Gold
On old goldfields small holes and mounds of clay cover river flats like a vast graveyard. Source: Geoffrey Blainey, The rush that never ended 1963
Gala opening of the Caledonia Mine in Yarra Street, Warrandyte, 1906. (Photo: WHS)
Is Warrandyte the site of Victoria's oldest goldfield? Gold was discovered there in 1851, and although it did not rival the production of other gold-bearing regions in Victoria, Warrandyte continues proudly to acknowledge its gold-mining heritage. Aided by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Warrandyte Historical Society established several short walks around the area that include the sites of long-abandoned dreams. One such site is the Pound Bend Tunnel, which was constructed by the Evelyn Gold Mining Company early in the 1870s. The company dammed the Yarra River so that the flow of water could be diverted through the tunnel. That hubristic exercise exposed approximately five kilometres of the rivers bed, which the company then dredged for gold, with little success.(1 Warrandyte Historical Society, ‘Wandering Through Warrandyte’s Heritage’ (Warrandyte: nd), p. iii)
Evelyn Tunnel, Pound Bend, 2001. (Photo: Peter Hanson)
Re-enactment of the discovery of gold at Warrandyte, 30 June 2001. Clockwise from top: Warrandyte Theatre Company; the town crier on his way to the performance; an old timer with his timber bicycle; a stockman and other locals in the crowd; gold diggers watched by the crowd during the performance. (Photos: Helen Penrose)
Anyone familiar with the Victorian gold-mining towns of Bendigo and Ballarat might wonder, when visiting Warrandyte, at the absence of the distinctive Boom architecture that so clearly advertises the great wealth gold afforded those two cities. But Warrandyte's legacies from the golden days are made evident in more subtle ways. The neighbourhood with whim- sical street names like Fossickers Way and Pick'n Pan Way gives a nod to other aspects of the search for gold, the ones that do not automatically provide the means to display wealth. It is the character of the individual gold prospector, who toiled long and hard to win very little, that is celebrated in such names. In keeping with that spirit we begin our examination of Warrandyte's claim to be the site of Victoria's first goldfield with the story of an individual prospector.
Many attempts have been made to work the bed of the Yarra. It carries a great volume of water to the sea; and whenever an attempt has been made to divert the course of it the miners have met with many difficulties, and it has been necessary to incur great costs for the preliminary works. In those parts where the stream forms a peninsula the mode has been to cut an open channel across the isthmus, or to form a tunnel at such a level as to lay bare the old bed of the stream but the most considerable of the works have been attempted only to be shortly abandoned. Source: R. Brough Smyth, 1869, p. 109.
Remnants of the Caledonia Mine shaft (New Haven 1903), 189 metres deep, in Tills Drive, shown here in 2001. (Photo: Peter Hanson)
Discovery – 'here's the clickerty
When Edward Hargraves announced, early in 1851 that a viable goldfield existed near Bathurst in the colony of New South Wales, he helped halt the flow to California of fortune- seeking Australians; however, his announcement had a negative effect on the population of the Port Phillip district of the colony. (Victoria was not yet separate from New South Wales, not officially declared a colony in its own right nor even named Victoria.) A businessman of the time, in an article he wrote for The Argus newspaper many years after the event, recalled the effect of the rush to the Bathurst goldfield on Melbourne’s relatively small community:
Our people were leaving for Sydney by every possible means, even the small lime craft which usually traded to the Port Phillip Heads being pressed into service. It became evident that unless we made a similar discovery in Victoria a great portion of the population of Melbourne would migrate to the parent colony. People in business began to feel the loss of trade, and several parties were formed to prospect for gold. (2 Louis Michel, ‘The first gold field in Victoria - how I discovered it’, The Argus, 28 December 1895, p. 9, col. 4)
Louis Michel (From the magazine Parade, 1975; reproduced with permission from the La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria)
The businessman was Louis Michel, a man described by some as the father of Warrandyte .(3 Harry Hudson, The Warrandyte Story: 1855-1955 (Warrandyte, Victoria: Warrandyte Cricket Club, 1955), p. 16.) Michel is a key figure in the history of the discovery of gold in this state because, in 1854, he was awarded £1,000 for being the 'first publisher of the discovery of a Gold Field in the Colony of Victoria.(4 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria, in Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854, p. 9) Of French descent, but born at Walworth, London, in 1825, Michel had arrived in Port Phillip aboard a ship called the Mellish in 1839. He began his working life in the colony as an assistant to a Collins Street mercer and later became a grocers assistant.(5 Information provided by Evelyn J. Cooke, great-granddaughter of Louis Michel, to the Warrandyte Historical Society, 10 May 1979). By 1851, when news of Hargraves' discovery was made public in Port Phillip, Michel was running a Melbourne hotel:
At the time I held the license [sic] of the Rainbow Hotel in Swanston-Street, and like others I felt the diminution of business, so I determined to get five others to join me in searching the Dandenongs and Upper Yarra Ranges. This [group] was known as 'Michel’s Party'. (6 The Argus, 28 December 1895, p. 9, col. 4.)
Michel’s Party included William Habberlin, James Furnival, James Melville, James Headen and Benjamin Greenig or Greening.(7 See ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., Appendix, p. 15. ‘Greenig' is more than likely to be a misspelling of ‘Greening'. There is a Benjamin Greening, watchmaker, listed in the Port Phillip Directory of 1851). These men spent two months searching for evidence of a rich gold deposit in the Dandenong and Upper Yarra Ranges. On Saturday 5 July 1851, they made what was their third trip to Deep Creek in the Yarra Ranges. On a prior trip to the area they had discovered some veins of quartz which they had traced for some distance from Deep Creek across the run of Major Charles Newman.
On this third trip to Deep Creek they took with them Dr Webb Richmond. Dr Richmond was a representative of the Gold Committee, which had been formed on 9 June 1851 by the Mayor of Melbourne, William Nicholson, in response to a letter addressed to him, and published in The Argus:
On 8 July 1851 Michel and party wrote to Lieutenant Governor LaTrobe announcing their find and inquiring whether the government would be disposed to 'remunerate the party for past outlay, and assist in prosecuting the search further, by opening the veins' as they did not have the means to do so.(13 ‘‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854. Appendix, p. 15). Their discovery, however, raised little excitement. Enthusiasm for the discovery may have been dampened by Richmond’s non-committal report. Another factor may have been the difficulty and expense involved in extracting gold from quartz, a technological capability that the newly declared colony of Victoria, so named on 1 July 1851, did not possess. Most of the members of Michel’s party were disheartened by this response and, in Michel’s words, 'being unwilling to continue the search we separated and were not associated together again'.(14 The Argus, 28 December 1895, p. 9, col. 4). This quote is from Michel’s recollections published forty-four years after the event, in 1895, under the title 'The first gold field in Victoria - how I discovered it'.
Then on Friday 18 July 1851, this advertisement appeared in The Argus:
'Mr Greening almost certainly was Benjamin Greening, another member of the original party with whom Michel later claimed he was not associated ever again. Neither when giving evidence to the Select Committee in 1854, nor in his 1895 Argus article, is Michels memory of events about the discovery of gold at Anderson’s Creek to be entirely trusted. It seems more likely that he led Nicholas Fenwick and company out to the site not on the next day' (17 July), but two-and-a-half weeks later, on 6 August, because on Thursday 7 August 1851 the following article appeared in The Argus:
We remember that on 16 July 1851 the Gold Committee announced that it had received unquestionable evidence ... showing the existence of Gold in considerable quantity' in two places both named as 'Deep Creek': one on Major Newmans run (Warrandyte), the other near Mr Donald Camerons house (Clunes). Yet the gold brought down to Melbourne by Michel and Habberlin on 16 July 1851 was from Anderson’s Creek - very confusing, but it can be explained.
We need now particularly to note that two committees were set up to deal with claims of the discovery of a sizeable gold deposit in Victoria. The first was the 'Gold Committee' set up in 1851 by the Mayor of Melbourne, William Nicholson. The second was 'The Select Committee of the Legislative Council on the Claims for the Discovery of Gold in Victoria, which convened for the first time in 1853.
