SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S FORGOTTEN GOLD
January 26, 1998 at 04:49:22SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S FORGOTTEN GOLD By ALAN HASSELL Copyright 1/8/1980 all rights reserved.
During the gold rushes in the Eastern states, South Australia suffered several set-backs almost from the very start. News of gold finds spread like wildfire, and invariably a rush would follow. Towns grew up overnight and died just as quickly, as word of new finds came. South Australia's population during the years prior to the rushes on the Victorian goldfields was approximately 40,000 people. Following the news of th ebig strikes in Ballarat in 1851 a mass exodus of 18,000 persons crossed the border to find their fortunes. Many never returned. Of the remaining 22,000 onlly a few tried their luck in South Australia. With this is mind it is reasonable to conclude that many area's were badly neglected and overlooked. Even today many parts of South Australia remain untouched by the white man. In 1846 gold was found in payable quantities some ten miles from Adelaide. The excitement which followed caused perhaps the first Poseidon on the stock exchange. Shares purchased for only œ2 rose to œ30 each following the discovery of some rich specimens. A company was formed called the Victoria Gold Mining Company, but it's life was short lived. However this one find created the interest for others to seek their fortunes. During 1852 gold was discovered at what is now known as the Echunga goldfield. Very rich surface gold was found at Donkey Gully and the lode was traced to Chapman's Hill, where water dripping from branches had exposed gold lying at roots of a tree. Half an ounce was picked up by dry fossicking and the following day several ounces were recovered by washing. The finders also removed several dray loads of pay dirt in bags, this yeilded more gold. No further work took place unitl a claim had been lodged for the reward money. On August 23rd, 1852 the finders took seven ounces of rough gold to the treasury and a claim was filed. The following day a party of 50 to 60 officials and troopers returned to the scene of the find and more gold was recovered. The noise of the excitement was so great that horse ties to tree's broke their bridles and galloped away. Saucepan ;ids, pannikins, kettles and even hats were used for panning, and some more gold was found by all. These events led to the opening of the Echunga goldfields in the area of Kuitpo, some 20 miles from Adelaide. The diggings embrace the following goldfields:-Chapel, Windlass, Poor man's, Little Bendigo, Long Sailors, Sawmill and Simonds Gullies. Today suburbs have grown around some of these goldfields, but many shafts still remain together with mullock heaps and rusted stamping machinery. Modern day prospector's can obtain useful information on the goldfields in the book "Record of the Mines of South Australia" by H.Y.L. Brown, 1908, which is available from the South Australian Mines Department. Through careful reading, nuggety area's can be located, like Jupiter Creek Goldfield. Here nuggets of upto 13 ounces were recovered. Nuggets occured at a number of the Echunga area's listed in this article, careful research and prospecting should produce positive results. The Barossa Valley, today is known for its fine wines produced in the area. In years gone by it had equal noteriety as a goldfield. The Barossa Goldfield was discovered by Job Harris and friends who found gold in Spike Gully in October 1868. Some of the claims here produced large nuggets. Watts Gulley is an old goldfield attracting present day activity owing to the number of large nuggets found, some quite recently. During the time of it's discovery (1884) Watts Gully produced a remarkable number of nuggets. One purchased by the South Australian government weighed 14 ounces 8 dwts. In recent times several nuggets weighing up to 8 ounces have been found by people using metal detectors. Of the known south Australian goldfields, Teetulpa deserves mention. In 1886 Thomas Brady and Thomas Smith gouged several nuggets from cracks in the slates in a dry nameless gully, now known as Brady's Gully. News of the find caused great excitement in Adelaide. Men left work, bought horses and wagons, and a population of between four and five thousand sprang up on the gold-field. The largest nugget ever found on the field weighed 29 ounces 15 dwts, and it was discovered on a claim only 20 yards from Brady's claim. Nuggets of 14 oz, 13oz, 10oz and smaller were found more frequently. in 1887 the South Australian government purchased 27 nuggets which were displayed at the jubilee exhibition together with other alluvial gold. The Teetulpa rush can really be considered as the first rush that attracted people back from the other states. It's hard to imagine how the miner's lived looking at the empty landscape, for all one can see for miles around is salt bushes moving with the breeze on flat landscape. The only remains are the shallow shafts with accompanying mullock heaps. Yet at it's peak 5,000 people gouged out the creek bed and other gullies in the area. Teetulpa is truly a ghost goldfield waiting to be re-discoverd. Victoria's Wedderburn, Dunnolly and Miliagul goldfields are giving up their gold to the metal detecting fraternity, and the South Australian goldfields will do the same. Area's in which gold has been found include Tarcoola, Glen Loth, Algebuckina, Boolooroo, Angepena, Waukaringa, Wadnaminga, Patawurta, Clare, Mintaro, Ulooloo and other locations within 70 kilometres of Adelaide which includes those mentioned mentioned earlier in this article. When you consider the size of South Australia and methods of transport used in those early times it is