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Table of Contents

THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

California and the Ural.—Predictions of Australian Gold.—Discoveries of Old Bushmen.—Hargreaves and others in New South Wales.—Effects of Discovery at Bathurst.—Sir C.A. Fitz Roy's Despatches.—First Assay.—Esmond and Hargreaves.—Esmond's Discovery at Clunes.—Previous Victorian Discoveries.—Esmond's the First Made Effectively Public.—Hiscock.—Golden Point, Ballarat.—Claims of Discoverers as to Priority.—Effects of the Discovery.—Mr. Latrobe's Despatches.—His Visit to Ballarat.—The Licenses.—Change of Scene at Ballarat.—Mount Alexander Rush.—Fresh Excitements.—Rise in Prices.

O T E N T as was the wonderful lamp of Aladdin, and magnificent as were its successes, the power of gold has equalled in its marvellous effects all that the warm orient fancy has pictured for us in the Arabian Nights. Gold has done even more than ever mere magician achieved. It certainly has operated magically in Australia, and in no part of the country has it created greater marvels than in Ballarat. Everywhere the resistless charm operates similarly, but it is not everywhere that its material results are alike notable. California and Australia have caught the more gorgeous lights and colors, and though some dark shadows mingle with the magnificence of the general results, the gold discovery in both countries has worked prodigies, and many of its creations remain. They not only remain, but are in themselves seminal powers forecasting greater wonders in the future. All that lies in the unknown future of this continent must be connected with the past and the present, and these, in their grander features, take their form from the matrix in which they were born—the gold discovery of the year 1851.

California electrified Europe and the United States by its gold discoveries in the years 1848-9, and that event was soon followed by the discovery of gold in Australia. Geologists who had studied maps and noted the auriferous mountain lines of the Ural and California, no sooner heard of Australian strata and the bearings of the mountains and ranges, than the existence of gold in this island continent was predicted. In the older settlements, too, of New South Wales, the aboriginies and the whites had occasionally stumbled upon glittering metals, as afterwards they did also in Victoria; but it was the Californian prospector, Hargreaves, who first publicly demonstrated the existence of gold in Australia. Actually, the discovery by others seems to have occurred both in New South Wales and Victoria about the time of the Californian rush in the year 1849. From a despatch dated 11th June, 1851, to Earl Grey from Sir C.A. Fitz Roy, then Governor of New South Wales, we learn that some two years before then a Mr. Smith announced to Sir Charles' Government the discovery of gold. A dispatch from Mr. Latrobe, the Governor of Victoria at the time of Esmond's discoveries, mentions the discovery of gold some two or three years previously in the Victorian Pyrenees. Smith was attached to some ironworks at Berrima. He showed a lump of golden quartz to the Chief Secretary in Sydney, and offered, upon terms, to reveal the locality of his discovery. The Sydney Government, if we may take the Governor's despatch as a guide, had some doubts both as to the veracity of the applicant and the propriety of making known his discovery even if a reality.

Apart (says Sir C.A. Fitz Roy) from my suspicions that the piece of gold might have come from California, there was the opinion that any open investigation by the Government would only tend to agitate the public mind, and divert persons from their proper and more certain avocations.

Then, on the 3rd April, 1851, Mr Hargreaves appeared upon the scene, Smith having vanished in refusing to "trust to the liberality" of the Sydney Government. Mr. Hargreaves was a man of greater faith than Smith, and he disclosed the localities in which he had discovered the precious metal. The localities were near Bathurst. The news spread all over the colonies, and the Bathurst and adjacent districts were rushed, to the great terror of quiet pastoral Settlers, and the annoyance of the respectable Government of Sydney. From the Governors despatches to Downing Street, it appears that the official mind was much agitated what to do. Settlers advised absolute prohibition of gold digging, and the authorities were in doubt as to whether it might be safe to impose regulations and a tax. Counsel's opinion was obtained as to the property of the Crown in the precious mineral, and ultimately a license tax of thirty shillings per month was levied upon the Bathurst diggers. The Rev. W.B. Clark, the geologist, gave excellent geological and political advice at the time, in the columns of the Sydney Morning Herald. He sagaciously remarked that "the momentary effect of the gold mania may be to upset existing relations; but the effect will be a rapid increase of population, and the colony must prepare herself for an important growth in her influence upon the destinies of the world."

The police despatches to the Sydney authorities described the miners as "quiet and peaceable, but almost to a man armed", wherefore the officer advised, "that no police power could enforce the collection of dues against the feeling of the majority." Hargreaves came to the aid of the authorities as a man strong in counsel and Californian experience. A minute of Hargreaves' is worth noting—"There existed (he says) no difficulty in obtaining the fees in California." But this was no marvel, as will be seen by the following revelation. "All the people (he continues) at the mines are honest and orderly. I was alcadi there. If a complaint be made the alcadi summonses a jury, and the decision is submitted to. A man found guilty of stealing is hung immediately." This was not less direct as a system of jurisprudence than that practised, as Dixon and Dilke tell us, by the sheriff of Denver, on the buffalo plains of America, where criminals had a very brief shrift and a quick nocturnal "escape" up the gallows tree. Yet we do not learn that in Denver, or anywhere else in that part of America, "all the people" were either honest or orderly, as Alcadi Hargreaves says they were in California. But then the Sydney prospector left his aleadiship in the early days, when the Arcadian simplicity of mining society had not yet lost the fresh bloom of what we will take to have been its early and honest youth. The Bathurst diggers appear to have behaved pretty well on the whole.

In July, 1851, occurred what the Sydney Morning Herald called "a most marvellous event", namely, the discovery of a mass of gold 106 lbs. weight imbedded in quartz. This made everybody wild with excitement. The Bathurst Free Press, of 16th July, said—"Men meet together, stare stupidly at each other, talk incoherent nonsense, and wonder what will happen next." Some blacks in the employment of a Dr. Kerr found this prize, their master appropriated it, and gave the finders two flocks of sheep, besides some bullocks and horses. Possibly this was the basis of Charles Reade's great nugget incident in his "Never Too Late to Mend". It may be noted here that last November the discovery of a similar mass took place at Braidwood, in New South Wales. The weight of the specimen was given at 350 lbs., of which two-thirds were estimated to be pure gold. We may conclude this notice of the discovery of gold in New South Wales by quoting the first assay of gold as given in the Government despatches from Sydney, under date 24th May, 1851. This assay was as follows:—

humid process.	| |	dry process.
Gold. . . . . .	91.150	|	Gold. . . . . . . . . . .	91.100
Silver . . . . .	8.286	|	Silver . . . . . . . . . .	8.333
Iron . . . . . .	0.564	|	Base Metal . . . . .	0.567
	————	|		————
	100.000	|		100.000
Or 22 carats, £3 17s. 10½d. per oz., plus 1 dwt. 16 gr. silver, value 5½d.

