THE GOLD-FIELDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
BURRANDONG TO MUCKRAWAH.
FROM OUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER
No. 14.
From Burrandong to Muckrawa the road, was not easily to be missed, since I had merely
to follow up a creek to its source, in the mountains, then to cross a gap at the head of the
gully down into a corresponding gully on the other side. By running this down I came
into the Muckrawa Creek. In the distance -- 10 miles -- that separated the two places I
encountered no adventure, neither did I perceive any particular feature of interest in the
country. The first part of the I way, for some five miles, is over a fine level country,
rising gradually to the hills, at the feet of which it becomes somewhat broken, the track
presenting in some places a nasty sidling road that must be exceedingly dangerous for
teams. All along are signs of prospecting, and it is somewhat remarkable that no good
paying ground has been found in this locality, although several holes towards the head of
the gully have been sunk right down to the rock. The moment the ridge is crossed,
however, we come into a gold country, and on this side the whole of the gully, called the
Burrandong Gully, has been extensively worked, almost up to the gap and right down to
its junction with the Muckrawa.
It would be next to an impossibility to describe the appearance of these diggings, so much
has the ground on each side the creek been turned over and rooted up, or to say even
where the bed of the creek originally ran. No doubt it must have been a picturesque spot
when first opened as a diggings, but now every charm has been destroyed by the ruthless
hand of the miner, and the matter-of-fact pick and shovel has left not one single peg on
which poetry could hang an idea. It appears to be a deep hole or hollow in the hills, which
tower away to the north and east in steep and heavy masses, being more broken however
and less abrupt towards the south and west. A small collection of huts and tents, some
twenty in number, marked, the most central spot, whilst the cleared appearance of the
ground, every tree for hundreds of yards around having been felled and burnt, showed
that a large population had formerly fixed themselves on the spot. I learned that some
eighteen months ago there had been as many as 1500 men at work here, whilst now the
number has dwindled down to something over one hundred. An amount of work has.
been done here that is perfectly astounding, and I think that of all the diggings I have
visited in New South Wales, that of the Muckrawa has been the most completely
ransacked. The whole of the Burrendong gully, and a gully that runs into it, a length of
about two miles, have been worked right across to the base of the enclosing ranges;
whilst on the Muckrawa itself, the whole width of the creek and many of the short hills or
slopes that border it, for a length of nearly three miles, have been sunk upon and driven,
the creek itself having been turned over and reworked four or five times at least. Several
parties of Chinese are even now working over the creek bed once more, and are making
wages out of it. The main body of the white diggers, however, are employed in the
Burrendong and adjoining gullies. The sinking has been shallow, to a depth of from ten
feet to twenty feet, the usual runs being twelve feet to fourteen feet; and the gold is found,
as at Burrendong, in the crevices of the schist or slate, and also in a gritty drift that lies
on the top of the pipeclay which usually covers the bed rock. The gold is now getting very
scarce here, and the diggers for some time past have been one by one dropping away to
other rushes. There are no regular gold buyers, but the inn and store keepers purchase
small quantities from their customers in exchange for supplies. The average amount that
comes into their hands now does not exceed 25 ounces a week. There are two inns and
two stores, with but very little business doing in either. The gold obtained is coarse and
nuggetty, though not so much so as the Burrandong gold, to which it bears, however, a
very strong resemblance. An enormous quantity of gold has been taken out of the
Muckrawa ground, and I was told of finds that made me open my eyes with astonishment,
such as parties washing out 50 ounces, 60 ounces, and even 70 ounces a day for a month
together. But these are tales of days gone by, and of course lose nothing by keeping. That
it has been a rich field anyone, looking at the very careful and complete manner in which
the place has been worked, would at once say; because no digger would have ever taken
so much trouble over a ground that did not pay him well. So far as the individual, miner
is concerned, the Muckrawa is worked out; though even now it is imagined that the often
worked ground would pay for sluicing, and I was informed that with the first fall of rain
there were parties prepared to puddle over the whole of the stuff.
The distance from the Muckrawa to the commencement of the Ironbark diggings is only
six miles; over a good mountain road, but through a broken hilly country, with some stiff
pinches for teams. To the horse-man, however, the way is pleasant enough, the country
being open forest up to within a mile or so of thoe diggings, when the timber becomes
thicker, until, at last he gets into the ironbark scrub, from which these diggings take their
name.
The rush to the Ironbark is one of the most recent that has taken place in the Western
Gold Fields, and has been rather an extensive one. It owes its origin to the Stoney Creek
rush some months ago, when hundreds came from all parts, even from Victoria, at the
news of the heavy finds in that locality; but came only to be disappointed. Many of these
parties spread themselves over the surrounding country, and some of them hit upon the
Ironbark which gave first rate prospects on more than one trial. Several holes were put
down with a return of from two to three ounces of gold to the tub of washing-stuff,
besides a pretty good, account of nuggets in the crevices of the rock. The news soon got
abroad, and a rush was the consequence. There are now some 1200 or 1400 souls
collected on the spot, of which at least 1000 are diggers. This number has been
assembled here within the last six weeks. The general features of the Ironbark remind me
very forcibly of the Bendigo country; the similarity being so great as to strike me at once.
