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The following article is from the Australian Town and Country Journal, 5th February 1870, p. 14:
“ ‘ARE you going down the mountain ?’ is the question asked of the traveller by them of Elrington or Major’s Creek, the descent of ‘the mountain’ being the main feature of the walk to Araluen. From Elrington Post office to the bottom of the mountain is three miles; middle Araluen six miles; and to Mudmelong or Lower Araluen, nine miles. Strange differences too this mountain makes in the climates of places only removed from each other by the space of two miles. On the top or table land, Mr. Archer is hay making yet, while the climate of Araluen is perhaps better than Camden or Sydney. An excellent sidling track has been cut  down the mountain, which in its devious winding opens and closes alternately exquisite views of the distant valley glowing in the setting sun. Distance and smoke lend enchantment to the view, for distance mellows and tones the rugged results of mining operations, and makes an attractive feature in the landscape of what on closer inspection proves to be a shapeless heap of dirt or clay or tailings, and smoke converts the distant haze into a purple air, such as painters introduce into their views of Italy and the Mediterranean. Beautiful valley; no wonder the inhabitants settled in their comfortable cottages with gardens of many years’ growth and cultivation around them, are loth to leave thee. It has been said that so long as a miner can find bread in Araluen he will not leave, and if he does leave it generally returns saying ‘After all there’s no place like the valley.’ It is a place so beautiful by nature that no amount of overturning could effectually spoil it or rob it of its green mantle of foliage and grass; and seventeen years of mining operations have only occupied a comparatively small area of its extensive surface - by far the largest portion is untouched in its primitive state. But let us look at the track and section of the mountain as we go down. How verdant and spring like are the heather-bell, the rock-lily, and blooming tea-tree, at the top of the mountain. It seems as if I had left summer on the sea coast and overtaken spring in the mountains. Coming down apace, on the left appear cuttings which expose the composition of the spurs to be in some instances little else but underdone granite or granitic saw-dust, with hard blue granite boulders lying imbedded and ready to roll out on the slightest provocation. This granitic sand appears to harden in the atmosphere, and presents a better face to the road than one suppose it capable of; stand as far away from it as the almost perpendicular sides of the mountain will permit and you will often perceive dark veins of a metallic appearance to traverse the face of this loose material - quartz veins with oxide of iron, you say at once, ‘how hard and metallic they look !’ - approach and handle some sample and lo ! they crumble in your fingers - naught but clay. There is one spot where these veins change the nature of a hard blue granite boulder so that the angle of the stone being within the strike of the clay vein is changed from granite to clay. On the right hand and across the deep gorge which the track skirts, appear two tunnels or landslips, or caves, I can’t quite make them out, and I can’t fly, so I must enquire. More spurs of a loose character - if one fourth of the ranges which border the valley are composed of this material it is not hard to conjecture where even the immense alluvial of Araluen came from. But the descent concludes with a smart little pinch and we land at Norman’s where on inquiring was a ‘dairy,’ some man replied with a little surprise ‘it was’nt.’ [sic] For tho’ a few cows were endeavouring to gain an honest living in the neighbourhood, yet nature made such an unusual display of her geology, that, if we except swamp oaks, old horse shoes, and a few ferns, there seemed nothing but granite boulders for the cows to eat - they did not do this, but planted their feet carefully amongst them to get at what was in between. The hill recede, the valley widens, and Apple-tree Flat looks very pretty with its pleasing contrast of light and dark foliage, the dark sombre oak, against the gay green of the apple tree - and such apple trees ! I often think it a fortunate thing for the necks of small boys, that they bear no fruit - I presume they were named ‘apple’ trees on the ordinary antipodean lucus a non lucendo ides.
“The sun is just setting, and the air so still and so oppressive, that the dust the distant horseman raises floats a flat cloud over the tree tops and is too lazy to rise or fall - and I feel something like the dust, which reminds me that I haven’t had a meal since he set [sic] yesterday - probably I might be the better for one, so I got one. I then push on for the London tavern and become acquainted with mine host, Johnson, the polite landlord thereof.
