Researching and documenting a handful of the 15,000+ abandoned mines in SE QLD, Australia. We research and explore abandoned historical mine workings in pursuit of the amazing historical story the mine workings and miners quite often left behind. QAM is trained in climbing/rigging and working within confined spaces. We do not endorse or encourage anyone to enter abandoned mine workings. This can be potentially life threatening for untrained and inexperienced explorers. Accessing workings on private land without permission from land owners could constitute tresspass. No portion of our content is intended to be educational or instructional. QAM has no affiliation with the department of QLD Abandoned Mines (DNRM) We hope you enjoy our pursuit of QLD mining history.
QAM content is filmed, edited and produced by Ebenezer Vickery.
No portion of our content is permitted for media use without written permission.
To contact us, please email EbenezermineExplorations@QAM.com.au
@@louisecross Special part of Australia and Brian is a living legend. We are back up that way Winter of 2025 and really can't wait. We have some items for Brian!
@@qldabandonedmines yea when it was at its lowest about 2yrs ago a lot of tin was a few bedrock with quarts stringer crushed a handful nothing just mainly keeping the kid occupied and the monkey off me back lol
Hi bud. You can go back and watch "QLD Mini Goldrush" and see that. I always point out Shamrock is private property and heavily fortified. It's also under an active mining lease.
@@qldabandonedmines yea I eventually come across it bloody crazy workings there mate love ya work gotta mate experienced in caving if you needed a hand trained medic as well not far from the bay area
Awesome Video! Man thats a lot of work going up. I used to ascend that way with my stop and ascender, but i recently got a petzl croll and chest harness and it makes all the difference.
Yeah, we use our full harness for the really big stuff. Sports harness and top-pulley through the jumar for climbs like this. This was not deep, just really gnarly! I actually had a nightmare about it that I got stuck down there permanently 😀
@@qldabandonedminesnice that’s awesome. Guess it makes sense to carry as little as possible when you’re hiking 20km plus to a mine. When I first started doing rope work I’d loose sleep the night before. It kinda helped me cuz I didn’t have any energy to be scared while descending 😂.
Looking forward to your next video... it premiers here at 2am.... so I'll catch it when I wake up... Take care and stay safe mates. ... Greetings from the American west coast.⛏⚒⛏
All good OG! This is only a short 10 minute adventure. The big 40 minute regular episode drops July 5th like normal. Hope you are well mate Eb. 🦘🦘⛏️⛏️♥️♥️
I was at this site in 1994 it has changed the road use to be along creek and you could see the tennis court across the creek. if you want full information last cattle property on the way up talk to Girlie Goody family has been there for ever. The main shaft is up that gully on the right. about haf way up hill. Also you would of seen grave on the way there it is rumoured to be Mrs Brown bushranger Gardener girl friend.
@@ghostrider9978 hahaha. Thanks my friend. No, our days of doing the wrong thing are well behind us. Back in my teens. This was just a fun weekend away with a lot of beer, heat and camping on a dry river. We just got up to some shenanigans and wanted to create a more light hearted video for you.
G'day again mate! I saw in one of your last posts on another video you mentioned New England Tin Mines. They are some of the coolest in Australia!! We know a lot of them well. Next months video is pretty cool mate. Huge episode and we find an unmapped adit that looked to be an ultra high grade vein that does not feature on any of the fields maps. Chat again soon. Thanks so much for tuning into these adventures. Kind Regards. Ebenezer.
Mount Morgan is back under lease and we can happily report the old girl is about to become productive again! So the 100+ year history of Mt Morgan will have another era. From what we can see the new holders will re-treat the tails that has BIG gold still in it. We don't name locations, BUT, if you tune in next month you MAY see some Boulder action mate. 🤫🤫🤫
@@qldabandonedmines yeah I live in mt Morgan well Moogan, interested in the underground side know of a few but not deep or safe for me and old Chinese ones. Will do I have watched all your videos. Perfect time if you see boulder cold not many snakes out heaps of gold just in the creeks too
Thankyou Brett. We shot next month's episode towards the end of summer this year and I'm not sure I've ever seen so many snakes! We saw a few pythons and a few red bellies and caught a few on camera. It was a bit of a mission as my car died on the way North at Miriam Vale, so we had to push/clutch start it throughout the entire weekend 😂😂♥️♥️⛏️⛏️🦘🦘 Thanks for tuning into our episodes mate! Ebenezer.
