THE GOLD-FIELDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
OBAN.
FROM OUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER
No. 5.>
As may be surmised from the fact that twelve miles before reaching Oban I had crossed
water that found its way down to the coast, Oban Greek has an eastern fall, joining some
of the many streams that take their rise about Mount Mitchell, which lies about east,
distant about ten miles, and then becoming one of the many tributaries to the Clarence.
The waters, particularly about the locality where the miners are now employed, may be
said to run in a bed of granite. It is a stream that has never been known to fail, running
even in the driest season. From its proximity to such numerous and heavy ranges,
however, it is constantly liable to floods, a good heavy thunder-shower sending it down
bank high. That portion of the creek selected by the diggers for their operations is
exceedingly wild and rocky. Steep granite ranges come down in to the creek, now on one
side, now on the other, turning the course of the water first to the right, then to the left, as
the vast blocks of stone close up its path on either side. It is of these sinuosities that the
miners take advantage in their work. Paddy's Creek and the Back Creek, which may be
said to form a portion of the Oban Diggings, are distant, the first three and the second
five miles from the Oban Inn; They are both creeks taking their rise in Mount Mitchell,
and join the Oban waters at some distance down. They run through a heavy granite
country very much of the same nature as Oban, and as much of the line of road I have
already described.
The mode of working, however, has been hitherto different at each of these creeks. At
Oban, the attention of the miners has been mainly given to the bed of the creek. In order
to get at this some very extensive works have been undertaken. The way of proceeding is
this: the miner inspects the banks of the creek carefully, for the purpose first of selecting
such a spot as will enable him, by cutting a new bed to the creek, to shut off the water
from as much as possible of the old bed with the least amount of labour; and next, of
getting such a place as may be most conveniently worked. The ground having been
chosen, he next proceeds to cut a race or dyke to carry off the waters of the creek in a
new channel. Suppose this to be done, he has to construct a head dam sufficiently strong
and watertight to prevent the water running in its old bed, and to turn it into the race
prepared for it. This having been finished and rendered secure, a back dam has next to be
made, whereby no water beyond that thus enclosed is permitted to enter into the ground
to be worked. The enclosed water has now to be god rid of, besides which there are
constant percolations through the banks, that would soon fill the holes again when
emptied, were not some scheme adopted for keeping them dry. To answer this end, as
well as to draw off the enclosed water, a water-wheel is erected at the lower end of the
race, which the current keeps going night and day. This works, either directly or by a
drum according to circumstances, a Californian pump, or an elevator, as the case may be.
The first of these is, no doubt, well known in Sydney, where I have seen many of them at
work pumping out cellars. It consists of an endless band, on which short pieces of pine
are nailed, travelling by the action of a winch, up a square wooden spout, the end of
which is sunk in the water. The elevator is on somewhat the same principle as a dredging
machine, consisting of an endless band, on which are fastened small tin buckets or cans,
capable of containing about two gallons, travelling round a drum or wheel above and a
roller belt. These buckets come up full, and, as they turn over on the drum, they empty
their contents into a spout placed below to receive them, and to carry them off out of the
way. Either of these can be worked by the direct action of the water-wheel, thereby
saving a large amount of power. Imagining the hole to be now clear of water, the miner
next proceeds to get rid of the sand, which lies at an average thickness of about five feet,
being in some of the deeper parts of the creek 10 and even 12 feet deep; whilst in others,
where the rock crops up, there is but little, sometimes none. The sand being removed,
more carefully of course as he approaches the rock, the miner comes upon what is termed
in digging parlance, a drift-being in fact principally coarse débris of granite, though other
stones than those forming the component parts of granite are mingled with them. In this
drift, which lies on the rock to a depth of from one to six inches, the gold is found.
Sometimes mingled with it, sometimes lying on the rock below it; at other, times, the
drift shallows down to a few pebbles, and then the clear gold is seen shining on the bare
face of the rock, with nothing to be done but just to collect it.
From the process I have here described, it must be apparent that the miner in this
particular branch of gold-digging is dependant to a very great extent for his success upon
the state of the water in the creek. Too small a volume will not turn his water-wheel, or
turns it so slowly that the work of pumping is tedious. On the other hand, too large an one
either overflows his dam or breaks it down by its weight or by the drift timber that it
brings down with it, or swamps or unships his water-wheel, rendering it useless or
carrying it and all his works away together. The latter has been particularly the case
during the last six or eight months, for which period the creek has been worked. One
party especially have been now six months engaged in these operations without having
been able to work their claim, Twice they had it clear of water, and had begun to get out
the sand, when down, came the creek, sweeping away dams, water-wheels,
pumps, everything, making the work even more difficult than if they had had to begin it
afresh. Yet, despite all this, have they persevered, and it is to be hoped that they may reap
in the end a good reward for their labour.
