The Cracow goldfield is located approx 375km North West of Brisbane.
SHEPHERD"S CAMP
Shepherds Camp is about 21km North East of Cracow, just east of the crest of the Auburn Range, in the State Forest. The old workings are not significant and only covered an area of 40 sq. metres. The workings include some shallow costeans, a pit 2m. deep and a shaft which is now filled with water.
In 1940 the same area was mined by the Golden Break P.A.. In 1964 the pit was deepened slightly and more gold was found.
The inspecting geologist, Mr. J.H. Brooks was of the opinion that the gold located was a concentration of secondary deposit gold and would only be profitable through small scale mining. He also concluded that it was likely that there could be more deposits in the area.
CRACOW
The first recorded discovery of gold in this area was in 1875 but payable gold was not found until 1931. The first crushing of 2.2 tonnes of ore returned 41 oz. of gold. Although the deposit was rich it was limited in size. At this time it was mined by Messers C.W. Lambert, W. Ryan and W. Reynolds.
In 1932, Messers G. Hamilton and J. Berry erected a mill and crushed ore from various deposits and returned 261 oz gold from 23 tonnes of ore.
A rush set in during 1932 following sensational newspaper reports and many companies set up mines including the Golden Plateau, Golden Mile, Roma North, Rose's Pride, Golden West, Dawn, Lambert's Surprise, Revival and the Klondyke. The Golden Plateau was the major producer.
Between 1960-1971 drilling revealed a major oreshoot below the Rose's Pride and in 1969 the Golden Plateau drove down to a depth of 208 metres at a depth of 74m to follow up the results. The grade of ore did not pay and that shoot was abandoned.
Total production for the Cracow field between 1932 and 1972 consisted of 1453144 tonnes of ore that yielded 18314.33kg of gold and 19036.29kg of silver. A majority of this gold came from the Golden Plateau.
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