Debunking the Glacier Gold Myth in Reedy Creek

Local legend claims that Reedy Creek’s gold was carried down from distant mountains by ancient glaciers. It’s a romantic story—but geologically impossible.

Victoria, Australia, has never been covered by continental glaciers large enough to transport gold-bearing gravels over such vast distances. The gold at Reedy Creek is instead the product of localised erosion from nearby quartz reefs, part of the region’s Paleozoic goldfields formed during the Devonian–Carboniferous orogenies. Over millions of years, weathering released gold from bedrock, allowing it to wash into the creek beds where miners later found it.

Geological mapping shows no evidence of glacial striations in the Reedy Creek area. Instead, the sediment layers match typical alluvial systems, where gold has been concentrated by stream action, not by ice. The truth is less mythical but far more fascinating—a story of local geology, erosion, and the steady hand of running water shaping one of Victoria’s most famous gold-bearing streams.