The Notes for Nothing but Gold
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NOTHING BUT GOLD Prologue: DISCOVERY The existence of available gold-fields in Australia was first made public during the month of May, 1851, in consequence of the practical experiments of Mr Hargraves in the vicinity of Bathurst, in the adjacent colony of New South Wales, on the 12th February preceding. The spirit of research soon extended to Victoria, where, in August following, a gold-field was established, although with limited workings, at Anderson’s Creek, about sixteen miles eastward from Melbourne, and another at Clunes, on the Deep Creek, a tributary of the Loddon, about ninety miles west of the same city. In the following month the importance of Ballaarat began to be ascertained; and this was rapidly succeeded by the discovery of the rich deposits near Mount Alexander. The auriferous character of a large area of the colony was thus assured; and upon the faith of this circumstance, multitudes were incessantly prospecting for new deposits. By the guidance of certain empiric tests, derived entirely from local and practical observation, various other gold- fields, extending over a vast area of surface, were successively discovered, and their united produce has already astonished the world by the marvellous quantities of the precious metal. (Anderson, p. 7) The mysterious and wonderful arrangement of Divine Providence are brought forcibly to our minds on viewing the modes of life of this peculiar people, existing without a wish beyond hunting the forests, and living precariously on food which they obtain by climbing the immense gum-trees, wholly ignorant that at their roots the most precious metal has been concealed for thousands of years; generation after generation of aborigines has passed away, unconscious of the riches concealed beneath the surface of their native hunting-grounds, perchance to have made them the most powerful race under the sun. (Illustrated London News, 24/4/52, p. 314) The first supposed discovery took place some sixty years ago [c. 1790], at Port Jackson. A convict made known to Governor Phillip the existence of an auriferous region near Sydney, and on the locality being examined, particles of real gold-dust were found. Every one was astonished, and several other spots were tried without success. Suspicion was now excited, and the affair underwent a thorough examination, which elicited the following facts. The convict, in the hope of obtaining his pardon as a reward, had filed a guinea and some brass buttons, which, judiciously mixed, made a tolerable pile of gold- dust, and this he carefully distributed over a small tract of sandy land. (Clacy, p. 50) Unfortunately his ingenuity was only rewarded with lashes, confinement, and a spare diet. (Bonwick (magazine), October 1852, p. 5) [Brass Button Gully at Tarnagulla may have had similar provenance.] In 1849, a mining man wrote home to Cornwall from Australia: ‘If… you may know of any Government [assisted] Cornish miner about to seek his fortune in Australia, be pleased to tell him to apply his knowledge of the mode of extracting his ore from his own gravel to the drift and debris on the flanks of the great north and south chain of Australia… for great would be my pleasure to learn that through the application of 1 Cornish skill such a region should be converted into a British El Dorado.’ (South Australian Register, 19/7/1851) Californian gold rushes—1849-50 The ex-sailor shepherd known as Bendigo, after whom the creek (also known as Piccaninny Creek) was named went to California in 1849. (John Hamilton in Bendigo Advertiser, 23/12/1901) Black Thursday bushfires, 6 February 1851—Fires burnt (among other places) Plenty Ranges and the Pyrenees and Loddon districts. (Turner, pp. 331-2) Instrumental in discovery of gold? Victoria had 77,000 inhabitants in march 1851—23,000 in Melbourne, 8,000 in Geelong, and 46,000 thinly spread over the rest of the district (half of them in pastoral occupations). (Turner, pp. 304-5) … we have a superabundance of the richest land for agricultural purposes, only waiting for what the mother country has too much of,—labour… (Argus, 18/8/51) NSW gold rushes—May 1851 The flockmasters are in despair. Hosts of people are leaving Port Phillip for Ophir— drawing their small sums from the different banks, so that a country cry has been raised. (Adelaide Times, 23/7/51) Prominent citizens and business leaders of Melbourne formed a Gold Discovery Committee, offering a reward of £500 for the discovery of a profitable gold mine within 200 miles of Melbourne. (Flett, p. 1) 15 July 1851—Separation celebrations, LaTrobe took oath of office. (Serle, p. 10) 