A VISIT TO THE SOUTHERN GOLD FIELDS.
THE ADELONG.
FROM OUR SPECIAL REPORTER>
No. 1.
HAVING crossed the Murrumbidgee at Gundagai, and the rich river flats, subject to frequent
inundation, and passed Spencer's new steam-mill, we parted at the entrance of a valley, and will now
resume our journey, following the road, which holds its way along the eastern side of that valley. On the left
are the wooded ranges, which, gradually increasing in altitude, extend far to the southward until
they mingle with the alpine heights of the Snowy Mountains; on the right, a number of farms
stretching across the valley are bounded by a low chain of hills, which separate them from the basin of the
river. These farms, with two exceptions, have been but recently occupied, and but small spaces at long
intervals appear to have been cleared or broken up. A few buildings of a superior description are in
progress along the line of road, and you now and then obtain a glimpse of a homestead through the
openings of the forest. The soil is a rich trappean loam, and the timber heavy, but sparsely scattered.
Ten miles from the punt the Adelong crosses the road through an ugly black swamp, and, after a tortuous
course of four or five miles, disembogues into the Murrumbidgee. The crossing here is at all times difficult,
and often renders an otherwise good road impassable for wheeled conveyances. On the opposite bank you
arrive at Roache's Inn, lately purchased by Mr. Williams, a successful quartz reefer and the proprietor of a
crushing mill. The country now insensibly rises as you proceed, the valley opens out, and tho road
sometimes follows the margin of the creek, and sometimes crosses the slopes from the range to the
westward, which subsides into broad swampy flats. These present an appearance of having
been frequently inundated, and the vegetation, although abundant, appears to be of a useless character.
The valley of the lower Adelong has been partially surveyed, and cut up into small farms, extending
from the stream to the base of the mountains. This land is variable in in agricultural capabilities. Some
portions consist of rich alluvial bottoms and gentle slopes, covered with a deep red brown sandy loam,
while others consist of a granitic debris not yet sufficiently decomposed or covered with vegetable mould to
produce a soil suitable for cultivation. Added to these are many broad areas of cold swampy land that
would require a vast expenditure of labour to render them productive.
Five miles from the inn you pass Johnston's station, when the road takes a westerly direction, and, five
miles further, it sweeps over a spur which, descending from a towering granitic range to the right, stretches
far into the valley, diverting the course of the creek, which here wanders from side to side through a wide
reedy swamp. The valley now contracts. To your right a lofty granite range rises from the road, swelling into
dome-like crests, and clothed with vegetation, except where here and there a mass of denuded rock
contrasts with the verdure of the slopes. You are descending to the margin of the swamp, and as you
proceed a mountain chain appears swelling from the plain on the left, and trending to the southward; its
sides are broken and precipitous, in some places overhanging the watercourse, in others sending down
huge rugged spurs to the banks of the creek. And now you are startled by explosions like that of distant
artillery. They reverberate from rock to rock, and are heard rumbling through the hills. As you advance the
detonations become louder and more distinct, and follow each other with great rapidity; presently you see a
long line of white tents or flys stretching up the side of a rugged mountain, crowning its summit and
perched upon rocky projections at a dizzy height, a zigzag road climbs up the face of the precipice, where
men, seeming like pigmies, are moving about amidst piles of white and blue rock-you are now opposite the
Gibraltar Reef. On a narrow alluvial flat intervening between the base of the hill and the creek there are
several neat cottages and a few gardens, and in their neighbourhood a small crushing mill driven by water
power. The mountains now close in on either side, the bed of the creek, silted up to the depth of thirty feet,
is still of considerable width; and you advance, passing several huts, until you reach a broad flat below
Surface Hill; here the creek narrows, making a detour round aslope on the left bank, where a large quantity
of gold was obtained by skimming the surface. It is now exhausted, but on the slopes of the opposite bank
a few alluvial miners still contrive to earn a subsistence, immediately below a wreck of the schistose
formation, invested in granite, and but little altered. You are now passing through a westerly spur from the
range to the left, and enter a deep rocky gorge cut by the waters of the upper country through the
granitic formations, to the eastward denuded masses of rock are piled almost precipitously for 1000 feet
above your head. The older igneous formations are distinctly exhibited, upheaved, disjointed, and fractured
by the more recent subjacent outbursts. Many of the openings and fissures then created have been filled
by the molten rock, and their course can be distinctly traced through the more ancient products. Here
stupendous blocks, some hundreds of feet in length, are to be observed on the lower part of the mountain,
presenting all the appearance of having when in a state of fusion flowed to the westward, and of the flow
having been arrested by a sudden consolidation, others seem to have been forced directly up- wards, and
in their passage have displaced blocks, already consolidated, weighing hundreds of tons. This spur or
minor cross-range, merging in the great north and south chain on the western side of the creek, appears to
have been caused by lateral pressure, enhanced by the superincumbent weight and resistance of pre-
existing igneous formations.
The range here denuded exhibits a section of its formation to its base, and the successive outbursts can be
traced with their relative action upon the older igneous products. As the lapse of geological time between
each upheaval, or granitic outburst, will be an important consideration in here -- after attempting to
describe the auriferous quartz lodes which intersect these spurs, all parallel to each other, trending to the
south-west, and all emanating from the highest points of the main range, -- the summits of which consist
chiefly of altered schistose sandstone, slate, gneiss, and ancient granite, -- I have been particular in
calling attention to the appearances here exhibited.
In the chasm below are vast erratic boulders and fragments of granite, with frequent ledges, forming
a series of falls, over which the waters precipitate themselves with a deafening roar in their passage
through the range. The opposite side is of a similar character, the masses of granite are on the same scale
of magnitude, but the superstrata of the earlier formations are wanting, and the consequent lower
elevation renders the appearance less imposing.
Clambering along a rugged path overhanging the turbulent waters, you soon reach the upper fall,
and emerge from the range in the neighbourhood of a second crushing machine driven by water-power,
in an elevated valley on the range to the left you see Williamstown, with its huts and buildings scattered
over the hollow, and stretching up the slope of the succeeding spur. From this point, for about half a mile
upwards, the creek has been exceedingly productive, and many rich claims along its course have been
exhausted. A few hundred yards further you pass a third water-mill, when a broad valley opens out to the
right; undulating slopes gradually ascend the hills to the westward, and you are on the site of the new town
of Adelong. To the eastward the range still continues, and half way up its side a line of tents, with heaps of
quartz, and its investing rock mark the course of the Victoria Reef. Again returning to the road which you
had left at Gibraltar, you pass several clusters of cottages sprinkled over the green slopes, then Murphy's
new hotel, nearly completed; then the extensive stores of Mandleson and Co., the Bank of New South
Wales, the Oriental Bank, and Paul's hotel; further up the valley you see the store of Gasse and Co., with a
third inn, and a few scattered erections in various stages of progression. Still further, the creek trends to the
westward, for a couple of miles; the range on the east bank r cedes, forming a small plain at its base, now
under cultivation, when it again sweeps round, stretching, with an increased altitude, to the westward, in
a direction parallel to the auriferous spurs, and approaching the succeeding chain of north and
south ranges to the westward, thus closing in the valley.
Turning to the left opposite Paul's, the road conducts you over the creek, here crossed by a bridge of the
rudest construction, when, passing between two crushing mills driven by steam power, you commence the
ascent of the second valley in the range, and soon reach the commissioner's camp, crowning a
beautiful green knoll and overlooking the township, this wide
basin or vale partaking somewhat of the character of table land is bounded on one hand by one of those
spurs or prolongations already noticed as bursting from beneath the highest summits of the range, and
taking a direction of S.S.W., and on the other by a similar formation at a lower altitude, which, after
maintaining an irregular elevation for two miles, subsides with an easy declination to the margin of the
creek, before you to the left, extending obliquely up the spur, and intersecting its crown a few feet below
the highest point, in a north and south course, lies the celebrated great quartz reef of the Adelong; its
direction indicated by a line of tents erected over the various shafts. Below these tents enormous heaps of
fragments of granite and the invested schists attest the labours of the miner; and here and there, towards
the crown of the hill piles of quartz, carefully built up, are an evidence of the success of those who have
been so fortunate as to reach thee lode. And now you have arrived at that busy haunt of human labour, the
centre of a permanently-established gold-field: anxious looking men are hurrying to and fro; here a little
crowd of speculators are discussing the the last crushing; there a woman, surrounded by her neighbours, is
telling that her husband and his mates have at last struck the mundic further on, a
tradesman on the look out for customers enquires from a passing acquaintance, how his claim shapes;
and higher up the road, at the public-house, is a noisy half-share man who, wearied of waiting upon
Providence, has sold out, and is liquifying the proceeds; engines are spinning, and whirling, and
stamping with ceaseless industry; drays, laden with quartz, are clattering down the mountain side or
rumbling over the muddy road; butchers' and bakers' carts are rattling up and down, as if they had a week's
work before them and only a day to get through with it; a crowd of half-starved dogs have each their
separate grievance, and contribute their yelpings and barkings to the general clamour; pigs, grunting and
wallowing in every hole and corner, are regardless of either Pound or Police Act, insessant explosions in
the shafts rival the thunders of a cannon- ade, and leave you to fancy that the French have landed and
found somebody to fight them; and amidst all this din and tumult we pursue our way up Camp-street. On
our right is the post office and store of Mr. Michaelis; then come saddlers, doctors, carpenters, blacksmiths,
auctioneers, jewellers, tobacconists, bakers, tailors, butchers, refreshment booths, restaurants, livery
stables, Crouch's Inn, billiard- rooms, a bowling saloon, general stores, boarding- houses, and a host of
other indescribable trades and callings, all stringing along for a good mile, and all dependant upon the
fortunate digger who at Adelong has relinquished mud-groping and fossicking, and for the first time become
a true miner.
To the left, a diminutive water-course divides the valley; and beyond it huts, stores, and boarding
houses are scattered over the slope below the reef. Higher up where the mountains close in, there are
several small cottages in the occupation of miners with their families; and, about half way, a branch road
passing between Emanuel's store on the one hand and Saunders' hotel on the other, crosses the crown of
the reef; here is another important store -a branch of Gasse and Co.'s establishment, two or three
boarding houses, and a few huts of various descriptions surrounding the claims on the crown of the reef,
which have so far proved themselves to be the most valuable. You now find that the works extend down
the north side nearly to the base of the hill; the scattered huts below are numerous, and you see William's
Town in the hollow, with a steam crushing-mill, Davis' hotel, and two stores. On the ascent of the opposite
parallel spur is Curryjung Reef, in a line with the Victoria; and on the north descent of the same spur, more
to the eastward, and nearly in a line with the great reef, is Donkey Reef, and flanked by two or three others
of less note, and that have not as yet proved remunerative. Many other reefs in the vicinity have been
opened; but with the exception of those enumerated, intersecting the western spurs from the crown ridge,
none have been found sufficiently rich to repay the expense of workings, although all are, more or less,
auriferous. The eastern descent from the range is one unbroken line through its entire length, and a broad
strath or valley intervenes between it and the great Mingery chain, which, extending from the
Murrumbidgee, gradually rises in its progress southward, until it eventually merges in the elevated
regions in which the Murray has its source. There are no schools on the Adelong that I have yet heard of,
although there is a large proportion of young children. As the majority of the present inhabitants will be
permanently settled in the township, it is a matter of first importance. There cannot be less than 3000 souls
within a circuit of three miles, and there are few instances in the civilized world of so numerous a population
being congregated in one spot without either spiritual advisers or secular teachers.
The mass of the population is located in the valley of the great reef; the remainder is divided between the
site of the new township, Williamstown, Gibralter, and the marginal flats for a short distance up the creek.
Wages for hired hands working about the mills, is £4 a week. The carriage of quartz from the reefs to the
mills is about 7s. per ton, and carters driving their own teams, and bushmen, can obtain constant
employment. The alluvial diggings in the vicinity are now unimportant, although there are many places in
the Creek and on the neighbouring flats that will eventually be worked, and found remunerative.
I have now endeavoured to convey an idea of the general aspect of this gold-field, doubly important from
the fact of its being the first place in the colony of New South Wales where quartz crushing has
been carried to a successful issue. That many have laboured and few have reaped the reward is, perhaps
too true. We have already learned to appreciate the advantage to be derived from co-operation and
a division of labour, and as we advance in science and practical experience much of the chance work
that has hitherto directed the energies of our miners will be avoided, and there will be less unprofitable
expenditure and a more equal return.
What the reefs are like, how they are worked, and who gets the gold, must be reserved for a succeeding
communication.