About the Authors John’s father Norman and grandfather Ben Ferguson were both Educated at the Maryborough Girls’ High School and the University born in Gympie and great-grandfather, Thomas John Ferguson, had of Queensland, Elaine became a high school teacher. After a store in Mary Street trading as Ferguson Bros. After more than retirement, she returned to study, completing a PhD in History in twenty years in Latin America with the International Centre for 2005. She is now in her fifteenth year as Local History Officer at the Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), John and wife-soulmate Loretta sought Gympie Regional Library, a satisfying job that involves working with change as empty-nesters at Mooloo near Gympie. Between 1996 a team of enthusiastic volunteers. Elaine and her husband Geoff live and 2003 they enjoyed flower farming and local community life. on a farm at Wolvi, near Gympie. They have two adult sons and five Searching for his family roots led John into exploring the history of grandchildren. the Gympie goldfield. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Ferguson, John, 1941- Title: The Gympie goldfield 1867-2008 / John Ferguson, Elaine Brown. This project has been assisted by the Queensland Edition: 1st ed. Government, through the Q150 Community Funding ISBN: 9780646518770 Program. Notes: Includes index. Bibliography. Subjects: Gold mines and mining--Queensland--Gympie--History. Gympie (Qld.)--History. Other Authors/Contributors: Brown, Elaine Rosemary, 1941- Gympie Regional Council (Qld.) Dewey Number: 994.32 © Gympie Regional Council 2009 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher. Any views which may be expressed through the text of The Gympie Goldfield 1867- 2008 are those of the authors alone. They may not represent the views or opinions of Gympie Regional Council or any staff or elected representative of Gympie Regional Council. Photographs and text have been attributed appropriate copyright as indicated by the authors. This project has been sponsored by Gympie Regional Council. Front cover. Coloured Post Card, 1909, looking south along Brisbane Road at Monkland, showing Gympie’s three most productive goldmines. Foreground: South Glanmire & Monkland headworks and tramway. Right: 2 South Great Eastern battery shed and chimneys. Centre background: Scottish battery shed and headframe. Source: Elaine Brown. Back cover. Above: Miners underground in 2 South Great Eastern mine, c.1898. Below: Cake of retorted gold, South Glanmire & Monkland mine c.1905. Source: (Keith Waser Collection) Gympie Regional Libraries. Acknowledgements Mayor’s Foreword Financial Sponsors Gympie Regional Council Queensland State Government and Q150 It is my very great pleasure to provide this foreword to this commemorative publication. Organisations Buka Gold Ltd It is fitting that this book has been sponsored by the Queensland Government Devex Ltd as part of the Q150 celebrations given the enormous role the Gympie Region Gympie Eldorado Mining Ltd has played in the development of Queensland. The state was saved from Gympie Gold Ltd financial crisis by the goldrush which followed James Nash’s discovery in 1867. The Gympie Times The early days of the goldfield were characterized by miners using picks and State Library of Queensland shovels to search for gold. These tools then gave way to huge machinery and Queensland State Archives the landscape of Gympie was transformed as many of the illustrations in this Queensland Department of Mines and Energy book show. The search for gold continued into the modern era and this book People details the various stages of the Gympie goldfield. Many Queenslanders share a Project Manager - Rachel Lethem historical link with Gympie and will find the history revealed in this book fascinating. Editor - Janet Lee Geoff Barlow Douglas Laing I commend the authors, Elaine Brown and John Ferguson, on their research for Wally Bentley Bruce McQuitty this book and Gympie Regional Council staff, Rachel Lethem, Geoff Barlow and Margrith Bizzell Barney Raper Janet Lee for their dedication to the production and editing process. As Mayor Geoff Brown Irvine Runge of Gympie Regional Council, I am proud to see such an outstanding publication John Dale Rosalie Russell produced using local resources. Vicki Diemar Rose Sami Arthur Doust Pat Stidoff Jim Dugdale Chris Towsey Loretta Ferguson Greg Weir Lloyd Hamilton Warwick Willmot Amy Haselwood Beth Wilson Mayor Ron Dyne David Hillier Leonie Day Wilson Matt Houston Bronwyn Witham Dick Keevers Rohan Worland Clyde Kunst Roy Woodall Table of Contents Gold and Legends ...................................1 Deep Reefing 1875-1924 .....................37 Individual Mines ................................ 