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This account is taken from the Australian Town and Country Journal, 15th January 1870; p. 28:
“FOLLOWING the Clyde Road out of Braidwood for six miles, we come to the ‘Blue Bell,’ having just previously observed that the Braidwood granite has changed to Little River slate. A little beyond, the Warrambucca Creek is crossed by a bridge; and turning off the Clyde Road to the left, and following the course of this creek to its junction with the Little River, we find Mr. Francis’s crushing mill in full operation.
“This mill, as well as the St. Vincent, on Fagan’s Creek, has been erected under the superintendence of the energetic and enthusiastic Mr. Eisenstadter, a gentleman of quartz reefing celebrity in Victoria. It is driven by water power, of which it has a fine supply, conducted by a flume 3 feet 6 inches wide, and 15 inches depp [sic], from the dam, to a breast wheel 15 feet in diameter and 6 feet broad, with 24 buckets. There are two batteries of five stamps each, cam shaft being driven by by a belt from the axle of the wheel; stamp heads 4 cwt. each, cams wrought iron, and discs steeled. The tables are 22 feet in length, copper being 6 feet x 4 feet, in one sheet, with three semi-circular iron ripples, self-discharging. The tailings are discharged into the tail-race. It is constructed also to drive both a circular and an upright saw, the operations of which, however, are at present suspended. It is said that this mill would drive ten more stamps eight months out of the twelve. Great credit is due to Mr. Francis - at whose sole expense the mill has been erected - for the perseverance and courage he has displayed in carrying it out; and I trust that the undertaking will at once prove beneficial to the district and advantageous to himself; for, with the aid of these two mills, the district will be in a position to prove its reefs, and perhaps take another long lease of life and activity.
“We have passed the Warrambucca Reef, found on a spit to the left of that creek - this is, casing included, a wide reef, 6 feet and 7 feet in places - gold is distributed through it, and it will average 3/4 oz. to the ton; then leaving the Warrambucca for Broad Gully, nothing lively occurs till we come to Manning’s lease, which possesses a single battery of four heads driven by steam. Now comes on the El Dorado line of reef, along which are taken up and working the following claims :- South - Ther Black Angel, Golden Forge, Hit or Miss, Homeward Bound, Now or Never; and on the North, Old Virginny and Musquito.
“The ‘Homeward Bound Reef’ runs 4in. 6in., 9in., and 12in. thick, and is said in places to have been found as much as 3 feet underlying to the east. No stone has been crushed as yet. Its neighbour, the ‘Ht or Miss’ is troubled with sulphur and foul air, being compelled to use a windsail and fan. These are the claims which astonished the mining community by turning out, without notice, 27 3/4 lbs. of gold in one patch, 814 pounds sterling worth in another and 174 lbs. of stone, containing about 250 ozs. in another. The Little River alluvial has always been noted for its ‘patchiness;’ it would seem as if its quartz were also of the same character. The two first patches came from the ‘Homeward Bound,’ the last from the ‘Hit or Miss.’ The curious part of the thing is that the reef gold is worth considerably more than the alluvial, being at the rate of 3/4 of an oz. less one penny. . . . . . A quarter of a mile up the spur from the El Dorado line is the ‘Red, White, and Blue.’
“The prospecting claim on this line are crushing 150 tons of stone at the St. Vincent, which is expected to average 15 dwts. Charges : Crushing 10s.; cartage 2s. I was unable to see this reef; but it is said to be 3 feet thick at 75 feet down, where water is met, and that gold improves at the water. Thickness of stone greatly varies.
“The best reef in the district is said to be Reuben Burrell’s, Fagan’s Creek. It is proved 50 feet in length, and averages 14 inches in thickness, running N.W. and S.W. [sic]. There have been three crushings from this reef. The first went 1 oz. 6 dwts.; the second, 1 oz. 12 dwts.; and the third, 3 ozs. Amount crushed in all, 75 tons. The back wall of this reef is solid; the front has a pipeclay casing which sometimes contains gold. Plenty of water at 70 feet down, and gold improves at it, where the last crushing came from. Some of the stone is uncommonly hard - slate reef of a dark reddish brown and very little sandstone.
“Nos. 1 on each side are feeling for the reef.
