Golden Valley gold area, Bullfinch, Yilgarn Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Golden Valley gold area	Area
Bullfinch	- not defined -
Yilgarn Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Surprisingly the name does not come because of the native metal found there, but rather the 'Golden Scrub Wattle' growing across the hills. Golden Valley is approximately 10 kilometres north of Bullfinch, on the Mt Jackson Road. It is a marked visitor site.

The site is not part of the surrounding pastoral station, but reserved as a national monument held in trust by the W.A. Royal Historical Society. Gold was first discovered here for the Eastern Goldfields by Anstey, Payne and Greaves (surnames) in 1887.

Just south of the road on the flats is a 5 stamp battery, and granite stone cottage, both somewhat in a state of disrepair. The cottage was built by Wally Booker, grano worker, battery operator, and prospector. His ashes are scattered in the tailings nearby.

The mines are 1.5 kilometres north-east, and line either side of a valley for several hundred metres, as old shafts, trenches, and at least one tunnel. Gold grades decreased rapidly with depth, which discouraged any company development. One challenge for a visitor is to find a plaque erected somewhere in this area (the north north-west boundary of the Kathleen lease GML 3811), in 1929. It was stolen in 1981, and then replaced.

It is best described as a prospecting field, active until World War One, and to a limited degree in the 1930's. There were many named leases that came and went, run by individual prospectors, or small parties of men.

While this is public land, it may still be covered by mining leases. Unfriendly signage of mining leases in Western Australia is common. I have read several comments from visitors surprised at the threatening language of signs which line the roads north of here to Mt Jackson. This includes threats of prosecution, and worse the slashing of tyres (which could have serious consequences in these remote areas).

Anyone metal detecting should plough their way through the Western Australian Mining Act, and you may find the law does not necessarily match the signage, or the information promoted about leases by the mining industry in Western Australia. I cannot however guarantee meeting a leaseholder un-invited on a mining tenement will not result in a threatening incident.

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