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Gold found at Bendigo, Victoria in September 1851. According to the Bendigo Historical Society, it is generally agreed that gold was found at Bendigo Creek by two married women from the Mount Alexander North Run (later renamed the Ravenswood Run), Margaret Kennedy and Julia Farrell, at "The Rocks" area of Bendigo Creek at Golden Square, near where today's Maple Street crosses the Bendigo Creek.[93] When Margaret Kennedy gave evidence before a Select Committee in September 1890 she claimed to have found gold near "The Rocks" in early September 1851.[94] September 1851 was the date also mentioned in relation to the three other sets of serious contenders for the first finders of gold at Bendigo Creek on the Mount Alexander North Run: Stewart Gibson, one of the two brothers who owned/leased the Mount Alexander North Run in 1851, and Frederick Fenton, the then overseer and later owner (Fenton claimed that he and Gibson had been together when they found gold in a water-hole at the junction of Golden Gully with Bendigo Creek in September 1851 just before shearing commenced but decided at the time to keep it quiet); one or more of the shepherds living in the hut on the Mount Alexander North Run near the junction of Golden Gully with Bendigo Creek, James Graham (alias Ben Hall), Benjamin Bannister, and hut-keeper Christian Asquith, and/or a shepherd who visited them at the hut named William Henry Johnson (who found gold near "The Rocks"); and one or both of the husbands of the two women, "Happy Jack" John Kennedy, an overseer of the Mount Alexander North Run who had his hut on the Bullock Creek at what is today known as Lockwood South, and Patrick Peter Farrell, a cooper (who found gold near "The Rocks").[94][95] The date of September 1851 is also commemorated in a monument erected on the main highway at Golden Square in front of the Senior Citizens' Club. In September 1890 a Select Committee of the Victorian Legislative Assembly sat to decide who was the first to discover gold at Bendigo. They stated that there were at least 12 claimants to being the first to find gold at Bendigo (they included Margaret Kennedy in this number, but not Julia Farrell who was deceased), plus the journalist Henry Frencham[96] who claimed to have discovered gold at Bendigo Creek in November 1851. (Frencham had previously also claimed to have been the first to have discovered gold at Warrandyte in June 1851 when he, unsuccessfully, claimed the £200 reward for finding payable gold within 200 miles (320 km) of Melbourne;[75][76] and then he also claimed to be the first to have discovered gold at Ballarat [then also known as Yuille's Diggings] "and make it known to the public" in September 1851.[8]) In the evidence that Margaret Kennedy gave before the Select Committee in September 1890 Margaret Kennedy claimed that she and Julia Farrell had been secretly panning for gold before Henry Frencham arrived, evidence that was substantiated by others. The Select Committee found "that Henry Frencham's claim to be the discoverer of gold at Bendigo has not been sustained", but could not make a decision as to whom of the other at least 12 claimants had been first as "it would be most difficult, if not impossible, to decide that question now"..."at this distance of time from the eventful discovery of gold at Bendigo". They concluded that there was "no doubt that Mrs Kennedy and Mrs Farrell had obtained gold before Henry Frencham arrived on the Bendigo Creek", but that Frencham "was the first to report the discovery of payable gold at Bendigo to the Commissioner at Forest Creek (Castlemaine)". (An event Frencham dated to 1 December 1851,[91] a date which was, according to Frencham's own contemporaneous writings, after a number of diggers had already begun prospecting on the Bendigo goldfield.[12] 1 December 1851 was the date on which Frencham had a letter delivered to Chief Commissioner Wright at Forest Creek (Castlemaine) asking for police protection at Bendigo Creek, a request that officially disclosed the new gold-field. Protection was granted and the Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Gold Districts of Buninyong and Mt Alexander, Captain Robert Wintle Home, arrived with three black troopers (native police) to set up camp at Bendigo Creek on 8 December.[97]) The Select Committee also decided "that the first place at which gold was discovered on Bendigo was at what is now known as Golden Square, called by the station hands in 1851 "The Rocks", a point about 200 yards to the west of the junction of Golden Gully with the Bendigo Creek."