The Select Committee was needed because the original Gold Committee was unable to make a decision on who could justly claim the two-hundred-guinea reward. Faced with several rival claims for the money, the Gold Committee could not establish a priority of discovery and deferred making any decision - indefinitely as it turned out. It wasn't until 1854 that rewards were finally issued, but that did not clarify who was first. The Select Committee of the Legislative Council awarded Michel (and presumably his party) £1,000 for being the 'first publishers of the discovery of a Gold Field in the Colony of Victoria': (23 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., p. 9)
Note that the date mentioned above was not the date of the gold discovery at Anderson’s Creek - the whereabouts of which the original Gold Committee published on 17 July 1851 - that secured the reward of £1,000. The reward was secured from evidence associated with the vein of quartz that started from Deep Creek, which they had shown to Dr Richmond on 5 July, and which he had verified in a letter to the Gold Committee on 7 July 1851. This was what the Select Committee meant by published'. Under the same criteria, Mr Campbell of Clunes was also awarded £1,000 for announcing his discovery in a letter dated 5 July to another member of the Gold Committee, Mr Graham, even though Campbell had communicated the general fact of his having discovered gold in the Pyrenees as early as 10 June. (25 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., p. 5.)
Gold mining in Victoria commenced well in advance of the bureaucracy that was eventually established to manage it. In a paper on the geology of Warrandyte given in 1910 to the Royal Society of Victoria, J. T. Jutson, then a Victorian Government research scholar at the University of Melbourne, complained that from 1851 to 1859 no official records on gold mining were kept. He argued that 'the portion of the mining history covered by this period cannot be touched upon. (29 J. T. Jutson, ‘The structure and general geology of the Warrandyte goldfield and adjacent country', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 23 (1911), p. 541). Despite Jutson s view, there is still a version of the earliest years on the Victoria Gold Field at Warrandyte to be discovered in personal experiences and opinions written at the time.
On Saturday 9 August 1851, just twenty-two days after Michel advertised in The Argus that 'the necessary information requisite for visiting the spot, may be obtained on application and that 'every information will be given for the guidance of persons desirous of exploring the locality', that newspaper sent one of its reporters to Anderson’s Creek 'in order to have as correct information as possible respecting the Victoria gold mines'. (30 The Argus, Melbourne, 11 August 1851, p. 2, col. 5). The following edited transcript of his report provides an impression of what he experienced at Victoria's first goldfield:
The first attempts at mining the gold at Anderson’s Creek would most likely have focused on winning the alluvial gold.
Few of the diggers at Anderson’s Creek, however, seem to have gone there equipped even with a pan, and the more prepared miners described above only had three cradles' between them. A cradle is a wooden box that, when rocked manually to and fro, separates the heavy alluvial gold from the lighter sand or gravel. The above reporter noted in his article that Michel was to start at daylight with quicksilver and a cradle for its use'. At least Michel was comparatively well equipped. The beginnings of mining at Anderson’s Creek demonstrate how inexperienced the diggers were. As the gold at Anderson’s Creek became more difficult to procure using primitive mining methods, the diggers began to drift away. Easier and richer pickings were being discovered elsewhere.
When Michel announced his discovery, it was the gold easiest to extract that was mined first - alluvial gold with possibly some gold easily released from the quartz reefs; but these sources were quickly exhausted. By the end of 1856 the sites around Warrandyte where alluvial gold would have been relatively easy to find were more or less worked out. When the first public report of the District Mining Surveyor, James Murphy, was issued in May 1859, it observed that abandoned reefs and uncrushed quartz were strewn all over the Anderson’s Creek goldfield. Around this time, according to Murphy, '3 persons were engaged in quartz mining & 38 in alluvial mining'. (37 James Murphy (St Andrew’s Division) in Mining Surveyors Reports, Board of Science, (for May 1859) 18 June 1859, p. 15). The Victoria Gold Field was all but abandoned for a second time.
Former Warrandyte resident Murray Houghton has spent many years painstakingly researching the sometimes confusing history of mining in Warrandyte. His interest stems from his family’s long connection with Warrandyte, which goes back to the 1850s: 'My great grandfather, Harry Houghton, arrived in about 1856, and later became a miner. He was also associated with the grab-all party of coffer dam miners during the 1860s; and between 1863 and 1875, when there was no bridge, he also provided transport across the Yarra by means of a small punt. My grandfather, Herbert George Houghton, one of Harry s sons, was also an occasional miner. He worked at the Caledonia Mine in Tills Drive, which operated spasmodically. He worked there during the peak period of 1904 to 1908, but his main livelihood was as a timber cutter and wood carter, and five of his six sons, including my father, started their respective working lives in his employ as timber cutters and wood carters' (38 Murray Houghton, interview, 9 May 2001). Murray Houghton has generously contributed the following information about mining in Warrandyte based on his many years of research. (39 This is an edited version of material Murray Houghton has variously published under the auspices of the Warrandyte Historical Society.)
In the early years, despite many rich quartz specimens having been found over a large area of the district there was a major obstacle to success - the lack of suitable crushing facilities. The miners, who invariably worked in small parties, became frustrated as one newly installed crushing machine after another proved inadequate to the task. Despite occasional attempts to ship quartz to the crushing facilities of the Langlands foundry in Melbourne (which was too costly), and the determined efforts by crushing machine suppliers to establish an economically functional facility at Warrandyte, real success in crushing was not achieved there for some years.
In June 1859, with the intention of tunnelling to broach, and then work a hither- to undiscovered reef - which was believed by many to extend through the Fourth Hill, in a line generally along the Main Warrandyte Anticline - Irish Hotelier, Patrick Geraghty, who in 1856 had established one of the Warrandyte miners' favourite watering holes, Geraghtys Inn, registered in association with W. S. Moore, a large claim on the Fourth Hill measuring 600 x 200 metres. Working with the assistance of a light tramway, his tunnel was driven from the East for a distance of 130 metres between June 1859 and February 1860; however, he failed to cross-cut the anticipated lode, and the endeavour was aborted. The tunnel is still in good repair today, and bears Geraghtys name. (40 James Murphy (St Andrew’s Division), in Mining Surveyors’ Reports, published by Board of Science, (for July 1859) 18 August 1859, pp. 22— 3; (for August 1859) 19 September 1859, pp. 28-9; (for October 1859) 19 November 1859, p. 20; (for December 1859) 20 January 1860, pp. 16-17; (for January 1860) 28 February 1860, pp. 28-9)
In February 1868, G. Patterson and Halley introduced the first crusher to be driven by Yarra River water power. It was not a complete success, as often only two of the stampers could be worked when the river was low, but it did serve to reduce the price of crushing and did much to instil new life into the village. (43 Alfred Armstrong (St Andrew’s Division), in Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars, Mining Department Melbourne, ed. R. Brough Smyth (quarter ending 30 September 1868), 15 October 1868, pp. 33-34). In May 1869 Lewis Grant was appointed the mining manager of the Yarra Tunnelling Gold Mining Company, which also installed a water-driven crusher later that year. This company’s claim was 50 metres upstream from the island on the south bank. It was worked at a depth of 23 metres directly below the bed of the river with shafts extending outwards to the south and north banks. On the 30th April 1870 the Yarra Tunnelling Gold Mining Company also installed a steam engine; this complemented the company’s water-driven capacity. (44 The Daily Telegraph, 5 May 1870, p. 3; see also The Leader, 1 May 1870, p. 20). The mine was worked successfully until its closure in 1873. (45 Victoria Government Gazette, No. 7, 31 January 1873, p. 234)
The Evelyn Tunnel Gold Mining Company, Warrandyte (Registered), was formed on 6 February 1870 for the purpose of constructing a tunnel at the Pound Bend and diverting the river through it so that some 5 kilometres of the river bed could be worked by dredging and hydraulic sluicing for alluvial gold. (46 Victoria Government Gazette, No. 11, 11 February 1870, p. 309). This venture was the brainchild of William Hutchinson Gresham, and the company’s directors were the Hon. A. S. Anderson, MLA, and Messrs John Slater and Christopher Muir-Inglis. (47 The Argus, 14 July 1870, p. 7; see also The Leader, 16 July 1870, p. 14). On 23rd July 1870 a large party assembled opposite the southern entrance of the tunnel to witness the occasion of the official opening. (48 The Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers, 13 August 1870, pp. 141-142). With the Yarra diverted from its ancient bed through the tunnel - measuring 210 metres in length with a width of 6 metres and a depth of 5 metres - it was estimated that 75,000 litres of water per second flowed through at high level. The sturdy dam that was erected across the river below the mouth of the tunnel consisted of piles driven horizontally into the cliff and vertical stakes reinforced with sandbags. The design of the dam was insufficient to withstand the pressure of the water at high water levels, and the river eroded a new course by-passing the dam altogether. The fault was rectified in due course, but the company did not bargain on the accumulated silt (up to 15 metres deep) which needed to be removed prior to sluicing. Gold deposits were found in limited amounts, but not nearly enough for shareholders to fully recoup their investments. (49 The Argus, 16 November 1871, p. 4)
The passing of the No-Liability Mining Act in 1871 did much to attract invest- ments to smaller gold fields such as Warrandyte. Before the passing of this Act it was not uncommon for small shareholders to lose their entire savings to mining companies as they were responsible for the company’s liability if it was a failure.