“It is perhaps necessary to state that the bedrock of the valley and surrounding mountains is granite, changing however between middle and lower Araluen to hornblende slates hard and heavy. This is only partial for Benmenang and the country behind it to Beddidivine is granite, and the water, which is on the other bank of the Araluen (N) is soft, is here very hard in the Benmenang Creek - veins of quartz, bars of trap, veins of iron ore, and fissures of softer material traverse the bed rock, and blocks of cement are found in the drift. The tributaries which have supplied the valley and swelled the creek above Mudmelong, or Lower Araluen, are Fuller’s Creek, Burlang, Major’s, the Deep Creek, Bell’s, and Dirty Butter Creeks. Of these Major’s and Bell’s are the best known. They both descend into it by lofty and picturesque falls over ledges of granite, and have contributed, in no small degree, to increase the amount both of alluvial and gold deposit in the Valley.
“The principal mining claims are enumerated below, in the order in which they occur, from Upper Araluen down the creek : -
“1. Nil Desperandum; 2. Break O’Day; 3. Try Again; each having a river-bed extended claim of 400 feet in length of the creek by its width. 4. Rising Sun, a river-bed extended claim on private property. 5. All Nations, a river-bed extended claim of 1200 feet, (on private property). 6. St. Vincent, a river-bed claim of 800 feet (on Crown lands). 7. The Fenians, lease tract 600 yards. 8. Perseverance, (lease tract), 700 yards. 9. Great Extended (lease tract), 800 yards. 10. Wooden Bottom (on Crown lands). 11. Last Chance. 12. Big Engine. 13. The German’s (private property). 14. Peter de Rome’s. 15. Wallace’s (chequered). 16. Piggott’s (private property). 17. Ricky Bottom (Crown lands). 18. Croft and Co. (Crown lands). 19. Pepper and Co. (Lease tract), 1000 yards. 20. Blackwood and Co. (lease tract), 1000 yards. 21. Coutts and Co.; and 22. Gunson and Co.,(lease tracts). Bedrock here is slate.
“Of these claims the Big Engine is reckoned the leading claim; working with the biggest engine (a powerful portable of 14-horses), and employing the largest number of miners viz. sixty men and boys, together with forty horses, and having, it is calculated, three years of work before them at present rate. The next in order of importance is the ‘Perseverance,’ employing fifty men and boys and thirty-five horses. The ‘Fenians’ employ forty men and boys and thirty horses. There are twenty-five high-pressure engines (all but one being portable), varying from nine to fourteen horse-power, and these are hired by the several companies using them, at an average charge of L5 a week. This includes hire of saw-bench, and driving belt; the company find all else. The owner of the engine nominates the driver of it. The company pay time. No more than 400 feet in length by the whole width of the stream could be taken up under the old regulations by one party, and in determining the amount of labour to be continually employed in order to secure possession, every horse-power of the engine is reckoned equal to four men; but curious enough the employment of the horse himself is no equivalent at all, and there cannot be less than five hundred horses employed in mining alone. This looks like a hardship. Wages are two guineas a week, and time as follows - The shifts are reckoned by the day of eleven hours, and by the night of ten hours. Dinner in each shift at midday and midnight, and ‘Joe,’ or half-hour spell, at the end of every two and a half hours; more however for the horses than the men. The night shifts work five shifts a week, the day six. and both receive the same wages. The horses are fed five times a day, and cost L1 per week to keep. The hire of horse and cart is thirty-shillings a week. As much of the ground where gold is found in Araluen, as well as Major’s and Bell’s Creeks, is private property (principally belonging to Messrs. Hassall and Roberts), the regulations regarding it become of public importance. The landowner, then, maintains his private commissioner resident on the spot, and has his scale of monthly licenses for mines, miners, and tradesmen; and miners are divided into two classes - quartz and alluvial. The amount of ground granted or alloted to the alluvial miner is forty yards a man, by the width bank and bank. The license is twenty shillings a month. Quartz miners’ licenses ten shillings per man, and ten per cent. royalty charged on the gold obtained, after crushing expenses are paid. There is an idea abroad that this royalty will not be enforced. This, however, is a mistake. each man is entitled to fourteen yards long by fourteen yards wide, along the reef, and as many as six but not more, can join and form one of eighty-four yards long. Two men can prospevct and the unrepresented shares are quite secure. registration fee, five shillings; alluvial registration fee, ten shillings. Publican’s license L4 a month. Trademan’s license L1 a month. Lease of ground may extend to the maximum of ten years, and agreement may be made in legal or verbal form at the option of the lessee. Mr. Maddrell, another large landed proprietor, who, however, has not much mining land developed, has these regulations : - Twenty shillings a man a month for every man at work on new fields. Six men allowed to prospect and three months’ grace giveb before being charged the license. The claim can be extended from one to six, by paying a registration fee with Mr. o’Brien (Mr. Maddrell’s agent) of five shillings per claim, without working. No royalty.