[91][94][95][98][98][99][100][101][102][103] (The straight-line distance is nearer to 650 yards [600 metres].) In October 1893 the man who had proposed the Select Committee, who was also one of the men who had sat on the Select Committee, gave an address in Bendigo where he gave his opinion on the matter of who had first found gold at Bendigo. Alfred Shrapnell Bailes, Mayor of Bendigo, and member of the Legislative Council of Victoria, stated that "upon the whole, from evidence which, read with the stations books, can be fairly easily pieced together, it would seem that Asquith, Graham, Johnson and Bannister, (the three shepherds residing at the hut on Bendigo Creek and their shepherd visitor Johnson) were the first to discover gold".[104] The first persons to mine for gold at the Bendigo Creek were people associated with the Ravenswood Run. They included Patrick Peter and Julia Farrell, John and Margaret Kennedy and Margaret's children John Drane, 9, and Mary Kennedy, 2,[105][106][107][108] and the shepherds Christian Asquith, James Graham (alias Ben Hall) and Bannister. They were joined by other shepherds who had been employed elsewhere on the Ravenswood Run than at Bendigo Creek, including William Henry Johnson, James Lister, William Ross, Paddy O'Donnell and William Sandbach and his brother, Walter, who arrived at the Bendigo Creek in November 1851.[94][95][109] They were soon joined by miners from the Forest Creek (Castlemaine) diggings like the journalist Henry Frencham. There is no doubt that Henry Frencham, under the pen-name of "Bendigo",[91] was the first to publicly write anything about gold-mining at Bendigo Creek, with three reports about the same event, a meeting of miners at Bendigo Creek on 8 and 9 December 1851, published respectively in the Daily News, Melbourne, date unknown[110] and 13 December 1851 editions of the Geelong Advertiser[111] and The Argus, Melbourne.[12] It was Frencham's words, published in "The Argus" of 13 December 1851 that were to begin the Bendigo Goldrush: "As regards the success of the diggers, it is tolerably certain the majority are doing well, and few making less than half an ounce per man per day." In late November 1851 some of the miners at Castlemaine (Forest Creek), having heard of the new discovery of gold, began to move to Bendigo Creek joining those from the Mount Alexander North (Ravenswood) Run who were already prospecting there.[93] The beginnings of this gold-mining was reported from the field by Henry Frencham, under the pen-name of "Bendigo",[12][91][112] who stated that the new field at Bendigo Creek, which was at first treated as if it were an extension of the Mount Alexander or Forest Creek (Castlemaine) rush,[113][114] was already about two weeks old on 8 December 1851. Frencham reported then about 250 miners on the field (not counting hut-keepers). On 13 December Henry Frencham's article in "The Argus" was published announcing to the world that gold was abundant in Bendigo. Just days later, in mid-December 1851 the rush to Bendigo had begun, with a correspondent from Castlemaine for the Geelong Advertiser reported on 16 December 1851 that "hundreds are on the wing thither (to Bendigo Creek)".[115] Henry Frencham may not have been the first person to find gold at Bendigo but he was the first person to announce to the authorities (1 December 1851) and then the world ("The Argus", 13 December 1851) the existence of the Bendigo gold-field. He was also the first person to deliver a quantity of payable gold from the Bendigo gold-field to the authorities when on 28 December 1851, 3 days after the 603 men, women and children then working the Bendigo gold-field had pooled their food resources for a combined Christmas dinner,[114] Frencham and his partner Robert Atkinson, with Trooper Synott as an escort, delivered 30 lbs of gold that they had mined to Assistant Commissioner Charles J.P. Lydiard at Forest Creek (Castlemaine), the first gold received from Bendigo.[116] Sep–Dec 1851: Other finds in New South Wales Araluen, September 1851 [Araluen & Bells Creek][117] Braidwood, October 1851 [Majors Creek][118] Bell's Point on the Bell River, November 1851[83] Tuena, November 1851[119] 1851 (undated): Other finds in New South Wales Near Lake George [Carraway Flat & Black Swamp][83] Parshish (80 km south of Bathurst)[83] Oakey Creek near Coolah[83] Monaro[83] Hanging Rock, near Nundle (northern tablelands)[83] 1851 (undated): Other finds in Victoria Gold was found at Omeo in late 1851 and gold mining continued in the area for many years. Due to the inaccessibility of the area there was only a small Omeo gold rush.[120] 1851–1886: Managa and other finds in Tasmania Woods Almanac, 1857, states that gold was possibly found at Fingal (near Mangana) in 1851 by the "Old Major" who steadily worked at a gully for two to three years guarding his secret. This gold find was probably at Mangana and that there is a gully there known as Major's Gully.