Central
Deborah Gold Mine
 No
one knows exactly the number of mine shafts sunk in the Bendigo
Goldfields, although current estimates are around 6,000. However,
it is known that the official records do not list many of the mines
that managed to operate “under the radar”, so this figure
could be even higher.
Bendigo’s goldfields—the seventh richest in history—closed
in 1954, primarily due to the then fixed price of gold, rather than
the exhaustion of the field. The Central Deborah Gold Mine, established
in 1939, was the second last to close, succeeded by a matter of
days by the “Big Deborah” mine.
The Central Deborah Gold Mine site remained intact
after it closed, and was re-opened as a tourist mine offering
tours of the surface of the mine by The Bendigo Trust in 1970.
Sixteen years later, in 1986, Central Deborah Gold Mine began
running its famous underground mine tours.
 After
years of restoration and interpretation work, the heritage listed
Central Deborah Gold Mine is now Australia’s premier underground
tourist mine experience. It tells the story of Australia’s
richest Goldfield, focusing on the years 1939-1954 when the Central
Deborah Gold Mine site was last and most extensively worked.
Recently, modern mining has ventured deep below
the old workings and has begun to re-open the Bendigo Goldfields,
shuttered for more than 50 years. Bendigo Mining is currently
working deep beneath the city, perhaps aiming to work below any
other mine sunk in Bendigo since gold was first discovered in
1851.
For more information on the Central Deborah
Gold Mine click
here to visit the website.
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