NSW Turon Gates/River - pls explain "Chinese" raceway walls

[OldDogNewTrick]

Turon Gates property has drystone walls running alongside and higher than the river.
The property owner says they were built by the Chinese miners in the 1850s to carry water.
But for what?
I walked and follwed the line of wall for 5=KLMs and it must have taken a whole lot of $ to build.
So why?

I did try googling such as "turon raceway miners" and found references in the Govt "trove" digitised archives.

It mentioned that in Sofala and along the Turon in the 1850s rush nearly every inch of the river was being mined.
techniques included building "raceways" to divert the river under or above the river natural line so as the make then bed dry.
then the miners would dig down through the bed to bedrock and excavate alluvial gold from there.

Anyone have any facts to add to shed light on the raceway I mention.
Because if it was simply to drain a river section it need not be so long and costly.

I find all this very interesting from a historic perspective.
Those miners were very skilled and working in hard conditions - what they did was amazing.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13017299?

https://www.turongates.com/our-story

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71594199

Dave

 

[mbasko]

The water races were used for a variety of reasons - divert rivers/creeks to get to the gold; feed one river/creek from another; feed sluices/long toms/puddlers etc. in dry workings rather than take the dirt to the water; water storage for dry times/dams could then feed into races when the river/creek was dry allowing continued washing of paydirt etc.
The Chinese were numerous on most goldfields & very organised. It would not have been a huge cost for them but rather they would sell water for domestic use, washing of paydirt & even rent out sluices to other miners fed by the water races/dams when other water was scarce. It is said that the Chinese were so skilled at building them they could get water to run uphill.
In some areas of Australia they stretch for 10's of kilometres & there is even a section of the Turon where a point was tunneled under to divert the natural flow & get to the gold. They would have built them as long as needed depending on their use/s. I.e. if they found a particularly rich section of river 5km long then they would need to divert water around that length to dry out that section. If water was needed on dry diggings 10km away then that is the length they built.
For the most part I believe they tried to build them on unproductive ground to either feed or get to productive grounds so digging around them/detecting there may be a fruitless exercise & some are heritage listed anyway - not sure of that one in particular but know of one that is heritage listed near Windeyer NSW. From what I've been told your best bet is to follow them looking for the diggings they fed into - these would have been fairly rich areas if a water supply was built to feed them. Where they used them to divert water & access the creek/river bed gold then these areas may be worth a look in dry times.

 

[Tathradj]

They were a very smart lot.
When Europeans needed to build a water course,
Out would come the Spirit levels, Theodolites, etc.
And the paid employment.
The Chinese used a water bottle and they all pitched
in for nothing to get the job done.
That is some of the reason's why they were so successful
and were resented.

 

[Mackka]

Hey Doug, "They" still are very smart. I think they almost own the world.
Mackka