Downtown Lucknow circa 1908. The Wentworth Mine office is in the foreground, Henry Newman’s house, Mamhead, and store mid-field and the school and Wesleyan and Catholic churches are on the further hill. The road to Orange is on the left. Photo courtesy Phil Orton and Orange City Council.
The fourth of the popular Wentworth Mine tours and talks hosted by Orange & District Historical Society will take place next Sunday, November 2. The tour will take place at 11am at the Wentworth Mine. Please note the new venue for the talk, which will be held at noon at the Lucknow Community Centre (the former Public School) in Newman Street.
Guest speaker will be Kevin Capnerhurst who works for the Geological Survey of NSW in Orange as senior geologist of databases. The database, named ‘DIGS’ (www.digsopen.minerals.nsw.gov.au), is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in geology and the history of mining and mining towns. It contains data going back to the 1840s, including licence applications, company and mines inspectors’ reports and in some cases collations of data on particular mines and mining districts.
The database includes much interesting information on the gold rushes.
Another database, the Geoscientific Data Warehouse’ (www.resourcesandenergy.nsw.gov.au) contains maps, mining lease applications and exploration data.
Kevin will explain how to use these sites, giving examples of the types of information which can be found.
Participants are welcome to start with coffee from 10am at the Two Fat Ladies coffee shop, Lucknow, before the event tour, and for lunch at the Goldfields Tavern after the event. Parking is available at the Two Fat Ladies or at the picnic area on the northern side of the Wentworth Mine off Emu Swamp Road. There is plenty of parking at the Community Centre. The site requires medium fitness with a 300 metre round trip including about 30 steps on a gravel surface. The $5 entry fee for adults is payable at the bottom gate (free entry for children and pensioners).
For bookings and further information please contact Phil Stevenson on 0402 412 188, email ibiswines@bigpond.com