Victoria was not long behind New South Wales in finding a gold-field, and it soon caused the elder colony to pale its ineffectual fires in the greater brilliance of the Victorian discoveries. James William Esmond was to Victoria what Hargreaves was to New South Wales. Esmond, like Hargreaves, had been at the Californian gold-fields, and had an impression that the Australian soil was also auriferous. He left Port Phillip for California in June, 1849, observed that there were similarities in soil and general features between Clunes and California, and decided to return and explore his Australian home for gold. It chanced that Esmond and Hargreaves were fellow passengers on their return from California to Sydney. Esmond found gold on the northern side of the hill opposite to Cameron's, subsequently M'Donald's pre-emptive right, at Clunes, on Tuesday, the 1st of July, 1851, and gold was found about the same time at Anderson's Creek, near Melbourne.

According to a letter written by Esmond to the Ballarat Courier on the 4th November, 1884, it appears that the above dates may be shifted a little. Esmond says in his Courier letter:—

On the 29th of June, 1851, I discovered gold in quartz and alluvial at Clunes, and brought it to Geelong. I showed the same to William Patterson, then watchmaker, afterwards assayer for the Bank of Australia, who tested the samples in the presence of Mr. Alfred Clarke, of the Geelong Advertiser, who reported my discovery on the following Monday, the 8th July, 1851. During that week I never heard of any gold discovery having been made or spoken of, except the discovery at Clunes. Previous to the discovery of gold in California, it was reported that a shepherd on McNeil and Hall's station at the Pyrenees discovered a lump of gold, and that he sold it to a person named Brentani, a jeweller in Melbourne. Captain Dana and his black troopers were sent up to ascertain if there was any truth in the reported discovery. A few people assembled on the ground to seek for the precious metal, but they all failed. I was living in the locality at the time, but did not go to the rush, believing it to be a hoax; but I thought differently after returning from the Californian diggings, which I visited in 1849. Anderson's Creek was the first diggings I heard of after Clunes was opened, Mr. Mitchell being the discoverer, and Buninyong was the next, by Mr. Hiscocks. *** In a few weeks afterwards I returned to Clunes, and collected a sample of gold, some 8 oz. or 9 oz., which I sent to Mr. Patterson, of Geelong. This was the first sample of gold sold or produced in the Victorian market. My object in writing this letter, sir, is to inform the public where the first payable gold-field in the colony of Victoria was opened, and what I state I don't think any person will dispute.

Esmond published his discovery in Geelong on the 6th of July, Hargreaves having preceded him in the sister colony by some two months. But we have seen that before Hargreaves there was a Smith, who would not accept the terms of the Sydney Government, and so disappeared. There was yet another discoverer earlier than the man of the Berrima ironworks. Mr. John Phillips, late Government mineralogical surveyor, and then mining surveyor for the Victorian Government at St. Arnaud, discovered gold in South Australia before any of the explorers previously mentioned. He announced his discoveries to the authorities in South Australia and Port Phillip, and to Sir Roderick Murchison, but neither of the local Governments acted upon his discovery. The discovery by Mr. Phillips was about synchronous with discoveries made by the Rev. W.B. Clarke, and had been foreshadowed in the geological predictions of Sir Roderick Murchison and Count Strzelecki. Mr. Phillips got nothing for his pains, and Esmond was less fortunate than Hargreaves in the matter of public recognition and reward. To Hargreaves were voted £10,000 by the Government of New South Wales, and subsequently £2381 by the Victorian Parliament, Esmond, after a hard light, receiving a vote of £1000 from the Parliament of Victoria, and some small public, quasi-public, and private rewards besides. But he did not receive the amount all at once, though early proposed. On the 5th October, 1854, Dr. Greeves proposed, in the Legislative Council, a vote of £5000 to Hargreaves, and in his speech he admitted that Esmond was "the first actual producer of alluvial gold for the market." The motion was carried. Mr. Strachan moved, supported by the late Mr. Haines, and only seven others, an amendment for giving £1000 each to Hargreaves, Esmond, Hiscock, Mitchell, and Clarke, and £500 to a Dr. Bruhn, who was said by Dr. Greeves to have advised Esmond as to the existence of gold in Victoria. There was an earlier discovery than Esmond's in Victoria, asserted by Mr. J. Wood Beilby, as the repository of a secret from the person who was said to have been the actual discoverer. But Beilby does not claim for public revelation, but only as the revealer to the Government of the day. In a pamphlet published by Dwight, of Melbourne, in Beilby's interests as a claimant for State reward, the following statement is found:—

Mr. J. Wood Beilby establishes, by the production (from the Chief Secretary's office) of his correspondence with Mr. La Trobe, and concurring documentary evidence, the fact that, so early as 7th June, 1851, or some weeks earlier than Mr. Wm. Campbell, he informed the Government of the existence of gold in workable deposits at the locality now known as Navarre, and in the ranges of the Amherst district. Mr. B. does not claim to have been the original discoverer, but to have placed the information before Government, for the benefit of the public, at the critical period when its value in arresting the threatened exodus of our population to Bathurst was immense. Mr. La Trobe was at first very incredulous, evidently not having been made aware previously, of the existence of gold as one of the mineral products of Victoria, as his reply, by letter of 11th June, 1851, demonstrates. Mr. B., however, supplied further details of information, and, waiting upon him personally, so urged investigation, offering to share expenses, that Mr. La Trobe organised a prospecting party, including Mr. David Armstrong, then a returned Californian digger, afterwards gold commissioner, and the late Capt. H.E.P. Dana, attended by a party of native police; Mr. Commissioner Wright, resident at the Pyrenees, being nominated to act with the gentlemen of the party as a board of enquiry. From various causes the expedition was delayed starting from the Aboriginal Police Depôt, Narree Worran, until a few days before the publication of Mr. Campbell's letter. But the news was made public. Although Mr. La Trobe had requested Mr. Beilby to abstain from further publication of the fact until the result of his investigations, the officials named to accompany the expedition, and their subordinates and outfitters, were not tongue-tied or bound to secrecy. It is, therefore, no matter of surprise that their intended prospecting trip to the Pyrenees was bruited far and wide; and, as a sequence, their investigations forestalled by the discoveries at Clunes.

In or about 1847-8, William Richfould, the author of the discovery published by Mr. Beilby, was a shepherd in the employment of Mr. W.J.T. Clarke, at his upper outstation on the Heifer Station Creek, Navarre. He was an intelligent and observant man, and always looking for and preserving natural curiosities. He discovered water-worn gold in the crevices of a brownish slate rock, in the bed and sides of the creek close to the ranges, and also found a few specimens of gold in quartz upon the surrounding ranges. These specimens he from time to time disposed of. In 1848, finding himself followed and watched by his fellow servants too closely, and being at the time desirous of selling some valuable specimens, he journeyed westward, and meeting Mr. Armstrong, an employé of S.G. Henty, Esq., at the Grange, he was induced to visit Portland, and disposed of his gold to merchants there, by whom it was sent to Tasmania as Californian gold; being probably represented to them as such, the then current popular belief being that all gold deposits belong to the Queen, and that its appropriation by an unauthorised person was punishable. Richfould then engaged as shepherd with Mr. Beilby at Mount Gambler, and shortly after showed Mr. B. some small specimens of gold he had retained, refusing, however, at that period, to give any information as to the locality of his discovery. Subsequently, in July, 1849, he divulged his secret to Mr. B. on his pledge to keep it, unless its publication was required by public emergency, or the discoverer died. Richfould after this left Mr. B.'s service, professedely to return to the scene of his discoveries. Nothing certain is now known of his subsequent history, but his death was shortly afterwards reported in the Mount Gambier district.

