COFFS MINES

Went out for another mine drive this morning, decided to re visit several mines that included Waratah,Advance and Mary May-in which we went down into the earths fault,where the shafts were. Was supplied with more info and did some more reading on these mines and really wasnt happy that we found everything last week. At the Waratah group, we found the original workings that included mines that we entered and there were plenty of off shoots that looked like rabbit warrens, plenty of 10>30 foot shafts, heaps of pits, a few drives that had collapsed at the entrance- the timbers could be seen at the entrance. In these workings the gold was in quartz that was encased in red clay.Next down the road was the Advanced group. 

Last week i thought we found this group-we did to an extent, but with further info, it really wasnt the case. The Advance group held around half a dozen mines , over several acres-both above and below the main bullock track. The big find here for the morning was the main shaft of the Advance.Lots of structure,only a few machinery pieces-but we were able too access the top, to allow a look down. Was a major mine here with a quoted 20,000grams of gold work from here.Looking down inside ( could see down around 15 meters or so, some of the timbers had rot, but considering it is over 100 years old- its standing up well.

Looked for the main drive below the road, but not so lucky, found heaps of smaller ones-not the main one-next time ( hopefully wednesday ).After visiting the Mary May last week (major earth fault, 2 vetical shafts), i really wanted to sneak down between them. A big 3km drive around the other side of the gully put me back on top of the mines. As said before there are 2 deep mines here that were put in between a fault line. Was able too scramble down the middle, which was around the 30 foot mark. Then it was a careful inspection of the ground towards shaft one, was able to walk between the slice in the rock and could look up to see sunlight from the main entrance.

Couldnt go any further down as the rock walls were pretty darn straight, and there was no supporting beams for another 20>30 feet down, could see a few bats wallowing down there.Back tracked to the middle behind me, and entered shaft 2, this one was a lot deeper and even cleaner. Actually snuck my way across several logs that took me over a 30 foot drop to a large boulder that wasnt cut out yet. I was half way between the fault and the entrance, but couldnt quite see up the top. But looking 50 odd feet down, there were old ladders, bucket slides and supporting timbers that still looked in pretty darn condition. A few factors would include timbers over the top to protect it, lower rainfall, and the mines here are prety much in a shaley rock, and no clay to hold moisture. Climbing down here topped off a great morning- so all there was left was to wander back to Coramba Pub for a well earned feed and drink. Next weekend off to mines around Nymbodia or maybe the Woolgoolga area.