Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 493
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288
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA
we may expect definite information. At present all that is known is that there is gold over a considerable district, whether it is in sufficient quantities to pay the trouble of obtaining it remains to be ascertained. Should it be found in large quantities a Strict system of licensing diggers will be immediately necessary.
CLAIMANTS FOR THE HONOUR OF DISCOVERING GOLD IN AUSTRALIA.
Of the Claimants for the honors [honours] of discovering gold in Australia from the year 1838 the first appears to be McGregor, specimens of native gold procured by him were exhibited in the windows of the Jewellers shops in Sydney, from that time forth till 1857 a general impression existed that somewhere in the remote interior it might be met with in large quantities, McGregor was unaquainted with the Californian system of
mining or seperating [separating] by washing the gold by the cradles.
The next claimant is the distinguished German traveller count de Strzeleki [Strzelecki] who did undoubtedly discover the existence of gold in the Australian Colonies as early as 1839. He exhibited specimens of gold found by him in the District of Wellington to the then Governor Sir George Gipps, and many other gentlemen, and frequently said that an extensive gold field existed in the Bathurst District.
Sir George Gipps had requested him to keep the secret, as, from the penal condition of the Colony in those times, the making known such a discovery, might have been attended with serious consequences - The Revd. Mr Clarke had come to a similar conclusion in 1841. A conclusion however, which was not made public for similar reasons.
1n 1844 Sir Roderick Murchison was led by scientific considerations of the Geological Structure of Australia & by a comparison of specimens furnished to him by Count de Strzeleki [Srzelecki] and others obtained by himself from the Ural Mountains to believe that extensive gold fields were to be found in Australia & to urge the unemployed Cornish miners to seek their fortune in this promising region, and to place his opinion in the Volumes of the Royal Geographical Society of Conrwal [Cornwall}.
It is however due to Mr Hargrave to state, that while he was in California he constantly asserted his conviction that he could find gold in New South Wales in the country near Bathurst, from his recollection of the appearance of the country, and that he at length returned to New South Wales expressly to discover gold in that quarter, and that by applying the knowledge he had gained as a Miner, in California, he first carefully tested the existence of the metal in quantities sufficient to make it worth looking after, and by addressing himself to the public instead of the Government put it out of the power to stand any longer between the world & this great discovery - Of Mr Hargrave it may be said that he rediscovered it and gave it publicity, and a practical form. Of Count de Strzeleki [ Strzelecki] & Mr Clarke