Some two years before either Esmond's or Beilby's dates there was a discovery of gold at the Pyrenees asserted by one Chapman, who sold gold to a jeweller in Melbourne, named Brentani. Chapman was at that time shepherd at Mr. Hall's station near the Pyrenees, the locality of the subsequently opened Daisy Hill diggings. Brentani and his trade hands made up a secret party with Chapman to go to the Pyrenees and get "a dray-load of gold". They went, but did not get the dray-load of gold, and Chapman mysteriously disappeared and was not heard much of again. Brentani and his men do not seem to have pushed their search or disclosed what they had heard, or seen, or done. M'Combie also mentions the finding of gold in quartz by W. Campbell, of Strathlodden (M.L.C.), in March, 1849, at Burnbank, and also at Clunes, near where Esmond subsequently made his more fertile discovery. Clunes was named by Mr. Donald Cameron after a farm at Inverness in Scotland.

Mr. Bacchus, of Perewur, in whose service Chapman had once been, chanced to meet Chapman in Sydney. Mr. Bacchus wrote a letter on the 1st July, 1851, which was published in the Argus, and copied into the Sydney Morning Herald of the 23rd July, 1851, and in that letter he says:—

Chapman is an old servant of mine, and I have every reason to believe his story. He says he left Melbourne for Sydney because he felt himself watched, and was regularly hunted for information as to where he had found the gold. He says he never took Brentani and Duchesne within miles of the place, and gives an excellent reason for not doing so. His story is plain and straightforward, and from his description of the place I think he might be able to put any one in the way of claiming the reward. He offers to show the exact place at which he picked up the piece of gold, for the sum of £50 and his passage from Sydney.

Mr. Bacchus, writing to us with the alcove enclosure, states:—

About the same time I wrote to another person in Victoria:—"From what I have heard and seen of the description of country where gold is found in this Colony (N.S.W.) I have no doubt that it can be obtained in Lerderderg and other creeks running from Mount Blackwood and Bullencrook towards Bacchus Marsh." And so it was a few weeks after. I give another extract of a letter to me from a friend in Victoria, dated in July, 1851;—"Coming from one so well-known as yourself your letter in the Argus attracted great attention, and has been the means of preventing numbers from leaving here for Sydney. No end of people have set out in the direction indicated by you."

Store Drays camped on road to Ballarat, 1853.

The reward referred to by Mr. Bacchus was advertised by the Port Phillip Government, the disclosure of Hargreaves' discovery having compelled the Government here to abandon its previous policy of fear as to the possible consequences of such a discovery, as it was expected there would be a wholesale exodus to New South Wales. The Lerderderg locality has been proved, as Mr. Bacchus states, to be auriferous, but the country there has not been very rich in the precious metal.

The recommendation of the Committee of Parliament, prior to the year 1857, was that £10,000 be divided amongst certain claimants, and that Hargreaves should have £5000 and Esmond £1000, but the Parliament reduced Hargreaves' vote to £2500 and Esmond's to £500; the £10,000 recommended to the batch of claimants selected being reduced one-half. There appears to have been a motion carried by Dr. Greeves for a vote of £5000 to Hargreaves, but that must have been a conditional vote or else a reversal took place, as the final award was only half the sum recommended by the Committee. Humffray, in July, 1857, enquired in the Assembly why Esmond had not had the £1000; and subsequently the Parliament did the tardy justice to the Clunes discoverer of voting him the balance of the £1000 originally recommended. Ten years after Humffray's question as to Esmond, namely—in July, 1857, Frazer moved in Hargreaves' interest and asked the Assembly to vote him £2619, the balance of the sum recommended by the Committee of Parliament. The motion was refused by the House, but by a narrow majority, nineteen voting for and twenty-one against the motion. Most people, probably, will be of opinion that Hargreaves was amply rewarded, whatever may be thought of the official recognition of Victorian discoverers. To them the Governments and Parliaments appear to have shown a rather wayward disposition, and to have distributed votes upon principles not always very obvious. The persistent refusal of recognition of Beilby's claim seems to be an instance in point, for though he could not claim as a producer of gold he gives evidence of priority as a revealer of its existence, and it is reasonable to presume that his revelation was one of the impulses that led to explorations whose results are now before the world. The reward paid to Hiscock for the discovery of a locality which scarcely paid the miner as a gold-Held, contrasts also with the non-recognition of Connor's and Merrick's parties who discovered Ballarat itself. If any principle should be held to have guided the Governments of the day, it may be assumed that valuable discovery, not barren discovery, first claimed attention. Yet Hargreaves, who discovered nothing in Victoria, got more than Esmond, and Beilby, who first announced discovery, and Connor's and Merrick's parties, who actually discovered Ballarat, have received nothing. It must be felt that if Hargreaves merited what he received some of the Victorian discoverers and revealers met with scant acknowledgment, and that amongst these last the unfortunate J. Wood Beilby, and the Golden Point discoverers, may be included.

As soon as Esmond's discovery was known prospecting parties set out from the seaboard, and early in August the late Mr. Hiscock found gold in the gully near Buninyong which now bears his name. The ground was poor and was abandoned as richer fields were soon discovered. The Ballarat gold-held was discovered by other prospectors, two only of whom were in Ballarat in 1870, namely—Wm. Woodward, a French polisher, living in Chancery lane (late Eureka street), Ballarat West; and Rd. Turner, a house decorator, living in Raglan street south, Ballarat West. Of these two, Turner only survives, and is still here. Woodward was in Connor's party of six persons, namely—Connor, Woodward, Brown, Jeanes, Smith, and Thornton. Turner was with four others, namely—Dunn, Merrick, Wilson, and a man named Charlie, the party having, from Alfred Clarke, the name of the Geelong Mutual Mining Association. Merrick, some years since, was mining at Dolly's Creek, Connor and Brown are dead, Thornton was lately at Miners' Rest, and Dunn, Jeanes, and Smith in Geelong. Both parties left Geelong for Clunes, but on the way met Alfred Clarke, who informed them of Hiscock's discovery, and they therefore began digging at Hiscock's, Gully, but the ground did not pay. Preserving the tenses of the first edition, when the author had personal interviews with the discoverers, we must say that Woodward and Turner differ a little in some of their dates and facts, and appear in some sort to be rival claimants for the honor of the discovery of Golden Point. Woodward asserts for his party the exclusive right to whatever honor belongs to the discovery, while Turner claims for his party equal credit as being discoverers simultaneously with Connor's party. Woodward says the discovery was made by Brown on Monday, the 25th of August; Turner says it was made by himself and Merrick on Sunday, the 24th, and that Brown made his discovery on the same day. Woodward says that on the 25th Brown was sent out to prospect and returned the same day, saying he had found gold in every dishful of dirt, and wanted men and the cradle to go with him. On the 26th three others of the party went with Brown and the cradle, and got 4½ oz. of gold for the first two hours' work. That day they first used the cradle, and for the first day's full work obtained 30 oz. of gold. Woodward also says that Turner and Merrick's party reached the Point on the Tuesday, but not earlier. Turner avers, on the contrary, that on the Sunday he and Merrick went out to look—as advised by some diggers in Geelong returned from California—for hills with quartz gravel and boulders. They went by way of Winter's Flat, ascended the ranges, found a ¼ oz. of gold in a tin dishful of dirt, carefully concealed the traces of their prospecting, returned to Buninyong, and told the news to their partners. He states that on the Monday both his party and Connor's party left Buninyong for the Point, his own party being bogged in Winter's Plat by the way, and part only reaching the Point that night, the remainder arriving next day. Merrick, as Turner avers, commenced cradling on the Tuesday morning, for the purpose of being able to say they were the first to do so. They obtained 9 oz. or 10 oz. of gold during the first week, being less fortunate in that respect than Connor's party. Turner admits that Connor's party were the first to arrive at the Point, but he says it was on Monday, and that a few hours later on the same day some of Turner and Merrick's party were also there. Both parties agree that they were there together on the Tuesday, and that all the men on the field then were only about half a score. Dunn, writing from memory at Chilwell, Geelong, on the 9th of February, 1870, sent the following letter to Turner:—

