Deep in the hills behind Coffs were several mining villages and one of them was Nana Creek. Taking an hour to get there by 4wd in todays world, it was def a mission back in the 1800’s to locate the area. Situated on the banks of Nana creek + Bella Spur and Battery roads, remnants can still be found today if you look hard enough.
Gold was found out here in May 1881 and like the rest of the Coffs area, it was worked hard for minimal gold. The peak time here was from 1895 till 1899 when up to 400 men were employed by the mines. But don’t forget there were family here, logging teams and boiler teams who's job it was to keep the timber up to the boiler. Why ? because nearby there were two 15 head stampers and without steam from the boilers they couldn't run.
Reports have it that at least 700 tonne of rock was crushed looking for gold. Even as late as 1921 there were 6 men officially working this area. On paper £129 219 540 worth of gold was found in the area that included Nana Creek and nearby Matilda Hill mines.
Nana creek was situated in a line of mines that included the Bella Spur group ( which had a barrow track running beside it ), the Yankee Doodle mines ( mainly shallow pits ) and a handful of other one off mines. Matilda Hill was a feature in its self - situated on top of a shaley hill - a real bugger to mine ( plenty of pits, drives and deep shafts, deep enough to drop a body or two in ! ).
It’s good to see that nature has taken back over this place again, but in my eyes it would be good to see a fire through this area to find more relics. The rainforest beside the creek is a stunning area with twisted trees pushed over by continuous floods, tall green palms, rock orchids and lush Lomandra bushes.
