Age: 480‒440 million years, Ordovician to Silurian
Location: Bendigo and Ballarat
Formation: The lower rock was deposited as sand and mud in the ocean off eastern Australia during the Ordovician. In the early Silurian the sand and mud pile was folded, metamorphosed and injected with hot siliceous fluids to form white quartz veins like the upper rock, often with small amounts of metallic sulphides, and sometimes gold. This specimen contains no gold.
Significance: These rocks are typical of the famous Bendigo & Ballarat Goldfields, which yielded vast riches during Victoria’s gold rushes of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Donated by: The Government of Victoria, Unity Mining and Castlemaine Goldfields
