The archaeology of Anthropocene rivers: water management and landscape change in ‘Gold Rush’ Australia

Lawrence, Susan; Davies, PE; Turnbull, Jodi

doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.105

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The greatest concentration of gullying occurs along the inland slopes of the Dividing Range in New South Wales and in the southern part of the basin in Victoria. The latter area is closely associated with alluvial gold mining in the 19th century (Lawrence et al, 2016). Moderate to high gully density also occurs in the Mt Lofty Ranges near Adelaide in the southwest corner of the MDB.…”

Section: Erosion and Gullyingmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Fitzsimmons et al, 2015Fitzsimmons et al, , 2019Foley et al, 2017;Frankel, 2017). Archaeological research of the historical period, however, has been more sporadic and generally limited to various aspects of the pastoral industry (Murray, 2018), Chinese labourers (McGowan, 2010) and gold mining (Lawrence et al, 2016). Maritime archaeological survey has identified scores of wreck sites and other infrastructure associated with inland river shipping (Kenderdine, 1994).…”

Section: The Murray-darling Basin and Its Peoplementioning

confidence: 99%

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Engineered landscapes of the southern Murray–Darling Basin: Anthropocene archaeology in Australia

Davies

Lawrence

2019

The Anthropocene Review

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Human activities over the past 200 years have fundamentally transformed the shape of Australia’s southern Murray–Darling Basin. The arrival of British colonists in the 19th century disrupted millennia of human management of the region and brought widespread changes to biota and soils. The subsequent development of mining, transport and irrigation infrastructure re-engineered the region’s landscapes to meet human objectives and ambitions. This article offers an integrated regional history of anthropogenic change across the southern Murray–Darling Basin, identifying historical processes driving complex ongoing interactions between human activities and the natural environment. We examine three broad domains of engineering and geo-disturbance in the region, including the development of transport corridors, micro- and macro-scale water management and landforms remade by erosion and sedimentation. We use the archaeology of the recent past to integrate insights drawn from physical geography, fluvial geomorphology and related research into the enduring landscape changes of modern Australia’s food bowl.

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Section: Erosion and Gullyingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: The Murray-darling Basin and Its Peoplementioning

confidence: 99%

Engineered landscapes of the southern Murray–Darling Basin: Anthropocene archaeology in Australia

Davies

Lawrence

2019

The Anthropocene Review

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“…Mineral processing sites include the remains of ore roasting kilns, stamp batteries, steam engine foundations and cyanide vats used to reprocess quartz tailings. Water management was crucial to gold mining, with extensive networks of channels and dams built to supply both alluvial operations and quartz reef mines (Lawrence et al, 2016). The mining industry was also labour intensive, characterised archaeologically by the remains of housing and domestic debris often found around the margins of site workings.…”

Section: Archaeological Signatures Of Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterising mine wastes as archaeological landscapes

et al. 2023

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Industrial‐scale metal mining has long been a feature of developing economies. Processing ores to recover minerals has generated large quantities of waste rock, tailings and contaminants. Mining‐related deposits, along with associated soil and water geochemistry, river modifications and other environmental changes, are a product of the nature, scale and intensity of past operations. These artefacts of historical mining create anthropogenic landscapes that extend far beyond individual sites due to the dispersal of mine waste by rivers and pose enduring threats to human and ecosystem health. Their presence and significance, however, are often overlooked by heritage and environmental managers. To be acknowledged as artefacts of the historical mining industry, landscape features must be identified and characterised with reference to the human activities that triggered their formation. This requires an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates anthropogenic landscape change at a regional scale. In this paper, we integrate archaeological, geomorphological and geochemical evidence to identify and analyse mining‐related changes to the Loddon River valley in Victoria, Australia. Nineteenth‐century gold mining caused extensive erosion of creeks and gullies and mobilised sediments that filled channels and spread over floodplains. In addition, tailing deposits concentrated arsenic at levels significantly above environmental background conditions. Recognising these legacies of historical mining is vital to understanding mining heritage and to managing healthy rivers, environments and communities.

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“…Victoria's first water races for mining were built in the Beechworth region in 1853 (Davies et al, 2016b;Lawrence, Davies, & Turnbull, 2016). Initially they were short channels 1-2 km in length that diverted surface water from streams into adjacent dry gullies, but they quickly grew in size and sophistication.…”

Section: Mineral Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mining modification of river systems: A case study from the Australian gold rush

et al. 2019

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Mobilisation of large volumes of bedrock, regolith and soil has long been a characteristic feature of metal mining. Before the 20th century this was most efficiently achieved through harnessing the motive power of water. Large‐scale water use in mining produced waste sands, gravels and silts that were flushed downstream, triggering changes in stream and floodplain morphology and function. During the 19th century the shift from artisanal to industrialised mining resulted in a rapid increase in the scale and extent of environmental change. This paper presents results from a multidisciplinary research programme investigating the environmental effects of 19th‐century gold mining on waterways in south‐eastern Australia. Archaeological and geospatial landscape survey are combined with historical data modelling and geomorphological analysis to examine the extractive processes that produced sediment in headwater regions and how this influenced fluvial processes operating on downstream waterways and floodplains. Our case study of the Three Mile‐Hodgson Creek system on the Ovens (Beechworth) goldfield in north‐east Victoria indicates that miners mobilised up to 7.3 million m3 of sediment in this small catchment alone. Results of the research suggest that tailings dams and sludge channels in this catchment are important archaeological evidence for early attempts to manage industrial waste.

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The archaeology of Anthropocene rivers: water management and landscape change in ‘Gold Rush’ Australia

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 14 publications

References 27 publications

Engineered landscapes of the southern Murray–Darling Basin: Anthropocene archaeology in Australia

Engineered landscapes of the southern Murray–Darling Basin: Anthropocene archaeology in Australia

Characterising mine wastes as archaeological landscapes

Mining modification of river systems: A case study from the Australian gold rush

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