Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 565

SIZE OF CLAIMS ALLOWED TO GOLD DIGGERS

In New South Wales persons desirous of establishing Claims to new & unocupied [unoccupied] ground by working in the ordinary method for alluvial gold, may have their claims marked out on the following scale to each person namely.
Fifteen feet frontage to each side of a river or Main Creek
Twenty feet of the bed of a tributary to a river or Main Creek extending across its whole breadth
     Sixty feet of the bed of a ravine or water
      course
     Twenty feet square of table land river flats.
At the Gold fields in the Western district of New South Wales no person is allowed to hold more than two claims, & no party, of whatever number composed, will be allowed more than four claims in all, except in the case of the discovery of any new locality, when the person or persons opening the ground will be entitled to take up Claims to the number of ten.       Claims in all cases must be in conjunction.
These rules do not apply to the bed of a river or to previously worked ground
             At the ridge diggings of the Uralla or Rocky river gold field in the district of New England, the existing gold regulations limit the ground claimed to a single license [licence] to twenty feet by twenty feet.
Money, labour, & time in involved in sinking or shaft at the field, & this may be a plea for liberality in the article of ground. The run of the gold is also tortuous & uneven, the best Claims are often partly blank, and (unlike many other places) there are no superficial indications to guide the digger in his "Marking out", the sinking also appears to deepen as the diggers progress,
hence a reason for being liberal in the article of ground.
It is considered that the experience of the diggers upon a field is the best guide to determine the matter regarding the size of the claims on that field.

SIZE OF CLAIMS AT BENDIGO IN VICTORIA.

At Bendigo, after that field was more than half worked, a digger received twelve feet square, with no right to hold another claim, & with the penalty of forfeiture attached, if absent more than twenty four hours at one time during the working days of the week. A party of four received an area of 24 x 24 feet, beyond which no larger claim could be taken up by any party on alluvial workings. A party of twenty could obtain no more, & one man if willing to pay for one hundred licences could demand by the law no more than a single Claim 12 x 12. As the allowed diggings
became poor, it was found necessary to give three claims each to discovers [discoverers] of any new locality where rich deposits

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 565

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 565

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