Dear Sir,—In answer to yours of the 8th inst., I shall give you a full and true account of our gold prospecting, and the first discovery of Golden Point, as follows:—1st. Richard Turner, James Merrick, Thomas Dunn, George Wilson, Charles Gerrard, James Batty. 2nd. Started from town on Tuesday, 8th August, 1851; met with an accident on Batesford Hill, the loaded dray passing over the driver's stomach, left him at Mrs. Primrose's with the Chinese Doctor, proceeding on journey (for the Clunes) but stopped at Buninyong near a fortnight. The party getting dissatisfied, Wilson and I agreed to go in search of better diggings, so we started from Buninyong on the Sunday morning 24th August, 1851, between 10 and 11 o'clock, with tin dish and shovel to find the Black Hill; reached there about 2 o'clock, saw Greenwood's party with a few specks of the color, left the Black Hill about half-past three. In coming over Winter's Flat, I says to George—"There is a likely little quartz hill, let us try it before we go home." It was pouring of rain at the time. So with that I cut a square turf, then partly filled the dish and went to the creek to wash it. Oh, what joy! there was about ten or twelve grains of fine gold. So we left off, covered up with turf, and made for home as fast as possible through the rain; reached home like two drowned rats; started next morning early for our new discovery; reached there in the afternoon; had the cradle at work next morning. I firmly believe that I, Thomas Dunn, and George Wilson were the first men, and got the first gold, on the little quartz hill now known as Golden Point. If there is any one that can dispute this letter let them come forward publicly like men.

I remain, yours, &c.,

THOMAS DUNN.

From memory in Ballarat, since giving us an oral statement, Woodward writes the following as to the discovery:—

Connor, Woodward, Jeanes, Thornton, and Brown left Geelong, Wednesday, 20th August, 1851. Smith arrived on Sunday, 24th August. Brown started (for new ground) Monday morning, 25th. Meeting on Monday evening to petition against paying license-fee for the month of September on account of gold not being sufficient to pay expenses. On the 26th Brown came back for three more men, horse and curt and cradle, and the two first hours' work gave 4½ oz. Commissioners arrived on Friday, 19th September, asking for Connor's party; taking the pannikin up with the gold remarking—"This is a proof it will pay the license-fee." On the 20th Commissioner sends for Connor to pay the license-fee for the remainder of the month. After Connor had paid the license he was pelted with clay and bonnetted. A public meeting was held outside the bark hut in the hearing of the Commissioners, Herbert Swindells on the stump. Resolutions passed that no one pay the license for September, as we had petitioned against it. The meeting no sooner over than the (Commissioners') hut was rushed to pay the license, as them that did not pay would loose their ground—Conner's party receiving 16 feet square each, double the ground to what others had. Herbert Swindells was refused a license to dig on account of taking the stump at the meeting. A collection was made for him of 12 oz. of gold which he lost the same night. This is a correct list of facts.

W. WOODWARD.

Merrick, writing from Morrison's Diggings, on the 24th February, 1870, to Mr. James Oddie, says:—

As to the time or date of our arrival on Golden Point I do not remember, but as to the day and circumstances they are simply as follows:—I formed the party at first with the intention of proceeding to Esmond's Diggings, and on the road we tried Hiscock's Hill, found it would not pay, so we agreed at the end of the week to send George Wilson, one of our party, to the Brown Hill to see if Lindsay and party had found gold. If they had not we were to start for the Clunes on the Monday morning. George went up on Saturday or Sunday returning over Golden Point, the flat being flooded. He tried a dishful of gravel and got a nice prospect—some of the bits like small shots flattened. When we had seen the prospect we determined to start for the place next morning early, so that we should not be noticed leaving. On our arrival at Yuille's Flat our cart got bogged, so three of our party, the carter, and horse, started for the Point, taking with them as many things as they could, leaving two of the party to mind the cart. When they got to the Point to their surprise they found Connor's party just arrived. The cart was soon got up and the tents commenced putting up. Most of our party were for finishing tent and other odd jobs, and commence washing the next week, but I said, "No for I intend to be the first that ever worked a cradle in this place." It was agreed I should, and I cradled the remainder of the week, but no other party began till next Monday or Tuesday following, except they tin-dished it. My party consisted of six men, but Mr. Batty did not come up with us. Their names are as follows:—T. Batty, R. Turner, Dunn, G. Wilson, C. Fitzgerald, J.F.C. Merrick.

Thus was opened the gold-field of Ballarat, and the honor of discovery seems to be tolerably evenly balanced between the two claiming parties. Turner does not, though Dunn does, assert priority of discovery for his party, and he admits that Connor's party were first on the Point on the first working day, Woodward making Tuesday and Turner making Monday to be that day. Merrick does not assert priority either, save as to the use of the cradle. It may, perhaps, be held that the balance of priority inclines to the side of Connor's party, and it is said in support of Connor's claim that he was always regarded as leader of the diggers at the meetings held in those first days when the authorities made their first demand of license fees. Then it is seen from Woodward's statement that the Commissioner recognised Connor's claim to priority, and gave the party a double area. Swindells fared worse than our modern men of the stump, and appears to have been less mindful of No. 1 than his less scrupulous descendants. It is worthy remark, as already shown, that none of these actual discoverers and openers of the Ballarat gold-field ever received any reward from the Government, though Hiscock had, and Esmond also, Hargreaves, however, as already stated, having the lion's share. So far, it must be said, Victoria has acted with less liberality to her own children than to the stranger's. As to Hiscock's gold cup, lately (1870) exhibited here as the product of gold got in Hiscock's Gully, Woodward affirms that the cup was not made of gold discovered there.

