Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 576
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24
MOUNT MCIVOR.
The yield of gold is simply remunerative at this field and what particularly recommends it is that all the gold that has been obtained has been found in large nuggets at a less distance than four feet from the surface, the work, in fact, being represented as more like digging potatoes, than the usual mining and washing for dust. These diggings are dry water being three miles off.
A magnificent specimen weighing upwards of twenty eight ounces was found very near the surface.
AVOCA.
This gold field is on a spur of the Pyrennees, near the Avoca. The diggings are alluvial rich veins of gold are considered to exist among the ranges, and the field is exceedingly promising. In one week seventy ounces of gold was obtained off the bottom of one hole, and from another eight ounces was got, Several others are now down with less golden results. The produce remains steady.
MARYBOROUGH SIMPSONS RANGE
This field is very rich in alluvial gold its development is retarded for want of water. It is the Characteristic of all the diggings on plains in the interior, Such as those at Bendigo & Tarrengower that water is scarce. Large nuggets have been obtained at this field. One Monster Nugget was found weighing 10 lbs 6 ounces Valued at £4. 800 in May 1855.
BALLAN.
This gold field is not far from Mount Macedon. It is nearly on a line between Mt Alexander and Balaarat [Ballarat] and the discovery of gold at Ballan is considered as a step towards the connection of these two great fields.
GOULBURN GOLD FIELD
This gold field has been found to be very rich and is situated on the river Goulburn thirty six miles N.N.E. from the McIvor diggings and forty miles below the Township of Seymour, great success attended the first
diggers. The gold at these diggings is found on the surface as in early times with Mt McIvor and four ounces of gold to the tub was the average obtained by the diggers.
TARRENGOWER. GOLD IN MATRIX.
An Escort has been established from this field as also from Maryborough. Tarrengower still returns the reputation as a productive field. The diggings are alluvial, water is scarce they are termed "Dry Diggings". Very heavy gold has been found in the neighbourhood of this field. One Monster Nugget weighing one hundred & eighty ounces, one weighing 135 ounces and one weighing ninety six ounces.
MATRIX GOLD
In May 1855 a quartz Crushing party at Tarrengower 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. At present the use of quartz crushing machinery is beginning to enlarge. There is no estimate of the relative yield of the two systems of obtaining gold by digging & washing and by crushing but more importance is obviously attached to the latter system. At Bendigo mines known as Tarrengower, McIvor, Goulburn and Mount Alexander, the precious metal is not a mere
deposit on the surface, which may be speedily exhausted, but is embedded deep in the rock formation, and will require continual regular mining and crushing to
extract it.