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The following description is taken from the Australian Town and Country Journal, 23rd April 1870, p. 14:
“I DEBATED five minutes whether it was worth while to go deeply into the alluvial mining of this district. It is evidently of an evanescent character, but still, remembering the angry countenances of two or three miners on the reefs, who discovered I was ‘a reporter,’, and who growled, ‘Better to have newspapers and no reports at all than to give accounts that send hundreds of poor devils tramping about the country to seek employment where none is to be found,’ I determined to send you a notice of the workings. The amount of truth contained in this remark, together with the marvellous amount of ignorance that prevails regarding the above subject, even on the psot, but compelled me to go from claim to claim to get at he fact from each individual party.
“The alluvial country recently opened up lies to the south-east of the reefs and township, and consists at present of four so-called leads of gold - the Two-mile, the Quondong, Stewart’s, and the Frenchman’s. These all head away east from the quartzose and schistose ranges that lie immediately east of Grenfell, across the Emu Creek - the Two-mile being most northerly, and the Frenchman’s most to the south. Stewart’s soon joins the Quondong on the north, and the Frenchman’s comes in to the same lead on the south, about a mile lower down. The Quondong and the Two-mile then unite at the junction opposite Tasker’s Hotel.
“It is curious to note (and you will seldom get such an opportunity of noting) the difference in the two systems - the frontage and the leasing system. The Two-mile, with its reckless expenditure of labour, and the Quondong with its economy of shafts; the temporary looking buildings of the Two-mile, and the more substantial character of the Quondong; the scarcity of money on the Two-mile. and the comparative affluence of the Quondong. (I went to six stores and places to get change for a five-pound note; how unlike another field I was on nine months ago, where nobody could change a five-pound note, for he had nothing less himself !) On the other hand, it is but just to say that washing and crushing have barely commenced, and what has been done previously is all dead work.
“The Two-mile - There are eight leases and ninety-five frontage claims of eighty feet each, on four men’s ground, and two prospecting claims between William’s lease to the west and the ‘Junction’ to the east. Commencing at Stiff and Co.’s original prospecting claim, we have the Prospectors (Stiff and Co.), who have washed twice for 15dwt. and 11dwt. a load.
“Nos. 1 and 2 West - Newman and Co. : Washed 200 loads for an average of 6dwt.
“Nos. 3 and 4 West - Hall and Co. : Washed 1/2 oz. to the load.
“Nos. 5 and 6 West - F. Clarence and Co. : Not washed.
“Nos. 7 and 8 West - No name and Co. : Not washed.
“No. 9 West - Stimson and Co. : Not washed.
“No. 10 West - Allen and Co. : Not washed.
“No. 11 West - Spalding and Co. : Not washed.
“No. 12 West - Jones and Co. : Slate rock; not washed; wash this week.
“Nos. 13 and 14 West - Wallace and Co. : Just bottomed; not washed; 1/2gr. to 2dwt. to the dish.
“Nos. 15 and 16 West - Superior Co. : Sandy granite rock; middling prospects.
“Nos. 12 to 16 are along side and north of Brown’s lease. N.B. - Claims on the frontage extend up west to Pritchard’s lease; but they are very little account, though Pritchard has got gold.
“Lease 5 acres - Brown and Co. : This is called 6 acres, perhaps because it contains only 5 acres; eight shafts (!), 30 feet to 130 feet; gutter goes across south corner and misses the centre; two shafts at corners, 134 feet and 139 feet deep; good prospects.
“Lease 6 acres - Williams and Co., west of Brown’s lease; and
“Lease 10 acres - Stein and Co. : The frontage begins again from the top of this lease westward.
“We will return to Stiff and Co.’s, and go in the opposite direction.
“Nos. 1 and 2 East - P. Murray and Co. : Sandstone rock; width of gutter, five feet to fifteen feet.
“No. 4 East - M’Guire and Co. : Pipeclay and granite; width of gutter, eight feet to nine feet.
