Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 548

Gold was discovered on the Saumarez sun at the Rocky river in May 1853. It is fine & resembles Ovens river gold on which amount it obtains the highest price in the Sydney market. This gold field has this year 1856 proved as profitable as some of Victorian fields. The diggers have discovered "dry diggings" in the ridges, the gold there is found in at from two to four feet from the [can't read]. This new field is about a mile and a half from the former diggings. The washing stuff is found beneath a layer of clean gravel and laying on the surface of rotten bed rock. The stuff is about four inches deep.
Shafts have also been sunk at these new diggings at depths varying from 50 to 70 feet and [deports] of gold have been come upon of great [riches], the deepest drinking proving the richest, these shafts are sometimes [found] through grazing rivers.

Although this field does not afford the same chances of making a [can't read] fortune as at Balaarat & Bendigo yet as a body of diggers they are more uniformly resourced for their labour.
The rich diggings which have lately been struck when are calculated to afford room for fifteen hundred diggers. [Horns] and working tools of every description are plentiful and cheap. In March 1856 the population at these diggings was 676 persons, & in April the number of licenses granted was 461. These diggings are situated about 14 miles from Armadale.

The elevations of the field were
at [the] 54	Mc [can't read]	2865 feet above the level of the sea
55	Summit of [tap] hill above Mc [can't read]	3085 "
56	Summit to the west of 55 two miles	3082 "
57	Maisters Swamp	3072 "
58	Dividing range between Maisters Swamp & Salisbury	3140 "
59	Head of Kentucky creek	3083 "
60	Junction of Kentucky creek & Rocky river	3653 "
63	Dividing range between [can't read] & the Rocky river	3014

Armadale is situated at an elevation of 2879 feet above the level of the Pacific Ocean. The gold field at Uralla covers an area of at least five miles. Parties consisting of from three to six persons are [amoung] from £100 per week. At several of the new claims the miners have turned out two pounds weight of gold to the cost load. While in our instance thirty six ounces of gold was obtained from one load of washing stuff. Thirty ounces of gold was obtained by washing from fifty buckets of earth.
The number of licenced diggers at this field on the 31st May 1856 exceeded seven hundred which with others not requiring licences the number [can't read] there was calculated at twelve hundred persons. Sixty buckets of washing stuff constitute a load and the average yield of gold is from [568] [can't read] per bucket. Some parties are clearing £80 per week each man the same parties ave averaged for two months each man £25 per week. Men can live at £4 per week. They work 7 hours each day beginning at nine in the morning and leave off work at 4 O'Clock in the afternoon. Gold sells here at £300 per ounce.

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 548

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 548

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