Writing to Mr. James Oddie, from Tarnagulla, under date 29th May, 1884, William Brownbill, the discoverer of gold at what is now known as Brown Hill, on the road to the Gong Gong, says:—

In the early portion of 1851, having donned the blue shirt, I resolved to swim with the tide and take the first job that presented itself. ** Took a job rebuilding Mr. Cray's station, which had suffered by the fire on black Thursday, and while there very exciting stories were told of the Sydney gold-fields, and several hands left the station for that new enterprise. Not long after the Sydney fields had been noised abroad it was stated that there had been gold found at Buninyong by a blacksmith named Hiscock. Hearing that a great many people had gone there in search of gold I decided to go to Buninyong and see for myself what could be done. Judge, then, my disappointment to find that this diggings of Hiscock's was just about being deserted, parties chopfallen and discouraged selling their outfit, consisting of a tarpaulin, spade, pick, tin dish, for the merest trifle. During the evening, however, at the hotel I fraternised with a gentleman, a reporter for one of the Geelong papers, who had come up to take stock, and from him I learned that some new place had been discovered some miles out in the bush. He and I made our way to the place and found Dunlop and Regan, the discoverers, with about six or seven other parties on a small hill (Golden Point) scratching up dirt and washing it in a tin dish, where specks of gold became visible. Upon my attempting to follow their example I was informed that that side of the hill belonged to them and that I had better look for a place for myself. Under these circumstances I was constrained to take my stand on the other side which was afterwards called Poverty Point. Not many days elapsed before feeling discouraged, and I struck out across the bush in search of fresh fields, trying bits of dirt here and there as I went along. In this way, then, I came to the place which in honor of my discovery the diggers called "Brownbill's Diggings" and which afterwards degenerated into "The Brown Hill". We commenced work and must have been some considerable time there when Governor La Trobe, accompanied by Captain Dana and some black police, came up to see the place, Brownbill's diggings being the first visited. Upon my showing the Governor the manner in which gold was obtained he remarked to me—"Your mother did not think when you came to Australia that you were going to dig gold out of the ground in that manner." ** "I have never received so much as a shilling in the shape of reward from the Government, my repeated applications being rejected on the plea that my discovery was too near another diggings.

Other parties from the seaboard were quickly on the trail of the Golden Point prospectors, and Hiscock's Gully-workers soon repaired to the richer locality. Hannington, whom we left revisiting pre-auriferous Ballarat, so to speak, in 1845, turns up again as we pursue his story. He goes on thus:—

After that I went exploring, and did not visit Ballarat again till 1851, where I arrived 28th August, and sunk several shallow holes about Poverty Point. There was not much gold getting then on Golden Point. Found a few specks in the grass, and put down a hole five feet deep. The gold was all over the bottom like a jeweller's shop. There were some rows commencing over the claims then. I was about the fourth claim on the Point, and people coming every hour. We carried the dirt down to the creek in bags and washed it in dishes, and after that we got cradles. Some of the men that came washed with gloves on their hands. There was doctors and lawyers. Mr. Ocock, from Geelong, was one. Then the flat below the Point started, and I got another hole there about 10 feet deep, and could see gold all over the bottom. Worked it out, and went off in the night, as there was sticking up beginning then. Made for William Ritchie's hotel, on the Geelong road, and got there by daylight, and came back after placing our gold safe. This time we pitched our tent on the very spot where the School of Mines is now, to be in sight of our claim. Cleared off a large heap of earth, and sunk 12 feet, and it seemed to be a little gutter. It was like looking into a ginger bread basket, it looked so yellow with gold. We were doing well, but was near being stuck up one night, only I happened to be about, as I heard steps, and sang out to them to retreat or I should fire. They stuck up two others that night. We soon worked out that hole, for we were surrounded by claims, the next to us being James Pugh, mate of Esmond's. We sold the claim for two ounces of gold, and went up to Mount Alexander. Came back again in 1852, six months after, and found one man only on Golden Point, and that was the same man we sold our claim to, as the others all left. He said to me that he had averaged six ounces a day since we left. I did not do well at Mount Alexander, and went to Big Bendigo. Did well at Eaglehawk, but speculated in property at Melbourne, and got into the money-lenders' hands, and lost all, so came back to Ballarat again after trying other diggings unsuccessfully, and remained up to the present time (September, 1886.)

Teddy Shannahan, whose story about the Eureka Stockade will be found further on, gives some touches of the times when the first rushes had set the colony ablaze. From notes furnished by gentlemen on the staff of the Ballarat Courier, after an interview with Shannahan, the author culls the following:—

My party arrived at Buninyong in 1851, just after Esmond and Dunlop, and we went on Golden Point a few days afterwards, where we got 8 oz from a bucketful of stuff. I saw one poor fellow killed by the fall of a tree which he had undermined recklessly, so anxious was he to get the gold. One day a commissioner and a trooper demanded my license, and, as I had not one, they took me, with a lot of others, to the camp, where we were guarded by eight or nine blackfellows, and they, with their polished boots, were looking as proud as possible. I got my license, after telling them my mind, and had to pay £10 in all. We went to Mount Alexander and Fryers' Creek and on to Bendigo, where we had our pick of a squatter's flock of sheep for 9s. a head. We were the first to sink in Long Gully. At Eaglehawk you could see the gold shining in the heap of dirt, and every man sat on his heap all night with pistol or some weapon in his hand; I thought they would be making picks and shovels of the gold, it was so plentiful. It was there the first nugget was found, one 9 lbs. in weight. We only got £3 an ounce for our gold. In a week or two we started for Geelong, where my family was, and "home, home," was the cry. Each of our party took about 8 lbs. weight of gold to Geelong. We spent Christmas of 1851 there, and soon after that decided to go again to Ballarat, taking our wives—Glenn and I—and families with us—seventeen in all. Three inches of snow fell in Ballarat on our arrival, and we were hardly landed on the Eureka when up came a commissioner and a trooper and demanded our grog; we had ten gallons of brandy, and had to give it up, and we had got it at the post office below, but we did not tell where we got it, though the commissioner knew, for the bullock driver, we believed, had told him. The trooper wanted a digger to assist him with the grog; "if you do," said I, "I'll smash your head", so the digger gave no assistance. Next day the commissioner came back to my mate, and got him to take the keg to the camp. We paid the post office man £1 a gallon for the grog, and he gave us back the £10. We started digging on the Eureka, near where the stockade was afterwards. One day, when the troopers were license hunting, I saw Thomas Maher get into a hollow log to escape the troopers; when he got in he found a snake there four feet long; it went to one end of the log, and Maher remained till the troopers went away. The diggers were wearied out of their lives by the troopers. They were tormented everywhere. Our party from first to last on the diggings must have paid about £500 in license fees.

Creswick Creek (near Ballarat) from Spring Hill, 1855.

Shannahan, who is now 86 years of age, may be pardoned if his memory is not exact as to the number of pounds. His notion of the "tormenting" troopers is honestly Hibernian, and was thoroughly characteristic in one who began his narration to the Courier interviewer with the words:—

No, it was not the gold discovery that brought me out. In Corrigeen, Barony of Kilmarney, where I lived, seventeen houses were burnt in one day by way of eviction. I at once made up my mind to be under Parker, our landlord, no longer, and I came out here.

