Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	37° 33' 28'' South , 143° 50' 40'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-37.55799,143.84460
GeoHash:	G#: r1q636b2y
Köppen climate type:	Cfb : Temperate oceanic climate

Historic gold mine.

The shaft is now under the Australian Catholic University Ballarat Library car-park. Information on activity was only found for 1858.

The mine was on the Inkerman Lead, one of several around Ballarat containing auriferous gravels deep underground. These were once river channels before getting covered by alluvium, basalt flows, clay etc, and still had the habit of directing underground water into the channels.

The Catch Me Who Can Company had particular trouble with copious water. They were pumping out 560 gallons of water per minute twenty-four hours a day. After the mine closed in 1858, the nearby Great Republic Mine continued to pump water out of the Catch Me Who Can shaft to keep their workings water free. When this failed they dug a drive into the workings to drain it.

The council toyed in 1862 with the idea of using water in the shaft to supply Ballarat for domestic use.

A blasting accident caused James Balmain to lose sight in both his eyes in 1858. George Cooke (or Cook) was killed when a rock fell down the shaft in 1858.

Late in its history the mine name changed to Wheal Fortune, but that fortune was poor for the mine closed in 1858. The plant was placed up for auction, but soon was replaced by pumping equipment erected by the Great Republic Company.

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Holocene - Miocene 0 - 23.03 Ma ID: 704630

Newer Volcanic Group Age: Cenozoic (0 - 23.03 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Newer Volcanic Group Description: Cinder cones - scoria, minor ash and agglutinates; Lava flows - tholeiitic to minor alkaline and basanitic lavas. Comments: igneous mafic volcanic; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous mafic volcanic Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5]

Early Silurian - Cambrian 427.4 - 541 Ma ID: 3185333

Paleozoic sedimentary rocks Age: Paleozoic (427.4 - 541 Ma) Comments: Lachlan Fold Belt Lithology: Sedimentary rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References