Cudgewa, Lucyvale, Shelly, The Legend of the Lost and Forgotten Gold

[Philthy]

I'll be heading to Cudgewa this weekend so I will be taking the pan and having a bit more of a look around.

 

[ozziii]

Should be some decent places in some of the creeks up there going by google maps sattelite view. Access would be the only real issue but if you have some good property then your right. I was just checking property that friends own, looks like they have some good frontage as well & there's some good access to other parts on some creeks so will be worth checking out & doing some test panning.
I seen some pics recently of chunky gold from out Jindy way, panned & may have been some sluiced as well, stuff a detector could pic up easily, so its about.

 

[Philthy]

Went up that way for a look around.

Found a few spots with some very fine flour gold.

Was able to get a couple of specks per pan. That was just from the sandbanks in the creek. Will hopefully be more in the creekbed.

 

[Parko]

For what it's worth I used to work at Tallangatta a few years back and met a young bloke who'd recovered enough gold from his family's dairy farm at Sandy Creek to buy a motorbike. Back in the day Sandy Creek was worked by Chinese diggers and the old workings are still clearly visible. Here's a list of settlements in Towong Shire, Upper Murray, that indicates gold mining areas.
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~surreal/AVNE/Towns/towns-towong.html

 

[ozziii]

Lots of places up that way had some gold diggings done back in the day, Mitta Mitta had a big set up there for a little while as well, but most places up there would be worth checking out, I've seen a few pics of gold from up that area & it wasn't to hard to get.
Will get back up there for a dig when I get a chance.

 

[greencheeks77]

Thanks everyone for contributing to the thread and Parko for what its worth ? I reckon the info will be worth its weight in gold when I am up that way next so thanks heaps for that one .. Greencheeks

 

[Hunting the yellow]

I met an ole fellow when I was out detecting one arvo back quite a few years ago the old fella scared the bejeeezus out of me when he tapped me on the shoulder whilst I had my headphones on, anyways we got chatting he told me where he lived and what have you and then started telling me stories of yesteryear and gold that was found, one particular story had me by the short and curlies, an old timer back in mid to late 20's regularly camped under a big grey box tree with a small wheel barrow, in it were his pick shovel billy and swag, the old prospector this time was dead, the property owner was the old fella I was talking too's father, the prospector apparently had been going through this property for quite some time pushing his old wheel barrow back and forth to Bendigo, in it was large amounts of specimens, on many occasion the old prospector would stop in at the farm house for a cuppa and a chin wag, the old fella I was talking too told me that he remembers as a kid holding potato sized Quartz rocks filled with gold and that he used to sell them in Bendigo, as the story continued it came out that as a young lad the old prospector was one of George Lansells exploration miners, paid to go out and sink exploration shafts for the King of Quartz.
I ended up back at this old fellows place for a cuppa with him and he showed me the wooden wheel barrow pick and shovel, the old billy hung in his shed, I asked about the swag and what happened to the old prospector and he said that his father buried the prospector in his swag under the old tree with his gold that was found with him when he died, his father said it was respectful not to take the gold but to bury it with him, the old fellow told me if you were to ever find out where the old prospector was getting his gold from you would be a rich man, I never have found where the old prospector was mining, and since then the old fella I meet that day has since died, the property has new owners now and don't seem the least bit interested in this story, the wooden wheel barrow has since been lost/destroyed thrown out who knows, finding out that this had been done by the new owners of the place I thought it best not to tell them about the old prospector buried beneath a big old box tree on their property.
So i guess this story will turn into one of those myths, I've searched quite a few times for where the old prospector was getting his gold from but with no joy, each time I head out that way the bush seems to look a little different every time, having found out the old prospector was apparently one of Lansells exploration miners I can only have at a guess that he kept a spot on the quiet and went back later in life to work it, I'm guessing with the rate of pay old Lansell would of been offering I would of done the same thing.

that's quite a interesting story mate would love to find where he was digging i might have to do the same one day big gold bar for someone to find

 

[ozziii]

Thanks everyone for contributing to the thread and Parko for what its worth ? I reckon the info will be worth its weight in gold when I am up that way next so thanks heaps for that one .. Greencheeks

Do you get up around that area much Greencheeks, I went up there last weekend but it was a very quick trip & no time to do anything, still a good bit of water in some of the creeks up there near Corryong.

 

[greencheeks77]

Thanks everyone for contributing to the thread and Parko for what its worth ? I reckon the info will be worth its weight in gold when I am up that way next so thanks heaps for that one .. Greencheeks

Do you get up around that area much Greencheeks, I went up there last weekend but it was a very quick trip & no time to do anything, still a good bit of water in some of the creeks up there near Corryong.