“Nos. 5 and 6 East - Louis and Co. : width of gutter, six feet to twenty feet.
“Nos. 7 and 8 East - E. Pearson and Co. : Prospects over the average.
“No. 9 East - C. M’Donald and Co. : Just in gold; 3gr. to the dish.
“Nos. 10 and 11 East - Kidney and Co. : Granite-like sandstone; wash expected to go 15dwt.
“Nos. 12 and 13 East - John Bull : Heavy wash (i. e. large quartz boulders); gutter 20 feet.
“Nos. 14 and 15 East - Boxall and Co. : Just struck the wash.
“No. 16 East - Hawkins and Co. : Bottomed twenty feet, shallow driving.
“Lease 10 acres - Armstrong and Co. : Two shafts, 115 feet at south corner; crushed eighty-four loads at the Victoria Mill; 15dwt. to the load; gutter twelve feet, twenty feet, and twenty-five feet wide.
“Sydney Bound.
“Koh-i-noor.
“J.D. Campbell’s : Gutter, thirty feet to forty feet wide, and eighteen inches of wash; bottom, soft pipeclay and granite; much cement and good gold in it, to be worked out in three to four months.
“All Nations : To crush at Victoria Mill; very heavy wash of eighteen inches, with two inches of reef; decayed slate.
“N.B. - The last four of the abovementioned these claims are alongside Willoughby’s lease on the north.
“No. 1, East of All Nations - Four men’s ground. 3gr. to the dish
“The Homeward Bound. This was the claim that Mr. Cox gave to, and Mr. Clarke took away from, Williams and Co. and gave to Allison and Co., much to Williams and Co.’s disgust : Prospects 2 to 6gr. to the dish. This claim is Nos. 4 and 5 of Campbell’s.
“Nos. 1 and 2 East of Willoughby’s lease : Gee and Co. bottomed yesterday; 3gr.
“No. 3 East - Williams and Co. : MUllocky clay, flat wash with gold, next a clay bar, then gutter, and gold to the south.
“Nos. 4 and 5 East - Band of Hope : Washed forty-loads; went 1/2 oz.; the wash twelve inches to twenty-four inches thick.
“Nos. 6 nad 7 East - City of Venice : Not bottomed.
“Nos. 3 and 4 East from Homeward Bound : The White Star.
“No. 3 East - T. Mallych and Co. : Not bottomed
“Lease 10 acres - Boxall : Not bottomed.
“Nos. 1 and 2 East : Not washed.
“Nos. 3 and 4 East - Rae and Co. : A number of shafts just on the gutter; depth, 174 feet; 2gr. to 1/4dwt. to the dish.
“Nos. 5 and 6 East - Prospectors (Morris and Co.) : Formerly a lease, but abandoned as such.
“No. 10 East - Moroney and Co. : In dispute three months; just in wash.
“Lease 10 acres - Morris and Co. : Not washed yet, payable.
“There is a puddling machine on the north side of these prospectors, belonging to O’Brien and Murphy, who have another lower down.
“No. 1 east : Reid and Co.
“Nos. 2 and 3 East - Great Republic : Washing now.
“Nos. 4 and 5 East - Wm. Hall and Co. : Slate bottom, not in wash, sinking 186 feet.
“Nos. 6 and 7 East - Sweeney and Co. : Payable.
“Nos. 8 and 9 East - John Carr and Co. : Three shafts.
“Nos. 10 and 11 East - W.H. M’Mahon and Co. : Sinking, eight feet soil, forty-five feet clay, twenty feet of gravel, then clay to the wash (190 feet).
“Nos. 12 and 13 East - Yorky and Co. : Driven 110 feet south-west; not payable as yet; will sink another shaft.
“No. 14 - John O’Connor and Co.
“Nos. 15 and 16 East - Myers and Co.
“Nos. 17 and 18 East - Kirkpatrick and Co. : Driven sixty feet south-west; non-payable gold all the way.