difficult to beleive that most of South Australia has been prospected. It is quite conceivable that with modern equipment, such as the metal detector and electrostatic concentrator's many of the old goldfields will give up their gold and new fields might even be discovered. For the relic hunter, South Australia has an abundance of ghost towns, Waukaringa for example had a population of 600 in 1890, now it's deserted. For many this field was a great disapointment once the surface gold ran out. Syndicates were formed and shafts sunk. Those fortunate enough to find employment settled down to work for the syndicates on wages. Water had to be carted in, and it is beleived this could have contributed to the closure of the mines. In it's heyday, Waukaringa was quite a town, but all that remains now are the ruins of the hotel and burnt out shell of the post office. The crumbling miner's cottages stand deserted except for the odd lizard and snake. However for the relic hunter numerous coins and artifacts are waiting to be unearthed. For those who specialise in coachstops, Cobb & Co's opposition over here was Hill & Co. Some of these coach stops are situated on private property, consent to search should be obtained before being confronted with an irate overseer or owner. Although much of this article could be written from old newspaper cuttings and micro slides held at the Mines Department in Adelaide a trip to the area was arranged and armed with metal detectors, camera's dry blower's and a great deal of other gear David Dunn and myself set off to explore. From Adelaide, you take highway 32 which is the main road to Broken Hill, famous for it's silver mines and T.V. Series the Flying Doctor. Not far from here is Silverton, although it's a ghost town now, because of it's isolation is used for making many films like Mad Max, Mad Max2, even Paul Hogan used it in Crocodile Dundee where the pub is seen. The owners of the pub had a horse that would come in and have his daily tipple. Funniest thing youve ever seen, strange things happen in the bush. About 200 clicks out of Adelaide you come to a place called Yunta, it has two petrol stations and a pub, the Yunta Hotel. Staying overnight we loaded up with provisions mainly water. Although there is a bore hole at Teetulpa, the water is not good enough for humans, although if your thirsty enough you'll drink anything. However this is the way the old miiner's caught typhoid and other diseases, their bones still lying out there as proof. Anyone will put you onto the right road that leads to Teetulpa. Just turn left at the pub and follow your nose for about 30 miles of good but unsealed road. Go past the old Teetulpa homestead until you reach the sign for Mount Victor, turn right there. Follow this road until you pass through three gates. Make sure you close them after you, station owner can get pretty hoit under the collar about forgetful and inconsiderate travellers. After passing through the third gate Keep an eye out for a couple of boulders on the left and a stick on the right, turn right at the stick. Follow the road for about a mile and turn left onto the track once you get to it. This will lead you to the goldfield and the many gullies. You'll pass many mine shafts and whats left of buildings at the mines. Between Goslin's and Brady's gully are the ruins of the Teetulpa United Mine. It's now an old rubbish dump with all sorts of mining memorabilia broken bottles suggest that many could be found intact with careful searching. Ruins are scattered throughout the field, but owing to the saltbush are hard to find. Brady's and Goslins gully have been pegged out, although we saw no signs of life apart from the Roos, snakes sheep and rabbits during our stay. A number of bulldozer cuts had been placed across Brady's Gully to expose the bedrock. It appears that most of the work was done around these two gullies. Many gullies in the area have been prospected, these are worth investigation as many nuggets came from the field. To the West of Brady's Gully we were able to locate the old cemetary or bone yard. Everybody was dying to go there (joke joyce). Only one grave had a marble slab. Other graves were marked with simple wooden crosses, which had all been blown down by the winds of time. One wonders who lies there and how they came to meet their end. During a dry blowing exercise on old ground were were able to establish that the old miner's missed much gold in their haste to get to the big stuff. Two Dwt was recovered in a couple of hours. It would be an exageration to say that good wages could be made on the field if one was prepared to put in the work and suffer the torturous conditions. To do any good on the field which is ginormous you would need a caravan and spend a week or two there. Just as we were leaving David Dunn, my partner on the trip wanted to go over some of the old dumps with his detector. We had spent many hours swinging our coils with no results. This time it wa different, as I raced over to him camera in hand Dave exposed a beautiful 4 ounce nugget. With a grin on his face bigger than a cheshire cat Dave said,"how they came to miss this is beyond me, but it only goes to prove the old timer's were getting it." Sorry folks, Im not going to divulge the location of the find, because we intend to return another weekend. Several other good finds have been made in South Australia prior to this article being published Joe Taylor recovered $32,000 in nuggets from the Barossa goldfields. South Australia is five times the size of Victoria and still has many area's where gold is still waiting to be found. Ends I hope you enjoyed this article you can Email me HASSELL1@HOTMAIL.COM happy hunting.
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