The ever recurring wail of the Saxon-hating Irish Celt was thus most naturally echoed by Shannahan as soon as he found the inconvenient officers of the law crossing his path in this new land. Shannahan had a store within the Stockade, and there the declaration of independence, mentioned in a subsequent chapter, was drawn up.

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.

On the 19th of September Mr. Commissioner Doveton, and Assistant-Commissioner Armstrong arrived with troopers, and on the 20th the first license was issued, Connor's party being the first licensees, and paying 15s. each for the remainder of the month. The diggers did not relish the demand of license fees, and at a meeting held—Connor on the stump—the division was against paying the fees. But the decision was not adhered to in practice, for the licenses were taken out immediately. Turner, for his party, followed Connor's example quickly, for by that time jealousies of each other had arisen, the Clunes contingent being regarded with especial disfavor. Swindells, one of the Geelong diggers, mounted the stump in those early days and on one occasion he got the diggers to divide—Clunes v. Geelong—and the balance of power being seen to be on the side of the latter, and the presence of the authorities aiding also, peace was kept. For the attitude of the Commissioners was firm. When Swindells and Oddie, as the chosen delegates of the diggers, waited on the Commissioners to oppose the issue of the licenses. Commissioner Doveton said to them:—"I am not come to make the law, but to administer it, and if you don't pay the license fee I'll damned soon make you pay it." This was nervously epigrammatic, and being fortified by a very contiguous group of black troopers, was practically irresistible. No wonder, then, that the peace, in that direction also, was kept. But that little drama in the tent of the Commissioners was a kind of prophetic rehearsal. The dialogue had in it pent-up elements which, not many years after, exploded in tragical fashion. But we must not here forestall the evolution of events.

The diggings were shallow and very productive, the rains were heavy, and two rude bridges erected, the first probably, over the Yarrowee by Connor's party, were washed away. By the time the first week was over there had gathered near 100 diggers at the Point, the riches unearthed there quickly attracting not only all the other prospectors, but setting the colony on fire with excitement from end to end. The quiet Ballarat sheep run, with its grassy slopes and shadowy glades, and its green-galley where the Yarrowee poured its limpid waters, became suddenly transformed as by the wand of an enchanter. The Black Hill then looked upon the valley with a densely timbered head and face, whence its name was taken. The valley was thinly sprinkled with trees, and the ranges, with the spurs subsequently known as Golden Point, Bakery, Specimen, and Sinclair's Hills, were well timbered, while the western basaltic table land, where Western Ballarat is now, was moderately sprinkled with the usual variety of forest growth. In a brief time all this was changed. Soon the solitary blue columns of smoke that rose from the first prospecting parties' camping places were but undistinguishable items amidst a host. The one or two white tents of the prospectors were soon lost in crowded irregular lines and groups of tents that dotted the slopes and flats, or spread out along the tortuous tracks made by the bullock teams of the squatter. The axe of the digger quickly made inroads upon the forest all round; the green banks of the Yarrowee were lined with tubs and cradles, its clear waters were changed to liquid, yellow as the yellowest Tiber flood, and its banks grew to be long shoals of tailings. Everywhere little hillocks of red, yellow, and white earth were visible as the diggers got to work, and in a few weeks the green slopes, where the prospectors found the gold of Golden Point, changed from their aboriginal condition to the appearance of a fresh and rudely made burial ground. At first the upturned colored earth-heaps were but as isolated pustules upon the fair face of the primeval hills and valley, but they rapidly multiplied until they ran together, so to speak, and made the forest swards but so many blotched reaches of industrious disorder, the very feculence of golden fever everywhere in colored splotches with shadowed pits between.

Mr. Latrobe, in a despatch at this date to Earl Grey, says:—

It is quite impossible for me to describe to your lordship the effect which these discoveries have had upon the whole community. Within the last three weeks the towns of Melbourne and Geelong and their large suburbs have been in appearance almost emptied of many classes of their male inhabitants. Not only have the idlers to be found in every community, and day laborers in town and the adjacent country, shopmen, artisans, and mechanics of every description thrown up their employments—in most cases leaving their employers and their wives and families to take care of themselves—and run off to the workings, but responsible tradesmen, farmers, clerks of every grade, and not a few of the superior classes have followed; some, unable to withstand the mania and force of the stream, but others because they were, as employers of labor, left in the lurch, and had no other alternative. Cottages are deserted, houses to let, business is at a standstill, and even schools are closed. In some of the suburbs not a man is left, and the women are known, for self-protection, to forget neighbors' jars, and to group together to keep house. The ships in the harbor are in a great measure deserted, and masters of vessels, like farmers, have made up parties with their men to go shares at the diggings. Both here and at Geelong all buildings and contract works, public and private, are at a stand-still.

Mr. Westgarth, in his "Victoria in 1857",. thus refers to what he saw of change in Melbourne when he returned from a visit to Europe:—

All had been changed into a wild and tumultuous development. The waters of Hobson's Bay were scarcely visible beneath a forest of five or six hundred vessels. The grassy glades of North Melbourne were now a hard and dusty surface, cut up everywhere with roads, and disturbed with the incessant noise of the traffic to the interior.

To extricate the deserted ships it was proposed to get Lascars from India. Communication with the mother country was only possible haphazard in those days. The Victorian Governor's despatches took six, and, in one instance, seven months to reach London. His Excellency and all his following were perplexed by the whirlwind of auriferous excitement. As his despatches stated, all classes felt the burning thirst for gold. Sir J. Palmer, at that time President of the Legislative Council, was one of the first diggers at Golden Point, and used to quarter at Lal Lal. Among the first visitors were Lady A'Beckett, wife of the Chief Justice, with other ladies and gentlemen, who made a pilgrimage from Melbourne in a waggonette to see the new wonders. The Governor, too, came upon the scene. Clunes and Anderson's Creek had mildly aroused the authorities in Melbourne, and regulations to be enforced by the 1st of September were discussed for those places; "but (writes the Governor to Earl Grey) before this could be done, they also were deserted, not from any real unproductiveness, but from the discovery of the new gold-field within a mile of the township of Buninyong." This was the Hiscock's Gully ground, but that electric flash was speedily followed by the more brilliant discharges from Golden Point, "another locality (to cite the Governor's despatches again) producing the precious metal in far greater abundance in the valley of the River Leigh, about seven miles to the northward, into which a very large conflux of adventurers is pouring." Under these circumstances the Government bestirred itself, sent up police, promulgated the right of the Crown in the gold, issued licenses, and so took the first feeble steps in the portentous and sometimes wayward path of gold-fields government. The Golden Point diggers did not like the licenses at first, but they soon took kindly to them, and 400 were issued within a few days. His Excellency, writing on 10th October, stated that 1300 had been issued, and by the 30th October, 2246. He saw the lucky diggers digging up the gold on the Point, and told Earl Grey there were 500 cradles at work, not fewer than 2500 persons on the ground, and 500 arriving daily. He saw 8 lbs. of gold washed from two tin dishes of dirt, heard of a party that raised 16 lbs. at an early hour, and 31 lbs. in all that day, many parties of four sharing day after day 10 oz. per man. "There can be no doubt (continues his Excellency) but that gold must rank as one of the most important, if not the most important, products of the colony, and that from this time forward a very considerable and valuable section of the population will be employed in realising it."