Quartz mining continued on a limited scale from 1870 to 1890, and the search for alternative rewards continued. By the mid 1880s the mining workforce of Anderson’s Creek had dropped to somewhere between 50 and 60 in number, and remained at that level for some years. (50 Alfred Armstrong (St Andrew’s Division), in Reports of the Mining Registrars for Quarter Ended June 1886, Department of Mines, Melbourne, 30 July 1886, p. 57). The reason it stayed even at that level was due in part to the quartz endeavours of Edwin Holloway and Lewis Grant Junior in reviving the Yarra Tunnel line-of-reef resulting in the formation of the Yarra Tunnel Gold Mining Company, Anderson’s Creek, and a spasmodic resurgence by the discovery of the Pig Tail Mine by Stiggants and Holloway in 1874. (51 The Leader, 29 August 1874, p. 13; see also Alfred Armstrong (St Andrew’s Division), in Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars, Department of Mines, Melbourne, (for quarter ending 30 September 1874) 15 October 1874, pp. 36-37)
With the discovery by Stiggants and the Holloway brothers in June 1877 on Crown lands of a mullock wall from 7 to 8 feet thick', the Creek miners received an even bigger boost. (52 The Leader, 25 August 1877, p. 22). This latter discovery was later confirmed to be one of two stone-walled dykes containing predominantly a powdery mineral, diorite, which was easy to crush, and through which ran innumerable fine thread-like strands of auriferous quartz, no longer than 3 inches. The first of these filled chasms was subsequently to be traced and prospected across the Yarra to the north, and from the south of Elliot’s Freehold through the Crown Lands onto William £Bully' Brown’s property, the Wonga Station at East Warrandyte (later known as Wonga Park). (53 The Daily Telegraph, 5 September 1877, p. 3; see also The Weekly Times and Town and Country Journal, 8 September 1877, p. 4). This dyke was worked principally by Holloway and Stiggants, whose claim was later to become the Crown Company. The other dyke, much shorter in length and slightly dissimilar in nature, was discovered and claimed by Logan and Party, later to become the Hope Company. (54 The Leader, 8 September 1877, p. 4). It was some 200 feet to the east of the Holloway and Stiggants' dyke, but ran parallel with it.
For a brief period The Victory also proved to be a successful mining venture. It comprised a cluster of closely positioned mines, major components of which commenced their respective operations under the titles of Young Colonial and Federal Prospecting Company Third and Fourth Hills, and which, during 1891, were registered as the Warrandyte Gold Mining Company No Liability, and then known as Sabelberg and McGills Claim. (61 The Evelyn Observer and South and East Bourke Record, 8 May 1891, p. 2; 15 May 1891, p. 3; 20 November 1891, p. 3; 13 May 1892, p. 3; 24 March 1893, p. 3; 16 March 1894, p. 2; 22 June 1894, p. 2; 9 October 1896, p. 3). This complex of rabbit warrens extended across Whipstick Gully and contained tunnels and mines in both the Third and Fourth Hills. (62 Evelyn Observer and South and East Bourke Record, 28 May 1891, p. 3). During its peak period of success, between 1896 and 1899, it yielded more than 1,570 ounces of gold.(63 J. T. Jutson, ‘The structure and general geology of the Warrandyte goldfield and adjacent country', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 23 (1911) p. 545)
After 1910 activities in and around the Warrandyte Gold Field became significantly reduced, particularly with Mines Department and Doncaster Council directives to fill-in and make safe the many gaping holes which earlier mining had produced. Nevertheless, a minor rush to the district followed the alluvial finds of Charles Jones and Ferdy Hornidge on their township properties in 1926. (67 The Herald, 12 April 1926, p. 1 and 22 April 1926, p. 1; see also The Sun News- Pictorial, 13 April 1926, p. 3; 14 April 1926, p. 2; 23 April 1926, p. 5; 5 May 1926, p. 10; and The Age, 24 April 1926, p. 20; and The Argus, 5 May 1926, p. 20; and The Ringwood Mail and Warrandyte Gazette, 28 April 1926, p. 3). In the Depression years which followed numerous unemployed men could be observed reworking old mines or panning the creek beds. The last gold mining lease to be issued in Warrandyte expired in 1965.
While tunnels are perceived as relatively safe, Hanson says that shafts that have fallen through recently have been filled in, in accordance with Mines Department policy; it is a state of affairs that worries him because there are very few shafts left: ‘shafts are considered dangerous, in the eyes of most people, so they've been used as rubbish dumps since mining finished, basically. The Mines Department had a campaign, mainly in the 1960s, to 'cap' them (near the top they'd put a concrete slab and then they'd fill it over).'
The mine site on the Hanson property has provided Peter with the thrill of discovery of an archaeological nature: Tve dated it back to the 1880s because there’s been a whole lot of bottles etc. When the miners were digging it, and creating a mullock heap, they'd throw their rubbish on it - their bottles - and when the Mines Department came along in the 1960s they bulldozed it all back in. Then, of course, I dug it back up again, to 11 metres deep.' Hanson judged that the shaft must have been fairly deep by the amount the infill had sunk - around 1.5 metres. In excavating the site by hand he was careful not to touch the edges: cNow you can still see the original pick marks all the way down and so I wouldn't touch the edges.'
In recent years Hanson has noticed changes in Warrandyte that he believes have led to the loss or damage of mine sites: cIt’s probably just different people moving into the area who don't realise the significance of a little hole in the land. There’s not many mullock heaps left in Warrandyte because they used them on the local roads or the Mines Department got a bulldozer and filled the shafts in. In the old days (the 1960s), when hardly anyone lived here and there were heaps of mines, no one really cared. They used them as rubbish dumps (which they still do). But now people are becoming more historically aware as well as environmentally aware. More people start thinking, 'Gee, we'd better start preserving what we've got because it’s all going rapidly'.' He can foresee a time when there will be even wider interest in the old mines of Warrandyte: £At least if we preserve them they'll just sit there and not degrade, and then in future when it is seen as more important, you can either excavate them or open them up as a tourist thing. They might make money out of it - if you can make a dollar out of a mine site, people see them as more important.' Perhaps it is to be expected - people always do seek riches from mines. (68 Peter Hanson, interview, 1 June 2001)
In 2001 the City of Manningham supported celebrations designed to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold in Victoria in Warrandyte. Saturday 30 June was selected as the day on which these events would occur. The 1853 Select Committee of the Legislative Council had noted in their report that Michel and party 'discovered the existence of gold in the quartz rocks of the Yarra Ranges, at Anderson’s Creek, in the latter part of June'. Eighty years later, historian Charles R. Long, who also happened to be Michel’s son-in-law, made the following bold statement in an article which was published in The Argus, 19 August 1933:
The date, 30 June, may be correct, or it may be spurious. Conclusive evidence either to sup- port or refute it has not yet emerged; but it is a date that has been vigorously adopted in the name of celebrating what was the beginning of a significant era in Warrandyte’s (and consequently Manningham’s) history.