“Nos. 19 and 20 East - Morris and Thomas : Bottomed on sloping reef.
“Nos. 21 and 22 East - Clark and Co. : Not bottomed.
“Nos. 23 and 24 East - M’Grath and Co. : Not bottomed.
“Nos. 35 to 42 : N.B. These numbers have gone wide to the south, after the Quondong, and bottoming shallow, are moving north again.
“Nos. 29 to 32 East are amalgamated, and sinking.
“This brings us to Tasker’s, Telegraph Hotel, and assumed junction of the Quondong with the Two-mile. Three more puddling machines are constructed below this.
“Looking back west, the Two-mile is joined by the Milkman’s, at about the All Nations. There are a lease and some frontages here, but the wash is very poor.
“Turning south-west we ascend the Quondong. Here the allowance under the new regulations is forty feet a man but the ground is mostly leased. At the junction is a
“Lease 6 acres - David Crowther and Co. and then six frontage claims, the lowest of which is a prospecting claim, sinking 211 feet.
“Lease 6 acres - Young and Co. with four feet depth of wash, sixty feet wide, and not reefed on either side; goes 1/4 oz. to the load.
“Lease 6 acres - Clift : On gold at 200 feet; broad flat wash, slate bottom, fifteen inches of wash; payable.
“Lease 6 acres - Gough : On wash, 100 loads up; prospects satisfactory.
“Lease 1 acre - Spare ground.
“Lease 5 acres - Dodd : Varies as narrow as seven feet; goes 1/2 oz. to the load.
“lease 3 acres - Williams : 200 loads up; forty loads up found another gutter; not much in it.
“Lease 2 acres - Kirkup : 2 shafts; sixty loads up.
“Lease 2 acres - Walker : Fair prospects, thirty loads up.
“Lease 1 acre - J. M’Naughton : Two loads or gutters, white and brown; prospects best out of the white; 6gr. to the dish.
“Lease 6 acres - Molony : 7 1/2dwt. to the load, seventy loads up; south gutter twenty-five feet wide, north fifteen feet.
“Lease 4 acres - A. Hay : Four shafts, not washed; driven 100 feet, sixty loads up, 180 feet sinking.
“Lease 2 acres - Ritchie : Washed twice, average 15dwt.; one foot to one foot six inches of wash, fifty feet wide; 250 loads up; three shafts.
“Lease 5 acres - Burke : Sixty loads up, poor.
“Lease 3 acres - Cohen : Rock, sandstone, and shale.
“Lease 2 acres - J. Thirwall : Seventy loads up, payable. This claim has samples of petrified wood, of a warm brown tone under, and enclosed by the iron cement that is found near the bottom.
“Block Claim - Maginnis and Co. : In this claim are four thin seams of cement, from one to two feet apart, and twenty feet between the lowest and the bed-rock.
“Lease 4 acres - M’Connell : Washed seventy-six loads; averaged 14dwt.; has now 200 loads up that will go more; proved two gutters, one fifty-five feet wide, the other not yet crossed; wash one foot six inches thick, with six inches of the rock (soft slate) cement; employ two more men than compelled by law to do.
“Lease 3 acres - Davis : Width of gutter fifty feet to sixty feet; 600 loads up, the result of six months’ work. I here saw 5gr. of coarse gold to the dish. They say there is another run to the south, but not tried yet.
“Lease 5 acres - M’Grath : Washed forty-eight loads, average 3dwt.. and 102 loads yielded 36oz. 7dwt.; forty loads up, working seventy feet wide and 170 feet deep; average fifteen inches wash; no cement. This party is divided in two, and working three shafts.
“Lease 2 acres - Rohan : 260 loads up, of which sixty are washed; average 1/2oz. to the load.
“Lease 2 1/2 acres - Small : Block claim, north forty feet, Michael Daveren and two others.
“Spare ground sixty feet - Rohan.