[121] The first payable alluvial gold deposits were reported in Tasmania in 1852 by James Grant at Managa (then known as The Nook)[40] and Tower Hill Creek which began the Tasmanian gold-rushes. The first registered gold strike was made by Charles Gould at Tullochgoram near Fingal and Managa and weighed 2 lb 6ozs. Further small finds were reported during the same year in the vicinity of Nine Mile Springs (Lefroy). In 1854 gold was found at Mt. Mary.[122] During 1859 the first quartz mine started operations at Fingal. In the same year James Smith found gold at the River Forth, and Mr. Peter Leete at the Calder, a tributary of the Inglis. Gold was discovered in 1869 at Nine Mile Springs (Lefroy) by Samuel Richards. The news of this brought the first big rush to Nine Mile Springs. A township quickly developed beside the present main road from Bell Bay to Bridport, and dozens of miners pegged out claims there and at nearby Back Creek. The first recorded returns from the Mangana goldfields date from 1870; Waterhouse, 1871; Hellyer, Denison, and Brandy Creek, 1872; Lisle, 1878 Gladstone and Cam, 1881; Minnow and River Forth, 1882; Brauxholme and Mount Victoria, 1883; and Mount Lyell, 1886.[27][123] 1852 and 1868: Echunga, South Australia Payable gold was found in May 1852 at Echunga in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia by William Chapman and his mates Thomas Hardiman and Henry Hampton. After returning to his father's farm from the Victorian goldfields William Chapman had searched the area around Echunga for gold motivated by his mining experience and the £1,000 reward being offered by the South Australian government for the first discoverer of payable gold. Chapman, Hardiman and Hampton were later to receive £500 of this reward as the required £10,000 of gold had not been raised in two months. Within a few days of the announcement of finding gold 80 gold licenses had been issued. Within seven weeks there were about 600 people, including women and children, camped in tents and wattle-and-daub huts in "Chapman's Gully". A township sprang up in the area as the population grew. Soon there were blacksmiths, butchers and bakers to provide the gold diggers' needs. Within 6 months 684 licences had been issued. Three police constables were appointed to maintain order and to assist the Gold Commissioner. By August 1852 there were less than 100 gold diggers and the police presence was reduced to two troopers. The gold rush was at its peak for nine months. It was estimated in May 1853 that about £18,000 worth of gold, more than 113 kg (4,000oz, 250 lb), had been sold in Adelaide between September 1852 and January 1853, with an additional unknown value sent overseas to England.[124] Despite this, this goldfield could not compete with the richer fields in Victoria and by 1853 the South Australian goldfields were described as being 'pretty deserted'. There were further discoveries of gold in the Echunga area made in 1853, 1854, 1855, and 1858 causing minor rushes. There was a major revival of the Echunga fields in 1868 when Thomas Plane and Henry Saunders found gold at Jupiter Creek. Plane and Saunders were to receive rewards of £300 and £200 respectively. By September 1868 there were about 1,200 people living at the new diggings and tents and huts were scattered throughout the scrub. A township was established with general stores, butchers and refreshment booths. By the end of 1868 though, the alluvial deposits at Echunga were almost exhausted and the population dwindled to several hundred. During 1869 reef mining was introduced and some small mining companies were established but all had gone into liquidation by 1871. The Echunga goldfields were South Australia's most productive. By 1900 the estimated gold production was 6,000 kg (13,225 lb), compared with 680g (24oz, 1½lb) from the Victoria Mine at Castambul. After the revival of the Echunga goldfields in 1868, prospectors searched the Adelaide Hills for new goldfields. News of a new discovery would set off another rush. Gold was found at many locations including Balhannah, Forest Range, Birdwood, Para Wirra, Mount Pleasant and Woodside.[34][125] 1852–1869: Other finds in Victoria Amherst/Daisy Hill/Talbot, 1852 (after initial finds in 1848 and 1851)[46] Beechworth, 1852[126] Tarnagulla, 1852[126] Wedderburn, 1852[127] Steiglitz, 1853[128] Maldon, 1853[126] Homebush near Avoca, 1853[126] Bright, 1853[126] Stawell, 1853[129] Maryborough, 1854[126] St Arnaud, 1854[127] Caldonia (St Andrews), 1855[130] Ararat,1856[126] Mansfield, 1855[131] Chiltern, 1858[126] Inglewood, 1859[127] Rutherglen, 1860[132] Stuart Mill, 1861[133] Walhalla, 1863[126] Foster, 1869[126] 1852–1893: Other finds in New South Wales Typical of mine leases in the 1870s Adelong, 1852[134][135] Sunny Corner, 1854[136] Rocky River near Uralla, 1856[27] Broulee, 1857, on the Araluen Field[137] Mogo, 1858, on the Araluen Field[137] Kiandra, 1859[138] Young, 1860, known at that time as Lambing Flat[139] Nerrigundah 1861[140] Forbes, 1861[141][142] Parkes, 1862[142] Lucknow near Orange, 1862[143] Grenfell 1866[144] In beach sands at Northern Rivers, 1870[27] Gulgong, 1870[145] Hillgrove, 1877[146] Mount Drysdale near Cobar, 1892[27] Mount McDonald near Wyangala, 1880[147] Wyalong, 1893[27] 1857/8: Canoona near Rockhampton, Queensland Overpainted albumen print of gold diggers and Aborigines near Rockhampton c. 1860s Gold was found in Queensland near Warwick as early as 1851,[148] beginning small-scale alluvial gold mining in that state.