Historical and Other Notes

  Buninyong Cemetary- Presbetarian Section Plot No 25. Photo Andrew Parker Ballarat Star (Vic.: 1865 - 1924), Friday 25 October 1867, page 2   An inquest was held on Thursday, 24th October, at the Crown hotel, Buninyong, on the remains of Jessie McIntosh which had been found on the previous day about two o'clock, by John Hodges, who was engaged in cutting props on the spur of a range lying between King Gully and Water Gully, a distance of about five miles from Buninyong, and three miles from the Green Hills Bridge, where the child was last seen alive. The remains lay in an open space, though surrounded by growing and fallen timber. The vicinity had been traversed by the search-parties more than once. No later than Sunday last, a party of Ballarat horsemen passed the side of the range on which the object of their search lay; but the apparent inaccessibility of the place, and the unsuitability of a cavalcade in a bush search rendered the effort fruitless. Immediately on the discovery

   DIGGGING THE RACES AND DAMS The Enfield Forest race network is a catch water system that transports water from various catchment areas via dams, around the land contours from valley to valley, terminating at gold sluicing areas. The races were hand dug by the miners who worked for the company that the race served. They were generally dug during times of mining inactivity due to lack of water. (mid to late summer) Each race was required to be registered and surveyed by the government surveyor, before it could be dug. The registration fees depended on the volume of water that the system could be expected to deliver.   The system was usually constructed over several years, with sections being completed seasonally. The forest at that time would have been thinned of trees due to the hunger for timber for steam engines, mine shoring, and domestic use, hence water run off would have been considerable.   The miners would use a theodolite to site a horizontal line from a particular point