“Mode of work in Araluen is by stripping and sluicing, and the machinery and the utensils used are steam engines, overshot water wheels, Chinese pumps, horses, and tip-carts, sluice boxes, and, of course, manual labour. By stripping, is meant removing the top soil, silt, and finer gravel, to a depth varying from five to fifty feet, till the boulders and aurifer (wash dirt), resting on the bedrock are reached. This aurifer averages six foot in depth, and is removed, together with from two inches to two feet of the bedrock, according to its density, and put through the boxes. The gold is obtained in the usual manner, by checking the flow of water, carefully washing down the boxes, and panning off the residum of gravel and gold over a tub. As the aurifer is removed, the waste soil fills the space; and the vigour with which this work is plied by men and horses, makes these works quite an animating scene. The intelligence displayed by the horses is worth a quarter of an hour’s study - pulling up their loads to the right spot, waiting to be discharged, rushing off at a trot, always taking the right road without whip or driver, only a boy, who takes up a central position and impartially cracks his whip at such as lag by the way. Hydraulic sluicing claim - there of these wholesale earth-scourers in the Valley, and as there may be three people in New South Wales who do not exactly know the method, I will explain it. The company has been at work eleven years, near Bell’s Creek Falls. They have a race four-and-a-half miles long, commencing at Norman’s of Major’s creek, and winding round the Sugar Loaf and another three miles. Commencing above the said Falls, the joint power of these two races is conducted down a six inch cast iron pipe, from a height of seventy feet, and directed against the top of the bedrock, and bottom of the superincumbent soil, through a one-and-a-half inch nozzle, copper-jointed, until the force of the jet has washed away the supporting gravel, and brought down the soil in tons. The jet continues to play uphill, and against the course the waste water is bound to take, so it is the back water that carries away the soil, while the jet keeps the gold well back, and that which goes away passes over a pavement of stones, under and between which, any gold leaves the rock bottom, will be found. Of course, in an extensive valley like this, much subterranean water gathers. The engines, and water-wheels, above mentioned, are employed to keep this down, by working from one to three Chinese pumps, dipped in a well, into which an underground drain discharges the water of the mine. A flume, or race, of course, removes the water from the head of the pump, and discharges it down the creek. The water-wheel does the same, on the similia similibus curantur principle, for the water above is brought to the top of the wheel which works the Chinese pumps, which elevates the water below, both the upper and the nether waters joining, and passing away in the tail race. this is well seen at Mudmelong, where the claims numbered 20, 21, and 22, are working. As regards results, I can only give the escort returns with any certainty. They have been 3500 oz. a month for the last year, value L3 15s. 3d. per oz. In explanation of a ‘chequered’ claim I should mention, it is a claim partly on Crown lands, and partly on private property; and as regards leases, L2 per annum is paid for the same for every hundred yards along the river or creek.
