Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 561
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11
CHARACTERISTIC OF THE TURON GOLDFIELD WESTERN DISTRICT IN NEW SOUTH WALES
It is considered that an immense amount of gold lies untouched in the bed of the Turon, and that one half of the claims on that river have not been bottomed & wrought out. At Balaurat [Ballarat] in Victoria shafts have been sunk to an immense depth sometimes 170 feet, and sometimes six or seven false bottoms are driven or blasted through. At Ballaurat [Ballarat] the miner on coming to a bottom sounds with his crow bar, a little experience soon enables him to discover by the reverbration [reverberation] whether the bottom be false or true. Should the sound be dull and dead he knows the rock is too deep to allow of his sinking through, but on the contrary should there be any hollowness in the reverbration [reverberation] he buckles up afresh his courage and sets to work with renewed energy, Some of the old hands will even calculate pretty accurately, the depth of the bottom by the sound of the crow bar.
It is no proof that because gold has been found that the hole is bottomed. In some shafts gold has been taken out of every one of the false bottoms, and the rule appears to be the lower the shaft is sunk to the bed rock the more gold. Deep sinking instead of Shallow seems to be the characteristic of the Turon gold fields, & this seems to prove to be the case with the gold fields in the Northern Districts. At Bakers flat on the Turon tunnels are driven 200 feet into a hill & the further they penetrate the richer it is Some parties get 8 or nine ounces of gold in a day.
JULY 15th 1851
FIRST OF THE MONSTER GOLD NUGGETS
In May 1851 Mr Hargreaves stated his opinion that the precious metal would be formed in
large masses, and that, he should not be surprised if pieces of thirty or forty pounds weight should be discovered. He had seen no Country in California which promised metal in such heavy masses. this opinion met with little credence at the time, was fulfilled in July, intelligence having reached Sydney on the 15th of that month that an aboriginal black in the Service of Mr Kerr had found a solid block of gold in quartz weighing one hundred & Six pounds, which was followed by the finding numerous lumps of gold, to which the name of "Nuggets" were given these were of every variety and shape. Several specimens weighing ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, & fifty pounds and upwards were found in the Western gold fields.
LOUISA CREEK NUGGETS OCTOBER 1851
On the 25th of October 1851 Two splendid specimens of gold from Louisa Creek, the one being gold in quartz weighing ninety ounces, the other a solid lump of pure gold weighing eighty two ounces, being the largest lump of pure metal yet found in the British dominions. During the week ending 25th October 7863 ounces of gold were received in Sydney from the gold districts.
The first of the monster gold "Nuggets" weighing one hundred & six pounds was found cropping out on the surface of the earth in the neighbourhood of Louisa Creek.
STONEY CREEK GOLD FIELD JULY 1856.
Nuggets of gold weighing seven, nine, fifteen, & eighteen ounces are picked up in four feet sinking. A nugget of gold weighing twelve pounds [?] ounces has been obtained at these diggings. Rich patches are come upon by parties where washing is not required.
One of the most successful diggers at this field picked out of different claims in four feet sinkings
at Surface Hill and Bareface Gully seventy five ounces of gold in one week.