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William Bramwell Withers
Published by Good Press, 2022
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On the 28th of August, among others who arrived at Buninyong, were Messrs. James Oddie, Thomas Bath, Francis Herring, and George Howe, and they reached Golden Point on Monday, the 1st September. The news quickly got to Geelong, and on the 9th a good many people, including ministers of religion, doctors, merchants, and others, arrived. On the day following, the Clunes prospectors having heard of the richer discoveries, Esmond, Cavenagh, and others arrived from Clunes, and Esmond and Cavenagh found fifty pounds weight of gold in two days, that being the first sent down by escort, and Cavenagh being the first to send goid to England, where it realised £4 per oz. The sketch map of Golden Point, by A.C. M'Donald, as the place was when the first rush was just reaching there, gives us a fairly accurate picture of the ground as it was then occupied. M'Donald was one of the diggers there, and Mr. Oddie vouches for the validity of the plan. He informs us that his tent was close to Cavanagh's claim, and his claim was down the slope towards the creek. Seeing how rich Cavanagh's claim was, and that Oddie's tent was not on the claim held by Oddie's party, Howe and Herring—probably the first practitioners in a line of business that in after years became an art—jumped Oddie's tent ground, a space twelve feet by fourteen, or thereabout, and took 37 lbs. weight of gold out of the ground. The following extracts from Mr. M'Donald's diary of the time throw additional light upon the aspect of affairs then, and prove that snow in summer was near being a fact in this elevated region that year.
6/10/51. Left Geelong in company with A.V. Suter (now residing at Yambuck Station, near Portland, Victoria), William Fisher, (then of Barrabool Hills, farmer); Percy E. Champion (of Geelong, now deceased). 9/10/51. Arrived at Golden Point, Ballarat. 11/10/51. A considerable fall of snow to-day. Snow-balling freely indulged in. Population estimated at about 1000 to 1200. Sly grog-selling carried on openly, several prominent Melbourne and Geelong storekeepers subsequently fined. Meetings were held and two orderly and respectable diggers did their best to put down sly grog-selling and partially succeeded in doing so. 26/10/51. The postal arrangements at this time were very insufficient; a bi-weekly mail from Melbourne and Geelong served for a population of about 10,000 diggers. I frequently walked to Buninyong and received letters there that should have been sent on to Ballarat. 2/11/51. About this time a stampede set in for Mount Alexander and in less than a week Golden Point was almost deserted; many diggers returned to Geelong and reported that the field was worked out. Weather bitterly cold and wet, hail and sleet and a little snow fell to-day. The Yarrowee and Gnarr Creek were, when I arrived on the field, clear running streams, the former 3 to 4 yards wide, with wide grassy black alluvial flats. Black Hill heavily timbered to its summit and not a pick had been put in anywhere on the western side of the Yarrowee stream. The diggers worked their claims very carelessly and accidents resulted by the caving in of the sides; a few deaths also resulted. One party took up a claim at the foot of a large tree, and found a considerable quantity of gold amongst its roots; the tree was under-mined and fell, killing one of the party and injuring another. The police hunted the diggers, and any miner found searching for gold without a license was taken to the commissioners' camp. I have seen three men chained to a tree all night because they could not, or would not, pay the 30s. per month. About the end of October, two men were shot at for stealing gold, or rather washdirt. They were not mortally wounded, however, and were allowed to escape.
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