“We are now close to the St. Vincent mill, which is about six miles from that on the Warrambucca. This belongs to the St. Vincent Quartz Crushing Company - a district or local body; and by the courtesy of Mr. Griffin, the manager, I am enabled to submit the following information regarding it. They crush for the public only, and commenced August 2nd, 1869; since which an aggregate of 1200 tons has been put through; averaging 15 dwts. to the ton (highest 3 ozs.; lowest 2 dwts.). Charges range between 10s. and 20s., according to a graduated scale of quantity sent down.
“The steam engine is one of Robey’s 12-horse power, and has been shifted since it was first fixed to bring the driving gear in more direct action with the batteries, which are two of ten head. The discs are screwed on, and the sawing of their own fuel out of very good timber at times causes an irregular action, which shakes the machinery. The pump also being fixed to the end of the cam shaft, at every descent the rod causes the whole to vibrate, making the joints of the supply pipe leak. This pump in drawing water out of a well to supply the cistern, takes the power of at least half a battery to work it, so that a race is far preferable where it can be got. There are two things worth noting here - the wash water of the supply pipe is discharged into the cistern; and the ripples are speedily cleared of amalgam by a plug inserted into the bottom at one end, for security a basin is always kept under it. The approaches to the mill are easy, and the water supply abundant. The crushing power averages 72 tons a week, and the expenses a trifle under L20. There is plenty of stone in the various claims around to operate on, but the problem to be solved is, can the reefs be worked below water level, without the formation of larger companies with increased capital. However, leavung the St. Vincent Mill and this problem, we got back to Broad Gully, and 150 yards from the Broad Gully township, and a mile from Mungarlowe [Mongarlowe] is the ‘Alma’ line. The shaft of prospecting claim is here on a high quartzose spur, exposing large blocks of quartz on the surface. Shaft, 5 feet 9 inches x 3 feet 6 inches, and slabbed reef 6 inches to 3 feet; a crushing of 23 tons giving 1 1/2 ozs. to the ton - full of iron oxide in seams, but stone itself pretty clean through, though containing a good deal of ‘blue’ mundic. They got water here at 70 feet, and found gold finer and more evenly distributed as they neared the water - gold above coarser and more patchy. I saw some good specimens of it. This claim has been worked by a whim and three horses, in three eight hour shifts. Cost of the horses to keep, L1 per head per week. The Alma reef runs N.E. and S.W., about 14 inches in width. The adjacent claims have stopped to amalgamate to form a larger company and get machinery.
“Another, the Great Britain, is probably the same line of reef. They are here sinking a fresh shaft of proper dimensions, and a double action pump is on the road to meet the water.
“The American is said to be 9 inches on the surface, 3 feet 6 inches, at 60 feet down, and 4 feet 6 inches, at 78 feet down - 32 tons crushed went 23 1/4 ozs., or a little over 14 dwts.
“The Empire reef lies 150 yards N. of the Great Britain, this reef reaches the water early - 50 tons of mostly surface stone have been crushed, yielding 18 1/2 dwts. to the ton.
“These are the Little River reefs, and of these the El Dorado, along the high ground overlooking Mungarlowe [Mongarlowe], shows the largest amount of work, and the great number of shafts. The present objection to the Little River Reefs is that they are thin, and non-continuoous. They seem to have this advantage, however, generally to enlarge and improve as they go down; the amount of work done yet, has not sufficiently proved that they do not continue.
“The Field is 15 years old - the oldest workings being Sergeant’s Point (Mungarlowe) [Mongarlowe], up and down the river from Burke’s Crossing to Flanagan’s Flat. It is now worked by Chinese nearly to the Shoalhaven River. The alluvial has been found rich in patches, and chiefly on ‘points,’ as Anderson’s, Newbury’s, Leach’s, Kenny’s, and several others, all on the slate. About the Warrambucca, and adjacent gullies, the ground was worked about five years ago. Broad Gully and its tributaries, had to all appearance, a thorough turning over many years before; yet I met a solitary party here and there, who seemed to think some gold might be lying there yet. There is also abundant evidence of surfacing work on the hills and rises, and by those who have here almost since its opening. I am informed that there are literally miles of hills that would pay well for sluicing if water-power were obtainable. Certain it is, a deal of what must have been remunerative surfacing has been done; men making from L3 to L5 a week each, by sluicing from small gullies and dams, in wet weather. Now as all those hills appear to hold water at a depth of about 70 feet, no matter what their height may be, it would seem almost feasible for the quartz miners to discharge their troublesome enemy into one common race and convert him into the alluvial miner’s friend by storage in a common dam - from this dam they might sluice some of the hills. Another suggestion (requiring capital) would be to erect a powerful pumping engine, at say, Burke’s, and raise the Little River at that spot 70 to 100 feet - a height sufficient to wash away the surface of most of the little surface hills below. There is a difficulty here. The hills contain sandstone base and seams of trap (though the river bed is of slate almost entirely), and there is no clay. This might prove leaky and porous for race-making, and would lose gold in sluicing; and it is curious, that the soil which in winter is soft and spongy, in summer is often harder than the bed rock itself.
