how tuff were the old timers

[Davent]

Laying awake listening to dingo, s howl on a hill near hayes creek nt the other night, I coulnt help but think how tuff the old timers must have been.
It was a 36 deg day, still pretty humid, humid enough to, soak your shirt after 5 mins of swinging. The amount of diggings in the area, and the size of the diggings gives you a whole lot of respect for those old diggers. Its not like they could jump in the hilux and crank the aircon and drive home after a day in the tropics. They couldnt grab a coldy out of the esky, or drive into town to grab a few supplies. They couldnt even spray some rid on or light up a coil when the mozzies got bad. The amount of boot tacks ive found suggest that their boots suffered a lot as well. There were over 800 chinamen working Margret diggings in 1873, pine creek the nearest town, about 80 km away.....by horse. Then as I found, when I woke up to a king brown, not more than 5m from my stretcher, they had other problems as well.
How tuff were these men?
There was a man in darwin who, was employed to brake the bones of the dead chinese , who, s bodies were sent by sea back to china, the chinese diggers used to fill the bones of their dead with gold, and a customs officer had to brake them open to recover the gold...nice job eh?
They were a tough breed back then for sure.

 

[Wolfy]

Yes, and consider too that many came from much cooler climates far away. One of my ancestors went from London to Cooktown. Amazing how they coped.

 

[Guest]

My oath mate. The Milparinka miners mostly died of typhoid and cholera, from drinking the water- damned if you do, damned if you don't. Beer, wine and spirits were the preferred options, which in itself was problematic.

 

[Simmo]

Dave,
I think I wrote this story on this forum a long while ago.... Dunno??
Anyway, a mate and I walked a fair way up the track from our place and down to some mine shafts.
It was steep, and difficult not to spill your beer....
We got to a shaft and wow, how tiny the entrance was... unreal to think that miners came out of there with ore!!
Too hard and dangerous to go into the mine ill-equipped, we sat and looked out at the view...
Not that I smoke now, but at the time, I rolled a Port Royal, and we sat, quietly...
True to this day, I heard picks and hammers and chisels and yelling and screaming and everything else that you would expect to hear!!
It was brilliant!
Anyway, realising that I was indeed daydreaming, we turned around to trudge back up the hill.....
From a differant angle, and perspective, we could see the Z track up the hill, buried in time, up to the coach road!!
The poor buggers in their day, got ore out of the mine then wheel barrowed it up to the bullock train to be taken to the mill...
Its a memory we will keep forever, and is/was a massive respect for those that were there before.

 

[Davent]

Awsome mate, thanks for that. Those blokes earnt the right for us, and now we take it for granted.(we as a nation, not us). And we give the government always give give, compromise and give some more. Time to stop giveing, the diggers, shearers and farmers (and convicts) built this country, and now the "democracy" dictates to us, after we elect them.....democracy....pfffft.

 

[Jaros]

A few political posts deleted.
Please try and stay on topic.
Jaros

 

[AtomRat]

I gotta ask, does anyone else here sleep without a tent on bare ground next to the fire, slept in an old mine adit / portal, no pillow just backpack..or is it just me? I don't understand people who need caravans and the radio blasting for goldfields. I like to do it as they did back then.

 

[wombat]

I gotta ask, does anyone else here sleep without a tent on bare ground next to the fire, slept in an old mine adit / portal, no pillow just backpack..or is it just me? I don't understand people who need caravans and the radio blasting for goldfields. I like to do it as they did back then.

I did that when I was serving in the Army. Bush bashing and bush craft they call it.
wombat

 

[AtomRat]

I did that when I was serving in the Army. Bush bashing and bush craft they call it.
wombat

Yes totally agree, no army experience here but my childhood through teens evolved from cub scout up to ranger with constant useful survival and bush skills, which I still continue today. To me its limits on what I can carry or take, even fit sometimes. I can live off absolute minimal and enjoy somewhat a part of what it once was like back then. I don't always do it, carry a tent when I can but that's about it still, even the rollout foam does it for me. If it didn't weigh soo much after use, I'd even be sticking to wooden rockerboxes and longtom.
Its a mere fraction on what they had to deal with back then, it wasn't just comfort, but fitness, mental physique, robbers etc soo many things that made life tougher than hell. Gotta appreciate it. My grandfather slept on a hessian hammock his whole life in his little Alexandra hut, he was a hard digger too, and by digger, I mean both gold miner and soldier.