The Victorian Governor's foresight was true, for he was sagacious and the times were quickening. He and his Ministers had only just begun to draw breath again after the Ballarat rush, had begun to discuss the propriety of raising the salaries of civil servants to meet the new state; of affairs, had noted "business beginning to receive as many, physically and morally unfit for the austerities of the gold-fields returned to their homes," when a second shock came to fright them from their re-assuring propriety. The Mount Alexander diggings "broke out", as the expressive phrase had it, and the Governor once more took to horse and went to see the newer Eldorado, writing on 30th October to Earl Grey, and telling him "On my return to Melbourne the whole population was again excited."

The Mount Alexander rush was caused by a shepherd picking up a bit of golden quartz. That led to prospecting, and a party haying got £300 worth of gold in a seam of quartz, more prospectors arrived, and then the rich alluvial grounds were opened, and Ballarat itself was half deserted by rushers to the later held, and everything was turned topsy-turvy once more. Poor Mr. Latrobe at last got excited in his syntax. Writing on 3rd December to Earl Grey, his Excellency said:—

I must now apprise you that the progress and results of the successful search for gold in this (Mount Alexander) quarter, in the short interval which has since elapsed, has been such as completely to disorganise the whole structure of society, and it really becomes a question how the more sober operations of society, and even the functions of government, may be carried on.

Mr. Hastie, writing recently to the author, says:—

At the beginning of the diggings little attention was paid to Sabbath religious worship, the feelings of many resembling those of the digger who, when asked for a subscription, sent for a bottle of brandy to treat his visitor with. For the brandy the digger paid nine shillings, and as the subscription sought was only five shillings, his refusal cost more than his consent would have cost. After a while, however, open shops on the Sabbath were shut, the diggings became dotted with places of worship, and the Sabbath was observed with nearly as much respect as at the present time. At the first, all sorts of people came to the diggings, government officers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, and others. Two friends spent a night with me on their way to Ballarat; one was in the civil service with a salary of £600 a year, the other a merchant in good business. I expostulated with them, but they seemed determined to carry out their purpose of throwing up office and business for gold digging. Second thoughts must have induced them to change their design, for the civil servant rose afterwards to the very highest office in his department, and the merchant, after some years, retired, and, as far as I know, is still (1886) living at home on the estate he purchased. Among those who rushed to Ballarat were several clergymen, and one asked that his horse might graze in my paddock. I said a Church of England minister had been staying with me for a fortnight, and if he came, like him, to preach to and visit the diggers, I would be quite willing to keep his horse, but if he came as a digger, I must charge him, as I had not sufficient grass for my own stock, and was continually pestered with similar applications. One day a digger asked me if I would sell my vehicle, as he was going to Bendigo, and the trap would suit him; I said I could not spare it, and he then offered to take me as a mate. Humoring his whim for the moment, I pointed out how little I could do; "Oh," says he, "we will make you cook, and you will share alike in the gold." I declined, and perhaps lost the chance of becoming one of the Sandhurst magnates, but I do not regret the decision. Society, for a time, seemed to lose its ordinary conditions; those at the bottom rose to the top, and those at the top fell to the bottom; but it says much for the intelligence and character of the diggers and others that this state of things was so speedily righted, and that authority and law so soon resumed their place. This was certainly not due to the conduct or character of some of those in authority, young men whose only title to office was their having the ear of the Government, or of some one connected with the Government, for there could not be one more just, upright, and anxious to promote the interests of the colony than Mr. Latrobe. Many of his inferior officers were indeed inferior. Many had come out with recommendations from the home Government which Mr. Latrobe was constrained to regard. Had he been left to act on his own authority the disturbances which took place would never have occurred.

Mr. Hastie's observations anticipate here the march of events in this history, but they go to vindicate the reputation of an honest officer, upon the heads of whose subordinates, appointed, doubtless, in the manner stated, much of the trouble hereafter to be recorded must be laid.

The Hon. David Ham, who was elected to the Legislative Council on the 30th June, 1886, as one of the representatives for the Wellington Province, tells the following story of his adventures as a pioneer in the early days, from which it will be seen that he was a wonderful man for being at the start of things:—

Ballarat Flat, from the Black Hill—1855

I landed in Melbourne on the 24th July, 1849, when the wages paid for general servants was from £20 to £25 a year. Having had contracts for the supply of stores to wool ships off Point Henry, I became a farmer in 1850 at Bellarine, Indented Heads, and was potato digging on the 6th July, when the fires of Black Thursday were about us. We all left work and ran down into the sea. Left Geelong on the 10th July, 1851, for the diggings at Buninyong, no Ballarat being then discovered. Saw Hiscock and party washing off dirt in a tin dish, swilling it through the water, and then letting clear water on the dirt and fishing with a knife for any specks of gold that could be seen through the water in the dirt. Returned to Geelong and left there with stores when Ballarat was discovered. T.C. Riddell, Robert Fawcett, myself, and four others, reached Ballarat in September, as the first license had just been issued. Pistols and powder were the order of the day when work was over. We had a good claim on Golden Point, and soon worked it out, and then on the 3rd November, Alfred Douglass (senr.), W. Harper (Government Officer), H. Butchers, and I, left for Fryer's Creek. Got there on the 9th, our party being the fourth on the ground. We opened up Golden Point and the Golden Gully, taking a loaded gun to protect ourselves with, as old hands were prowling about for chances to rob holes. Many a life was taken in those days and never accounted for. The diggings were rich. I have seen 130 lbs. weight of gold taken out of a crevice in the rock there. In March, 1852, we had come to Ballarat again, and had a claim on the creek below Golden Point, about 32 feet square, 10 feet deep, and we took out £1200 worth of gold in two months. Then I, with four others, sank the first hole in Canadian Gully, and found the first nugget just below Hill and party, who were surfacing on the top of the range. We were about the first to open the first gully at Little Bendigo on the old Eureka. In May there came a flood and ruined all the workings on the flats. From 1853 to 1854 I had a butchery store on the Eureka, where the Orphan Asylum is now. Sold out, went to Geelong, invested in house property there, but people left for the gold-fields, property fell and I lost everything but my reputation. Paid 20s. in the pound, and in 1857 went to Ararat diggings. In 1859 I and others put up a sawmill in Monkey Gully, and opened up the Victoria Reef at Browns; and up to 1863 was engaged opening up Smythesdale, Happy Valley, Cape Clear, Bull Dog, and Linton. In 1868 I returned to Ballarat, where I have remained ever since.

