Gold was first discovered in 1851 at Wombat flat as prospectors searched through the creeks and streams heading to inland Victoria. Hard rock mining followed in 1854.

By 1856 Daylesford was a significant gold fields with multiple producing lines of Reef, including the Cornish, Rising Star, Frenchman’s, and Ajax lines. The Ajax line of reef in West Daylesford extending along Ajax Road is the focus for Red Rock Australasia.

Figure 1. North Nuggety Ajax Mine and Ajax Mine in the distance of the Ajax Line 1923.

The Ajax line was worked successful on multiple mines up until the mid-1920s, with the Ajax Mine being the largest and exceeding 300m. Many historic ruins of the old industrial brickworks and mining operations are still present in the bushland today. Additionally, it is rumoured that the headframe from the North Nuggetty Ajax Mine was moved to Bendigo on closure of the mine and still stands today as one of the Debroah Mine poppethead.

Figure 2. Historical Brickworks at the Ajax Mine Site 2022.

No mining on the Ajax Line occurred since the closures in 1920s. However other lines of reef we worked at Daylesford sporadically in the 1930s and 1950s. 

In total around 313,000 ounces of gold was recovered at an average grade of 14.8 g/t from the mines on the Ajax line.

The Gold of the Daylesford Goldfield is hosted in a sequence of Sandstone – Siltstone metasediments tightly folded in a north-south trending orientation. Gold bearing fluids flow up fault systems which brittlely break and crack the metasediments. The remnants of these fault systems are the quartz veins. The gold tends to be deposited on areas where these fault systems intersect the crests and troughs of the folded metasediments.

Gold Mineralisation across the Daylesford’s goldfields show similar characteristic. A series of “stack” west dipping fault systems flow up the metasediments and deposits gold when it breaks out on the crests of the folds. Typically displaying high endowed gold in favourable carbon rich silt beds. Following these series of stacked fault systems deeper below previous historic mining for prospectivity is an exciting endeavour for modern exploration.

Figure 1. Historical schematic geological cross section of the Cornish Mine 1914.