Australian History

Prospecting Australia

Help Support Prospecting Australia:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
In a 1900 DIGS report the Chief Inspector of Mining said he was unable to indicate the magnitude of the deposit?
 
"The figures given show the existence of splendid lodes, which for all practicable purposes are inexhaustible. I speak of the Broken Hill deposits as lodes, for although the lode is continuous from the South to the North mine, the sections or bunches in which it occurs differ in quality more or less." Australian Town and Country Journal Saturday 8 December 1900
 
Hi All,
As I said before this is not the info I have.

I think with the conflicting reports coming out it's time I ended this.

The answer to my question is 10 years.

I first read this in a book by Ion L Idriess called The Silver City first published in 1956.
He and his family left Tamworth for Broken Hill in 1900 and traveled to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide then through South Australia to Cockburn then across the boarder to get to Broken Hill.

He writes on Page 34

"Broken Hill, of course, was a developed town. It was natural that the folk should think the mines would cut out, for such is the fate of most mining fields the world over. But how mistaken in this case! They gave the field possibly ten years of life in 1900. During the fifty-five years since then the Hill has produced great wealth, and today there is no thought of the mine cutting out"

So I did a search in trove and found this article from 18 Dec 1899 in the Sydney Evening News confirming this opinion.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/art...yyyy=1905|||l-word=*ignore*|*ignore*|||sortby.

So, what have we leaned?
There are differing opinions on every subject and it's great Australian History.

Now if you can excuse me, I'm going to the shed to pan out the con's from the weekend to see what is in there.

mbasko, I think it's your go.

Cheers
Mick
 
That was a good one! Had me - couldn't find an actual time frame anywhere.

Good luck with the cons!

I will put something up. A bit of trivial history that has a connection to my home town.

Which gold nugget (more than 9kg) discovered near Mudgee NSW was "forgotten" for almost 20 years? From 1936 until its rediscovery in 1956 it was in a Wells Fargo box that had been used by Treasury Officers as the wicket for impromptu cricket games.

Should be an easy one? ;)
 
You got the chocolates.
Your go.

"Initial discovery
Discovered at Maitland Bar, 22 km, southwest of Mudgee, adjacent to Meroo Creek on the 15th of June 1887.
Found by Jonathan Thorpe, Isaac Holmes and Frederick Leader 3 experienced prospectors at a depth of 3.4 m. It was found in an abandoned shaft that had been dug by the Brennan family. The Sydney Mail (25 June 1887) noted that The spot where the stranger was discovered is situated just below Brennans old public house in a locality surrounded on all sides by old shafts.
A number of years earlier a second large nugget had been found nearby.

The NSW Colonial Government agreed to purchase the nugget in July 1887 for 1,236 14s 1d. The purchase was finalised in October 1887.
The newly discovered nugget was initially displayed at:
Jubilee International Exhibition Adelaide 1887
Centennial International Exhibition Melbourne, 1888
New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition Dunedin, 188990
Worlds Columbia Exposition Chicago, 1893

After being displayed at various exhibitions it was stored at the Royal Mint (Sydney) until its closure in October 1926. Subsequently transferred to the Treasury Vaults however it was forgotten about for 20 years (from ~1936) until it was rediscovered during an audit in April 1956.

During the period it disappeared it was in a Wells Fargo box that had been used by Treasury Officers as the wicket for impromptu cricket games. Now part of the Geological Surveys gold nugget collection and stored in a bank vault in Sydney.

Importance of the nugget
Largest documented gold nugget remaining from the New South Wales gold rushes
Probably ranks within the top 100 largest nuggets ever found in Australia
Large Australian nuggets (including recent discoveries) are extremely rare
The nugget is an invaluable specimen for future scientific study and reference."

Ken McQueen and Robert Barnes, 2010. The Maitland Bar Nugget: A Key Link to the Gold Rush Heritage of New South Wales. Journal of Australasian Mining History Vol 8 September 2010.
 
The Monster meeting.

15th December 1851. The Monster Meeting attracted over 12,000 diggers protesting the increased mining licence fee. Predating the Red Ribbon Rebellion in Bendigo (1853) and Eureka in Ballarat (1854) was a key step towards democracy in the State of Victoria.

