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This article is from the Australian Town and Country Journal, 22nd January 1870, p. 15:
 “Major’s Creek is soon reached from Dargue’s reef - for you come upon the ‘Welcome Stranger’ almost at once the Welcome Stranger is a ten head battery well put together by Mr. Eisenstadler, and supplied with water by a lift or belt of buckets - the whole is in good working order, and with the exception, perhaps, of the discs, likely to continue so. The other mill is called Wilson and Munroe’s, is also a ten head of shafts, and discharges on both sides, into deep troughs. The tables being laid from one end, the engine standing across the other - she is by Barratt and Son, of Gainsboro’, 12-horse power - the stamp heads are 5 cwt. each. The batteries are fixed in a solid frame of wood, and during my visit repairs were going on to the shanks, and discs, the latter being of two impressibles, and yielding a character.
“If amount of labour spent in the search, is any index to the value of what is sought, this creek must have been rich. It has had so much experience in being turned over, that with just a leetle [sic] help it might turn itself over now - no doubt it will next flood - it is said to have been the richest creek ever opened in Australia, some of the aurifer or dirt running 75 oz. to the dish, and 12 lb. of gold per man a week, not uncommon. It is now abandoned to Chinese, who plod their way steadily through ground that has just probably undergone the same process at the hands of another party, and possibly find their reward in an odd block of solid or in gold thrown away. The creek and its tributaries, down to the falls, bear the same evidence of thorough search. At the falls the bed is encumbered with blocks of granite from the banks above, loosened by rains, frosts, and landslips. The first falls are 90 feet in depth, and with sufficient water must be imposing - just now there is not enough to make a fall.
“H. Nietsche, a German, has fixed his residence here the last fifteen years, close to the top of the falls, and has purchased 2 acres of land - he has also formed a garden now bearing fruit. From his gate a sidling path leads to the ledge of granite over which the water precipitates itself into the depths below. The bed has been worked, and the banks also, right to the falls edge. having followed the creek down through the scrub, tributary, thistle, and timber, a shorter cut brings me back to the township of ‘Elrington,’ the Government township on Major’s Creek, so named from Major Elrington. There is also a township established on private property not far from it; both are on the opposite side of the creek coming from Jembaicumbene. Directly opposite the township across the creek is the ‘Red Hill.’ Here are three or four parties at work on the ‘Evening Star’ line of reef. The leader is from 3 inches to 18 inches thick, and gold is chiefly found in hard honey-combed quartz, containing also a hard and heavy bright yellow mineral. The top soil is of a deep red, and the top of the rock is red granite for about 30 feet down, then changes to a hard gray granite. There are three claims on the ‘Evening Star’ line, of which Weston’s is waiting for the arrival of a pumping and drilling machine.
 “Overlooking the Red Hill, and most others about here, also, is the ‘Big Hill.’ On the summit is the Odd fellow’s prospecting claim, in which are supposed to ramify four reefs; these, however, will probably unite and form one reef at a certain depth. Hard by, and travelling at a different angle, is a vein of Galena stone. I am told a ton has been tested in Sydney, the result being 17 cwt. of lead and 22 ozs. of silver. I examined the stone, but failed to find any but the faintest indications of metal, probably because the best specimens had been removed by ‘French leave’ - whatever mode of carriage that may be. The formation of this hill is a study. The reef the prospectors are working runs north-east and south-west; widens out to twelve feet towards the east and narrows to the west, pinching as it goes down. (Depth of shaft 50 feet). The whole construction of the hill is curious and looks as if it had been forced up in a hurry out of the low ground, and brought no inconsiderable quantity of clay, sand, and gravel with it, to fill the cracks and interstices of the bed rock, and cover the nakedness of the ridge.
“Descending in the direction of the mills, we come upon Wilson’s line of reef, the man to whose perseverance Major’s Creek is indebted for the testing its reefs are now getting. There are several claims at work here. Wilson’s includes Nos. 1 to 4 S. and the vein here opened out from 4 inches on the surface to 4 feet at the present depth reached. This reef has a pipeclay casing, and has stone, pipeclay included, 2 1/2 ozs. to the ton. No reefs have been found on the opposite side of the creek; add 80 feet [sic] is about the greatest depth as yet attained. At this depth the abundance of the sulphurets is said to be such that they can be shovelled up like the granitic sand. The problem now to be solved is ‘will the reefs if we must call them such, continue so, or change to solid quartz, or be squeezed out by the granite ?’
“The Red Hill and portions of the north bank are Crown lands; the south side mostly private property. Fifteen years ago the licenses issued in Major’s Creek by Messrs. Hassall and Roberts numbered 1000 a month. Some of those who paid their license then are there now, and looking down on the township from the Red Hill, the cottages and business houses with their fresh green gardens standing on the slope of the creek bank present a fresh a refreshing picture of home. The air of Major’s Creek is, I am told, considered very healthy.”
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