Day Three - Sunday 18th May 2025

8:30-9:00 Registrations

9:00-9:10 Welcome to Country

Housekeeping: toilets, break times, fire escapes, coffee/ getting to field trips.

Geology and Archaeology of the Goldfields (Main Hall)
9:10 – 9:35 David Bannear, ‘Archaeology of the Victorian Goldfields’

9:40-10:05 Dr Doug McCann, ‘The Alchemy of Gold; Myths and Beliefs about Gold in the time of the Gold Rush’

10:05-10:30 Clive Willman, ‘Scientists on the goldfields, 170 years of geoscientific discoveries’

10:30-11:00 Morning Tea – Book Sales, Information Stands

Environmental Transformation (Main Hall)
11:00-11:45 Professor Susan Lawrence and Dr Peter Davies, ‘Environmental Impacts of Gold’

11:45-12:10 Paul Foreman, ‘The ecological impact of the gold rush runs deep, but there are potential solutions if we care to take restoration and sustainability seriously’

12:10-12:30 Q & A Professor Susan Lawrence, Dr Peter Davies, Clive Willman, Dr Doug McCann, David Bannear and Paul Foreman

Workshop Room To run concurrently with Environmental Transformation
11:00-12:00 Geoff Hocking , ‘Sandhurst – What’s In a Name?’

12:00-12:30 Catherine Jenkins, ‘Tales from the River Bank: Short Stories of Gold and the Murray River’

12:30-13:30 Lunch

Technological Transformation of the Goldfields (Main Hall)
13:30-13:55 George Milford, ‘Thompsons Foundry & the transformative impacts on Mining & the Local Community’

14:00-14:25 Mandy Jean, ‘Innovation and the resolution of two great housing crises on the goldfields: the miners cottage built on residency areas and miners rights and mid-20th century reclaiming of mines sites for housing’

14:30-14:55 Stephen Charman, ‘Exploring the chequered history of the Coliban Water Scheme. How water from the Great Divide was brought to Bendigo and Castlemaine’

15:00-15:20 Q&A Panel Discussion – George Milford, Mandy Jean, Stephen Charman

15:30-17:00 Field Trips To run concurrently with the 15:30-17:00 Afternoon Workshops & Panel
Option 1: Mopoke Gully Waterwheel Site Yapeen, with a return tour past the Former Brown Store and the John Smith Store in Yapeen, Max Kay

Option 2: North British Mine Maldon, Derek Reid

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We are a not-for-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers. Our goal is to keep ticket prices as affordable as possible while covering the essential costs of hosting this significant event.
Program is subject to change.

The Alchemy of Gold event - Day 3

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