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This dam was built to provide a head of water for sluicing at diggings in the Pink Cliffs goldfields at Heathcote.
Hydraulic sluicing operations on the site were carried out under the direction of James Hedley from the late 1870s through the 1880s.
Hedley's gold mining operations were finally banned because of damage wrought to grazing land. Water for the sluicing was delivered to the site by water race and high pressure pipelines and then directed at the gold-bearing deposits. The associated water race, which runs for some 26 miles, is largely intact.
Hydraulic sluicing was an important late nineteenth century development in mining technology, which enabled the continued and more efficient exploitation of Victoria's dwindling alluvial gold deposits
The old gate valve structure is still visible near the dam wall.
Today the dam is a peaceful oasis with much birdlife
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Victoria is Australia's second smallest State and covers only 3% of Australia's land area but has the second highest population of all States and Territories. Victoria's mainland and islands have a total length of 2,512 kilometres coastline which is about 4.2% of Australia's 59,736 kilometres of coastline. Australia is the driest inhabited continent and Victoria is no exception although the state capital Melbourne has the reputation to have 4 seasons in one day. Victoria is located in the southeast of mainland Australia and includes the most southern point on mainland Australia at Wilsons Promontory National Park.