I guarantee we did not dislodge a solitary timber mate. The small waste rocks falling into such a small stope certainly sounded bad I agree. If you rewatch it I'm guiding one of our guys back out so as not to dislodge any stullls or lagging. Those timbers are well over 100 years old.
I was disappointed that you didn't record the escape or didn't show it.....just cut. I was so disappointed that i didn't watch the part following it. Sorry if that's not your fault or camera died or something? I didn't watch more of nothing to do with the escape to see if eventually you did explain? Maybe you can't because of legal issues or something? You just cut to you crushing up ore to get gold. Good for you. At least you publishing the clickbait obviously meant you weren't in jail lol. Live to fight another day i suppose? Anyway I'm still subscribed but yeah just disappointed
Hey bud. There is no such agency as SMERTS. What you just watched was the result of 4 dudes camping near a dry riverbed and drinking way to many beers (not whilst hiking or driving vehicles) in the peak of an Aussie heat wave. I purchased a cheap torch off Temu for like $4. On the second last night we discover it had a dodgy police mode, so we staged some stuff and had a bit of fun. I thought that would come through with us giggling in the kayak. If we had done something wrong and had a brush with law enforcemt we would never post that on our RU-vid. Sorry if we misled you amigo! Regards. Eb..
@@qldabandonedmines I'm autistic as fuck so jokes on me i guess? 🤪 You got me good though...... really good ya buggers! I feel like a clown now lol. Not going to edit my post. I'm leaving it here for the roasting I now deserve.
The stope in the very bottom adit is literally now a guano stope. There must be several tonnes down there. I do recall a story of people successfully mining bat guano as a viable business. It's just not good to breathe in. It can lead to some very serious lung complications.
Morning ledge. Exactly. Every 12 hour day I could be milling up to half a kilo of ore with my "mill" it's a get rich slow kinda thing. Haha..hope you are well mate. Eb.
@@qldabandonedmines i am too thanks Eb. You also. Hiking to secret mines at least keeps us fit as we get older mate. I think its super important actually, regular excersize. I keep my carbs very low too, lots meat and eggs and high quality oils and i found its remarkably increased my ability to do all this stuff as i get older. I'm fifty two, I "was" beginning to fall apart. Too much desk work, too much stress, too much sugar and caffeine, too little gold mining lol. But I'll be exploring mines and Oz country on foot for decades yet bro, i feel like that anyway ... stoked! Love your adventures as always.
Well worth the wait mate... It is the morning after here in the States of the day before...lol. Your premier comes out at 2am our time, it is Friday morning the 7th here. Very interesting mine explore mates... Sure glad we do not have a M.E.R.T force here.... yet! But we do have several G-man departments that may show-up and give us a hard time, so we feel ya. The ending was humorous, my wife and I were laughing and enjoyed the mask and boxing gloves greatly, funny as hell mate. But you had the wrong hat on according to J.W. you need a fedora to get the good gold... lmao! And "yes, your going to get wet" Take care Y'all... avoid the MERT!!! till the next 🥃Cheers ⛏⚒⛏
Morning OG! What the hell is a G-Man? Sounds interesting. Is it a reference to an Andrew Tate Ranger or something? We could potentially upset them too when we come up to the states. This episode got a bit weird, it's what happens when you leave us camping in peak-summer on an almost dry riverbed 😂😂⛏️⛏️♥️♥️🦘🦘 Until next time bud, stay safe. Eb.
