It's a country of low winding ridges, separated by flat bottomed gullies.

These are the old buried gold leads with their small, seldom-flowing streams.

At first one is apt to lose sight of the fact that the whole is one broad valley. Down its centre, from Black Hill in the north, through Mt Pleasant and the White Horse range, stands a long ridge, cut through here and there by streams flowing west to join the Yarrowee River.

This ridge divides the valley into two strips which are imperfectly separated. The constant wearing of the old hills, by streams and rain, has broken down a good deal of the surface, while the rest of the country has been lowered by the ceaseless rasping of sand laden streams.

The surface of the land, while it stands above the sea, is ever changing.

From about the plateau south of Sebastopol, the country is covered by bluestone or basalt, while the plain which spreads north from there past Lake Wendouree, and out to the west, has been covered by flows of molten (lava) which filled the old valleys and spread out over all in a vast level sheet.

Beneath this, the miners tell us, are old hills and valleys formed from the bedrock, filled with vast beds of gravel and sand.

The plain spreads far to the west, past Lake Burrumbeet and through south-western Victoria, which was one of the great volcanic areas of the world.

Time after time, the volcanoes burst from the north and north-west of Ballarat, and the molten floods of lava flowed down the valleys.

Many centuries passed, gravel and clay spread over them, and again a lava flood followed by another layer of gravel.

This happened five times, known from what miners have found underground.

The last of the lava flows must have been a terrible sight as it rolled 150 feet thick across the land through Alfredton to the south east of Sebastopol where the first layer of bluestone is 160 feet deep in the Newcastle shaft.

The layers of bluestone are curiously numbered from the surface in reverse order to their age.

The top layer is called "first" and the bottom layer "last". The lava did not cover the whole of the Ballarat Valley.

The Yarrowee River and several tributaries descending westward from the White Horse Range, were blocked by the edges of the flows. Behind these dams a series of lakes was formed. Gradually, the waters overflowing from the lakes began to break down this edge of the lava flow and the lakesl were drained.

The present Yarrowee Valley was carved out of the ancient rocks.

East of the Yarrowee River, remnants of bluestone cap a number of hills.

After the chain of lakes had broken up, vegetation soon covered the silt and drift of the old lake beds, slowing down the rush of waters from the east and lessening its attack on the massive bluestone shield of the plateau.

This growth also prevented the lowering of the lake beds and locked in the great golden treasure until the men of the 1850's opened up this rich gold field.

All the alluvial leads running through Sebastopol had theirs source on the western slope of The White Horse Range.

They were flat bottomed at their beginnings.

Taking the experience passed on by the Ballarat East diggers they were eagerly sought for and, when found, wrought with great energy.

The heads of the gullies were shallow, gold being found under the grass roots to five feet. Some crab holes averaged 20 ozs of gold to the tub, holding roughly 100 lb weight of dirt.

These rich yields were shed from quartz lodes on the indicator line of country, running north and south on the White Horse Range.

There are several indicators between this range and the Sebastopol quartz lodes.

The main indicatorwas named by Morgan Llewellyn in 1871: It is a vertical seam about an eighth to half inch wide, consisting of zinc blend (otherwise sulphide-of-zinc, known to miners as BlackJack ); galena-sulphide of lead; and a little mundic-sulphide of iron.

This seam runs from the surface to an unknown depth, and where a flat make or body of quartz crosses it, it throws nuggety gold in profusion.

This found its way into the gullies over the long period of weathering of the caps of the lodes and the range so releasing the free gold. The bulk of it, never travels far.

Deep leads become poorer unless enriched in their course from lodes or spurs cut by the gutters, or being close to a gutter.

The Sebastopol mines were fortunate to have three main quartz lodes cut by these gutters, besides many small quartz formations.

Between 1851 - 61, people rushed from gold field to gold field. But the rushing soon ceased as the majority of miners were intelligent, courageous and God-fearing men, who pulled their flimsy churches down and set up again as the leads moved west. During the late sixties, early seventies, a more established way of life crept in.