The country is very gently undulating, being so nearly level as to leave one in doubt
which way the creek, along the banks of which the majority of the: diggers have pitched
their tents, runs in its course. I use the word banks, as being that in general use, although
the ground shelves down so easily on both sides that there is hardly such a thing as a bank
anywhere. This large flat is backed up by short easy ridges, of schistose rock, running
away on the one side to Stoney Creek, where they become somewhat heavier and are
upreared at sharper angles; on the other they trend away down to the Wellington Road,
and form the boundaries of a deep creek on the banks of which, the camp of Mr.
Commissioner M'Lean -- known as the Middle Station, is situated. The ground is
covered with a thick forest of iron and stringy bark and spotted gum, though the timber is
only of small size, and not of any very luxuriant appearance. There is also a rather thick
undergrowth of scrub, giving, with the dark bark of the timber, a sombre and dreary air to
the locality. A great deal of this has been cleared away, even in the short time since the
rush has taken place, to make room for the tents, or to furnish firewood, and already the
sunlight has been let in upon spots where it had never before penetrated. Everything:
about the place has an air of newness. The two inns have evidently been but just erected,
the slabs looking clean and green, whilst the props of the tents have still green leaves
adhering to them as though they had been but freshly cut. Carts with the a wags still
unloaded were standing about, whilst men wandering here and there with blanket and
bundle hanging over their shoulders, were to be met with in every direction. The holes
too, were not, with very few exceptions, yet bottomed, although the long line of
workings might ho traced by the fresh earth so recently thrown out, now lying on the
surface. From the spot where I first struck the diggings in coming from the Muckrawa,
the sinkings extend down to the Wellington Road, a distance of rather more than a mile.
Along this line tents are very thickly clustered, ranged in some places in rows, and
assuming almost the character of a canvas street. Stores, butchers and bakers shops, a
medical hall with drugs at Bathurst prices, and of course public-houses, have all risen as
if by magic; and now, where only a few weeks back all was dark, wild, and drear, are
found only bustle, confusion, and business.
The all but total absence of water on this spot has as yet, prevented anything like an
estimate of the yield, being arrived at; but from the fact that so large a number of persons
have assembled, and that all are content to work for a time without a return, storing their
washing stuff, in preparation for the next wet weather, it may reasonably be imagined
that pretty sanguine hopes, if not the certainty of success are entertained. Some very
extensive and permanently, constructed dams have been made at every spot where a body
of water can be retained; and from the energy and activity displayed, the population here
have at all events shown that, they deserve a rich return. The gold, so far as it has yet
been found, is very fine and pure, and is very generally dispersed, lying principally under
a light friable pipeclay, and in the interstices of the jagged edges of the schist. The
sinking is good, through a sound reddish-coloured earth, to a depth lof from five feet, to
thirty feet; the general run being about sixteen feet. The average yield, so far as it could
be ascertained whilst the water lasted, was very good, paying about an ounce per week
per man. Had the water been plentiful a larger return would have been made, as the stuff
could have been, run through quicker. Several parties are now engaged in sinking through
the schist, in an endeavour to get another bottom. None of these had been successful
during the time of my stay, the idea being then but a comparatively recent one. I learnt,
too, from Mr. Commissioner M'Lean, that the population now on the Ironbark was
composed mainly of old Victoria miners, very many of whom had but recently arrived
and myself noticed, what that gentleman remarked to me, that they shewed a spirit and
enterprise in setting to work that was beyond all praise, and that they must secure the
gold, if gold were to be had. The traffic between this part of the country and Victoria is
very great, that is, as regards the diggers. These men think nothing of shouldering their
swags, and starting from the Ovens to visit Stoney Creek, or the Wellington Road
diggings. There have been instances known of a party of men arriving at noon, and on
looking round them, and not liking the general appearance of things, again taking up their
worldly effects and making tracks back again over the 400 miles that they had so very
recently travelled.
There are several gullies lying a little back from the main diggings that are being more or
less worked by such men, as cannot afford to wait the fall of rain to give them a retum for
their labour, and who require money at once to enable them to carry on . One of these
called the Poor Man's Gully, has been very extensively worked. The sinking is very
shallow, very much resembling that at Burrandong, not averaging more than three or four
feet. The gold, being large and coarse, and found in the interstices of the slate can be
obtained in nuggets without washing. The washing stuff is set apart for the good time of
rain that the Western diggers consider to be so long in coming. These gullies keep a large
population near the spot, ready at once to take advantage of the wet weather when it does
set in, and have proved a great blessing to the more needy of the diggers. The rain
however, had held off so long, and the expense attached to the miner's life are so great,
that already a great number who had been on the ground had been compelled to give in
and seek for spots that would give a quicker return in gold for the labour expended on
them.