For the festivities, visitors and residents alike were encouraged to enter into the spirit of times past by coming in costumes reminiscent of the 1850s. Every effort was made to simulate the life and times of the gold diggings. Tea-rooms, saloon bars, church and school settings of the gold-rush era were recreated. Many market stalls were set up inviting visitors to enjoy billy tea and damper, staples of many a nineteenth-century miners diet. There were opportunities available, for those infected by gold fever, to pan for gold in the nearby Yarra River and many people experienced a bumpy ride as they travelled by horse and cart through the township. Tours of former goldmine sites gave participants some idea of the isolation and hardship many of the miners must have experienced.
Members of the Warrandyte Theatre Company re-enacted the discovery of gold at the very spot where Louis Michel struck gold' and many of his descendants attended the celebrations. The day concluded with a sell-out bush dance at the Grand Hotel where Paradiddle, 'Warrandyte's renowned bush band', played music from the gold era. Even if 30 June was not the exact date on which gold was discovered in Warrandyte, it was firmly established in 2001 as the day on which the anniversary of the discovery was enthusiastically celebrated. (70 Warrandyte Diary, July 2001, p. 9)
Sir - It being currently reported that Gold to a considerable extent abounds in the neigh- bourhood of Melbourne, or within an easy distance therefrom. We, the undersigned, feeling deeply concerned for the welfare of the Colony of Victoria, and desiring to see her working population induced to forgo the desire to emigrate to any neighbouring colony, request that your Worship will convene a public meeting of the inhabitants for the purpose of raising a subscription, to be presented as a reward to any person or persons who shall within a given time make known the locality of a Gold Mine, capable of being worked to advantage. Melbourne, June 3rd, 1831.(8 The Argus, Melbourne, 9 June 1851, p. 4, col. 6.)
Over eighty names are listed beneath this letter. Nicholson responded by convening a meeting of the citizens of Melbourne at the Mechanics' Institute (now the Athenasum) on 9 June 1851, at 1 p.m., 'for the purpose named in the above requisition'.(9 The Argus, Melbourne, 9 June 1851, p. 4, col. 6). At the meeting a committee was appointed, which then met in the Town Clerks office the following evening. There it was decided that a reward of two hundred guineas should be offered for the finding of a gold mine or deposit within two hundred miles of Melbourne.(10 The Argus, Melbourne, 11 June 1851, p. 2, col. 7. Two hundred guineas equals £ 200 plus 200 shillings, or £210).
The model colony. This is an interesting day in the annals of our adopted country. The issue of the writs had doubtless taken place, and at last such a measure of freedom is perfected, as the British Government has thought proper to bestow on us. It is not all we want, but let us be thankful for what we have. The depressing influence of our connection with Sydney is at an end. Source: The Argus, 1 July 1851, p. 2, col. 2.
It was with that incentive in mind, no doubt, that Michel invited members of the Gold Committee to accompany him and members of his party to Deep Creek near Warrandyte on Saturday 5 July. During the trip, Richmond took some samples from the quartz veins shown to him by Michel and party. On the following Monday, 7 July 1851, Richmond wrote to H. J. Hart, Honorary Secretary of the Gold Committee, that he had accompanied Michel and party cto the Yarra Ranges, on the Deep Creek, on Saturday last, for the purpose of exploring the vein from which the specimens in your possession were obtained'. (11 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., Appendix, p. 15). Richmond also wrote that during his examination of the site he had observed a vein of quartz running through the lower sandstone that bore strong indications of being an auriferous deposit'. Many of the specimens he brought from the vein, exhibited traces of gold'; but as none turned out to be very rich, Richmond was unable to give any opinion as to the actual richness of the vein.(12 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854. Appendix, p. 15).
On 8 July 1851 Michel and party wrote to Lieutenant Governor LaTrobe announcing their find and inquiring whether the government would be disposed to 'remunerate the party for past outlay, and assist in prosecuting the search further, by opening the veins' as they did not have the means to do so.(13 ‘‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854. Appendix, p. 15). Their discovery, however, raised little excitement. Enthusiasm for the discovery may have been dampened by Richmond’s non-committal report. Another factor may have been the difficulty and expense involved in extracting gold from quartz, a technological capability that the newly declared colony of Victoria, so named on 1 July 1851, did not possess. Most of the members of Michel’s party were disheartened by this response and, in Michel’s words, 'being unwilling to continue the search we separated and were not associated together again'.(14 The Argus, 28 December 1895, p. 9, col. 4). This quote is from Michel’s recollections published forty-four years after the event, in 1895, under the title 'The first gold field in Victoria - how I discovered it'.
Historical evidence, and the way we choose to read it, can sometimes throw a dubious light on events. Some of the evidence underpinning the story of the discovery of gold at Warrandyte must be considered with caution. One example is Michel’s statement in his 1895 article about his later relationship with his gold-seeking colleagues - that they were 'not associated together again'. This is not supported by what he then claims happened next, because a couple of days later Michel and William Habberlin, who was one of the original Tarty', went out to search for gold one more time. This demonstrates that historical sources can pro- vide contradictory evidence. With that reservation in mind, we might note that the 1895 article nevertheless details a fascinating version of Michel and Habberlin’s expedition:
We made direct for the ranges by way of the Barkers-road, keeping nearer the [Yarra] river than we had on previous journeys. After trying the gullies and water-courses [for] several days ... we faced to town. Not knowing exactly our position we determined to follow some creek down to the Yarra, and in doing so a peculiar bend under a steep range led me to think that the creek had not always run in its then present course. If gold were to be found this seemed a likely place ... Taking the spade and pick I crossed the creek into the bend ... Neither of us even having seen gold obtained, I gave him strict injunctions to wash the earth carefully away until the very last few grains were left in the dish - this having been the course adopted in Sydney according to the accounts I had read. After once or twice saying no', he suddenly exclaimed, 'Your Worship, here’s the clickerty!' Eagerly examining the residue, we found it to contain ten small grains of gold.(15 The Argus, 28 December 1895, p. 9, col. 4)
According to Michel, they covered up the hole with brushwood and followed the creek down to where it fed into the river. Their aim was to ascertain the name of the creek and also their distance from Melbourne. It was sundown by the time they reached the Yarra River so they decided to set up a camp. During the night they heard a cock crow, signalling they were not too far from a settlement. The next morning (probably 16 July 1851) they were able to ascertain that the creek was Anderson’s Creek and that they were about 18 miles out of Melbourne. Having established their location, they returned by a circuitous route to the spot where they had made their find. After having washed out more gold from the hole, they made their way back to Melbourne, arriving about eight o'clock that night. As soon as they had cleaned themselves up, they went around to see Dr Greeves, who was on Mayor Nicholson’s Gold Committee, and enquired if any news of gold had yet reached the town. Dr Greeves answered in the negative, so Michel showed him the results of their search.
