Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 632
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348 x
VICTORIA
RUMOURED DISCOVERY OF GOLD AT TARRENGOWER MAY 1855
On Wednesday afternoon it was reported that a party of miners, at Tarrengower, had come upon a boulder of gold at the astonishing weight of ten tons. Upon making enquiries, we found that this rumour was generally prevalent, although there was some desprecancy [discrepancy] with respect to the locality in which the wonderful "find" occurred - At the Treasury, a report of the find had been circulated, with a statement that the Government Commissioner had left for Melbourne.
The Official, however, does not appear to have reported himself, and at present every thing in respect to the discovery is extremely vague & uncertain - Without vouching for the ,correctness not only of details, but of the statement in chief, we give what particulars have reached us: - A quartz cracking party at Tarrengower, on Monday, came upon a block of auriferous quartz, it is said, in which the precious metal predominated to such an extent, that the ten tons were valued at three quarters of a million sterling.
DEPOSITS OF GOLD
Practical experience has shown that little gold up to the time has been found in the primary [indecipherable] mountains either in California or Australia, although it was supposed by Geologists that there the grand depository of the precious metal would be found to exist, and the and the theory is, that in some deluge or convulsion of the earth it was washed out of its hidden bed into the rivers below, & that it was only there to be looked for. But this doctrine can no longer be maintained, for it has been found in the undulating ranges, far from the mountains and in gullies & flats also & there the largest nuggets have been discovered, & that in localities where geolog [geologists?] did not hesitate to say it could not be deposited according to all [indecipherable] & known principles of their science. Seeing that we have therefore the facts before us that not only the largest nuggets but by far the greatest quantity of gold found in Victoria was taken out of creeks, gullies, & flats, it [belies?] who are intent on gold digging to be guided by the experience of those who have been actual & successful diggers. A notion prevails very generally that the presence of quartz in the ground is a necessary indication of the existence of gold, & that the quartz is the matrix or bed in which it is formed; but this is altogether a mistake, & the [indecipherable] entirely agrees in the opinion lately expressed by Mr Hargraves that the one has the affinity for the other, & it is only from their being in Contiguity when both were in a state of fusion that adherence took place - Although quartz is usually found more or less in sinking, let not the digger be discouraged though he meets with none. A solid nugget which has often been found without quartz would surely please him more than all the quartz on the best of many specimen hills in any of the gold regions