Stan Bone: A Lifetime Of Mining – Victorian Goldfields Documentary

Earlier this year, PYBAR’s General Manager, James Glover, appeared in a documentary featuring gold mining industry living legend, Stan Bone.

The Film

Produced by documentary maker, Patrick Jones, the feature-length film follows the life story of third generation gold miner, Stan Bone, now aged in his mid-80s, who operated two of the last independent gold mines in Victoria – One Tree Hill and Black Cameron mines – at Smiths Gully, just 35km from the Melbourne CBD.

The Back Story

Gold mining in the area dates back to the 1850s, not long after payable gold was discovered in Australia. Stan’s grandfather and father worked the leases at various times, and Stan’s passion for gold mining was ignited when his father handed him a piece of quartz, containing visible gold when he was a child. He left school at 14 to start work with his father, initially in their sawmill, then their gold mine at Yarrambat, Victoria, known as the Golden Crown. They used traditional underground narrow vein mining methods to carry out the mining process from beginning through to the crushing, smelting and sale of gold bars.

James Glover’s Part in the Story

In 1996, James was introduced to Stan through a mutual connection and was asked to assist them negotiate the acquisition of the Black Cameron Mining Lease from a third party.  This lease and the associated infrastructure were critical to the success of the One Tree Hill Mine which they were in the process of re-opening.

Over several years, Stan and James became good friends and Stan offered to assist James with the cleaning out of an old, backfilled shaft on a mining licence held by James in central Victoria. James operated this lease on a part-time basis, prospecting a series of narrow quartz indicator veins.

Whilst undertaking this work together, the friendship grew as did the level of trust and the shared interest in gold and underground mining.

One evening after a day of shovelling backfill out of the old shaft, Stan asked James whether he’d be interested in becoming a business partner in the re-opening of the One Tree Hill Gold Mine. It was a tough decision for James, with a fair amount of risk and a lot of unknowns. James was 22 years old with a permanent job as a town planner (his first profession) whilst studying mining engineering. Here was an opportunity to become a real gold miner, just like his forebears who emigrated from England to Victoria during the 1850s gold rush. For James, gold was in his blood, thus the decision was made.   

In early 2000, James had resigned from his job and was now a full-time gold miner.  He’d traded an office job for an air leg (hand-held rock drill) a short-handled shovel, pelican pick and a rail bogger.

There was six to 12 months of development in front of James and Stan, mining a new access drive to regain access into the old workings before they would see any ore. The mine had been operated up until the Second World War when Stan’s father and uncle had to down tools as they been called up for active service in Australia and New Guinea respectively.

James’ Recollections

“When we started, there was just an old drive (adit) into the side of the hill. The drive had collapsed where it intersected the ore and required a new drive to be developed to negotiate around the fall of ground. Hippies had camped in the adit in the ‘60s and ‘70s and had left a lot of old rubbish around. We had to clean it all out and strip the backs and lefthand wall as you couldn’t stand up in the drive.  This drive had been developed in the 1860s, people were shorter, and everything was done by hand using hammer and tap and black powder.

“We built a timber trestle bridge across the gully so that we could dump our waste and load our old tipper with ore, built a shed, installed a compressor and primary fan. Initially, a lot of the local residents were concerned that we were going to destroy the bush and cause a nuisance. We had no interest in that. We kept a small footprint on the surface and kept to ourselves underground.

“Work was hard, and there was no need for a gym membership in those days. At least you could always look back at the end of the day and measure your progress, just another metre of drive advanced or another tonne of ore mined. 

“I think we were in development for at least 10 months before we broke into the underground workings and when we did, we came out exactly where we had intended to. I had surveyed the breakthrough point using historic plans; however, as we could not gain access to the workings, I had to rely on the accuracy of the plans and various reference points to estimate the coordinates. We broke through precisely on alignment and about 600mm off grade.

“Upon breakthrough, we intersected a number of drives and cross-cuts and huge amount of rotten timber (old ground support) and twisted rails. All of this had to be removed by hand. There were three parallel reefs running through the hill, all of which had been worked extensively by the old timers. Several had been mined to surface and generated some significant yields, as high as 2,000 ounces per tonne!