He came with us round to John Hood’s, ... the chemist in Collins-street, where he tested it, weighed it, and said it was gold of very high quality. He gave me a certificate to that effect, with the hour and date I had brought it to him endorsed.(16 The Argus, 28 December 1895, p. 9, col. 4)
A sketch of Anderson’s Creek by Herman Zumstein, 1856. (Reproduced with permission from the La Trobe Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library of Victoria)
Although Michel wrote this version of the discovery of gold at Anderson’s Creek in 1895, he had been asked to recall the details of the excursion on a much earlier occasion as well. In October 1853 Michel petitioned the Select Committee convened by the Legislative Council to deal with rival claims of being the first to discover gold in Victoria. His petition was later reprinted as part of the report and proceedings of that committee. During the proceedings, Michel was addressed by the Select Committee Chairman: ‘You state in your petition that on the 26th July, you laid a specimen of gold before the [Gold] Committee appointed by a public meeting, to reward the first discoverer of gold in Victoria?’ (17 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., Minutes of evidence, p. 1). The problem here is the date - 26 July 1851. Michel had written the wrong date in his petition.(18 In the published copy of the ‘Report' the correct date has been written in the margin). He corrected the Select Committee Chairman: ‘The sample alluded to was brought down by me on the 16th July’. Michel was then asked: ‘How can you satisfy the Committee that the gold was brought from the spot that you state?’Michel responded:
In this way. On the following day [that is 17 July 1851], I took a number of persons with me to the spot. There was Mr Fenwick, Mr Walsh, Mr Hart, Mr Reedy, and about a dozen others. On arriving, there, some of the gentlemen washed for themselves. ... Mr Fenwick collected it and brought it down to Melbourne for His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor. (19 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., Minutes of evidence, pp. 1-2.)
Michel’s testimony, given two years after the event, does not align with the evidence published in several articles in The Argus, which are contemporaneous with his discovery of gold at Anderson’s Creek. On Thursday 17 July 1851 the following notice from the Gold Committee appeared in the paper:
GOLD - The Committee appointed to promote the discovery of a Gold Field in the Colony of Victoria, have the satisfaction of announcing that unquestionable evidence has been adduced to them, showing the existence of Gold, in considerable quantity, both at the Deep Creek on the Yarra, near Major Newman’s run, and also at the Deep Creek on the Pyrenees, near Mr Donald Cameron’s house [Clunes]. Source: William Nicholson Mayor, Chairman of the Committee. Melbourne 16th July, 1851. (20 The Argus, Melbourne, 17 July 1851, p. 4, col. 3)
Then on Friday 18 July 1851, this advertisement appeared in The Argus:
GOLD - In reference to the late discovery on the Deep Creek, near Major Newmans South Yarra, the necessary information requisite for visiting the spot, may be obtained on application to Mr Greening, watchmaker, Little Collins Street, or to Mr Michel, Rainbow Hotel, Swanston-street. Some of the party who made the discovery, are about proceeding to the neighbourhood again, and every information will be given for the guidance of persons desirous of exploring the locality. (21 The Argus, Melbourne, 18 July 1851, p. 4, col. 3)
'Mr Greening almost certainly was Benjamin Greening, another member of the original party with whom Michel later claimed he was not associated ever again. Neither when giving evidence to the Select Committee in 1854, nor in his 1895 Argus article, is Michels memory of events about the discovery of gold at Anderson’s Creek to be entirely trusted. It seems more likely that he led Nicholas Fenwick and company out to the site not on the next day' (17 July), but two-and-a-half weeks later, on 6 August, because on Thursday 7 August 1851 the following article appeared in The Argus:
THE VICTORIAN GOLD FIELD - Mr Henry J. Hart, Honorary Secretary of the Gold Committee, Messrs Walsh and Hood, members of that Committee, and Mr Fenwick, Commissioner of Crown Lands, accompanied by some ten or a dozen gentlemen, started from Melbourne yesterday morning, in company with Messrs Michel, Habberlin, and party, to visit the Victoria Diggings on Anderson’s Creek, near Major Newman’s station, on the Merri Creek. They reached the ground about half past eleven o'clock, and immediately proceeded to work. They had taken a cradle with them, but this was found to be too small, not having capacity enough to hold more than a half shovelfull of earth: and they were thus thrown back upon the primitive use of the tin pots and dishes, of which there were three amongst the party. With these, every member of the party tried his luck, and not a dishful was washed, that did not turn out a greater or less quantity of gold. In the dishfull of sod washed by Mr Hart, four small particles of gold were found. ... The gold procured by the party during the washing was handed to Mr Fenwick, who will lay it before His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor to-morrow. (22 The Argus, Melbourne, 7 August 1851, p. 2, cols 3-4)
We remember that on 16 July 1851 the Gold Committee announced that it had received unquestionable evidence ... showing the existence of Gold in considerable quantity' in two places both named as 'Deep Creek': one on Major Newmans run (Warrandyte), the other near Mr Donald Camerons house (Clunes). Yet the gold brought down to Melbourne by Michel and Habberlin on 16 July 1851 was from Anderson’s Creek - very confusing, but it can be explained.
We need now particularly to note that two committees were set up to deal with claims of the discovery of a sizeable gold deposit in Victoria. The first was the 'Gold Committee' set up in 1851 by the Mayor of Melbourne, William Nicholson. The second was 'The Select Committee of the Legislative Council on the Claims for the Discovery of Gold in Victoria, which convened for the first time in 1853.
The Select Committee was needed because the original Gold Committee was unable to make a decision on who could justly claim the two-hundred-guinea reward. Faced with several rival claims for the money, the Gold Committee could not establish a priority of discovery and deferred making any decision - indefinitely as it turned out. It wasn't until 1854 that rewards were finally issued, but that did not clarify who was first. The Select Committee of the Legislative Council awarded Michel (and presumably his party) £1,000 for being the 'first publishers of the discovery of a Gold Field in the Colony of Victoria': (23 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., p. 9)
the situation of their works being shown publicly on the 5th July, and full particulars communicated to the government on the eighth; and licenses [sic] to dig for gold there, were issued shortly after, viz.: on the 1st September, which was previous to their issue upon any other gold field; and about three hundred persons were at work when Ballaarat [sic] was discovered. (24 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., pp. 3-4.)
Note that the date mentioned above was not the date of the gold discovery at Anderson’s Creek - the whereabouts of which the original Gold Committee published on 17 July 1851 - that secured the reward of £1,000. The reward was secured from evidence associated with the vein of quartz that started from Deep Creek, which they had shown to Dr Richmond on 5 July, and which he had verified in a letter to the Gold Committee on 7 July 1851. This was what the Select Committee meant by published'. Under the same criteria, Mr Campbell of Clunes was also awarded £1,000 for announcing his discovery in a letter dated 5 July to another member of the Gold Committee, Mr Graham, even though Campbell had communicated the general fact of his having discovered gold in the Pyrenees as early as 10 June. (25 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., p. 5.)
A party formed by Mr Louis John Michel, consisting of himself, Mr W illiam Habberlin, James Furnival, James Melville, James Headon and B. Greenig, discovered the existence of gold in the quartz rocks of the Yarra Ranges, at Anderson’s Creek, in the latter part of June, and shewed it on the spot to Dr Webb Richmond, on behalf of the Gold Discovery Committee on the 5th July. They communicated the full particulars of the locality to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor on the 8th, and on the 16th they brought to town and exhibited to the Gold Discovery Committee above mentioned, a sample of gold procured by the washing of alluvial soil in the same neighbourhood at Anderson’s Creek. Source: 'Report of the Select Committee. . p. 4.
THE GOLDEN DISCOVERY Public attention continues rivetted upon the late all-important discovery of the existence of gold in large quantity in this province, and expectation is wound up to the highest pitch, as to the probable result of the discovery, and the steps which will be taken by the government in reference to it. It is our duty to keep our read ers apprised of events as they occur, but it is difficult to follow the tangled maze, - and truth is hard to be got at, where the direct interest is to deceive. We have no longer to combat with scepticism as to the actual fact of the discovery; that difficulty is fairly got over, for since the return of Mr Brentani, the plain, tangible proof of the existence of gold, rich in quality, and abundant in quantity, precludes all chance of doubt on the subject. The only question which remains is, as to whether the exact locale is known, and though numbers are flocking to the supposed vicinity, that we must acknowledge is a matter of doubt, and seems wrapped in considerable mystery. The first thing which strikes the apprehension, is the disappearance of the shepherd lad, the actual discoverer of this mineral treasure. Source: The Argus, 6 February 1849, p. 2, col. 3.
