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“.....(Similar rocks occur about 30 miles E.S.E. under the lower carboniferous beds at the back of Jervis Bay; and intermediately in the Yalwal District.)
There is a striking similarity between the Shoalhaven Ravine and the gullies in the basin of the Macquarie, and it is not therefore extraordinary that they should be considered both alike in auriferous character. (I noticed a similar class of features in the gullies about Fingal, in Tasmania, and on the flank of Mount Alexander, in Victoria. Quartzites of like kind I found to occur at the bottom of many creeks and rivers in the Clarence River country.)
I found in the place where I camped three parties engaged in gold-washing. Two cradles only were at work. The persons now engaged in it amounted to eleven. So far as I could ascertain, about thirteen ounces of gold have been procured, besides one rolled lump of auriferous quartz, which weighs about three ounces, and is said to have been found in a spot, indicated by the finder, a few inches (eighteen) below the surface of the drift. It is singular, I think, that no other lump has been found.
The profits of the gold-washers at present have not been great. Two men gained in a day, from 120 buckets of drift, about three grains.
My own experience produced this result. On a spot very likely to produce gold according to the usual notion, I had a hole dug, and the soil washed; nothing was produced. At another, two cradlefuls of soil produced me 8 and a half grains of gold; and from the tail-washing of a cradle that had been employed the day before I procured one grain. I also requested a person to wash a panful of drift from a heap which he had abandoned and three particles were produced.
Nevertheless I think there will found much gold in and along the banks of the Shoalhaven. The gold already found is not all local; it is flattened and worn by long friction amidst the the hard boulders which fill the river bed.
When the water is lower and the bars are dry, and a more numerous assemblage of gold-washers is gathered thither, more gold will, of necessity be found. But, taking into consideration the particulars mentioned and the difficulty of access, I do not think it is likely that this part of the river will be found a profitable locality.
Lower down, near Tanner’s, some gold has also been found, but the party who went up the river have, I am told, abandoned their occupation; and two men and a boy whose bark gunya was near my resting place, said they were about to leave the river. A person of the name of Gale who has been to the Turon, recommends them to stay. I saw him on the river, and he said that the proportion of gold was about equal to that he met with at the mouth of Summerhill Creek.
I have omitted to mention that, according to the testimony of an intelligent aboriginal, a copper vein crosses the river between my prospecting place and Glenrock Creek. The spot it was at, is between that creek and Jacqua Creek. The climate there is different to that on the hills. It was a frosty morning at Bungonia. On the river at 6 a.m. the thermometer stood at 37 degs. At 9 a.m., before which the sun cannot shine on the river, it was 56 degrees, and at 1h. 30m. p.m., it was 70 degrees.”
In that year Clarke published his Researches in the Southern Goldfields and we reprint here pp. 39-45 Yalwal and Clyde Districts:
“In the proceeding Reports there is only a brief mention of that portion of the basin of the Shoalhaven, which may be called Yalwal Penisula. And so early as March, 1852, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, for the County of St. Vincent, publicly noticed the omission, in a letter which I think it right to produce in this place, as an official document.
YALWAL GOLD FIELD
COPY of a letter from the CHIEF GOLD COMMISSIONER to the COLONIAL SECRETARY.
‘Sydney, 15 March, 1852.
SIR, - I have the honour to forward the enclosed that I Have received from Mr. Mackay, C.C. Lands, in the County of St. Vincent, reporting the discovery of gold in Yalwal Creek, a tributary of the Shoalhaven.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) J.R. Hardy.
C.C. Lands.
The Honourable the Colonial Secretary.
(Enclosure referred to)
Comberton Grange, near Jervis Bay,
by Shoalhaven, 6th March, 1852.
SIR, - Presuming you to be the proper party to communicate with respecting any new discoveries of gold, I deem it proper to transmit to you the enclosed sample of both Gold, and Platina, being the Fruits of two days prospecting of two parties from the Shoalhaven, whom I induced to engage in that pursuit on Yalwal Creek, in this district, and which is the first tributary to the Shoalhaven on the south, or St. Vincent side, above the head of the navigable part of the river, and which joins it about four miles therefrom. Or say four miles above Mrs. Reibey’s station on the Shoalhaven.