Men, who had been tradesmen in their homelands returned to their old way of life. Some had been engineers, blacksmiths, tin and copper-smiths, coopers, builders, bakers, chemists, brickmakers or brass founders - all types of trades.

The shallow ground being worked out hastened this change, along with the companies and their deep mines on the plateau clamouring for all types of tradesmen.

The miner who continued to pursue his calling came up with a never ending range of new words or mining terms. One such word was that used for water course - a "gully".

When the gully became deeper and eagerly sought as a sure repository for gold, they called them "leads" or "gold leads". When sinking reached 100 - 400 feet in depth, they were called "deep leads" or "gutters" - where the gravels were deep and rich

A new phase of mining began when the shallow leads from the east ran deep under the immense layers of basalt or bluestone rock of the plateau. This had to be hand drilled and blasted through. This type of mining called for a miner who understood and could work the rock. It was the hardness of the rock, plus the great volume of water in the trap rock, sand drifts, small shafts, primitive methods and tools which all combined to slow down the rate of sinking.

These men had courage, and learning through trial and error, they mastered the many difficult phases of the deep alluvial mines and became pioneers of this type of mining in Australia.

When the shafts had reached the required depth and the miners had opened into the wash dirt, from then on and throughout the life of the mine, the shafts had to be kept in a constant state of good repair. Due to the strain and pressure of heavy ground and water bursting timber in the shaft, many of the deep mining companies employed two or more men to work in the drives replacing broken timber caused by the swelling and heaving of the reef.

Latter day quartz miners working on the same plateau marvelled at the stamina of these men.

The heavy flow of waterfrom the trap rock into the shafts was partly controlled by puddling with clay and tarred blanket behind the timbers or walls of the shaft. These shafts were always puddled up after each layer of bluestone had been blasted through, starting from the clay foundation found between each layer.

Many shafts had tons of clay to clean out after the clay softened and gave way due to the pressure of water. Short pipes were inserted where the flow was heavy and directed into cisterns cut in the rock. The sand drifts were a frightful and dangerous hazard to contend with. On the plateau these are found between the first and second, as well as the third and fourth layers of basaltic rock.

The worst drift was called "the deep one", or sands of time and was always found close to the wash dirt. Being up to 60 feet and more in depth, of wet loose sand, with air getting in to it, it would quickly surge into shaft and drives.

Then would begin a slow process of close timbering. Very, careful work was needed or the shafts would be swamped by the heavy wet sand and water. It was nothing new for small; shafts to be twisted out of line and lost in the drifts.

They used slabs, called "drift slabs", which were driven down into the sand and secured on each side with sawn timber. The very best sinkers and timber men were used in these drifts. These men were renowned for their skill and steadiness in these conditions.

When the shafts reached bedrock, they sank 50 to 60 feet further to keep below the deepest part of the gutter. The shaft now consolidated' more cisterns were cut for the flow of water; the pumps lowered into the well, a plat or chamber was then cut into the side of the shaft. Some of these plats were huge in comparison to the small shafts - ten feet high and angling back 30 feet.

Many of the alluvial mines put in reef drives from the flat "Y" shaped to open up the wash dirt more quickly.

The frame or opening set was built of 16" x 16" sawn timber.

The plats held two sets of tramway with rails weighing from 14, 16, 18 and 21 lb per yard. Some floors were lined with flat iron to run the trucks of wash dirt or mullock on. The platman could spin the trucks on these sheets straight into the cage, for hauling to the surface.

The horse stables snug and dry, were built off the ends of the shaft and housed four or six horses. The main reef drive cut in solid bedrock from the end of the plat was driven to the deep gutter, then the "speaking trumpet", as it was called, to communicate from the plat to the brace and engine house on the surface.

The size of drives varied from mine to mine, but were usually two sets of rail, with an average height of 8 feet with a width of six feet. This was inside the legs and caps. These were a set of timber to hold up the roof or back of the drive. Water channels were cut into the floor in preparation for tapping the water overhead in the gutter.