“The artist could spend a week agreeably in this neighbourhood. The scenery is various and bold, and the vegetation a study. On the other side, the river tower ‘Currack Billy,’ [Currockbilly] and the Buthewong Mountains [Budawang Mountains], with the clouds half way up their sides. Six miles below St. Vincent Mill, at the mouth of Nettleton Creek, stands a curious hill, covered with thin seams of cement containing gold, and abundant in water. Six miles in another direction is a limestone mountain, full of fossils; and near it is the famous sassafras country, with its lofty, precipitous and romantic scenery.
“The neat little township of Mungarlowe [Mongarlowe] lies in a hollow on the river, nine miles from Braidwood, and contains two or three hotels, a large store, a good schoolhouse, and a police station. There is no Court of Petty Sessions, and suitors have to walk to Braidwood for legal settlement of their differences and accounts. It would also appear that as it is no one’s business to look after miner’s rights, it is a matter of perfect indifference whether a miner has one or not, one man telling me he had never been asked once for it in ten years.
“On the gold-field there are in all ten hotels, nine stores, and three mills. The population in 1866 was European 1482; Chinese, 350; in 1868 - European 1982; Chinese 350.
“I beg to thank the inhabitants generally; and those specially who answered my questions, pertinent and impertinent, in the miner’s usual free spirit, and who subscribed to the Australian Town and Country Journal; and am their and your obedient servant,
VIATOR.”
On the 22nd january the same Journal carried the following report:
p. 16.
“THESE celebrated quartz claims, which have recently been visited by our travelling mining reporter, who has supplied the sketch from which the above engraving is executed, are situated at Broad Gully, on the Mungarlowe [Mongarlowe] or Little River Gold-Field, in the Braidwood District. Since the working of this gold-field many large nuggets have been hit upon, ranging from 39 to 142 ozs., but the utmost excitement was created in Braidwood on the 12th September last by the intelligence of a most extraordinary rich find of gold by the shareholders of the Homeward Bound Claim. The parties themselves, on coming upon it, were quite besides themselves with excitement. ‘In not more than a third of a three-bushel bag full of stone which was raised, it was estimated by some that there was thirty pounds weight of gold, and by some persons it was thought there were nearer forty pounds weight. For one piece of stone alone L80 was offered, but this the claim owners were not inclined to accept, seeing that they had sold a piece a few hours previously for L7 10s., which on being crushed yielded ten ounces of gold. They crushed the stone, which weighed about seventy-five pounds, in a mortar, and having done all they could in this rude way to separate the gold from the stone, they brought it to the Oriental Bank on Monday, when the residue was found to weigh 333 oz. 7 dwts. Of this between 250 and 300 ozs. was estimated to be gold, being about one-third of the weight of stone in which it was found, which was 900 ounces. There is no telling, however, the quantity of rich stone there is left in the claim. The shaft is only thirty-five feet deep, and has only been opened some five or six weeks. The reef is two feet wide, and the stone is not of that crumbly mixed nature which has been found the richest at the Little River, and confined to narrow veins of a few inches. It is hard grey pure quartz, with which the precious metal is so equally intermixed as to make the stone appear to be scarcely distinguishable from the gold itself.’
“The yield was estimated to be worth L1300, and several of the claim holders (of which there were only six) were residents of Sydney. In the succeeding month they also got 350 lbs. weight of stone that yielded about 120 ozs. of gold. For the last take the shareholders obtained the sanction of the Government to have a special police escort to protect them as far as Goulburn, en route for the city.”
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