 

[Nightjar]

You can't help to stop and dwell over what they experienced back in the early days.
Living in tents, hessian/kerosene tin shacks, dirt floors and raising families.
One particular grave very remote in WA we stop and pay respects when ever we pass, young fella buried his brother only 25yo. Was probably months before he was able to pass on his passing to relatives and friends.

 

[The Green Wanderer]

Dave,
I think I wrote this story on this forum a long while ago.... Dunno??
Anyway, a mate and I walked a fair way up the track from our place and down to some mine shafts.
It was steep, and difficult not to spill your beer....
We got to a shaft and wow, how tiny the entrance was... unreal to think that miners came out of there with ore!!
Too hard and dangerous to go into the mine ill-equipped, we sat and looked out at the view...
Not that I smoke now, but at the time, I rolled a Port Royal, and we sat, quietly...
True to this day, I heard picks and hammers and chisels and yelling and screaming and everything else that you would expect to hear!!
It was brilliant!
Anyway, realising that I was indeed daydreaming, we turned around to trudge back up the hill.....
From a differant angle, and perspective, we could see the Z track up the hill, buried in time, up to the coach road!!
The poor buggers in their day, got ore out of the mine then wheel barrowed it up to the bullock train to be taken to the mill...
Its a memory we will keep forever, and is/was a massive respect for those that were there before.

Yep.
Theres places you walk into with only small fragments of history left like a lone chimemy or even just a stand of trees where you know the old timers camped and you get a small shiver down the spine as the imagination starts to relive what it might have been like 100+ years ago.
Men bearded, shirtless and sweating. The sound of shovels, picks and hammers ringing on stone and soil. Cookfires and tobacco smoke.
Walked up the range over the kuranda railway line a month or so ago. Had one of those moments as I stopped to catch my breath again and stared out over the tracks winding around the valley. Counted the tunnels that were all hand carved through each spur and imagined the sound of a steam whistle screaming.
Much repect to the pioneers who did all that when steam ships were the new tech and feet were the mode of travel for most.

 

[Tathradj]

What gets me about the Kurunda line is the whole side of a hill taken off.
And it is not small either.
All done with pick and shovel.
To bare rock.
Apparently a few were killed doing it.
Red Lynch must have been a character.
If I remember correctly, There are 19 Hand dug tunnels for that line as well.

 

[silver]

Now back to them good old diggers that lived wholesome lives and killed anyone they found digging on there leases ! :lol:

 

[Jaros]

And the winners couldn't count to 10.

 

[silver]

They still had the postie and the gossip columns in the local rag to deal with, and managed quite well to be amicable towards each other with due respect.

 

[bazxa]

Every time I see the Bridle Trail at Hill End I'm amazed that the old timers were capable of such a feat & all by hand. Then there are the stone shacks, winter temperatures in canvas or stone dwellings & they managed to hard rock mine as well. Hats OFF.

 

[Heatho]

Deleted a few off topic posts, mine included. Back on topic now hopefully.

 

[Tathradj]

So did I.

 

[Tathradj]

Then there is the McKillops Bridge road.
Single lane only with about a 100 foot sheer drop into the river below.
There are photo's of workers on ropes clearing then digging into solid rock
to build the road. Quite a few met their fate from falling.
Back in that era, Sheer determination and work with pick and shovel
overcame a lot of hurdles.
Nowadays it would be blasted out real quick time.

 

[Numb_Thumb]

For over 40,000 years, Aborigines inhabited Australia and the continent was unknown to the rest of the world.
There is no evidence that the Aborigines had any use for gold or other metals.

After British settlement in 1788, Australia was used as a convict settlement to relieve the over-crowded prisons and hulks of Britain.
Conditions were harsh and foreign for the new settlers and diseases such as smallpox that they imported destroyed much of the original Aboriginal population.

We bribed them with food and alcohol to show us where they had seen the large quartz outcrops with visible gold contained, but the rush was on......it was first in, best dressed back then and gold waited for no man.

We laboured and toiled all day, sometimes for riches, most times for dirty water and rotten mutton to greet us at the end of a hard day!

Up at sunrise lads, for we shall be rich tomorrow.