Nah haven't been up that way for the best part of 20 yrs now maybe a touch longer and that was for a weekend hunting trip I just don't seem to ever set time aside to get back up that way but when I do this thread will help me out just nicely, if I remember the creeks up that way hardly dry out in fact their was a dam we used to call The Blue Lagoon and I was told it never went dry it is spring fed and in the years I was their I never seen it below full, well I hope you enjoyed your trip some of my best memories come from up that way, we rarely went up past Lucyvale as we were based at Shelly and their was another mob up that way cutting timber up the back of Lucyvale.

 

[ozziii]

Done a bit of hunting up there with my brother & old man, ferals & deer, some good area's for it up around there.
But yes, normally always water in most good creeks up that way from what I can remember, even some of the smaller creeks normally had a small flow all year round. Not sure if I've heard of the Blue Lagoon dam up there though, but I do know of a small lake over the back of Shelley near the HV power lines & near the pine plantation, Lake Findlay, but its been bone dry for a while now, might be that one your thinking of, thats in an area where hunters go.

 

[blueygreen1988]

I really think I have heard about that mine cant remember the story but the way you describe it The Jewellers shop I believe I have heard of it, I wonder I it was the same boiler that I stumbled upon?? very kewl.. wild dogs were always a huge problem up the back of lucyvale as I remember it and often we spoke with the dog trapper (shooter) in fact out the back of shelly is where I first seen a pack of dogs running an emu down and not all the dogs at once mind you they were very calculated and spread out and as the emu was chased further down the road another dog would appear entering from the bush and continuing the chase it was the most incredible experience as I remember it and a white fox another time. cant remember reading or hearing a story that a creek just out of Corryong where people pan and they find nuggets that 3 to 5 grams are found and could of even been an old mine or some type of structure where they worked and there was apparently an old race or something that is there?

I think the mine your referring to might be the new chum mine. It's on mt elliot and visible from the road.
My father inlaw still has the deposit book from the 1890s for that mine.

 

[RM Outback]

As a young fella working in spotmills and living deep in the scrub only to return home every now and then I would sit around a fire and listen to stories and legends of an old man that spent his whole life in the Victorian bush as a woodcutter and one story I was told and always remember is that an old prospector from Corryong would walk the creeks and the mountain's in his search for his Eldorado and be gone for weeks before returning to his home in Corryong at the end of every search, well apparently he returned to his quest one time and found a place in a creek somewhere between Cudgewa and shelly he found a reef of gold but suddenly took ill and returned to the hospital I cant remember what he said was wrong with him but lets just say he was in a very bad way for almost 2 weeks when taking his last moments to reveal to a nurse a leather pouch containing about 12 ounces of pure gold and told her the location now the legend is that when he left his Eldorado he placed an axe in a large gumtree along the side of the creek but nobody has ever found the reef or the axe.....

If you have heard of this story please let us know as I believe it to be true or I could of just been played :lol: but I believe that he believed and I guess that's what makes it memorable..

Never came across this thread until today. GC I met a grandson of the bloke your talking about regarding the axe in the tree. He told me his grandfather found a reef and placed the axe in a tree, didn't mention any illness only to finish off by saying he never got back out there and the axe was still in the tree. Mind you the young bloke was 11 years old, born and bred local, I'm talking early 90's here. Haven't seen Jimmy for about 15 years, last I heard he was in WA. I'd say he'd heard the story and recounted it telling his version, how true it is I have no idea. Nonetheless it's one of those mysteries that will live on for ever in my opinion, at least it has the potential to be true

 

[user 4386]

I think the mine your referring to might be the new chum mine. It's on mt elliot and visible from the road.
My father inlaw still has the deposit book from the 1890s for that mine.

The New Chum is about 1.5 km north of the Mt Elliot line of reefs. Highly mineralized with sulphides, most of the gold fairly fine and locked in the sulphides but many high grade but narrow, Saw a hut where they were drawing their drinking water from an adit - not something I would do with all that arsenic. Dogs all over the place.

 

[Gold legend]

G'day Greencheeks.

Up on the Southern tablelands, we have the legend of Billy Blue and his missus.

Billy Blue, a local fellow of the Gundungarra Mob, lived around Goulburn with his Missus and would come into town when he got a bit low on provisions. Billy always paid for his provisions with gold that he reckoned was from the Shoalhaven.

The problem was that that gold, that he paid with, had been cut with an axe of a larger piece. some of the locals tried to follow him but Billy's Missus always let him know when he was being followed.

Anyway, the story goes that Billy Blue had known of a reef of gold that was concealed behind a waterfall (He was always wet when He came to town, as if He'd just swam across a river), and when Billy needed some provisions, he'd go up there with his axe, and cut a little piece off.

Hi just wondering if you could reference where you got the info from. Would love to put it in my book about Billy Blue but need evidence on paper to back up the claim, link to an article. If you interested in contributing a letter to the book let me know. I hadn't come across info about Billy being from the Gundungarra Mob before so that's interesting. cheers