tinpan
Silver Member
"the amazing travels of a cornish 49er and tragic end" story, pics and finds
William Cocks born to a poor coal mining family near Penzance, Cornwall ,UK. As a child worked in the local coal mines and learnt the trade of miner.These miners were poorly paid and quite a few years of hard work to aquire the money to start a life elsewhere.On hearing about the California gold rush,he set out to make fame and fortune.The skills of a good miner he tried his luck. Cornish miners are famous for their mining skills.Moderate yeilds came and the alluvial started to run out.New stories of gold rushes in Australia had caught his attention and on the move again.After a 5 week trip by sea in poor conditions, he found himself at Port philip [Melbourne].With more than 16 gold rushs on at the same time it would have been hard to chose ,which direction to go.he decided to head to bendigo.Cocks pegged a claim a place called Derwent gully named after the inventer of a cornish mining engine in 1846.
Couple of thousand people held claims at the Derwent gully and at times queued in lines to get to creek to pan the gravel.Often waited many hours.
I went to the Derwent Gully today and i know that little or no gold was left there but i had a good chance of some relics.The miners here were good at mining and the pics of the site clearly so that "everything" was mined to the bedrock and no stone was left unturned.once this place was a forrest of ironbark gum trees and not one has grown back after 150 years.
Found a couple of colonial coppers and shards but no gold.There a pic of a quartz reef surfacing but no gold to be found.
tinpan
William Cocks born to a poor coal mining family near Penzance, Cornwall ,UK. As a child worked in the local coal mines and learnt the trade of miner.These miners were poorly paid and quite a few years of hard work to aquire the money to start a life elsewhere.On hearing about the California gold rush,he set out to make fame and fortune.The skills of a good miner he tried his luck. Cornish miners are famous for their mining skills.Moderate yeilds came and the alluvial started to run out.New stories of gold rushes in Australia had caught his attention and on the move again.After a 5 week trip by sea in poor conditions, he found himself at Port philip [Melbourne].With more than 16 gold rushs on at the same time it would have been hard to chose ,which direction to go.he decided to head to bendigo.Cocks pegged a claim a place called Derwent gully named after the inventer of a cornish mining engine in 1846.
Couple of thousand people held claims at the Derwent gully and at times queued in lines to get to creek to pan the gravel.Often waited many hours.
I went to the Derwent Gully today and i know that little or no gold was left there but i had a good chance of some relics.The miners here were good at mining and the pics of the site clearly so that "everything" was mined to the bedrock and no stone was left unturned.once this place was a forrest of ironbark gum trees and not one has grown back after 150 years.
Found a couple of colonial coppers and shards but no gold.There a pic of a quartz reef surfacing but no gold to be found.
tinpan
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