 Alluvial mining was later replaced by reef mining, but none of these mines were to achieve the success of the nearby A1 Mine Settlement and by the turn of the century the population had dwindled.In 1980 the area of the original valley settlements was placed on the Register of the National Estate as a Conservation Area including early miners' cottages, a hall, stone retaining walls and a hotel which succumbed to a fire in 1993.In 1993, two escaped prisoners, Archie Butterley and Peter Gibb from the Melbourne Remand Centre, and a prison guard who assisted them to escape, drive to Gaffney's Creek to hide out.