[149] The first Queensland goldrush did not occur until late 1858, however, after the discovery of what was rumoured to be payable gold for a large number of men at Canoona near what was to become the town of Rockhampton. According to legend[150] this gold was found at Canoona near Rockhampton by a man named Chappie (or Chapel) in July or August 1858.[151] The gold in the area, however, had first been found north of the Fitroy river on 17 November 1857 by Captain (later Sir) Maurice Charles O'Connell, a grandson of William Bligh the former governor of New South Wales, who was Government Resident at Gladstone. Initially worried that his find would be exaggerated O'Connell wrote to the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands on 25 November 1857 to inform him that he had found "very promising prospects of gold" after having some pans of earth washed. Chapel was a flamboyant and extrovert character who in 1858 at the height of the goldrush claimed to have first found the gold. Instead Chapel had been employed by O'Connell as but part of a prospecting party to follow up on O'Connell's initial gold find, a prospecting party which, according to contemporary local pastoralist Colin Archer, "after pottering about for some six months or more, did discover a gold-field near Canoona, yielding gold in paying quantities for a limited number of men".[152] O'Connell was in Sydney in July 1858 when he reported to the Government the success of the measures he had initiated for the development of the goldfield which he had discovered. This first Queensland goldrush resulted in about 15,000 people flocking to this sparsely populated area in the last months of 1858. This was, however, a small goldfield with only shallow gold deposits and with no where near enough gold to sustain the large number of prospectors. This goldrush was given the name of the 'duffer rush' as destitute prospectors "had, in the end, to be rescued by their colonial governments or given charitable treatment by shipping companies" to return home when they did not strike it rich and had used up all their capital. The authorities had expected violence to break-out and had supplied contingents of mounted and foot police as well as war ships. The New South Wales government (Queensland was then part of New South Wales) sent up the "Iris" which remained in Keppel Bay during November to preserve the peace. The Victorian government sent up the "Victoria" with orders to the captain to bring back all Victorian diggers unable to pay their fares; they were to work out their passage money on return to Melbourne.[153] O'Connell had reported that "we have had some trying moments when it seemed as if the weight of a feather would have turned the balance between comparative order and scenes of great violence",[154] and according to legend both O'Connel and Chapel were threatened with lynching.[155][156] 1861–1866: Cape River and other finds in Queensland In late 1861[157] the Clermont goldfield was discovered in Central Queensland near Peak Downs, triggering what has (incorrectly) been described as one of Queensland's major gold rushes. Mining extended over a large area,[158] but only a small number of miners was involved. Newspapers of the day, which also warned against a repeat of the Canoona experience of 1858,[157] at the same time as describing lucrative gold-finds reveal that this was only a small goldrush. The "Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser" of 3 May 1862 reported that "a few men have managed to earn a subsistence for some months...others have gone there and returned unsuccessful".[159] "The Courier" (Brisbane) of 5 January 1863 describes "40 miners on the diggings at present"..."and in the course of a few months there will probably be several hunderd miners at work".[160] "The Courier" reported 200 diggers at Peak Downs in July 1863.[161] The goldfield covering an area of over 1600 square miles (4000 km2) was officially declared in August 1863.[162] "The Cornwall Chronicle" (Lanceston, Tasmania), citing the "Ballarat Star", reported about 300 men at work, many of them new chums, in October 1863.[163] In 1862[164][165][166] gold was found at Calliope near Gladstone,[27] with the goldfield being officially proclaimed in the next year.