Gold Hot Spots of Australia - Bingara, New South Wales

The area around what was to become Bingara was mostly grazing country when gold was discovered along the Gwydir river.

Toward the end of 1852 diggers quickly began to descend on the area ready to try their luck and two settlements initially set up around the diggings, Bingara and Upper Bingara.

Bingara is set in the Gwydir river valley approximately 150 kilometres north of Tamworth. At its gold rush peak there were suggested to be around 500 Chinese miners working the Bingara diggings.

Bingara had many stores half a dozen hotels and all the services to sustain a fully self-accommodating town.

When copper and diamonds were discovered in the 1880s the town of Bingara sprang into life as industrial mining stepped up around the area for a time.

In the 1880s Bingara was the largest Australian producer of diamonds. Upper Bingara at that time was slowly becoming a ghost town.

The all nations gold mine at the southern end of the town was established around 1860 and continued to operate until 1948. It was the last gold mine in the district to close. It developed into a large underground mine operating at four levels and two shafts the deepest being a hundred meters. It is situated at the top end of hill street all that remains is the 10-headed stamper battery.

Doug Stone in his Metal Detecting for Gold in Australia book boasts of numerous free campsites set up along the Gwydir river where Doug believes you are literally camped on gold.

Doug highlights Barrack Creek near Old Upper Bingara as an ideal place to try some panning or give your detector a run while in Bingara.

A visit to the Bingara Gem and Mineral museum is well worth a look with much of its exhibits donated by local geologist Gill Goldfinger Craig.

The Bingara museum is also home to Bingara District Historical Society who are a wealth of information on the area's golden history.

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[Peacekeeper]

Yes, but does Does Doug Stone know the correct pronunciation for Bingara?