16 July 1851—Mayor of Melbourne, on behalf of Gold Discovery Committee, announced that payable gold had been found by James Esmond at Clunes in the Pyrenees and by Louis Michel and his party at Anderson’s Creek near Warrandyte. (Serle, p. 10) Eventually, these two groups would be awarded £1000 each for their finds. (Flett, p. 7) After the first Victorian discoveries, two months had still to pass before the rush really began. In mid-July when Esmond returned to Clunes with the first cradle to be used in Victoria, he found about fifty men getting meagre returns from the use of tin pots and dishes. By the end of the month there were some three to four hundred at Clunes and as many at Anderson’s Creek, but the latter field proved so poor that it never attracted more than the first few hundred people. (Serle, p. 11) Anderson’s Creek also known as the Victoria Diggings. (Argus) The first important discovery was by T. Hiscock at Buninyong early in August. All those at Clunes were immediately attracted, but few managed to pay their way and many left in disgust. Knowledge of the proper washing technique was slow to spread, and some were still trying to pick out grains of gold with pins. There was little yet to attract any large numbers, especially in a bitter winter with snow on the midland ranges and widespread flooding. …there was little surface alluvial and it was necessary to sink between ten and forty feet deep. (Serle, p. 12) 2 Clunes diggings almost deserted by early September 1851—’nothing can be done without quarrying, or blasting, and …it takes a man a whole day to get one cart-load of earth for the cradle. (Argus, 8/9/51) In late August, diggers dispersed from Buninyong to avoid having to buy licences (gold licences introduced 1 September). Led to prospecting of new ground— discovery/development of Ballarat—prolific gold. (Argus, 8/9/51) From Buninyong.—The mailman from this locality, informs me that a new goldfield has been discovered there on the banks of a river, the name of which he could not recollect. The spot is distant eight miles from the present field, further inland, and it promises to be a much more profitable one than the present. (Argus (Geelong correspondent), 30/8/51) Yuilles Creek/Golden Point. The discovery of this gold field is the salvation of Port Phillip… (Argus, 10/9/51 (ex. Geelong Advertiser)) Ballarat was first given its name in a Geelong Advertiser report in the Argus, 17/9/51. Ballàrat, 25th November 1851 Sir.—Perceiving that the name of the diggings here is generally pronounced incorrectly, I beg to state that it is a native name, and that the accent is not on the last syllable, but on the one before the last as written above. It is a pity that Englishmen should spoil the enphony of the native language. Archibald B. Yuille, Owner of the Run, Ballàrat (Argus, 29/11/51) About 20 September the Cavanagh brothers (the first to break through the ‘second bottom’) arrived in Geelong with 60 lb. of gold, and the exodus from the towns began in earnest. Ballarat reached its first peak in population (between six and ten thousand) in mid-October. (Serle, p. 12) Ballarat—’the shrine of the golden Juggernaut’. (Argus, 8/10/51) The people of Geelong regarded Ballarat as their goldfield, and saw it as a guarantee of the town’s future greatness and its predominance over Melbourne. (Serle, p. 12) Rush to Black Hills—late Sept/early Oct? The rush was thought to be abating, the gold at Ballarat being ‘generally found in one vein, and this vein is only rich now and then’. (Letter to ‘a German gentleman in Adelaide’, 15/10/51, quoted in SA Register, 31/10/51) The Golden Point is nearly worked out, and the new diggings as well as the Black Hill are laborious and uncertain. (Argus, 25/10/51) Ballarat diggings had begun to lose some of their lustre and townsfolk were already becoming apathetic of gold news. (Argus, 15/10/51) Letter from John Worley appeared in ‘Domestic Intellience’ column of the Argus of 8/9/51—’discovery of a new gold field at Western Port’. Overlooked for a month or more. A party at Mount Alexander wrote in early October that it was one of only two parties digging there at that time. (Argus, 13/10/51) 3 …many of those who had found the Ballarat diggings preoccupied or unremunerative were moving away to Mount Alexander, but what were the prospects in that locality we are not informed. (report dated 15/10 in SA Register, 31/10/51) 20/10/51—Within the last fortnight however the discovery of gold in the bed of an adjoining creek, descending from the Mount Alexander ranges, and forming a junction with a branch of the East Lodden [sic] River drew off the attention of all from the [Barker’s Creek] quartz veins.