Australia’s Strangest Gold Deposit

#victoria #gold #goldprospecting Deep in southern Australia lies one of the strangest and least understood gold occurrences ever recorded. Known as the Wangerrip gold vein, this deposit appears on official geological maps as a major occurrence, yet it has no recorded production, no defined ore body, and no confirmed modern location. Found briefly in the late 1800s and then lost, the Wangerrip deposit remains one of Australia’s most unusual geological mysteries, raising questions about how gold could form in a place where it was never expected to exist. What makes this gold occurrence so significant is its age and geological setting. Almost all Victorian gold formed more than four hundred million years ago during intense mountain-building events in the Palaeozoic Era. The Otways, however, are dominated by much younger Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rocks formed during the rifting of Australia from Antarctica. These rocks are hundreds of millions of years younger than the host rocks of Australia’s major goldfields, meaning the Wangerrip gold could not have formed through the same processes that created Bendigo, Ballarat, or Walhalla. If the reports are correct, this gold formed through a completely different and extremely rare geological mechanism. Historical records describe gold occurring in a quartz vein or dyke cutting through these young sediments, not transported or reworked from elsewhere, but locked in place within the rock itself. Later geological surveys noted that the reef could not be relocated, and the site gradually faded from the physical landscape while remaining preserved in official databases and geological literature. Today, Wangerrip stands as an outlier that challenges long-held assumptions about where gold can form in Australia. Link to the papers that mention Wangerrip: Report on gold discoveries, Wangerrip Gellibrand River https://gsv.vic.gov.au/SearchAssistant2/details?q=internal_id%3A1756&utm MINERAL ASSESSMENT REPORT 1999: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/sitecollectiondocuments/rfa/regions/vic-west/resources/minerals/vic_west_raa_wminerals.pdf? REPORT ON GOLD DISCOVERIES, W ANGERRIP, GELLIBRAND RIVER: https://geoscience-unclassified.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/ERPublications/reports/GSV-progress/G1756_mine_1899_Wangerrip-Gellibrand-R.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3D%22G1756_mine_1899_Wangerrip-Gellibrand-R.pdf%22&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20251211T235914Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=10800&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAYQEIBM2MQK6DPDKX%2F20251211%2Fap-southeast-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=fbe92c67db8f80fc08bef83c8eb04b82239632f8fe634e0ae76932ae6629ede4 Link to the previous video on the Otways: https://youtu.be/pnajhDq484Y Thank you so much for watching! If you are not in a position to donate, I totally understand! The biggest supporting factor that you engage in is to watch our videos all the way to the end (very important for helping us rank) and to share them around so please consider doing this so that Youtube recommends our channel more. Check out the OzGeology website: https://ozgeology.com 🎥 If you would like to support this channel, consider joining our Patreon: https://patreon.com/OzGeology 🌏 About OzGeology The core mission of OzGeology is to make geology exciting, accessible, and inspiring for everyone. Instead of presenting rocks and earth science as dry or overly academic, OzGeology brings stories of the planet to life, revealing how every mountain, mineral, and landscape tells part of Earth’s grand adventure. The goal is to help people see the world differently, to understand the dynamic forces shaping Australia and beyond, and to spark curiosity in the next generation of geologists. Through engaging storytelling, field exploration, and clear explanations, OzGeology turns the study of our planet into a journey of discovery rather than a classroom lecture. 00:00-00:58 - The Lost Gold Reef in The Otways: The Wangerrip Reef 00:59-02:05 - The Rarest Gold Vein in Victoria 02:06-03:05 - The Initial Discovery of The Gold Reef 03:06-04:20 - The Reef Is Lost To Time 04:21-04:34 - The Mount McKenzie Placer Gold Workings 04:35-04:46 - Why The Reef is The Rarest Gold Occurrence in The Region 04:47-05:16 - How Was The Reef Initially Found? 05:17-06:23 - The Reef Today & The Geology of The Area 06:24-07:31 - An Important Note 07:32-08:06 - Studying The Reef: A Geological Perspective 08:07-08:42 - Looking For Wangerrip Today 08:43-10:33 - Wangerrip: A Reef Lost To Time 10:34-10:46 - Patreon / YouTube Member Thank You!