The Bullion Pit is an impressive man-made chasm on the Likely Rd about 5 km north of Likely.

This gold mine was operated between the 1870s and 1942. It was known once as the largest hydraulic placer mine in the world – hydraulic placer mining being the system they used to mine, employing large amounts of water to wash away everything but the gold.

The mine itself is astonishingly large, being 125 m deep, 300 m wide and almost 3 km wide. Because of the large amount of water used to wash away nearly 200 million tons of dirt, gravel and rocks, the mine used three lakes including Morehead Lake, which was created for the pit.

The site formerly housed 35 buildings and lodging for 120 workers. In its lifetime the mine is estimated to have extracted 70 million dollars worth of gold, and even today traces of gold and other minerals can be found at the bottom of the pit.

Photo: www.tourismwilliamslake.com