Warrandyte was not the first place in Victoria where gold was discovered, but neither was Clunes. Mr W. Campbell was awarded £1,000 for being the original discoverer of the dunes’ - like Michels, it is a carefully worded award. As the ultimately ineffectual Gold Committee probably realised, what constitutes a 'first discovery is an impossible issue to resolve. The first person to find gold in Victoria may well have been a member of the Wurundjeri people - a first discovery that cannot be proven. The same applies to the first European who may have discovered a grain of gold in the middle of a potential goldfield but told nobody.
Map of Warrandyte goldfields by Jutson in 1909. (RHSV)
A Miners Right, issued to William Collins of Anderson’s Creek in 1887. (Photo: WHS and Murray Houghton)
The whole issue of who or where was first to do what comes down to semantics. Maybe Clunes was the first gold camp - but Warrandyte claims to be Victoria's first goldfield - a separate issue altogether. When does the site of a discovery of gold become a goldfield? When it is officially recognised as one? Louis Michel was the first to publish the whereabouts of his discovery, which he did in the advertisement he placed in The Argus on 18 July 1851, and as a consequence many diggers quickly made their way to Anderson’s Creek, thereby creating a gold mining site. Two other items of historical import also give weight to Warrandyte’s claim that it was the site of the first official goldfield. One is the fact that the first gold-mining licences to be issued in Victoria were given to diggers at the Anderson’s Creek diggings which was previous to their issue upon any other Gold Field'. (26 ‘Report of the Select Committee', p. 4. This report states that the licences were issued ‘on 1st September' 1851; however, the first date of issue recorded in the County of Bourke Letters Book of 1851 is 5 September. The names of forty-five miners are listed as having received gold-mining licences on that day). The other item is that the goldfield 52 was named the Victoria Gold Field at a time when the inclination to honour Queen Victoria in her newly named colony was high. (27 The earliest recorded evidence of the name found so far is in The Argus, 7 August 1851. By 2 January 1855 the same paper was referring to the goldfield simply as ‘Anderson’s Creek Diggings'). Is it reasonable to argue therefore that the first gold mining licences should most likely be issued on the first goldfield, and that a colony very recently named Victoria would be likely to name its first goldfield the 'Victoria Gold Field'? So firmly did locals believe this to be the case that they raised money for a monument to mark the historic site. On 9 November 1935 (a Saturday afternoon), with music provided by the Warrandyte school fife and drum band, and in the presence of several dignitaries including the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, W. H. Everard, the president of the Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe, Cr A. E. Ireland, and the president of the cairn committee, Cr C. R. H. Hemsworth, 200 people gathered to watch Louis Michels son-in-law, Charles R. Long, unveil the memorial cairn that still stands today in Gold Memorial Road, Warrandyte. An old-time prospector Mr Ernest Stewart, gave colour to the proceedings by dressing in miner’s garb. (28 The Sun News-Pictorial, 11 November 1935, p. 8)
Mining – 'a good reef beneath'
Gold mining in Victoria commenced well in advance of the bureaucracy that was eventually established to manage it. In a paper on the geology of Warrandyte given in 1910 to the Royal Society of Victoria, J. T. Jutson, then a Victorian Government research scholar at the University of Melbourne, complained that from 1851 to 1859 no official records on gold mining were kept. He argued that 'the portion of the mining history covered by this period cannot be touched upon. (29 J. T. Jutson, ‘The structure and general geology of the Warrandyte goldfield and adjacent country', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 23 (1911), p. 541). Despite Jutson s view, there is still a version of the earliest years on the Victoria Gold Field at Warrandyte to be discovered in personal experiences and opinions written at the time.
There was a longstanding belief that a good reef ran beneath the Warrandyte cemetery as the area immediately to the east of the cemetery had been extensively worked during Warrandytes mining era. There are stories that during this period, whenever there was a funeral, there was always a good turn out of miners clad in their Sunday best to farewell the departed. Source: Warrandyte Historical Society, 'Wandering Through Warrandyte's Heritage , p. iii.
On Saturday 9 August 1851, just twenty-two days after Michel advertised in The Argus that 'the necessary information requisite for visiting the spot, may be obtained on application and that 'every information will be given for the guidance of persons desirous of exploring the locality', that newspaper sent one of its reporters to Anderson’s Creek 'in order to have as correct information as possible respecting the Victoria gold mines'. (30 The Argus, Melbourne, 11 August 1851, p. 2, col. 5). The following edited transcript of his report provides an impression of what he experienced at Victoria's first goldfield:
There are five parties regularly located on the creek, who may be said to be going to work in earnest; and these have three cradles amongst them. Two of these parties are each composed of six persons, one of five persons, one of four, and one of three persons; making twenty-four who are digging in earnest, and with a serious intention of giving the place a fair trial. But, in addition to these, there is a constantly changing horde of would-be diggers, who arrive with a handful of tea and sugar, and a crust of damper, and depart when these have been demolished; their only attempt at digging being to raise some of the softest top surface of the soil, and to express considerable astonishment at finding nothing. There are also some who, finding that gold is to be obtained, and having sense enough to perceive that without proper equipment nothing is to be done, have left the mine with the intention of returning better provided. Between fifty and sixty persons visited the mines yesterday, and of these at least twenty came prepared to stay. ... Hardly a man on the Creek is without gold, that is if he has gone the right way to work to get it; for we have the old Bathurst and Californian farces rehearsed at Anderson’s Creek, by men who come almost unprovided, and with nothing to wash in but a tin dish, the bottom full of holes punctured by a nail. Such absurdities as these can be attended with nothing but disappointment. (31 The Argus, Melbourne, 11 August 1851, p. 2, cols 5-6.)
Alluvial gold: ranging in size from a pinpoint to a small boulder, this metal lies amongst the sand or clay or gravel. Originally the metal was in the solid rock, but over the ages the rock eroded. Nature in effect crushed the rock and the released mineral gravitated into watercourses. Thus it was easy for a poor man to find and mine. Source: Geoffrey Blainey, 1978, p. 365.
The first attempts at mining the gold at Anderson’s Creek would most likely have focused on winning the alluvial gold.
Few of the diggers at Anderson’s Creek, however, seem to have gone there equipped even with a pan, and the more prepared miners described above only had three cradles' between them. A cradle is a wooden box that, when rocked manually to and fro, separates the heavy alluvial gold from the lighter sand or gravel. The above reporter noted in his article that Michel was to start at daylight with quicksilver and a cradle for its use'. At least Michel was comparatively well equipped. The beginnings of mining at Anderson’s Creek demonstrate how inexperienced the diggers were. As the gold at Anderson’s Creek became more difficult to procure using primitive mining methods, the diggers began to drift away. Easier and richer pickings were being discovered elsewhere.
