Adelong Falls Gold Workings, Heritage mining site in New South Wales, Australia

Adelong Falls Gold Workings is a mining site in New South Wales with stone ruins and equipment spread along Adelong Creek. The structures include ore grinding machines and water-powered wheels that processed gold from nearby areas.

Reef mining was underway on the Adelong goldfield, proclaimed in 1855, when Scottish-born David Wilson and William Ritchie set up a battery there in 1859. They moved it to Adelong Falls in the late 1860s, and it opened on 17 July 1870. The works ran until 1910, and the ruins joined the reserve in 1980.

The stone structures show how miners in the 1800s relied on water power to crush gold-bearing rock from the creek. You can see how people adapted their work to fit the landscape around them.

You can reach the site by walking from Adelong town along a two-kilometer path that offers different route options. A lower parking area provides wheelchair access, making it easier for visitors with mobility concerns.

The furnace on site separated gold from mercury after the first sluicing, and its draught came from a smoke flue laid up the hillside like a covered drain. Gravity alone fed ore down the bank, so no mechanical feeders were needed.