Yalwal Creek (as you may find by the St. Vincent map,) consists of three branches, exclusive of Ettrema Creek, (to which ny present objective does not apply) and which three branches descend from the dividing range between the Shoalhaven and Jervis Bay, &c., and all of which are of considerable extent. As to the auriferous indications of the Yalwal locality, I can only say, from twelve years intimate knowledge of it, that for several years back I considered it to develop more mineral indications than I have seen elsewhere; and that from my perusal of the description given of the Turon geology, &c., I felt such a strong conviction of its being auriferous, that, during the last six months, I have frequently said to many of the Shoalhaven settlers that, ere long, they should find gold much nearer home than they were aware of, and that as soon as they concluded their harvest, I would direct them where to find it; and accordingly, about three weeks ago I got a gentleman, who had some months’ experience on the Turon, to accompany me to Yalwal, and who, at one part of the locality said that, had I brought him here blindfolded, he would have declared he was on the Turon ranges. But from all I can learn, I have reason to conclude that most of the Yalwal geology and auriferous indications, are more assimilated to those of the Braidwood diggings than any other, as most of its rocks consist of coarse red granite, with a good deal of the ‘conglomerate’ in some parts, and interspersed with ranges of red earth, trap rock, and schist, without much wuartz, except in one of the creeks, where there are considerable rocks of a bastard kind. I have often regretted that Mr. Clarke, in his survey of the Shoalhaven, had not his attention diverted to Yalwal; and should these particulars, and the enclosed samples, induce you to think it worthy of a visit, I beg to add that should you, or any other official or scientific gentleman be pleased to give me a call, I shall be glad to afford any advantage my knowledge of the place may afford. I have just returned from seeing the prospectors; they have found less or more in every place they tried, except one, and rather more of what I conceive to be platina than of gold, but some of which they cast away before I arrived there. I attributed their want of better success to their inexperience and injudicious selection of the spots they tried.
Before I left I directed their attention to places more eligible, but the weather had now suddenly changed to rain, with appearance of some continuance, and which I have no doubt will discourage and prevent further operations for a time.
I Have, &c.,
(Signed) A.K. MACKAY,
Commissioner of Crown Lands.
P.S. - As it may require a number of prospecting and experienced parties to make a proper search and discovery at Yalwal, it might do well to communicate the matter as it is to some of the Sydney Press.
J.R. Hardy, Esq.’
I have also seen at a later period another similar notice. But my inattention to Yalwal did not arise from want of inducement. The first geological exploration which I made of any extent to the southward was in 1840, and the districts then examined, were the Illawarra, and the portion of the country between the Kangaroo and Shoalhaven Rivers. In 1841 I had an opportunity of examining the country about Jervis Bay and the south side of the Shoalhaven. In 1842 I carefully explored the country between Mittagong and Marulan, embracing the Wollondilly, and the palteau along the Shoalhaven, from Marulan to Meryla, Caraloo and Yarimga Creek. In 1850 I was again on the Shoalhaven, and completed to a considerable extent my knowledge of the country between it and Jervis Bay, and Ulladulla. In 1851, as may be seen in my preceding report, I carried my explorations to the head of the river. In 1855 I obtained by theodolite and barometer, numerous elevations in the country as far as Diddel or the Pigeon House of Captain Cook; and in 1860 I completed my examination of the country, from the mouth of the Shoalhaven to the head of navigation. Since then I have been engaged in an examination of very considerable collections from the Penisula, including Dangera Creek, Talwal, Miluagy, and the districts between Ettrema and the Endrick which have been supplied to me by the zeal and energy of Mr. Moss [my emphasis], who is engaged in a survey of the district, and these collections, in addition to my own previous collections and observations, have made me sufficiently conversant with that portion of the country referred to in Mr. Mackay’s letter to enable me to give all the necessary details for the geological description. But my more recent researches have not added any new feature to what I had been so early as 1851 acquainted with. I was then aware that the auriferous indications were not of such striking characters as to induce me to change my route, which I had planned from design, after careful consideration of my previously acquired knowledge, viz. to reach the Snowy River (as will be apparent from my numerous allusions to it in the preceding documents) by way of the head of the Shoalhaven and the north-east corner of the Maneero.