[167] The small rush attracted around 800 people by 1864 and after that the population declined as by 1870 the gold deposits were worked out.[168] In 1863 gold was also found at Canal Creek (Leyburn)[27] and some gold-mining began there at that time, but the short-lived goldrush there did not occur until 1871–72.[169] In 1865 Richard Daintree discovered 100 km (60 miles) south-west of Charters Towers the Cape River goldfield near Pentland[170] in North Queensland.[171] The Cape River Goldfield which covered an area of over 300 square miles (750 km2) was not, however, proclaimed until 4 September 1867, and by the next year the best of the alluvial gold had petered out. This goldrush attracted Chinese diggers to Queensland for the first time.[162][172] The Chinese miners at Cape River moved to Richard Daintree's newly discovered Oaks Goldfield on the Gilbert River in 1869.[162] The Crocodile Creek (Bouldercombe Gorge) field near Rockhampton was also discovered in 1865.[27] By August 1866 it was reported that there were between 800 and 1,000 men on the field.[173] A new rush took place in March 1867.[174] By 1868 the best of the alluvial gold had petered out. The enterprising Chinese diggers who arrived in the area, however, were still able to make a success of their gold-mining endeavours.[175] Gold was also found at Morinish near Rockhampton in 1866 with miners working in the area by December 1866,[176] and a "new rush" being described in the newspapers in February 1867[177] with the population being estimated on the field as 600.[178] 1867–1870: Gympie and other finds in Queensland Queensland had plunged into an economic crisis after the separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859. This had led to severe unemployment with a peak in 1866. Gold was being mined in the state but the number of men involved was only small. On 8 January 1867 the Queensland Government offered a £3,000 reward for the discovery of more payable goldfields in the state. As a direct result 1867 saw new goldrushes.[162] More goldfields were discovered near Rockhampton in early 1867 being Ridgelands and Rosewood.[27][179][180] The rush to Rosewood was described in May 1867 as having "over three hundred miners".[181] Ridgelands with its few hundred miners was described as "the most populous gold-field in the colony" on 5 October 1867,[182] but it was very soon overtaken and far surpassed by Gympie. The most important discovery in 1867 was later in the year when James Nash discovered gold at Gympie,[183][184] with the rush underway by November 1867.[185] J.A. Lewis, Inspector of Police arrived on the Gypie Goldfield on 3 November 1867 and wrote on 11 November 1867: "On reaching the diggings I found a population numbering about five hundred, the majority of whom were doing little or nothing in the way of digging for the precious metal. Claims, however, were marked out in all directions, and the ground leading from the gullies where the richest finds have been got was taken up for a considerable distance. I have very little hesitation in stating that two-thirds of the people congregated there had never been on a diggings before, and seemed to be quite at a loss what to do. Very few of them had tents to live in or tools to work with; and I am afraid that the majority of those had not sufficient money to keep them in food for one week...From all that I could glean from miners and others, with whom I had an opportunity of speaking, respecting the diggings, I think it very probable that a permanent gold-field will be established at, or in the vicinity of, Gympie Creek; and if reports-which were in circulation when I left the diggings-to the effect that several prospecting parties had found gold at different points, varying from one to five miles from the township, be correct, there is little doubt but it will be an extensive gold-field, and will absorb a large population within a very short period."[185] The very rich and productive area, which covered only an area of 120 square miles (300 km2), was officially declared the Gympie Goldfield in 1868.[162] In 1868 the mining shanty town which had quickly grown with tents, many small stores and liquor outlets, and was known as "Nashville", was also renamed Gympie after the Gympie Creek named from the aboriginal name for a local stinging tree. Within months there were 25,000 people on the goldfield. This was the first large goldrush after Canoona in 1858, and Gympie became 'The Town That Saved Queensland' from bankruptcy.[186] The Kilkivan Goldfield (N.W of Gympie) was also discovered in 1867 with the rush to that area beginning in that same year, and, as was commonly the case, before the goldfield was officially declared in July 1868.[162] Townsville was opened up in 1868, the Gilbert River goldfield (110 km from Georgetown) in 1869,[27] and Etheridge (Georgetown) in 1870.[187] |
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