Some of these works are, as I have said, of a very extensive character, and evince
considerable engineering skill. For instance, the party highest up the creek -- that upon
which I first came on my approach to the diggings, and known as the German party, from
several of its members being Germans -- consists of eight persons. These have cut a race,
upwards of 250 yards long, through an intervening ridge; this race is four feet wide, and
has an average depth of about six feet. They were in course of making their head dam
when I visited their work, and were executing it in the most substantial manner by driving
piles close together, and strongly puddling the interstices with a clayey kind of mud, the
only material to be got for the purpose. To obtain this they had made a bridge across the
creek, over which their barrows travelled. This work had occupied them nearly three
months, but when completed, unless a heavier flood than ordinary occurs, it bids fair to
stand, at all events until they shall have gathered their golden harvest. Another party,
again, lower down the stream, have selected a point bristling with granite through which
to cut their race. Nearly four months have been taken up in quarrying and blasting
through this obstacle, and over 300lbs. of powder have been consumed in its removal.
They were however through, and were making their head dam when I left.
At Paddy's Creek, again, ground sluicing is the principle mode of working, though both
here and at the Back Creek preparations were making for working the bed of the streams.
In ground sluicing, the water is brought either by a dam or by spouts to a particular spot
on the banks of the creek, suitable for the purpose, and where there is sufficient space to
deposit the stuff to be washed. The stream thus obtained runs into a long broad trough,
gently inclined, into which the washing stuff is thrown. The steady run of water soon
carries off all the earthy particles, particularly as two or three men keep it constantly
stirring with long wooden rakes, one standing at the lower end, throwing out all the larger
stones as they accumulate. By these means an immense quantity of earth, say 20 or 30
loads, can be run through in a day, and almost every bit of the gold be secured.
At the Back Creek several holes have been sunk, and with tolerable success, though the
wet weather has hitherto prevented any fair trial being made in this mode of digging.
Under such circumstances, ground sluicing has, of course, proved more attractive, the
stuff run through the troughs, being earth taken from the surface to a depth of about three
feet. As yet, no very great distance from the creek banks has been worked.
Throughout the whole of this country the subsoil, and even the surface earth, is of a very
sandy character, consisting principally of debris of granite; consequently, holes sunk in it
cave-in most extensively after wet or even damp weather. This has, as yet, forbidden any
deep sinking from being prosecuted on this ground; and looking at this, in connection
with the fact that up to the present time only two river claims have been worked, it must
appear extraordinary how the parties here have managed to get on. All those now on the
creek are men who have been on it since the time it was first opened as a gold-field, and
most of them are known to have commenced with very little capital; and yet they have
contrived to execute large works, and to pay, as they went on, their current expenses.
These, in many instances, have been large, from the outlay required for tools and
materials. The way they have done hitherto has been, when short of funds, to work the
points or reefs on the creeks, from which in a day or two they have been able to gather
sufficient to carry them on for another week, or perhaps fortnight, at their main work.
Very sanguine anticipations are entertained of the yield of gold from the bed of the
stream, and not without some reason, if we may judge from the amount that has been
obtained from the only two claims that have yet been worked. The parties owning these
claims were lucky enough, during a lull in the floods, to get their dams completed and
their holes cleared out and worked, and obtained from one, 100 ounces, and from the
other, gold to the value, it was said of £700 and even more, though the exact amount was
never ascertained, the party who got it immediately packing up, and leaving the ground.
These claims ordinarily run only for from thirty to forty yards along the river. As to the
yield from the points or reefs, one party pointed out to me a spot from which, in two days,
they had taken 50 ounces. Their first prospect on the creek bank had given them 18
ounces. This same party had cleared out a bed claim, and had obtained as much of the
drift as washed them out rather over 20 ounces, when the creek come down and carried
away all their works.
The little community of diggers here is much indebted to a party of Americans, who have,
after numerous wanderings in New South Wales and Victoria, at last permanently settled
themselves down at Oban. This party consisted of four persons, but after working for
some time together they saw with regret the extremely lame and useless way in which the
other diggers, ignorant of their work, set about doing it. They consequently entered into
an arrangement with two strong parties of miners, the result of which was that two of the
Americans joined with each of the other parties, for the purpose of giving their
experience in aid of the brawny arms and strong sinews of the other miners. This, as the
parties work on in a friendly manner, has been most advantageous to all concerned; for
whilst the stout working men received valuable assistance from the mechanical genius
and mining knowledge of the Americans, the latter were able, through the strong arms of
their companions, to get through with far more work than they themselves would possibly
have executed.