The State Battery Waterwheel, built by William Lewis in 1897. It was operated by the Warrandyte Battery Trust from 1909 to 1925, for the Victorian Government. (Photo: WHS)
The first rush to Anderson’s Creek was short-lived. By November 1853, when Michel was giving his evidence to the Select Committee, it appears that the Victoria Gold Field had all but been abandoned. When Committee Chairman Mr Greeves asked him if the goldfield was being worked now, Michel replied, cNo; the superior yield of other fields has drawn the parties away. (32 ‘Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on claims for the Discovery of gold in Victoria’. Parliamentary Papers, Victoria, Vol. 3, Part 2, 1854., Minutes of evidence, p. 1.). According to Michels testimony, there were by then only two or three miners working on the Victoria Gold Field; however, diggers began returning in 1854. By the beginning of 1855 they were back in force. An occasional correspondent for The Argus, who visited the diggings at Anderson’s Creek in January 1855, was able to report that on a rough calculation, there must be about 200 tents' in the area with a population at present of between 600 and 700 souls'. (33 The Argus, Melbourne, 2 January 1855, p. 4, col. 5). By January 1855 Thomson’s, Whipstick, Fiddlers and New Chum gullies were open, Strode’s and Bartlett’s flats were being worked, and by 1856 most of the district’s main gold-bearing areas had been discovered and named. (34 Victorian Goldfields Project, ‘Historic Gold Mining Sites in St Andrew’s Mining Division', Draft 8/7/99, Cultural Heritage (Department of Natural Resources and the Environment), p. 4). Convinced that the returns on the goldfield were reasonable, the occasional correspondent' urged all who were unemployed in Melbourne to proceed to the Anderson’s Creek diggings. He warned, however, that any man going up there must not expect to get his daily half or whole penny- weight without working well for it'. He estimated a daily average return for the diggers of between ten and twenty shillings. (35 The Argus, 2 January 1855, p. 4, col. 5). Although instances of rich finds were sometimes record- ed, the actual yields from mining at this time cannot be given. (36 J. T. Jutson, ‘The structure and general geology of the Warrandyte goldfield and adjacent country', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 23 (1911),, p. 547)
I was glad to see that, notwithstanding the debasing influence the desire of gaining gold is said to exercise over men’s minds, none of the diggers were at work on Sunday. Source: TheArgus, Melbourne, 11 August 1851, p. 2, col. 5.
When Michel announced his discovery, it was the gold easiest to extract that was mined first - alluvial gold with possibly some gold easily released from the quartz reefs; but these sources were quickly exhausted. By the end of 1856 the sites around Warrandyte where alluvial gold would have been relatively easy to find were more or less worked out. When the first public report of the District Mining Surveyor, James Murphy, was issued in May 1859, it observed that abandoned reefs and uncrushed quartz were strewn all over the Anderson’s Creek goldfield. Around this time, according to Murphy, '3 persons were engaged in quartz mining & 38 in alluvial mining'. (37 James Murphy (St Andrew’s Division) in Mining Surveyors Reports, Board of Science, (for May 1859) 18 June 1859, p. 15). The Victoria Gold Field was all but abandoned for a second time.
A miner using the cradle at Warrandyte. (Photo: WHS)
At the Carleton Estate Mine we met with the workmen (Germans) of another mine, opened by M r Wedell, of the Criterion Hotel, Melbourne, about two miles east from Templestowe, in the Parish of Bulleen. The shaft sunk at this mine we are told is fifty feet deep, and that very fine specimens have been extracted. We were also told by them that other parties in the neighbourhood are prospecting. Source: 'The Boroondara and Bulleen Gold-Mines', The Colonial Mining Journal, Railwayand Share Gazette, 1, No. 1 (2 September, 1858), 2 3 .
In the early years, despite many rich quartz specimens having been found over a large area of the district there was a major obstacle to success - the lack of suitable crushing facilities. The miners, who invariably worked in small parties, became frustrated as one newly installed crushing machine after another proved inadequate to the task. Despite occasional attempts to ship quartz to the crushing facilities of the Langlands foundry in Melbourne (which was too costly), and the determined efforts by crushing machine suppliers to establish an economically functional facility at Warrandyte, real success in crushing was not achieved there for some years.
Patrick Geraghty and William Moores mine on Fourth Hill, first sunk in 1839, shown here in 2001. (Photo: Peter Hanson)
In June 1859, with the intention of tunnelling to broach, and then work a hither- to undiscovered reef - which was believed by many to extend through the Fourth Hill, in a line generally along the Main Warrandyte Anticline - Irish Hotelier, Patrick Geraghty, who in 1856 had established one of the Warrandyte miners' favourite watering holes, Geraghtys Inn, registered in association with W. S. Moore, a large claim on the Fourth Hill measuring 600 x 200 metres. Working with the assistance of a light tramway, his tunnel was driven from the East for a distance of 130 metres between June 1859 and February 1860; however, he failed to cross-cut the anticipated lode, and the endeavour was aborted. The tunnel is still in good repair today, and bears Geraghtys name. (40 James Murphy (St Andrew’s Division), in Mining Surveyors’ Reports, published by Board of Science, (for July 1859) 18 August 1859, pp. 22— 3; (for August 1859) 19 September 1859, pp. 28-9; (for October 1859) 19 November 1859, p. 20; (for December 1859) 20 January 1860, pp. 16-17; (for January 1860) 28 February 1860, pp. 28-9)
We have been informed that a gentleman residing near Templestowe, sunk a shaft close to the Yarra river, and extracted some gold just at the moment when the waters of the Yarra rushed in upon the shaft, and thus frustrated his further search. Source: 'The Boroondara and Bulleen Gold-Mines', The Colonial Mining Journal, Railway and Share Gazette, 1, No. 1 (2 September, 1858), 2 3 .
Also in 1859 the Yarra Yarra Sluicing Company was busily engaged in diverting the Yarra River, thereby forming a man-made island. The initial objective of the company was to divert the course of the Yarra River at Thomson s Bend, and thereby allow the bed of its former course situated between Thomsons Pre-emptive Right and the main road to be dried out and worked for the alluvial gold that had accumulated over the centuries in the detritus. (41 The Melbourne Leader, 12 November 1859, p. 14). The company ceased operation in 1861, and their island is a feature of today’s landscape. (42 James Murphy (St Andrew’s Division), in Mining Surveyors Reports, ed. and comp. R. Brough Smyth, M ining Department Melbourne, (for October 1861) 8 November 1861, pp. 459-460)
Reef - a lode or vein of quartz, parts of which contain gold.
Quartz - a mineral of crystalline silica, usually white and shining that contained much of the gold mined in Australia. Source: Blainey, 1978, p. 365.
In February 1868, G. Patterson and Halley introduced the first crusher to be driven by Yarra River water power. It was not a complete success, as often only two of the stampers could be worked when the river was low, but it did serve to reduce the price of crushing and did much to instil new life into the village. (43 Alfred Armstrong (St Andrew’s Division), in Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars, Mining Department Melbourne, ed. R. Brough Smyth (quarter ending 30 September 1868), 15 October 1868, pp. 33-34). In May 1869 Lewis Grant was appointed the mining manager of the Yarra Tunnelling Gold Mining Company, which also installed a water-driven crusher later that year. This company’s claim was 50 metres upstream from the island on the south bank. It was worked at a depth of 23 metres directly below the bed of the river with shafts extending outwards to the south and north banks. On the 30th April 1870 the Yarra Tunnelling Gold Mining Company also installed a steam engine; this complemented the company’s water-driven capacity. (44 The Daily Telegraph, 5 May 1870, p. 3; see also The Leader, 1 May 1870, p. 20). The mine was worked successfully until its closure in 1873. (45 Victoria Government Gazette, No. 7, 31 January 1873, p. 234)
The quartz miners await with great anxiety the erection of suitable machinery to test the quality of their vein stones. They are labouring now in the dark. They hope the best, but fear the worst. T hose unable to hold out have sold their heap and left the diggings. Source: TheArgus,28 November 1856, p. 6, col. 4.
The Evelyn Tunnel Gold Mining Company, Warrandyte (Registered), was formed on 6 February 1870 for the purpose of constructing a tunnel at the Pound Bend and diverting the river through it so that some 5 kilometres of the river bed could be worked by dredging and hydraulic sluicing for alluvial gold. (46 Victoria Government Gazette, No. 11, 11 February 1870, p. 309). This venture was the brainchild of William Hutchinson Gresham, and the company’s directors were the Hon. A. S. Anderson, MLA, and Messrs John Slater and Christopher Muir-Inglis. (47 The Argus, 14 July 1870, p. 7; see also The Leader, 16 July 1870, p. 14). On 23rd July 1870 a large party assembled opposite the southern entrance of the tunnel to witness the occasion of the official opening. (48 The Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers, 13 August 1870, pp. 141-142). With the Yarra diverted from its ancient bed through the tunnel - measuring 210 metres in length with a width of 6 metres and a depth of 5 metres - it was estimated that 75,000 litres of water per second flowed through at high level. The sturdy dam that was erected across the river below the mouth of the tunnel consisted of piles driven horizontally into the cliff and vertical stakes reinforced with sandbags. The design of the dam was insufficient to withstand the pressure of the water at high water levels, and the river eroded a new course by-passing the dam altogether. The fault was rectified in due course, but the company did not bargain on the accumulated silt (up to 15 metres deep) which needed to be removed prior to sluicing. Gold deposits were found in limited amounts, but not nearly enough for shareholders to fully recoup their investments. (49 The Argus, 16 November 1871, p. 4)
The passing of the No-Liability Mining Act in 1871 did much to attract invest- ments to smaller gold fields such as Warrandyte. Before the passing of this Act it was not uncommon for small shareholders to lose their entire savings to mining companies as they were responsible for the company’s liability if it was a failure.