The Ballarat excitement was exceeded by that of the Mount Alexander rush, and the Governor informed Earl Grey that while there were about 6000 persons at the Ballarat rush, there were double that number in an area of 15 square miles at Mount Alexander. His Excellency forthwith proposed to put a pecuniary drag upon the wheels of this auriferous machine that was running away with the bodies and wits of the population. He proposed to double the license fee, as the Legislative Council would not sanction a special vote to meet the new exigencies of the Executive. A further ground for the proposal was, "the notorious disproportion of the advantages derivable under the license system to the public revenue, compared with the amount of private gain." His Excellency also hoped by this means to deter unfit men from going to the diggings—fond but delusive hope. The superintendent of police and the sheriff furnished their contributions to the bitter cup of the unhappy Governor, informing him that most of the police and warders and turnkeys of gaols had sent in their resignations. Nor was this all, for "many clerks in the public service are bent on the same course." Then the Governor applied to the Governor-General at Sydney for "an increase to the small military force stationed here, sufficient, I trust, happen what may, to place the gaols, stockades, and banks for the present in safety." Mr. Latrobe wisely reminded Earl Grey that the preservation of order was more important than raising a great revenue, as thousands would flock to the colony, but good colonists would stay away if law became impotent to preserve peace and order. So he felt that he must have soldiers, not fearing that they would desert like the sailors to follow the seductive pursuit of gold. "Melbourne ought (wrote his Excellency) to be made the head-quarters of one regiment at least." In time this came about, and then, in less than two decades, we had talked of getting rid of both soldiers and the Home Government, and setting up absolutely for ourselves. The soldiers are already gone, and all the British empire is discussing the relations to be maintained between the parent State and her world-encircling colonies.

This modern outcome, however, had not appeared to the Government of 1851 as a probability. The Governor and his subordinates were busy regulating and licensing and escorting the diggers and their gold. "Boninyong", as the name was spelt in the despatches, was the head-quarters of the local authorities then. They issued a notice in October, having found that gold was accumulating, that "the escort will leave Boninyong every Tuesday morning at six o'clock; persons desirous of sending gold under the security afforded by this conveyance are to take care that it is forwarded to Boninyong not later than four o'clock p.m. of the Monday. Escort charge of 1 per cent. on washed gold, to be estimated at the rate of £3 per ounce, and on gold mixed with a larger portion of stone at the rate of £2 10s. the ounce." The Government authorities undertook no responsibility. Like the squatters, or small settlers, they advertised a sort of accommodation paddock on wheels, but took no responsibility. They had to take gold-dust in payment for licenses, for coin was scarce, and in the same month we find the Treasurer in Melbourne advertising for tenders for the purchase of 1500 oz. of gold.

In December the Government doubled the license fee, making it £3 per month, or £1 10s. if the license was taken out after the 15th of the month. And this for a claim eight feet square for one man, or eight feet by sixteen for a party, and with a prohibition against digging within half-a-mile of every side of a homestead. Even these regulations were luxuries to be denied to civil servants unless they could show that their resignation of office had "not only been authorised, but was unattended with embarrassment to the Government." To work this machinery on the Ballarat, or "Boninyong", diggings there were gazetted in October:—William Mair, commissioner, salary £300 a-year; D. Armstrong, assistant-commissioner, salary £250; John Bell, clerk, salary £100; Henry Smith, inspector of police, salary £150; mounted and foot constables at 3s. and 2s. 9d. per diem respectively; and native police at the magnificent pay of 1½d. per diem. For the Mount Alexander diggings there were Messrs. Doveton, Lydiard, Dana, and Eyre as commissioners, or police officers; and, as clerk, Mr. W. Hogarth, afterwards for sometime clerk of petty sessions in Ballarat.

The following table, showing the prices current at Ballarat, has been compiled from official returns, and will show the influence of the gold discovery on the value of the necessaries of life:—

articles.	quantity.	dates.
Jan. 1852.	May, 1852.	June, 1852.	Oct., 1852.
		s.	d.	s.	d.	s.	d.	s.	d.
Flour	pound	0	6	0	6	0	10	1	3
Tea	"	2	0	2	6	2	6	3	6
Sugar	"	0	6	0	6	0	8	1	0
Meat	"	0	3½	0	3	0	4½	0	5
Milk	quart	2	0	4	0	—	—	—	—
Bread	pound	0	4½	0	6	0	9	0	10½
Bacon	"	3	0	2	6	3	0	3	0
Butter	"	3	0	2	6	3	6	3	6
Potatoes	"	—	—	0	3	0	5	0	8
Washing	dozen	7	0	6	0	8	0	8	0

The returns for the Mount Alexander diggings were more elaborate, as at the dates given that locality was the more important. It is, however, presumable that similar rates ruled in Ballarat for goods not included in the Ballarat table. The prices at Mount Alexander in October, 1852, were similar where both tables recite the same articles. We find that at Mount Alexander some handicraftsmen got as much as 25s. per diem, oats were £3 per bushel, tobacco 10s. per lb.; while in Melbourne Wellington boots were quoted at from 50s. to 60s. per pair for imported, and from 75s. to 90s. for those made to order. The price of cartage from Melbourne to the diggings was from £100 to £120 per ton; hotel charges were from 50s. to 140s. per week, and a horse at livery cost 15s. a day, or 105s. a week. And it must be remembered that these prices were paid for the roughest and rudest accommodation and service, while the qualities of goods could never in those days be very closely or, at least, profitably scrutinised.

From some accounts and papers placed by Mr. Thomas Bath in the author's hands, the proofs are given that up to the end of 1854 and the beginning of 1855, there had not been any great reduction in prices. The coach fare from Geelong was still £3; "Mrs. Lynn and nine children" paying £20. At that time Mr. Bath had some men sawing for him the native timber then growing contiguous to a sawpit in the Gnarr Creek gully, between Doveton and Armstrong streets, where the railway reserve and wood merchants now are. For flooring boards, the price was 38s. per 100 feet; and quartering, or 4 inches by 3 inches, 33s. per 100 feet. Flour was £6 10s. per bag; potatoes, 4¾d. per lb.; eggs, 6s. per dozen; milk, 3s. per quart; peas, in husk, 1s. 3d. per quart; ginger beer, 4s. per dozen; lemonade and soda water, 5s. per dozen; oats, 16s. 3d. per bushel; hay, £25 per ton. A blacksmith's bill charges 24s. for shoeing a horse, a single shoe being paid for at the same rate. For a crowbar weighing 26 lbs., the price was 32s., and 30s. for tireing wheels, but how many is not stated, though 2s. is the price for one linch pin, 3s. for a maul ring, and 5s. for "one new axe;" not very exorbitant charges these last, surely, for the times. From the same heap of old papers it is found that £1 was the rent for two sittings from 1st January to 31st March, 1856, in the little wooden building in Armstrong street, which served then for Anglican church purposes. Some weighbridge notes for August, 1856, also are evidence of Mr. Bath's priority in that way; the first bridge in Ballarat having been erected by him in what is now Bath street, and about midway between Lydiard and Armstrong streets. One of the best-kept documents in the series now before the author carries us back to the days immediately after the Eureka Stockade affair,—mentioned further on—and to the days preceding the foundation of the District Hospital. It is as follows:—

Government Camp, Ballaarat, 16th December, 1854.

Mr. T. Bath will please to send the undermentioned Wine, &c., to the Camp Hospital, with the least possible delay. Application for the payment of the above to be made to my office.

Twelve (12) bottles Porter.

Six (6) bottles Sherry Wine.

ROBT. REDE,

Resident Commissioner.