Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	28° 0' 38'' South , 118° 34' 40'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-28.01073,118.57790
GeoHash:	G#: qeh2dkcc9
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BWh : Hot deserts climate

Located at the far eastern edge of the goldfield, along a north-south ridgeline, just north of the Mount Magnet-Sandstone road. The workings now border the eastern edge of the Windsor Station homestead.

While gold in the area was discovered by Thomas Payne, the Windsor was the first mine to open in the area. It was developed by prospectors Joe Badge, who discovered the Welcome deposit at Lennonville, and King (surname) who was a pioneer at The Island Goldfield at Lake Austin. King was described by one paper as a 'developing shareholder'. In 1898 he had one stamp at the mine, but was not allowed to use it due to opposition from other shareholders. It is assumed they only trusted a third party like a public battery.

At least eight shafts were sunk during the mine's short history from 1898 to 1901. The reef was said to be a true contact lode, with a hanging wall of diorite and footwall of slate.

W.A. Venture Syndicate looked at taking over the mine in April 1898, but nothing came of it. Zeb Lane, Broken Hill and Kalgoorlie Golden Mile company director and speculator, purchased the mine from the prospectors in July 1899, after having it under option previously. It was floated in London as the Windsor Consolidated Gold Mines of W.A. with 150 000 pounds as capital. Thomas Creer was appointed mine manager. Twenty men were employed and a battery was erected on the ridge. The company also held the adjoining Windsor Castle North and Extended leases.

You would think young miners at this time would have little energy left, after a hard day underground. In July 1900, an Aussie Rules football game was played at the mine, between a team from the Windsor mine, and those from Paynesville. In a low scoring game, Paynesville won at 2 goals 4 points to Windsor Castle 1 goal 7 behinds. The report is useful as its names some of the men working at the mine. These included A.G. Simpson (captain), Murphy, Reg Vowles, Buckingham, Russell, Smith and Tetlow amongst others. They celebrated later at the Windsor Castle Hotel with a singalong. Hopefully the singing was better than their football skills.

No information was found after 1900, and it is assumed the amount of gold proved uneconomic only shortly after all this development work. In 1934, Western Mining Corporation took over seven leases at a now lost locality Millgoo Reward Find, about 12 kilometres north-east of Paynesville. They also took over the old Windsor Castle Consolidated group of leases. Millgoo was owned by Arthur Moses, who had been active on the field in the 1890's, while Windsor was owned by A.G. Moses junior.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

4 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Neoarchean - Mesoarchean 2500 - 3200 Ma ID: 3187503

Archean intrusive rocks Age: Archean (2500 - 3200 Ma) Comments: Yilgarn Craton Lithology: Intrusive igneous rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Neoarchean - Mesoarchean 2500 - 3200 Ma ID: 713326

Windimurra Igneous Complex Age: Archean (2500 - 3200 Ma) Stratigraphic Name: Windimurra Igneous Complex Description: Layered gabbro and anorthosite with magnetitite and pyroxenite layers; includes younger gabbro and pyroxenite intrusions; metamorphosed. Comments: igneous mafic intrusive; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous mafic intrusive Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References