group with a 51.51% stake and the Beaconsfield Gold Group with a 48.49% stake. Allstate manages the BMJV's business and provides the staff.

Mine disaster in April 2006

On Tuesday April 25, 2006, a small earthquake caused a shaft collapse in the Beaconsfield gold mine. 14 miners were able to save themselves, one miner, Larry Knight , was killed, and the remaining two miners, Todd Russell and Brant Webb , were trapped on a bed about 1,000 m deep. Five days later, on Sunday, April 30, 2006, the two people buried were found alive. The rescue of the two lasted until Tuesday, May 9, 2006.

In September 2007, the Foo Fighters released the Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners on their album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace to commemorate these events .

Personalities

Bernard Sulzberger (* 1983), racing cyclist

literature

Jan Critchett: Beaconsfield Gold . Beaconsfield Rotary Club (Tasmania), Beaconsfield, Tasmania 2005, OCLC 225224730 .
Lois Nyman: The West Tamar People: The Story of the Early Settlement and it's well-established families . Regal Publications, Launceston, Tasmania 1996, ISBN 1876261013 , OCLC 38406622 .
Coultman Smith: Town With A History, Beaconsfield Tasmania . Grubb Shaft Museum, Beaconsfield, Tasmania 2006.

Web links

Commons : Beaconsfield, Tasmania - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Australian Bureau of Statistics : Beaconsfield ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
^ Welcome to Beaconsfield . In: Tasmania's Tamar Valley . Tamar Valley Tourist Information. 2004. Archived from the original on August 19, 2006. Retrieved May 9, 2006.
↑ ^a ^b Tasmania . In: Editors: Graham Aplin, SG Foster and Michael McKernan (Eds.): Australians: Events and Places . Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Sydney, NSW, Australia 1987, ISBN 0-521-34073-X , p. 366.
^ History of Gold at Beaconsfield . In: Company Profile . Beaconsfield Gold NL. Archived from the original on May 11, 2006. Retrieved May 9, 2006.
↑ Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Center Web site of the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Center, accessed November 8, 2018
^ Grubb Shaft Gold & Heritage Museum . Beaconsfield Gold NL. Archived from the original on June 16, 2006. Retrieved May 9, 2006.
↑ ^a ^b Beaconsfield Gold . In: Tasmania's Mines . Mineral Resources Tasmania, Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources, State Government of Tasmania. Archived from the original on April 28, 2006. Retrieved May 9, 2006.
↑ Beaconsfield Gold - BMJV . In: Projects . Beaconsfield Gold. 2006. Archived from the original on May 3, 2006. Retrieved May 10, 2006.

[Census-1] Australian Bureau of Statistics : Beaconsfield ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 2, 2020.

[TamarValleyTourism-2] Welcome to Beaconsfield . In: Tasmania's Tamar Valley . Tamar Valley Tourist Information. 2004. Archived from the original on August 19, 2006. Retrieved May 9, 2006.

[AustEvents&Places-3] Tasmania . In: Editors: Graham Aplin, SG Foster and Michael McKernan (Eds.): Australians: Events and Places . Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Sydney, NSW, Australia 1987, ISBN 0-521-34073-X , p. 366.

[4] History of Gold at Beaconsfield . In: Company Profile . Beaconsfield Gold NL. Archived from the original on May 11, 2006. Retrieved May 9, 2006.

[5] Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Center Web site of the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Center, accessed November 8, 2018

[6] Grubb Shaft Gold & Heritage Museum . Beaconsfield Gold NL. Archived from the original on June 16, 2006. Retrieved May 9, 2006.

[MinResTas-7] Beaconsfield Gold . In: Tasmania's Mines . Mineral Resources Tasmania, Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources, State Government of Tasmania. Archived from the original on April 28, 2006. Retrieved May 9, 2006.

[8] Beaconsfield Gold - BMJV . In: Projects . Beaconsfield Gold. 2006. Archived from the original on May 3, 2006. Retrieved May 10, 2006.