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In A Tramp to the Diggings: Being notes of a ramble in Australia and New Zealand in 1852, Richard Bentley, London, 1852, John Shaw, M.D., records his impressions of the Turon diggings, the largest and most lucrative at the time.
pp. 250-262.
“ARRIVAL AT THE TURON DIGGINGS.
“Before giving any further description of the diggings, I will briefly make mention of those who lay claim to the discovery of gold. Humboldt, the celebrated traveller and naturalist, was the first to show that gold was found in rocks which had a meridian course, that is, in mountain ranges which have a direction from north to south. In California, the Ural, and Australia, all the great mountain ranges that produce gold, have this meridian bearing from north to south. There are exceptions, however, to this, in some of the spurs which branch out laterally from the main chain, east or west, as the case may be. Sir Roderick Impey Murchison suggested to the Government, in 1844, that gold in all probability would be found in Australia, from the similarity of the structure of the Australian mountain-ranges to those of the Ural; and a Mr. Smith actually discovered some portions of the precious metal/ The Rev. Mr. Clarke, a gentleman who has paid great attention to the geology of Australia, discovered gold in 1841, produced specimens of it, and presented them to the Government. An old shepherd, of the name Macgregor, sold specimens of gold at Sydney for some time, without revealing his secret. [For more on the early discoveries of gold see here or here]
“Mr. Hargraves, a man entirely unknown to science, went to the Californian diggings, where he was not successful. He was much struck with the analogy that existed between the California strata and those of the Bathurst District, where he had previously resided. He returned to that neughbourhood expressly to search for gold, which he discovered on the 12th of February, 1851. On the 6th of May following, the discovery was publicly made known by Mr. Hargraves, and a few days after a party, fully equipped for the purpose, started for the locality of Ophir.
“I have conversed with twenty Australians who informed me that as soon as they had worked at the Californian diggings, they were quite convinced that gold would be found in Australia; and I have but little doubt that every Australian who had dug at California, if at all acquainted with Australian strata as mere miners, were of the same opinion. The gold discovery, therefore, has been made by one whose opinion seemed to be entertained by hundreds of others; but it possesses this peculiar merit, that Mr. Hargraves was the first to return to Bathurst and search for the precious metal.
“I will now speak of the regulations at the Turon respecting the diggers. Every person digging is compelled by law to pay 30s. per month to a commissioner, which entitles him to a claim (as it is called), which consists of fifteen feet frontage by the side of a river or creek; or twenty feet of the bed of a tributary to a river or main creek; or sixty feet of the bed of a ravine or water-course; or twenty feet square of table-land, or river-flats. This claim, after the license has been duly paid to the commissioner, may be sold to other parties, which is frequently done. Some of these claims have sold as high as 700l. It not unfrequently happens that when a claim is to be sold, there is a good deal of roguery going on: and it is done in the following manner. When the party who sells is exhibiting the nature of the soil, another person drops in a small quantity of gold [salting the mine], which is not perceived by the purchaser. It is afterwards washed and shown to contain the precious metal. The matrix, or birth-place of the gold, is quartz, which has been broken up by a variety of causes, and carried by the action of water into rivers and creeks, where it is deposited a second time. It may be found, therefore, in its original place of deposit, or where it was first created, or in other parts to which it has travelled by the action of water.
“At the Turon, there are both dry and wet diggings: the wet are those which consist of the deposit of the river, - the dry, those which are at some distance from it, and which contain no water. I examined one of the most productive mines of Golden Point, and I found it to contain gravel and soil at the top, and lower down a conglomerate of many different kinds of stones, or boulders, strongly bearing the mark of ignigenous [sic] action. I was informed, when examining the mine, which was a very hard one to work, requiring the pick-axe to break the stones, that in certain little corners, called pockets, the nuggets were principally found. A nugget (a small piece of gold) is visible enough, and when gold is mixed with any other rock it is frequently disseminated in such masses as to be recognised at once; but, when mixed with earth, its particles are so small as not to be recognised at all by the naked eye; and, to obtain it, it is necessary to be cradled; which is done in the following manner. The cradle consists of the hopper and slide, which take in and out, and three compartments at the bottom. The hopper is the top part, upon which the soil is placed, with holes through which the earth and gold pass, leaving the large stones; with one man rocking, while another, provided with an apparatus called a dipper, pours water upon the mass of earth and stones. The hopper is then removed, after having riddled the large stones aside; the slide then appears, which has a surface without any small holes, but has a large opening at one end, through which other portions of the soil and gold pass to the bottom of the cradle. The fine earth is then taken from the hopper and bottom of the cradle, and placed in a tin dish, and washed very carefully in such manner as to leave the gold at the bottom. The noise produced by cradling is very peculiar, and quite loud enough when many thousands are going together. Thousands of them are to be seen and heard by the side of the River Turon, as the people preferred the wet to the dry diggings. The following statement will show how individual effort may succeed : -
“A man obtained 350l, worth of gold in a few hours. Another 440l. worth in one day. A poor man collected 9 lb. of gold in one day. A man named Brennan laid hold of a lump which, when sold fetched 1155l. A black fellow dug up a huge mass of gold, worth 4240l. Many men made their 25l. a week. I worked with a party, for a few hours, whose earnings were a pound pre day: Mr. Hardy, a gold commissioner, has stated, in one of his reports, that any man might earn his ten shillings a day. I was much struck with the good order preserved in a wild mountainous gorge, where the only preventive to evil-doers was a mere handful of police, all of whom might have been annihilated in five minutes by 500 diggers armed with their mining tools. When I visited the Turon, the population amounted to 10,000 or 12,000; but probably no more than half that number were digging; and, taking them altogether, they were not half so noisy as the rabble at an English race, and on the whole much better behaved.