It may be, therefore, sufficient on this occasion to point out that there is, as I have known for many years, a small auriferous region in the deep creeks around the plateau on which the Pigeon House is placed, as an outlier of the Hawkesbury sandstones; but the value of the area, in a commercial point of view, is problematical.
That country exhibits conditions which remind me exceedingly of Tasmania; and these conditions will always reduce the hope of any extensive gold field in the latter country. Having in 1856, examined the auriferous localities about Fingal, and again in 1860, explored this country under the western Tiers and along the north side of the River Don, and having examined when there all the specimens of gold and rocks collected by the expedition sent out to examine the country further west for gold, I consider that I am able to say, that though these expeditions have confirmed all I have stated as to the existence of gold along a certain meridian in Tasmania, and have proved very clearly that true gold rocks do exist where I have indicated them to the Tasmanian Government; yet, the conditions of the country there is so similar to the district in question, that the gold may be assumed to be very difficult to obtain, and, therefore, comparatively insignificant in amount, defying much labour and appliances as chiefly belong to the class of ‘diggers’ of alluvial gold.
In that part of Tasmania, and in the country along Yalwal and the Clyde, Silurian slates bearing auriferous quartz veins undoubtedly occur; and I have also detected abundance of auriferous pyrites, not only in the ferruginous schist, but in the quartzose rocks, and even in the granite of Yalwal, and from the decomposition of these auriferous rocks, some gold has been set free in the alluvial. But the mass of the country consists of the rocks of the Carboniferous formation, all the members of which may be distinguished, from the lower fossiliferous beds between the coast and Yerriyong Creek, and the sigillaria shales (in the Dangera Creek gullies) to the coal beds of Meryla, (mentioned in my evidence before the Coal Committee, in 1847, which evidence, by the way, Mr. H.T. Plews, in 1858, used as his own, in a paper ‘on the Coal Fields of New South Wales.’ read at Newcastle-on-Tyne,) and the upper sandstones. (as along Womnellaway, Talaterang, and Diddel.) And, whilst porphyries underlie the fossiliferous beds below the coal and overlie the gold bearing rocks, the more recent igneous rocks have broken through the carboniferous formation. Transmuted and covered it in various parts of the district, appearing in dykes (along the coast region,) and in overlying and prismatic masses, (as at Cambewarra, Sassafras, &c.) This is precisely the structure of the country in Tasmania; where the Silurian slates, as I saw them at the eastern and northern base of the wsetern Tiers, (at Pockthorpe, and near Deloraine, &c.,) are smothered by highly altered carboniferous rocks, and by an enormous development of greenstones and basalts. I do not doubt, therefore, that there is some gold to be yet found in the ravines, and all along the broken country between the mouth of Yalwal Creek and the head of the Mongarlowe River, and also along the Clyde; but it occurs in iron pyrites mechanically united, and in thin quartz veins, which will require the process of science for the extraction of the metal. The bearing of these remarks on the general capabilities of the Shoalhaven basin, will be seen by reference to the Araluen district, which is separated from the Shoalhaven by less than two miles, and from the Clyde by not more than five miles; the Moruya having been found, contrary to certain assertions made in 1851, to be an auriferous district. Looking to the Narriga district, and the continuance of it towards the head of the Mongarlowe, with all the evidence produced, since 1851, by the gold diggers, who have worked successfully between the Currockbilly Range and the Shoalhaven, and bearing in mind what has just been stated respecting the country west of the Clyde; from the knowledge I possess of the structure of the ranges dividing the Clyde from the upper Shoalhaven, I should not feel any surprise, if, between Cooyouya and Buckenbowra, occasional gold localities should be developed; but, knowing how necessary is the existence of incovered auriferous rocks, or if covered, covered only by drift of a certain epoch, I could not, even in 1851, have searched the Yalwal country with any respect for my own opinion of it, though, of course, I have desired, if possible, to relieve the anticipations of land-holders in that region.
The country on the south and east of the Shoalhaven, as far as Murrengenber Creek, can only be searched for gold successfully, where the carboniferous formation, which gradually dies out as we advance to Moruya, is demanded; and although near Shelley’s flat, which may be said to partly belong to the Shoalhaven Basin, I found in a ferrugionous quartz conglomerate, (identical with the ferrugionous ‘cement,’ overlying the auriferous lower Silurian slates of Bendigo and other parts of Victoria, the epoch of which is probably tertiary) gold in the quartz pebbles and ferrugionous matter cementing them, as well as in the drift of Bundundah Creek, where again it has lately been reported as occurring; and in the conglomerate at Wingello, where the lower carboniferous beds abut upon the porphyries and granites over the Silurian formation; and although I have found them on the North Shore of Sydney Harbour, in the quartz pebbles of the Hawkesbury sandstones similar existence here and there, of gold, I still incline to think, that the drift, and the ferruginous schists, and the quartzose rocks of the Yalwal Peninsula, will not be found very rich in gold. Not till we have got well up on the table land of Argyle and Murray, have we any reason to conclude that an extensive gold field can exist. No doubt in my mind remains, that though in Tasmania and in the Yalwal Peninsula, the true auriferous slates, with the granites of a more recent date, occur bebeath the overlying formations, yet in both regions, alluvial gold can only be expected in small quantity. Nevertheless, I am of opinion, that between the Sassafras Range, and the eastern course of the Shoalhaven, an independent auriferous region does exist, but the value of it can only be determined by long and persevering researches. No sooner, however, do we reach the area of grey hornblendic or syenitic granites, which are so well developed around Araluen, than gold becomes abundant, diminishing in quantity, as we enter the quartiferous schists surrounding it, and becoming very scanty so soon as we come into contact, as in the Yalwal Peninsula, with the covering sedimentary deposits of the carboniferous epoch. It has been before stated that the granite of Yalwal is not of that kind; it is rather a coarse pale pinkish rock of loose texture, and having little or no hornblende, with a small amount of mica, and bi-hexahedral crystals of quartz.
That particles of gold may be found in alluvium, or fragments of gold-bearing quartz, in various parts of the region under review, even to the coast, I would not deny; but having examined that coast, I do not think better indications than those named, will be found on that line between Jervis Bay and Bateman’s Bay, although further to the south there are traces of gold in some localities, even down to the sea, as for instance on the Moruya and other rivers, between it and Mount Dromedary, about the base of which considerable gold exists.
It does not enter into my present purpose to give a detailed account of the geology of the coast, or even the basins of the Clyde and Yalwal, beyond what has been stated above; but it may be mentioned, that on Talwal Creek, which is a Yalwal water, a lode of argentiferous galena was found in 1849, of which an analysis appeared in the Sydney Herald, on 5th June of that year. The result gave a very high per centage of silver, but the analyst, did not consider it likely to be payable. Since then several claims have been asserted of the discovery of lead, as in the Good Dog, or Cambewarra Range, on the Shoalhaven, and near Jervis Bay, but I know not with what justice. The search now undertaken by Mr. Moss [my emphasis] in that region for gold will, probably, test the statements made; and lead and copper will, probably, be hereafter found, in some parts of the ranges. The latter exists near Narriga, in the vicinity of gold, which very frequently occurs visibly in the ores of copper (as near Bunniyong in Victoria) and more frequently invisbly. Narriga is, therfore, a likely district to produce gold beyond what has been found; and the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Endrick River, is a place in which to look for it.
In the year 1822, my respected friend, the Honourable A. Berry, Esq., read avery interesting paper, on the geology of the Clyde River, before the Philosophical Society in Australia, and it is published in the Geographical Memoirs, edited by Barron Field, Esq., F.L.S., late Judge of the Supreme Court.
At that early period, Mr. Berry had successfully made out all the prominent features of the district, as well as along the coast, and has pointed out the vertical strata of schist, the quartz, the trap, and the sandstone, with their order of succession. It gives me great satisfaction to mention this. It did not occur to Mr. Berry, that the country was likely to be metalliferous.”
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