My GO?

Cheers
Mick
 
correct


When Governor Hotham wrote we live in times of restlessness and desire for political change the growing sense of importance and independence arising from unexampled prosperity, emancipation from old ties and obligations and (ideas) of self-support and self-government he was responding to the threat to the authority of the Crown over the diggers on the Bendigo goldfields.

The diggers had risen in protest of what they claimed to be unfair taxation in the guise of the heavy licence fee imposed on all who were on the diggings, whether they were engaged in looking for gold or not. The fee was very high, out of all proportion to the average expectation of daily earnings and was so pitched to force diggers away from the free-wheeling life on the diggings and back to work on the farms or in the workshops as labourers for the right kind of people the squatters and merchants who made up the ruling class.

A spirit of democracy was growing on the diggings, and the first protests began in Chewton, near Castlemaine, where more than 14,000 diggers turned out to protest against the government and the hated licence at the Great Meeting of Diggers.

your go backcreek
 
Thanks Duck,

Here's one I didn't know until I researched it.

What is the name of the world's oldest known, continuously worked, mine and where is it.

Cheers
Mick
 
The mine at Wilgie Mia in Western Australia believed to be the oldest continuously worked mine site in human history.
 
Man that was quick.

Absolutely correct. Did you know this fact? I didn't.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wilgie Mia is an ochre mine in the Weld Range of Western Australia. Excavations have occurred for at least 40,000 years and 14,000 cubic metres (490,000 cu ft) of material has been removed, leading to suggestions that this is the world's oldest continuing mining operation.
It is located in a hillside of the Weld Range, near the northwest town of Cue. Worked to a depth of 20 metres, scaffolds had lined the seam face beyond an opening 30 metres across. Archaeological excavations have recovered tools and equipment used in the exploitation of the resource, detailed analysis of the ochre reveals an extensive use throughout Western Australia. The mine continues to export ochre as a commercial pigment.
Ochre has been an important commodity in the history of Australia and the site produced large amounts of both red and yellow pigments. A range of colours and high durability are found in the constituent clays of the ochre mined at Wilgie Mia. These are residual to a geological process involving haematite (Fe2O3) and other iron rich compounds.
Wilgie Mia ochre has been used in the production of rock art and other painting practices throughout many regions of Australia. It had important cultural significance to many surrounding communities until the final dispersal of the local group by colonial miners in the 1930s.
Wilgie Mia was added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2011.

The oldest known mine on archaeological record is the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland, which radiocarbon dating shows to be about 43,000 years old, but it has not been continuously worked.

You'r go!

Cheers
Mick
 
Had popped up in a course I did awhile ago but couldn't remember the name etc. Had to Google it to get the name & state. Was thinking South Australia for some reason. Have read of aborigines mining ochre & stone elsewhere also. Have heard they also mined/collected & used coal from outcrops near some current coal mines.
An interesting read http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/109817/mining-by-aborigines.pdf

Next question - continuing on my Mudgee theme:
Which one of Australia's most famous poets and short-story writers once lived near Mudgee & what drew his family to the area?
 
Correct. Good pick up - he is not usually associated with Mudgee but Gulgong (which is close enough to Mudgee I s'pose)

"One of Australia's most famous poets and short-story writers, Henry Lawson, once lived at Eurunderee on the Henry Lawson Drive, Mudgee, where the remains of his house are turned into a memorial, but Henry has been claimed by Gulgong, which celebrates his life at the Henry Lawson Festival on the June long weekend every year.

Henry lived at Gulgong for 12 months as a young boy (1871-72), arriving from Grenfell on their way to the goldfields at Eurunderee.

Henry features Gulgong and Mudgee in many of his stories and poems, many of them most uncomplimentary. Stories such as Water Them Geraniums and Brightens Sister-in-Law depict the post goldrush region as wretched, dreary and dismal, which was certainly how Henry found his life at that time."
http://www.mudgeehistory.com.au/gulgong/gulgong4.html

Your go again Mick
 

Latest posts

Top