Arltunga Gold Field, Central Desert Region, Northern Territory, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Arltunga Gold Field	Ore Field
Central Desert Region	Region
Northern Territory	Territory
Australia	Country

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Arltunga was the first substantial settlement in central Australia, and is now a preserved mining ghost town. It was named after a sub-group of the Arrente Aborigines, who lived in the area. The South Australian explorer, David Lindsay, passed through the area on his five week trek from Port Darwin to the South Australian coast in 1887. He observed what he thought to be rubies in the area, in a gorge to the east of Arltunga, now known as Ruby Gap. This led to a short lived gemstone rush until they were found to be garnets. Miners attracted to the area originally by the garnets, found alluvial and reef gold at Arltunga, which was worked for a few years in the 1890's. The original gold discovery was at a site called Paddy's Rockhole in 1887.

The town was soon deserted but it enjoyed a revival with the construction of a government battery and cyanide works in 1896. This kept the town active till 1916. In 1911 the population was 56, and in 1933 it was 25. The town had a lack of water in what is rugged mountain desert country, and the terrain made the shipping of equipment and supplies difficult.

Arltunga has several preserved buildings including the hotel, police station, and government works. The site also includes a museum, cemetery, and several gold mines, where you can climb down ladders into the shafts. (At least several years ago when I visited- this may have been stopped since). Golden Chance, MacDonnell Reef, Joker, and Great Western Mines, can be visited after a short walk.

H.Y.L. Brown, South Australian government geologist, visited the field in 1902. He stated the gold occurrence was peculiar in a way he had never seen before. There were no defined lodes. Rather large outcrops of quartz with no wall to the country rock. The quartz occurs in irregular masses, and is intermixed with the quartzite country rock, and in veins of quartz with variable directions. The quartz often shows cubic cavities, being casts of pyrite cubes. Cellular quartz and gold traverses the quartzite in seams, or following fissures and joints, containing iron oxides, iron gossan, hematite, pyrites, kaolin, clay, rubble, sand, loam, earthy matter (?), and is often rich in gold, which is so loose it falls out when handled. Most gold is found as fine particles, and dust of a high Au value. The seams sometime widen into vugs.

Brown notes leases on the field as Boulder Extended, Excelsior, South, East, North, Central, Great Western, White Range Block (Luce's). Workings include Long Lead, (my favourite) Perkins Flying Scud, Black Angel, White Spur, Kaolin and Kaolin West. Mines include Christmas Reef, Golden Chance, Joker, MacDonnell Reefs, Valentine, and White Range. The most active period for the field was the 1890's to 1904.

Metal detecting is not allowed in the historical reserve or neighbouring aboriginal land. A small (about 1.5 x 1.5 km) fossicking reserve is set aside for metal detecting, 1.3 kilometres past the Arltunga Bush Hotel, at Paddy's Rockhole/Mission Creek, where the first gold was found in the area. Check whether a permit is needed, as this requirement can change depending on who is in government. Gold nuggets have been rarely seen from spot, at least publically.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded from this region.

Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities

29 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Rock list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities