A VISIT TO THE WESTERN GOLDFIELDS.
BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER
No. 31.
We continue our journey down the wild and gloomy Meroo from the World's End, we
cross the junction of Grati Creek, on the north bank. This stream has its source in the
descents from the main chain of the Cordilleras, nearly opposite Married Man's Creek,
and, receiving the drainage of the ranges that separate it from the basin of that river, after
a long course, bursts through the mountains, when they unite their waters and flow
onward to the Cudgegong.
Grati Creek, with its tributaries, has at various periods attracted a number of diggers to its
banks, and has, from first to last, produced a large quantity of gold, but it has never been
a favourite resort, particularly of the necessitous, as the width of the flats cause the
deposits to be patchy and irregular in their distribution; it has, consequently, been but
little worked. Quartz is here abundant; all the main reefs that cross the Meroo, passing
through its channel. A red quartz, bearing a close resemblance to cornelian, and
sometimes found to contain gold, is peculiar to this creek. It has never been entirely
deserted, and at present some fifteen or twenty diggers are scattered along its banks.
About ten miles from its source is the village of Grati, where there is a public-house and
store, with four or five small farms. On either bank, wide alluvial flats succeed each other
at short intervals, some of which are of considerable extent, and all of which are suitable
for the production of cereal produce, particularly wheat. The vicinity of the town of
Mudgee on one side, and the Meroo gold-fields on the other, will give this land value
when it becomes open to settlement.
Leaving Grati Creek with this passing notice, and crossing the Meroo at the junction, we
find the ranges less rugged, and more gradual in their declivities. At the distance of
half-a-mile from the crossing place, the immense quartz dykes, about thirty-feet wide, descend
from the ranges; when, crossing the stream, they re-appear on the opposite hills, and
stretch away in the direction of Merrindee. The river drift here, washed chiefly by the
Chinese, has yielded a little drift gold. On the north side, on a slope below the reef, a
notch of surfacing has been worked out, and several shafts sunk in the vicinity, the
produce of which, from a stratum of auriferous detritus, about 18 inches deep, varied
from 10 to 15 dwts. to the tub: it is now abandoned, and no attempt has been made further
to prove the character of the reef. The hills now recede, and attain a lower elevation to the
northward, and you arrive at a small plain, where about thirty diggers with their families
have recently pitched their tents. The Chinese have exhausted the river bed, but the banks,
together with the various obliterated channels passing through the flat are yet untried,
with the exception of a patch of surfacing, where one party realised between £400 and
£500 in a few weeks; here the lead has been lost, and several men are now sinking in
search of it. Many small reefs descend from the hills into this plain, and are there buried
under the alluvium, which in some places is of great depth.
Taking our leave of this small community of diggers, which is the last to be found on the
banks of the river for several miles, you pursue the stream in its devious and tortuous
windings. The scarcely perceptible path leads you over lofty spurs, on which the igneous
formations are exposed by denudation. The schists having long since disappeared, their
wreck is to be found in the debris which forms the plains; these now become frequent,
and enlarge as you progress, while the northern range breaks into isolated hills which
gradually subside, and swelling knolls and undulating plains succeed to rugged cliffs and
beetling precipices. To the southward, the ranges still rise in an unbroken line
precipitously to the plateau. Here and there you catch glimpses of the broad shingly bed
of the river, between grassy banks, sheltered by the huge sombre looking casurina. The
diminished stream, wandering from side to side, glides stealthily along, now
concentrating its strength in some long waterhole, and then hiding under the loose drift.
The detritus in the channel is supplied from rocks of igneous origin. Fragments of schist
and quartz are seldom seen, and the green sward is unbroken The Chinese have left their
traces in the piles of shingle which they have rooted over in their search for drift gold,
and it is said that they obtained enough to repay their labour.
We have arrived at Punch's Waterhole, a long reach opposite a deserted sheep station.
Here both the shepherd and the Asiatic gold hunter have left their marks, which will soon
be effaced -- the one by a flood, the other by a bush fire and nature will resume her sway.
The Chinese were particularly fortunate in their labours at the spot, which, is fed by
several small auriferous streams which here find their way from the plateau to the river.
For the last five miles a continuous range of great elevation, which here terminates in one
of those conical dome-crested mountains so frequent in the district, has separated the
Meroo from the table-land. Round the southern base of this range Wallaby Gully or
Creek holds its course, and here falls into the main stream. Gold in payable quantities has
been procured in it in former times. Its course lies in the midst of a mass of intricate
ranges, and is, with many smaller watercourses in the same region, worthy of a visit from
the digger.
And now, passing over one of those lovely spots so frequently to be met with in the
mountain districts, the beauty of which is enhanced by contrast with the rugged scenery
by which it is encompassed, you arrive at Leaning Oak Creek. This is a large tributary on
the northern bank. For the first five miles its course is through a valley in which trappean
formations predominate, where it presents no auriferous indications, and has been
consequently undisturbed; it then follows the base of the Pinebone Ranges, when schists
traversed by veins of quartz succeed the igneous products; it then becomes gold-bearing,
and has been worked at all the favourable points, and is now abandoned, chiefly on
account of the absence of water, which in a dry season is not to be found within a
compass of several miles. About fifteen miles up Bruce's Creek falls into it, flowing from
the N.W. This watercourse has proved very rich, as much as £1500 worth of gold having
been procured from a single claim in a few weeks.
Returning again to the junction of the Leaning Oak with the Meroo, you find wide plains
on either bank, fertile and beautiful, but that have hitherto failed to repay the labours of
the gold-hunter. The main stream has also contained but little gold, and that little has
been swept away by the Chinese. It now makes many bends, forming large peninsulas;
still unproductive until the schists reappear, when you reach Sailors' Bar. This has been
very rich, and is still the site of a small encampment of Europeans, who realise good
wages. Proceeding onward you reach Ration Point, where a few valuable claims have
been exhausted, but which still yields employment to a small party of diggers. A mile
further, and you are at Merrindee, the scene of a rush some few months since. Here a
comparatively large population still remain; but the greatest proportion, which a short
time since exceeded a thousand, have migrated to other gold-fields.
A spur from the Pinebone Ranges, here trending to the south-west, stretches onward until
it sinks into the flats at the junction of the Meroo with the Cudgegong. At Merrindee two
minor spurs descend to the margin of the stream, enclosing a half-moon sloping flat, in
which two ridges are crossed obliquely by a large quartz reef; this, intersecting the entire
plain at the base of the range, ascends the high lands, falling again into the basin of the
Cudgegong on the opposite side. Below this reef the diggings are situated, and the richest
deposits have been found at the base of the ridges before noticed, and in the shallow
gullies which separate them. The portion of the flat nearest the river is of alluvial
formation, and conceals its ancient channel, Here the miners still prosecute their labours
with a varied success, and many nuggets, from 18 ozs. weight downwards, are still found,
and give evidence that the locality is not yet exhausted. A nugget of fourteen pounds
weight is said to have been procured near the reef some months since. The instances of
great success have been exceedingly rare. Some few thrifty diggers have carried away
sums varying from £100 to £300 with them, but by far the greatest number can barely
make ends meet. Many cannot leave if they had the desire, and it is from this latter class
that the district will derive the greatest benefit. One spirited gentleman, a Mr. Melon,
deter- mined to keep things moving, has applied for a lease of several acres of the lower
part of the flat, and has employed a gang of men to drive a high tunnel in from the river
bank, with the two-fold object of draining the low ground, thus rendering it workable,
and of washing the auriferous deposits lying on the bottom, which, it is expected, will
repay the cost of the speculation.
On some portions of the flat, at a depth of ten or twelve feet, the diggers have come upon
a hard conglomerate, which sometimes descends to the bed rook, when it is unproductive;
and sometimes gravel, to the depth of two or even five feet, intervenes, when the claim
generally turns out well. The decomposition of the debris of the various rocks forming
the detritus, found resting upon the conglomorate, has supplied the calcareous matter
which forms the cement. This has been carried downward by the filtration of the surface
water. It is also largely impregnated with oxide of iron, which, in all probability has been
disengaged from the ferruginous sandstone, which is here in great abundance. This has
given rise to the fiction of a second bottom, which miners generally understand to mean
an overflow of molten rock -- the result of a volcanic eruption; the igneous rock,
forming the first, and the subjacent rock, generally Neptunian, forming the second bottom.
Beyond the quartz reef, on either side, the land has been unproductive, and is little
worked. On one of the ridges a party has sunk an experimental shaft, and have already
attained a depth of seventy feet. Their object is to penetrate the blue stone, or basaltic
rock, with the view of reaching a second bottom, as I have stated before. No extensive
overflow of volcanic matter has taken place in this vicinity. The rock they are going
through is an upheaval, or perhaps a metamorphosed schist; if so, if they do succeed in
piercing it, they will bottom upon sienite or granite.
Merrindee contains several stores, supplied with all the requisites of a mining population
-- there are also three public-houses, and all the trades usually found in a country village
are fairly represented. They have a lock-up, and are about to build a court-house, but they
have no church, and I could not hear of any school in the vicinity; which is absolutely
requisite as there are many children in the neighbourhood growing up in all the vices of
barbarism without its virtues -- neither have they a post-office, the nearest being 30
miles distant. I may add that there is but little horticulture, or cultivation of any kind;
perhaps it is too soon to expect it in so young a township.
Following the stream downwards, you pass a long race, about eight feet deep, cut with
the object of turning the river. It is a fine piece of work, but was rendered useless by a
long drought, which left the river workable without its aid; and, further on, several bands
of sienite stretch from the base of the mountains across the extensive plain to the
southward. These are exhibited in huge round boulders exposed by denudation, and are
flanked by sandstone formations. You now arrive at the station of Mr. Cox, the proprietor
of all the best land on the wide plains to the southwards, which are of recent alluvial
formation, having a depth of from 25 to 40 feet. In one of the shafts at a depth of 25 feet,
the diggers bottomed upon a gum tree about four feet in diameter, in perfect preservation.
The debris is chiefly supplied from sandstone mixed with loam, resting upon large
pebbles and gravel, beneath which gold is everywhere to be procured, but not in payable
quantities. Half-a-mile below the station, high ridges rise on the plain on which altered
schistose sandstone in vertical strata is the prevailing rock; here, quartz reefs descend to
Blenheim Flat, at the base of the ridges, where an encampment contains more inhabitants
than the upper village. Here are several stores and a public-house, with about 150 diggers,
some of whom have large families. The diggings follow the margin of the stream, and
have never proved very rich, but the yield is regular, the depth of the alluvium causing
much work for little pay. A general impression prevails that rich auriferous deposits will
be found in this vicinity, but the extent of the flats render random sinking precarious. A
few Europeans are encamped at Waterloo Flat, and on the opposite bank a crowd of
Chinese have taken up their quarters, and are actively engaged in washing the detritus in
the channel, where a little drift gold rewards their labours. Hitherto these people have not
been allowed to work near the Menindee gold-field, but I anticipate that they will
gradually creep up the stream, when they will get what little gold may have escaped the
first occupants.
You now pass the last tent, and as you advance the gold becomes finer, and more and
more scarce; when, flowing between precipitous banks of alluvial formation, a mile
lower down, the Meroo mingles its waters with the Cudgegong. From the Gap
downwards, with the exception of the limited tract under the reefs at Merrindee, the
auriferous produce of the Meroo has hitherto proved of but trifling importance, and it is
to the gold obtained from Maitland Bar upwards, that it is indebted for its reputation as a
gold-field. That the Chinese procure at least two-thirds of the wealth obtained from this
river, is but too true; the withering curse of the rum cask hangs over the European
population, and paralyses every energy, and to it, and it alone, must be attributed their
want of success. Well might one publican write to another on the upper creeks, urging
him to get up a confidence meeting during a recent investigation at Mudgee, --
"Brother man,"
our interests are at stake.
I have read the letter, it is no hearsay. When the wolf and the dog become friendly,
it is a bad look-out for the sheep.