The whole appearance of these diggings impresses the visitor favourably. Going down to
the working ground, he sees mechanical power applied wherever its use is likely to be
beneficial; he does not behold men uselessly employed in doing that which the waters of
the creek can be made to do for them. He looks around him, and he sees comfortable huts
built, far more warm and compact than many of the shepherds' huts that have been used
as such for years, with the busy hand of woman employed about their decoration or their
comfort, and with children sporting about their doors. And what is more, he beholds men
who for eight months have battled against the storm and the rain, thinking only when the
flood has swept away the work of weeks, of how the mischief was to be the most readily
repaired. The hope of ultimate success must be very strong in the minds of men, who
could thus locate themselves in so permanent a manner in such a very out-of-the-way
spot. It is well-known and admitted that no miner or gold-digger would ever work on
steadily even with the certainty of the very highest rate of wages to be obtained, -- the
hope that sustains him being that one day -- to use his own words -- he will "drop
upon it."
Now, though the Oban diggers have up to the present paid their expenses,
still there must be an expectation of something beyond to keep them so steadily at work
in the face of so great difficulties.
In my own humble judgment, looking at the examples offered by other auriferous
localities, I do not think that these hopes and expectations are misplaced. First, because
the gold is exceedingly fine and shotty -- so fine, in fact, that some samples I have seen
more resembled a powder than anything: this amongst miners is generally understood to
give promise of large deposits of gold in some not very far distant locality. Next, because
the gold appeared to me to be exceedingly pure in quality -- more resembling the
Ballaarat deposits than any I have yet seen; of course I cannot speak on authority, not
knowing whether any assay of the Oban gold has as yet been made, but from the bright
appearance and great specific gravity of the specimens I have had shown to me, I should
think them quite equal in quality to the generality of Victorian samples. This again is
looked upon as a strong indication of large deposits. Lastly, the broken nature of the
country, the violent disruption that the various strata of rocks that crop up to the surface
seem to have undergone, together with the numerous stones, rubies, garnets, emeralds,
cornelians, &c, found in the washings of the creeks, are all so similar to the features and
the products of the Ovens district, that in the face of the very generally prevailing notion
against gold being found m the eastern flow of waters, I cannot but think that Oban, with
a large population, would turn out a very large amount of gold. Mr. Maxwell, one of the
party of Americans that I have alluded to, assured me that the appearance of the country,
according to all the preconceived Californian ideas, gave far more promise of gold, than
did that of Yackandandah or Reid's Creek, in both of which places he had worked for
some time. At the same time, there were here very many of the peculiarities that marked
the Ovens diggings, such as the great prevalence of the black sand, and the large
quantities of bright pebbles or stones of all colours to be found in the refuse of the
washing stuff.
Whether there be gold at Oban to any great extent, or not, is a problem not at all likely to
be solved for many years with the present small population of miners. Taking the Back
Creek and Paddy's Creek together, there cannot be more than 120 miners; or say a
population of all callings of about 170. This would be barely sufficient to work a gully, if
it were to be done in a good and satisfactory manner, but when scattered over so large a
tract of country, it becomes absurd to think that even the ground can obtain a fair trial. I
take it that there are about seventy men on the Oban Creek spread along a distance of
about four miles, but all employed, as a chief work, in the riverbed. So far, the creek itself
is likely to get a fair trial, but not so the surrounding country, for were seventy men to
spread themselves over it, there would not be one for every gully, no -- nor for every
fifty gullies. So with the other localities. At the Back Creek not more than thirty men are
at work, and at Paddy's Creek about twenty. Can it be imagined that such numbers could
possibly work either of these places, extending as they do, taking their sinuosities into
account, for fully twenty miles, up to the very base of Mount Mitchell. Besides these two
creeks, gold has been found on a prospect, in every creek that has been tried about Oban,
as well as in all the ranges and water-courses running from Mount Mitchell, and always
in good paying quantities.
The distance at which Oban is placed, and the difficulty of reaching it ~ for though only
120 miles from Grafton, forty of those miles are over a heavy mountain road -- have no
doubt checked, and is likely still to check for some time, any great rush of miners to the
spot; but with the advent of spring and fine weather, I have no doubt that this very
promising gold-field will get a fair trial.