“Araluen presents the appearance of an old and settled field. There are three district townships in the Valley. Redbank, Newton, and Bourk Town [Bourke Town]; of these the last is on the South side of the creek and the other two on the North side. Redbank is the principal seat of population and trade. here are the churches of England and Rome, the Presbyterian, termed the ‘Union,’ the post office, fine new school house, leading hotel and newspaper office. The Wesleyan Chapel is at Newton, and the Baptist at Bourke Town. The magistrate, Mr. Burns, resides at Upper Araluen. The police force is five strong, and there are two stations. A Court of Petty Sessions is held every Wednesday. There are three banks, three public schools, and five (at least) private , tairabile dictum. There is no mechanic institute, but as for ‘hotels’ their name is legion. The Chinese have some fine gardens here, and the maize grows luxuriantly. Droves of pack-horses, 20 in a drove, pass by laden with potatoes and produce from Moruya. The population of the Valley in 1864 was sixteen hundred whites ten hundred Chinese; it is now 3600 whites and 350 Chinese. The escort has been established two years. The increase in the population has been attributed to a class of mining exceptional to the valley, which occurred at the back of Redbank, some six years ago, when sinking abd driving waqs there the fashion, the gold obtained being different in quality, coarser and more nuggety. This to my mind, indicates the immediate neighbourhood of auriferous reefs - towards the prospecting for and discovery of which every encouragement should be given. For, although the alluvial of the Valley is not yet exhausted, and there may remain some new ground yet untouched (Apple-tree Flat to wit) than is generally imagined, yet the time must come sooner or later when the present system will come to an end, and if no new field is opened the trade of Araluen must end with it. Those who have most at stake therefore should associate and maintain parties to prospect the ranges at the back of Redbank or elsewhere, to ascertain if the surrounding mountains do not contain paying reefs that have fed the Valley. This could be done now with plenty of men and materials on the ground. There is another Valley to the south of Araluen about three miles, it is parallel and similar, but smaller - a tributary of the Moruya River, and gold has been got in it, Biddidivine is the name - and if Biddy (whoever she was) was as beautiful and fruitful as this Valley, it was an excellent name for her. Could not a prospecting party be maintained to test the auriferous character of this same Valley ? True it has not such famous tributaries as Major’s Creek, but then, ‘you never can tell’ what the reefs may produce. There is another suggestion that I may be excused for broaching, viz. that when the present system of simply washing a few feet of aurifer on the bedrock is almost finished, the whole contents of the valley, stones, gravel, cement, drift and soil would pay to put through one or more powerful crushing mills of 40 or 50 head of stamps.
“The working of the mining laws in this district has gone far to prove how well the social law will work alongside it, when mutual interests are involved - for in spite of the lameness of the laws, the miner appears to have got on with the landowner as well and as peaceably as with the Crown, and I am under the impression that when claims become valuable he would spend far less in law on private property than on Crown Lands - at least such is Victorian experience. The mining laws of New South Wales require radical revision, but let us beware of transplanting bodily the patchwork codes of the seven mining districts of Victoria, where the minuteness and multiplicity of the laws appear ordained chiefly for the benefit of the lawyers. One simple and comprehensive code, with administration prompt and cheap, is what is wanted here, so that a man may, whatever field he works on, know that the law is the same throughout the country.
“But I must depart and ‘get up stairs’ again - which I proceed to do by the ‘Old Man Mountain.’ Now if any corpulent gentleman in the valley is desirous of becoming reduced in circumstances, let him take a dose of the Old Man Mountain every morning early; I’ll wager it a sovereign antidote to superfluous flesh - there’s many a longer spur in Australia, but not many steeper. On taking a last look at Araluen and leave of the Braidwood District, I have much pleasure in thanking the miners, landowners, and others for the information and sustenance they rendered me, Messrs. Roberts and Maddrell, Francis and Griffin, Messrs. Johnson and T.W. Smith, John Batty and John Stalker and others.”
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