Why Ballarat Has So Many Sinkholes

Why Ballarat Has So Many Sinkholes

Mysterious holes are opening across the streets, backyards, and parks of Ballarat, a city once defined by its gold rush past. These aren’t just surface-level potholes—they’re deep, dangerous collapses revealing a vast, forgotten network of underground mine shafts dug over a century ago. In this article, we uncover how 19th-century gold mining has come back to haunt Ballarat in the form of modern sinkholes. Beneath the surface lies a hollow, crumbling legacy of quartz reef tunnels, deep leads, and abandoned shafts, many of which are now collapsing beneath unsuspecting residents. This is the story of a city slowly sinking into its own history.

The Worst Gold Mining Disaster in Australian History: The New Australasian Deep Lead No. 2

The Worst Gold Mining Disaster in Australian History: The New Australasian Deep Lead No. 2

The Creswick mine disaster of 1882 remains Australia’s worst gold mining tragedy. When floodwaters burst into the New Australasian No. 2 shaft, twenty-two miners were lost. This story explores the desperate rescue efforts, the grief that swept Creswick, and the legacy of one of Victoria’s richest yet deadliest deep leads.

Translation missing: en.general.search.loading