@@qldabandonedminesMorning Eb. Its short for the 'Gov't men' mate !!! I think John Dillinger(the gangster) coined the phrase about our FBI in the twenties... Take care, till the next ⛏⚒⛏ G-day 🥃
I’m subscribed so keep in touch, please. Even though I’m retired, safety runs through my veins. I’ve had a varied career and have a broad base of experience.
I knew the safety manager who was at Pike River when it went up and he was a real cowboy. He didn’t like me, because I did what I knew was right and wouldn’t fall into line to simply conform. If it was wrong, it was wrong and I lost no time telling him. I worked for the client when I met him a little time after Pike River - and Pike River would never have caused those deaths if that safety manager hadn’t wanted to simply look good in front of his bosses.
Holy crap. You've been around my friend. That's a bad blemish on our mining heritage and history that won't ever be forgotten. A lot of family connections and bravado took precedent over safety it seems in that sad incident. RIP to those poor families.
I forgot to mention last night that I, too, have had a fascination for old mines. I’ve visited many in Qld and northern NSW over the years, the last being tin mines in the New England area of NSW some 10 plus years ago. Being restricted activity wise has curtailed that, though.
Reminds me of a job where I worked a few years ago. A safety advisor asked “What’s bump testing” and the toolpusher (drill rig manager) had gas showing of the drilling computer (Pason) and when I asked what he was doing about it “We’re just going to drill ahead and hope for the best.” This was methane and was evident on the drill floor. I made them shut the well in until they could control the gas flow with mud weight or pressure accumulator (Koomey). The pusher didn’t like it but it was the right call.
Great work mate. Still sad that even in todays modern age of mining more firm calls are not adhered to like your example you just wrote. Some poor decisions (as you would be well aware of) have had devestating effects on families. Pike River is one that comes to front of my mind. That was a huge tradgety and possibly avoidable if safety was paramount.
I am fully aware of your safety precautions. Also good to hear that you don’t simply rely on one gas detector. H2S, CO and other nasties lurk in these environments as we know and the unwary can easily get caught out. (I’m former safety in mining, oil & gas).
Agreed. We run calibrated BW Quattros and mini clips. We bump test before big mine trips and make sure a certified tech service them every two years. We were in a remote area of NSW last summer and we detected C0 before we even got inside the portal. It was literally belching out. Certified death trap. The H2S sensor has saved our bacon numerous times as well.
Yeah, it's quite interesting - some of those guys exploring the old bootleg anthracite bands in pennsylvania don't pay any mind to it. Cool that you used to do oil and gas - John was telling the other day how there used to be an oil / gas pipeline from Roma / Mooney all the way to the Brisbane port. I had no idea. One of the things I'm keen to try and get a better grip on is some kind of a barometer for exploring any deeper old mines so that we don't get caught out by a low front coming in and causing the mine to unexpectedly burp up gas from deeper within.
Each to their own mate. We have a passion that is hard to explain to most folk. We never state it's safe and don't name locations. We are aware and self accountable for the risks we take.
I’m not suggesting you do or don’t enter abandoned mines. That’s up to you. My comment was a general comment for anyone not aware of the high degree of risk involved.
@@detecting_Nathanael Roger. Agreed and thanks Nath. Agreed on both fronts. They are not safe environments. If we didn't have calibrated 4 gas meters with us, we would be dead years ago.
@@detecting_Nathanael absolutely. These ones weren't too bad but we're usually quite cautious. The temptation of sampling what the old timers was chasing is hard to resist.
Either a really dusty Bornite or Amazonite. We have seen truckloads of cooper sulphates and carbonates but never that dusty blue/green ore we found in that stope.
Cheers mate. We air a new episode on the first Friday night of each month, sometimes more frequently if we have been on a big expedition. June's episode is a fun one ⛏️⛏️♥️♥️ Ebenezer.
This was an old one, so bullocks or horses most probably. All the boilers and milling gear breaks down to at max half tonne conponents. No dray roads out this way though, so the trip would have been insanely difficult!!