“Our first target was to sink a winze on the first reef. The ore was well defined and wide and was estimated to run at a reasonable grade. We cut a drive at the first plat level and drove it north and south along strike. This was hard work. I would drill out the round with a sinking drill first thing in the morning, fire at lunchtime, then hand muck with a shovel and kibble until knock off. Then you would get to do it all again the next day.

“Sadly, the result was no good. The reef pinched out and there was no gold. At this stage, we were in a fairly desperate state, with no income for 12 months and our first target unsuccessful.

“Over a period of weeks, we did a lot of sampling and decided to put out a drive on a small reef which was running parallel to our first reef. The old miners had intersected it and driven on it for about two metres and abandoned it.

“We hit good gold in our first cut and continued to mine that ore body for the next six to eight months. When the gold was on, it was on. You could not miss it after firing and washing down, seeing all those gold flecks all over the floor.

“Further development work and exploration was undertaken until the end of 2022, at which point I sadly decided that I could not continue on full-time given the uncertainty of a return on all of the hard labour and the large gaps between gold sales. It remains one of the toughest days in my career when I had to break it to Stan that I needed to move on. We were fortunate at this point that an old gentlemen prospector by the name of Wilf Haywood was helping us out and he continued to help Stan where I left off.

“I had completed my Mining Engineering studies at this point and obtained a job with McConnell Dowell as a Project Engineer in their Tunnelling Group.

“I continued to support Stan with the administrative and statutory side of things right up until we subsequently sold the mine it in 2009.

“Stan and I remain very close friends and often talk about the mine and what if we had done this or what if we had done that. Gold gets in your blood, and I was always very proud to call myself a gold miner and an independent miner at that. Stan recently pointed out that I am, and will most likely will remain, one of the last of independent underground miners to work the One Tree Hill Gold Mine and perhaps anywhere in the state. The term independent miner refers to the fact that we were completely independent, self-funded, self-sufficient from boring the face, maintaining our gear, crushing the ore, through to smelting and selling our own gold bars.

“I’m often asked whether it was worth all the hard work and whether I would do it again. Absolutely, it was worth it! The lifestyle, the things I learnt, the experience I gained, the stories told, and the friendships made along the way made it all the worthwhile. I’ve still got some gear tucked away in the shed in the hope that one day I’ll do it again; however, the reality is that it’s now too hard for the independent miner. Legislation, access to tenements, insurance costs, rehabilitation bonds etc. make it unachievable.

“We talk about the contractor mindset across our business, and I often reflect on that sentiment when I think of my good mate, Stan. In between operating the Black Cameron and One Tree Hill Mines and working on the Snowy Hydro, he ran a successful mining contracting business with his uncle Bill. At one point, they had a contract to develop a small copper deposit in a remote part of East Gippsland. Over several years, they developed by hand several thousand feet of lateral development, and a 100 foot deep winze. During this time, they worked a 28-day roster, were self-sufficient, living on the floor of an old open stamp battery shed, and when food supplies ran low, survived by shooting and eating kangaroos and eating boiled stinging nettles gathered by the creek. That’s true contractor mindset!

I count myself lucky for having been mentored by Stan.”

Stan Bone – A Gold Mining Industry Living Legend

Stan Bone’s enduring passion for gold mining is evident throughout the film. He admits to the gold fever that kept him going to “keep digging another foot” and to seeing the beauty in the narrow vein gold, not visible in large scale mines.  

He estimates that he shovelled 10,000 tonnes of ore by hand throughout his mining life, eventually acquiring a small rail bogger to replace hand shovelling. The hard work eventually took its toll on Stan’s body, and when the mine was sold in 2009, it brought about the end of a lifetime of mining for Stan and of small, independent mining in Australia. 

How to See the Film

Watch the film, Stone Bone: A lifetime of Mining – Victorian Goldfields Documentary here.

The documentary tells the story of the last in the line of great Australian mining pioneers, to which PYBAR’s James Glover has a direct link, and is not to be missed by anyone connected to our wonderful industry.

“It’s been a great life”, Stan Bone – 2025.