Mount Allen, New South Wales

Mount Allen is a locality and ghost town in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. It was once a village associated with gold mining.

Mount Allen mine looking east c. 1901..[1]

Location

The former gold mining village was located approximately 4 km west of Kidman Way, between Mount Hope and Gilgunnia on the route to Cobar. The closest remaining settlement is Mount Hope.

The landform, Mount Allen, is some distance to the south of the former village. So the village may equally have taken its name from the Parish of Mount Allen or the Mount Allen gold mine.[2]

History

Aboriginal and early settler history

The area which later became the village of Mount Allen lies on the traditional lands of the Wangaaypuwan dialect speakers (also known as Wangaibon) of the Ngiyampaa people.[3] After settlers took over the district, it lay across the boundary of Mount Allen and the Coree parishes, within Blaxland County.[2]

Mount Allen Gold Mine

The gold field was dominated by Mount Allen Gold-Mining Company's mine.[4][5] Prior to the opening of that mine, Gossan ironstone was mined at Mt Allen and used as flux in the smelters at Mount Hope. The ironstone showed the presence of gold. By August 1891, sampling had produced satisfactory results, the mine had been sold to a syndicate of investors, and machinery was in the process of being erected.[6] Operations had ceased by March 1894, due to lack of water to run the 20-head stamper battery.[7][5] The mine struck clean clear water in April 1894[8] At first the water was welcomed but soon it was necessary to install pumps to remove over 800 gallons of water per hour.[9][10] In July 1895, the shaft was "flooded out". In October 1895, the mine office and manager's residence were destroyed by fire.[11] A second shaft was sunk in 1897.[12]

Around February 1898, poor grades led to the end of mining and the decision to erect a cyanide plant to reprocess tailings.[13] From February 1899 to March 1900, tailings were reprocessed to extract residual gold.[14] That seems to have been the end of the operations. By 1901, machinery from the mine had been relocated to another mine at Mount Hope.[15] In 1938, the last use of the mine was as a water supply in time of drought.[16] As late as the 1940s, there was talk of mining resuming, but it came to nothing[17][18]

Mining village

An informal settlement sprang up near the mine, which had a population of 200 by the end of 1893.[19][5] A village was not officially proclaimed until 22 October 1896.[20] Land was reserved for public and government buildings,[21][22][23][24][25][26] public recreation,[27] and as a common for residents' use.[28] These grandiose plans were never completed and Mount Allen was a short-lived settlement.

There was a school at Mount Allen—known as Double Peak, after a landform[29] that lay closer to the village site than the Mount Allen landform—from July 1895 to December 1900.[30][26]

By April 1898, just after mining ceased, it was described as seeming "entirely abandoned, there being only a few habitations occupied." Building allotments in the village became worthless within a few years.[31] Some of the now lost streets of the former village were Cobar, Hope, Abbott, Carruthers, Copeland, Reid and Fulton streets.[32] The village had a market garden operated by ethic-Chinese.[33] The village effectively ceased to exist officially in 1939, when most of its land area was reallocated to the neighbouring pastoral holding, from which it had been excised originally.[34]

Remnants

There is now nothing left of the settlement except—possibly—its cemetery, which lay slightly to the north-west of the former village's site,[35][2] and the remnants of the gold mine.[36] The former village's site is no longer accessible to the general public.

References
  1. "The Great Central Freehold and New Mount Hope Copper Mines". Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912). 26 October 1901. p. 1055. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  2. "Map of the County of Blaxland, Western Division, Land District of Hillston North, NSW 1918". Trove. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  3. Office of Environment and Heritage. "Cobar Peneplain - regional history". www.environment.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  4. "Mount Allen Mine, Mount Allen, Blaxland Co., New South Wales, Australia". www.mindat.org. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  5. "MOUNT HOPE AND MOUNT ALLEN DISTRICTS". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 13 December 1893. p. 9. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  6. "MINING INTELLIGENCE". Australian Star (Sydney, NSW : 1887 - 1909). 17 August 1891. p. 3. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  7. "THE BACK COUNTRY". Riverine Grazier (Hay, NSW : 1873 - 1954). 13 March 1894. p. 3. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  8. "ARTESIAN WATER AT MOUNT ALLEN". Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930). 12 May 1894. p. 5. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  9. "MOUNT ALLEN GOLD-MINING COMPANY". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 27 April 1895. p. 11. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  10. "MOUNT ALLEN GOLD-MINING COMPANY". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 31 October 1894. p. 9. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  11. "Mount Hope Items". Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931). 1 November 1895. p. 7. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  12. "REPORTS". Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931). 26 April 1897. p. 8. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  13. "MOUNT ALLEN GOLD-MINING COMPANY". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 2 March 1898. p. 9. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  14. "MOUNT ALLEN G.M. COMPANY". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 31 March 1900. p. 13. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  15. "The Great Central Freehold and New Mount Hope Copper Mines". Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912). 26 October 1901. p. 1055. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  16. "MOUNT HOPE". Lachlander and Condobolin and Western Districts Recorder (NSW : 1899 - 1952). 14 February 1938. p. 4. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  17. "GOLD MINES OF AUSTRALIA". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 26 December 1940. p. 5. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  18. "MINING AT MOUNT HOPE". Western Herald (Bourke, NSW : 1887 - 1970). 15 March 1946. p. 4. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  19. "Mount Allen Mining". Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907). 29 July 1893. p. 25. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  20. "Government Gazette Proclamations and Legislation". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 24 October 1896. p. 7663. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  21. "RESERVES FROM SALE FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 24 October 1896. p. 7672. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  22. "RESERVE FROM SALE FOR POST AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE SITE". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 24 October 1896. p. 7673. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  23. "RESERVE FROM SALE FOR HOSPITAL SITE". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 24 October 1896. p. 7672. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  24. "RESERVE FROM SALE FOR COURT-HOUSE SITE". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 24 October 1896. p. 7671. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  25. "RESERVES FROM SALE FOR POLICE PURPOSES". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 24 October 1896. p. 7671. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  26. "Government Gazette Notices". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 9 June 1897. p. 4044. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  27. "RESERVES FROM SALE FOR PUBLIC RECREATION". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 24 October 1896. p. 7674. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  28. "RESERVE FROM SALE FOR TEMPORARY COMMON FOR THE USE OF THE RESIDENTS AT MOUNT ALLEN". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 27 February 1897. p. 1493. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  29. "Double Peak". Google Maps. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  30. "Double Peak". nswgovschoolhistory.cese.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  31. ""Gazette " Notices". Hillston Spectator and Lachlan River Advertiser (NSW : 1898 - 1952). 22 March 1907. p. 2. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  32. "LAND SALES". New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900). 15 April 1897. p. 2779. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  33. "Chinese market gardens in southern and western New South Wales – AHR". Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  34. "Government Gazette Notices". Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 2001). 19 May 1939. p. 2682. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  35. "Australian Cemeteries Index - Cemetery 1824 - Mount Allen". austcemindex.com. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  36. "Bonzle: Mount Allen Mine". www.bonzle.com. Retrieved 5 November 2020.

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