The Jordan River Diversion Tunnel - a relic of the Victorian gold rush

Victorian gold rush

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...

 - is on the Jordan River

Jordan River (Victoria)

The Jordan River is a small river in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. It is a tributary of the Thomson River. It rises on the southern slopes of the Great Dividing Range south of Woods Point and flows into northern end of the Thomson Reservoir....

 near the locality of Jericho, about 7 km south of Woods Point in Gippsland

Gippsland

Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...

, Victoria, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. The tunnel is about 30 m long x 4 m high x 3 m wide, cut through rock. The river still runs through it.
No record has been found of the tunnel's construction and use. It has been alternatively attributed to either river-bed sluicers during the earliest mining period at Jericho (1861-5) or to an attempt in 1872 to hasten floodwaters away from the township.

The site is listed in the Victorian Heritage Inventory

Victorian Heritage Inventory

The Victorian Heritage Inventory, commonly known as the Heritage Inventory, is a list of all known historical archaeology sites in Victoria, Australia...

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