After the main reef drive had been driven to the boundary of the claim, a series of blind shafts would be cut vertically up under the gutter. A hole was then drilled to break into the gutter and left to drain.

In the case of a reef drive, driving head-on into a gutter, face boards were inserted between the legs end wash dirt and left to drain - that is, if they were not washed out.

After the bore holes in the blind shafts had lowered the flow of water in the gutter, they were opened into the wash dirt (called "the main wash drive"), and driven the length of the gutter to the boundaries of the claim.

Many of the blind shafts became shoots to the reef drive, however some of them were rigged as a balance whip for the down full-truck bringing up the empty one. So that the wash dirt would not be shifted again until it was tilted into the puddling machine on the surface from off the main wash drive, cross drives were cut across the width of the gutter in preparation for blocking out.

Into the wash and cross drives went the pick of the virgin forests - millions of super feet of logs and sawn timber with some of the gutters three to four hundred feet wide. Crossing these, the miners battled against sudden burst of drift and water.

The cross drives to the high reef were kept open while blocking out was carried on in the gutter, leaving blocks or pillars of wash along the sides until the high reef washes were stripped off.

Then a systematic retreat would take place back to the main wash drive (the high reef wash was where the early gutters spread their gravels across the flats and built up by weathering of the ancient hills, helped by years of torrents of flood waters the gutters were deepened, leaving the wash dirt on the flats high and dry, you can say that the bedrock is higher on one. side of the gutter than the other).

The blocking-out drives ran with the course of the gutter and flats. The timber in these drives was much lighter, but not the laths used over the back or roof. These usually remained at a standard size of 2" thick, 8" wide x 4'6" long. They had to be handled quickly as most drives were only open for a few hours as the overburden of headings consisting of gravel, large boulders and drift settled on the roof of the drives.

This was standard practice in the alluvial mines, after a number of panels had been blocked out. It was not safe to go back into them - only in the cross drives was it safe.

In the Red Jacket mine a section 60 feet x 80 feet, between two cross drives had been blocked out and was to be stowed l up with mullock, but before the miners could do so the heavy ground settled, crushing the wooden props into the soft reef.

One of the main causes of heavy going in the Sebastopol alluvial mines was the fourth layer of basaltic rock. As the clay and headings settled on the roof timber, large sections of this rock, known as "rotten rock", would come away from the main rock. In the Sebastopol mines at least a foot of the bottom orb bedrock was stripped off. In the Nelson and Wellington claim, while sinking a leg or timber support into this bedrock or "pipe clay", they uncovered a run of gold. Backtracking along this section, a little over a thousand ounces of gold was won.

It must be borne in mind that the bedrock was never completely flat for any given distance. It was undulating with hollows and ridges. Some of these hollows held thousands of gallons of water. Many reef drives broke through into these hollows and the mine was for a time flooded out.

A number of sudden bursts of water occured in the mines and were traced to hollows formed between the bottom of the trap rock where it bellied down into the wash dirt in the gutter and the clay below it. These hollows filled with water draining out of the trap rock. The weight of wafer teeing too much for the clay to resist, would burst through the headings into the drives choking them with drift, clay and loose timber.

Heavy sticks of timber were a must when working below in the alluvial mines and many miners ruptured themselves while handling the timber due to them lying in water for a day or so, thus adding to the weight of each piece. The timber used were called props and laths. The props came from the forest in three sizes 10',12' and 14' long; big end 12 to 18 inches in diameter; small end 7 to 10 inches.

These were let by tender with prop orders at six to ten thousand at a time and at £1.2.0 per hundred, laths from twenty to fifty thousand at £10 per hundred.

The bush swarmed with timber getters or fellers. They lived in two lively camps, one called "Log Hut" west of Enfield, the other a part of Ross Creek overlooking the old station of Captain Ross.

In 1863, on the Frenchman's lead alone, 50,000 logs, 150,000 laths, as well as unknown quantities of sawn timber went underground. The same year, the Prince of Wales Co was using sawn red gum timber from Echuca. By 1865 this company used 50,000 logs, 150,000 laths or slabs, and for good measure one ton of belmont candles.