“Lease 1 acre - Ropley : 150 loads up; gutter two feet to twelve feet wide; take six inches to two feet of wash; forty loads averaged 5dwt.
“Spare Ground - Baker and Co. : 160 feet; foul air.
“Lease 2 acres - Kearnes : 250 loads up; poor; expected to go 8dwt.; very patchy wash.
“Lease 1 acre - Coyle : Washed 870 loads, 120oz.; have 650 loads up, which finishes the claim; one gutter sixty feet wide with two feet of wash; employed six men over the required number, and worked the ground out in five months.
“Lease 5 acres - Keating : Washed 650 loads, which averaged 15dwt.; width five feet to fifty feet.
“Lease 1 acre - F. Curran : Washed 110 loads; average 14dwt.
“Lease 1 acre - Hewen : Not bottomed.
“Six frontage claims, forty feet each; one washing of seventy loads went 5dwt.
“Lease 3 acres - Anderson : Averaged 9dwt.
“Original prospecting claim, in two leases of 2 acres each - Abandoned as such by Matheson and Brown, and then taken up in frontage claims by Ross and Co., who are sinking; depth 135 feet and 140 feet.
“Stewart’s joins the Quondong, in Kearnes’s lease, wher a clay bar forms the tongue between. On this lead the first lease that joins Kearnes’s and the Quondong is
“Lease 1 acre - Bolton : Wash is of a different character - colder in tone; eighty loads washed went 12dwt.; bottom is slate; employ six men - bound to employ two only; thirty loads up; crush at Kirkpatrick’s mill.
“Lease 1 acre and block claim amalgamated - A. Lee : Wash heavy; cement; crush; 1 saw 1dwt. to the dish, rough gold; six men employed.
“Lease 1 acre - Donald Ross : Washed twenty-one loads, averaged 3dwt.; gutter a succession of crab-holes; six men at work. This claim only has a fire draft for air.
“Lease 5 acres - Stewart : 800 loads up; prospect 2gr. to 1dwt. Nineteen men are forming a dam and puddling machine for the use of this and the neighbouring lease.
“Lease 5 acres - Matheson : Crushed 450 tons, yield 232oz. Twelev men employed.
“Five frontage claims (worked out), whereof one lot of eighty-five loads went 140oz.
“Lease 5 acres - Downie (Bank of England).
“Lease 5 acres - Thirwall : (Rise and Shine); 110 loads went 1/2oz.; seventy loads up; two men employed; gutter eight feet to twelve feet wide; wash eight inches to three feet thick; no cement. This claim has the largest gold of any on the field, one piece got in the last wash weighing 1 1/2oz.
“Lease 2 acres - P. O’Brien.
“Lease 3 acres - Morland : Seventy-five loads went 6 1/2dwt.; fifty loads up again; gutter in places only three feet wide.
“One calim above abandoned; sinking 118 feet.
“The Frenchman’s commences more south and takes a north-east course, joining the Quondong half-a-mile above the junction.
“This ground was prospected three years ago, when shafts were put down 125 feet, 175 feet, and 180 feet, and abandoned; and would in all probability have remained abandoned, had it not been for the encouragement given to prospectors by the accession of the leasing system. Encouragement to a prospector in New South Wales must, if novelty is pleasing, be a very pleasing thing indeed; and in this case has had the effect of re-opening an abandoned field, and finding employment for 1200 men - at least this is the opinion of of the man to whose patience and perseverance Grenfell, and indirectly many other places, are indebted for the alluvial work now going on here. And as a sample of the reward that usually falls to the share of pioneers, prospecors, and originators, it was only by a fluke this man got a claim at all !
“Nothing is known yet of the Frenchman’s gutter.
“I had intended to enliven this letter by the introduction of a few figures, showing the averages of labour, wages, profit and loss; but I see it is already too long, and must defer the ‘delightful task’ for another opportunity.
“Tattersall’s Grenfell, 9th April.”
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