“The following may be taken as specimens of life at the diggings : -
“I remained two or three nights with Mr. King, one of the commissioners, in the Government tent, and afterwards went to one of the best lodging establishments to be found at the Turon. When breakfasting there one morning with a very agreeable companion, he said, - ‘Did you observe the lady of our lodging take one of the sheets from my bed and put it on the table for breakfast, being perfectly persuaded that it made an excellent table-cloth ?’ I only met with one case of incivility during my sojourn at the diggings, and that was from a drunken man one Sunday morning. The rogue took a particular dislike not only to the tout ensemble of my appearance, but to a big heavy New Zealand stick which I carried; and also to a green hat, very broad in the brim, and very shabby; both of which he took care to anathematise in a very loud, and often-repeated coarse stammering voice - so loud that I was perfectly ashamed of the fellow, and immediately beat a retreat to a large tent, which I observed at a short distance; this turned out to be the new church then erecting, and observing a gentleman in black (the bishop’s chaplain), I immediately walked up to him and commenced conversation by the side of several other serious, and well-behaved church-going people; when, to my great annoyance, the scoundrel, who was then at a distance of 300 yards, shouted out with a voice of thunder - ‘I shall know you again, you blackguard in the green hat and big thick stick.’ I then joined the congregation, and attended divine service. I soon observed, on the three front forms nearest to the bishop, that two-thirds of the people seated there were gentlemen, although garbed in red and blue serge shirts, and disguised to the best of their ability ! A collection was made afterwards, which amounted to 22l., all the people giving freely.
“The bishop is said to be Puseyite. I attended the afternoon service, and found quite another class of diggers present, and all of them nearly of the same stamp - viz., hard-working men; with idlers, and probably some rogues, who, when the plate made its appearance for a collection, all bolted, to a man, without giving a single sixpence, to the great astonishment of the metropolitan Bishop of Sydney, Dr. Broughton, who very soon found himself in solitude, and utterly confounded. It all arose from the bishop not sending the plate round before giving the benediction. In the evening, I observed a crowd, and hastened to see what was going on. On nearing it, I saw that it was a preaching; but had my suspicions excited to believe that it might be a congregation of pickpockets, from seeing an idiotic-looking man curiously grimacing, in the most remarkable manner possible. Having ascertained more fully the nature of the meeting, I clearly saw that it was a bona fide congregation of religionists, and that this grimacing individual was a drunken man, who had placed himself by the side of the preacher, and insisted upon singing, notwithstanding several of his companions tried to get him away. The poor preacher, like a a true disciple of his great master, exercised the greatest possible patience and forbearance, and did not utter one word of remonstrance.
“I shall conclude this sketch of the diggings with a word or two on wages, and the price of provisions.
“Stores of all kinds are obtainable at reasonable rates; that is to say, at from 20 to 30 per cent. on Sydney prices; which, when the wretched state of the roads, and the consequent expense of carriage, is taken into consideration, cannot be objected to. Bread is dear - 9d. the 2 lb. loaf; good meat can be obtained at 2d. per lb. Miners’ tools are cheaper than in Sydney.
“There are a great many men who are employed by others to dig for them. For a labourer, capable of doing a good day’s work, the general wages are 30s. a-week, and rations of beef, tea, flour, and sugar, given him besides. A good Cornish miner will make from 4l. to 5l. a-week. In the township, labourers get from 5s. to 7s. a-day: mechanics, from 12s. to 15s. a-day; and, for a few days, when there was a great press, carpenters, who are more required than other tradesmen, could make 1l. per day.
“A single person might live very well on from 12s. 16s. a-week.
“The diseases prevalent at the town were opthalmia and diarrhaea - the former arising from the bite of a fly, and commonly termed blight, and not at all a serious complaint. The rocks, which only now and then made their appearance, were metamorphic. The soil, thrown out from mines, was of every imaginable colour and quality - clayey, marshy, ditchy, sandy. After having penetrated through the soil, the bed-rock (so termed by the miners) varied in its depth in different mines. Gold has been found in clay-slate, iron-stone, quartz, and blue-clay. The quantity of gold shipped from Sydney, at the time that I left, was about one million sterling.
“In looking over the botany of the town, I found the following genera, seven of which are British; viz., Eucalyptus, Cauarina, Geranium, Viola, Cerastium, Papaver, Urtica, Malva, Ranunculus. I was quite astonished to find such a generic analogy to British plants, having previously observed so little resemblance in every part that I had visited. I met with no British species.
“Thousands of Australians left their native land for California, when the El Dorado first became known; but since the discovery of the golden regions in Australia, numbers of them have returned.
“After I quitted Turon, I was sorry to hear of the Americans, who came to visit the shores of Australia, either to dig or make a trip of pleasure, being hooted and insulted at their diggings; - so much so as to compel them to pack up and return to California. The diggers, in doing so, I think, have shown a want of taste, sympathy, and even hospitality, to that people, who are not only of the same flesh and blood as themselves, but who brought with them the strong ties of relationship, - members of the same great family, who attained to a state of civilisation, wealth, and commerce, to which the page of history offers no parallel. That the Australians should have thus stultified themselves, will be a matter of deep regret to every well-wisher of the Anglo-Saxon race.
“I was sorry to find in Sydney, and in every part of Australia that I visited, the deepest-rooted prejudices, and most unreasonable antipathy to the Americans. I took up the weapons of defence, and always supported the American people, by which I made more enemies than friends, and for which I was considered especially cracked.”
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