67 Walkers Limited, Maryborough The Scottish Gympie Gold Mining Before the Rush .......................................3 Batteries Company (1996-1923) The Mary River Mining Waste The Retort House Queensland in the 1860s Mine Development The 2 South Great Eastern Gold Mining Discovery and Rush .................................6 Working Conditions Company (1887-1920) The Fiveways Andrew Fisher (1865-1928) The South Glanmire & Monkland mining The Discoverer Mine Management Company (1888-1915) Goldrush Sources of Capital The 1 North Phoenix Gold Mining The Diggings The Mine Managers’ Association Company (1880-1918) Problems of Security Mining and Stock Exchanges William Smyth M.L.A (1846-1899) The Chinese Presence Assaying and Pyrites Works George Argo (1841-1895) Assayers The 4 North Phoenix Gold Mining The Gold Trail ........................................17 Mining Surveyors Company (1881-1924) The Formation of Orebodies Engineers The West of Scotland (1898-2008) Pioneer Geologists The Gympie Drainage Board The 9 South Lady Mary Modern Geological Terms and Concepts Government Stratigraphy Relics and Memorials ........................ 89 Decline and Closure Blocks and Reefs Mary Street Gympie’s Wealthiest Men Orebodies Smithfield Chambers Interlude 1925-1980 ............................54 Goldsworthy Building Mining Eras ............................................25 Cyaniding Monkland—The Gympie Gold Mining and Alluvial Era 1867-1868 ..........................27 Dredging Historical Museum Alluvial Mining Disposal of Mullock The Andrew Fisher House The Curtis Nugget Demolition James Nash The Deep Lead William Henry Reeve Statue of Gympie Miners Shallow Reefing 1868-1875 .................31 Sporadic Bursts of Exploration Miners’ Memorial Wall Extracting the Ore Modern Revival 1980-2008 .................60 Glossary .............................................. 96 Treating the Ore Basil Reece Lewis (1925– 1994) Key Sources ........................................ 98 John O’Connell Bligh (1834-1880) The Lewis Decline End Notes ........................................... 99 The Shaft Capping Project Index ................................................. 100 Modern Exploration and the Future Gold and Legends ‘Gold is the child of Zeus, neither moth nor rust devoureth it, but it devours the minds of men.’ Pindar, 5th century BC. Gold is a metal, the only yellow metal, and is a very rare element. Concentrations of gold in the The term ‘carat’ is often earth’s crust are few and far between. Today, a relatively rich ore deposit may yield five to ten associated with gold and is grams of gold per tonne of ore mined, or five to ten parts per million on a weight basis. based in antiquity. A carat equates with the weight of four grains of fruit from the Gold is soft, malleable, resistant to oxidation, and an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. It carob tree and describes the is a very dense metal and has a specific gravity of 19.3, nineteen times the mass of an equal gold content of an alloyed volume of water. gold item. 24 carat gold is pure gold, with lower carat For centuries, people have made gold into jewellery and used it as a basis of currency, trade and numbers, such as 22, 18 and 9, indicating the presence of wealth. The quest for gold is part of folklore, inspiring legends, passionate desires and persistent other elements. hope. Two ancient legends that convey these themes came with the diggers to Gympie and form a part of Gympie’s history. El Dorado The Spanish term El Dorado means ‘the gilded one’. Gold is found in association A sixteenth-century conquistador, Gonzalo Jiminez de Quesada, encountered the Muisca Indians with other minerals. On the in Colombia, South America. There he heard the story of a legendary king whose crowning Gympie goldfield, Gold ceremony involved being dusted with gold on a raft on a lake, while gold and emeralds were (scientific symbol Au) was thrown into the water as an offering to the gods. The Spanish accepted the story, which over time associated, in decreasing order of proportion, with became embellished to include a kingdom and a lost city. Expeditions searched for El Dorado quartz (SiO2), calcite from Colombia to Ecuador, Peru, Guyana and Venezuela. (CaCo3), silver (Ag), pyrite (‘fool’s gold’, FeS2) and The term El Dorado has come to represent an ultimate prize or a place where sudden wealth can arsenopyrite (FeAsS). be acquired, especially from gold. In early Gympie there was an El Dorado shaft. - 1 - Later the company that controlled mining leases on the entire goldfield was named Gympie Eldorado