The riches flowing from Victoria's 'new gold rush'
The gold rush of the 1850s transformed Victoria, with its riches providing the highest living standards in the world at the time.
But for all the gold extracted back then, some believe as much again lies waiting to be discovered.
A recent scientific survey supports that idea.
"There's about as much gold left in Victoria than has ever been extracted across the state. That's an estimate by Geo Science Victoria," said James Sorahan of the Victorian branch of the Minerals Council of Australia.
And with a soaring gold price, currently at around $2,600 per ounce, the mining sector is booming.
Last year, mining generated $1 billion for Victoria's economy.
More than half was spent on wages and services at mines across the state.
And a record amount of almost $200 million was invested in mineral exploration.
This year is set to smash those figures in what's being called the 'new rush'.
"What we're experiencing in Victoria is a second rush, really," said Mr Sorahan.
"Gold mining is bigger than it has been for a very long time, and we expect it to get even bigger. People think of the 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, but what we're seeing is a new rush in the 2020s."
It's being made possible by new technologies, like geothermal mapping that can detect mineral deposits from the air and exploratory drills that take core samples from a kilometre underground.
These sophisticated tools are bringing new life and activity to long-abandoned goldfields that old timers thought had given their last.
At Swift's Creek in Victoria's high country, Australian gold exploration company First AU has taken out extensive mining leases in the area.
With modern exploration techniques, it's re-evaluating old workings looking for new mineral sources.
The initial results show some high-grade gold deposits.
"They vary, but 15 to 30 grams per tonne has been taken out of the ground, and a lot of it is quite shallow," said First AU CEO, Ryan Skeen.
Mr Skeen believes that in the past the region's remoteness and rugged terrain deterred miners.
Geology also played a part with mineral seams running erratically, making gold deposits elusive.
But it was gold that drew Swift's Creek storekeeper and long-time miner Richard Darby to the region 40 years ago.
Panning for gold as a child transfixed him.
"Like, if you have a bad day, well, you just think about gold, think of a reef, and it's like a religion to you," 77-year-old Mr Darby said.
Mr Darby has looked for gold all over Australia, studied old mining records and exhaustively prospected the region's creeks and gullies.
But his biggest strike might yet be in his own backyard, in a long-abandoned mine on a steep hillside.
"It goes back to about 1900, and the old timers they were brilliant, but unfortunately, they didn't read this ground as well as they could because it appears to cut out," he said.
By digging in the opposite direction to the old miners, Mr Darby discovered a wide seam of rust-coloured mineral ore at the end of a 30-metre-long shaft.
The initial results suggest it contains payable gold and other metals, but even better, exploratory drilling indicates the seam runs for some distance into the hill.
First AU is hoping this find may herald a big new goldfield for Victoria.
Geological evidence suggests the region is linked to the rich gold deposits of Central Victoria, home to Fosterville, Victoria's largest gold mine.
It's one of the world's most profitable high-grade gold mines and produced more than half a million ounces of gold last year.
If mining takes off in the hills around Swift's Creek it will give an economic boost to a remote region that struggles to retain its young people.
Richard Darby's grandson, 23-year old Tom Darby, is already employed by First AU, and more job opportunities are expected to follow.
The favourable economic climate is seeing other mining activity in the region and across the state.
But gold is not the only goal.
"We have quite a range of minerals in Victoria — mineral sands, rare earths, base metals; there's exploration taking place in copper, zinc — so we've actually got a really broad range," said Mr Sorahan.
"The more commodities, the more mines, the more minerals, the more resilient this industry will be and the more it will add to our regional economies."
At Swift's Creek First AU will bring much needed capital and expertise to Mr Darby's promising prospect.
"Even a medium-sized mining program requires significant investment, I would say multiples of hundreds of millions of dollars," said Mr Skeen.
"It requires new skills, it requires new training, new infrastructure, all these things, so if someone could get something going, I think it would be really significant for the local community."
Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday, or on ABC iview.
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The riches flowing from Victoria's 'new gold rush' – ABC News