Quartz mining continued on a limited scale from 1870 to 1890, and the search for alternative rewards continued. By the mid 1880s the mining workforce of Anderson’s Creek had dropped to somewhere between 50 and 60 in number, and remained at that level for some years. (50 Alfred Armstrong (St Andrew’s Division), in Reports of the Mining Registrars for Quarter Ended June 1886, Department of Mines, Melbourne, 30 July 1886, p. 57). The reason it stayed even at that level was due in part to the quartz endeavours of Edwin Holloway and Lewis Grant Junior in reviving the Yarra Tunnel line-of-reef resulting in the formation of the Yarra Tunnel Gold Mining Company, Anderson’s Creek, and a spasmodic resurgence by the discovery of the Pig Tail Mine by Stiggants and Holloway in 1874. (51 The Leader, 29 August 1874, p. 13; see also Alfred Armstrong (St Andrew’s Division), in Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars, Department of Mines, Melbourne, (for quarter ending 30 September 1874) 15 October 1874, pp. 36-37)
With the discovery by Stiggants and the Holloway brothers in June 1877 on Crown lands of a mullock wall from 7 to 8 feet thick', the Creek miners received an even bigger boost. (52 The Leader, 25 August 1877, p. 22). This latter discovery was later confirmed to be one of two stone-walled dykes containing predominantly a powdery mineral, diorite, which was easy to crush, and through which ran innumerable fine thread-like strands of auriferous quartz, no longer than 3 inches. The first of these filled chasms was subsequently to be traced and prospected across the Yarra to the north, and from the south of Elliot’s Freehold through the Crown Lands onto William £Bully' Brown’s property, the Wonga Station at East Warrandyte (later known as Wonga Park). (53 The Daily Telegraph, 5 September 1877, p. 3; see also The Weekly Times and Town and Country Journal, 8 September 1877, p. 4). This dyke was worked principally by Holloway and Stiggants, whose claim was later to become the Crown Company. The other dyke, much shorter in length and slightly dissimilar in nature, was discovered and claimed by Logan and Party, later to become the Hope Company. (54 The Leader, 8 September 1877, p. 4). It was some 200 feet to the east of the Holloway and Stiggants' dyke, but ran parallel with it.
The first decade of the twentieth century brought about a revival in Warrandyte gold mining, and a number of quartz mines were worked at depth. The most fruitful of these were known as the Caledonia, Victory and Pig Tail. The discovery of gold by the Caledonia Gold Mines No Liability company in Selby’s Freehold (earlier known as Thomson’s Pre-emptive Right), near today’s Black Flat, was described as the one really bright spot in the history of the Warrandyte Gold Field. It was originally prospected by Messrs John Sloan and Henry Squires in 1896. (55 The Camberwell, Surrey Hills and Box Hill News — The Reporter, 10 January 1896, p. 2). From 1898 these prospectors called their mine The Newhaven Syndicate, but it was not until 1905, after it had been assessed by the mining engineer A. W. Merrin, at the behest of mining entrepreneurs Edward Miller, MLA, and George Dickenson, that its potential became apparent. (56 The Argus, 27 November 1905, p. 8). During 1904 to 1908 the Caledonia mine employed as many as 250 men, and records for that period reveal a yield of over 12,600 ounces, it being the first and only time a Warrandyte mine realised significant dividends for its shareholders. (57 W. Wallace, comp., St Andrew’s Division, in The Goldfields of Victoria — Mining Record, Quarterly Return of Gold Yields No. 76 (for quarter ended 30 June 1909), p. 14). Towards the end of 1908 the returns fell away. The company and its mining manager, John Till, could no longer justify continuing activities, the previously high yields having petered out. In February 1909 the company was stimulated by a grant of £750, but was still unable to continue working economically, and much of the machinery and equipment was sold in April of that year. Its main shaft was sunk to a depth of over 200 metres and the mine was worked on six different levels. It had periodic leases of life in ensuing years, when it was often worked by tributers. (58 A tributer is a miner who works under the system of receiving a proportion of the ore raised from the mine). In 1910 its lease was transferred to Pollard and Bakers New Caledonia Gold Mining Company; from 1911 to 1915 it operated as the Caledonia Consolidated Gold Mining Company, with crushings effected at the State Battery, but was suspended during the latter war years. (59 A. H. Sharpe (Nos 5 and 7 Districts), ‘Progress in Mining, Reports by the Inspectors of Mines’, in Annual Report of the Secretary for Mines, to the Honourable J. Drysdale Brown, M. P, Minister of Mines for Victoria for Year 1914, 1915, pp. 98-9; see also The Lilydale Express, 8 January 1915, p. 3). When the latter company revived its operations as a No Liability Company in 1921 and 1922, the work was performed by tributers, mainly Fred Johansen and party. (60 The Reporter, 18 March 1921, p. 2; 8 April 1921, p. 2; 1 July 1921, p. 3; 15 July 1921, p. 3). When Johansen died in 1923, the mine virtually gave up the ghost.
For a brief period The Victory also proved to be a successful mining venture. It comprised a cluster of closely positioned mines, major components of which commenced their respective operations under the titles of Young Colonial and Federal Prospecting Company Third and Fourth Hills, and which, during 1891, were registered as the Warrandyte Gold Mining Company No Liability, and then known as Sabelberg and McGills Claim. (61 The Evelyn Observer and South and East Bourke Record, 8 May 1891, p. 2; 15 May 1891, p. 3; 20 November 1891, p. 3; 13 May 1892, p. 3; 24 March 1893, p. 3; 16 March 1894, p. 2; 22 June 1894, p. 2; 9 October 1896, p. 3). This complex of rabbit warrens extended across Whipstick Gully and contained tunnels and mines in both the Third and Fourth Hills. (62 Evelyn Observer and South and East Bourke Record, 28 May 1891, p. 3). During its peak period of success, between 1896 and 1899, it yielded more than 1,570 ounces of gold.(63 J. T. Jutson, ‘The structure and general geology of the Warrandyte goldfield and adjacent country', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 23 (1911) p. 545)
After this time, when the claim was purchased by a Melbourne syndicate, and when it later became known as New Victory Gold Mining Company No Liability, it continued to run on the calls from the ordinary shareholders, who never received a dividend.
The main shaft was sunk to a depth of 70 metres. Its plant and machinery were sold in November 1908. (64 The Evelyn Observer and Bourke East Record, 6 November 1908, p. 2)
The Victory Mine originally the Warrandyte Mine at Whipstick Gully in 1906. It can still be seen there today. (Photo: WHS)
Another mine that spasmodically produced high yields of gold was mined by a company originally titled Pig Tail Quartz Mining Company No Liability. The mines potential was soon realised when its quartz outcrop was uncovered by Stiggants and Holloway in the 1870s. In its first three years of working with a 60-metre shaft and drive it yielded its discoverers over 2,000 ounces. (65 J. T. Jutson, ‘The structure and general geology of the Warrandyte goldfield and adjacent country', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 23 (1911),, p. 545; see also Henry Stiggants Jnr, in Prospectus for Caledonia Consols Company No Liability Andersons Creek, December 1905; and The Argus, 6 December 1905, p. 5). However, when operated by a series of subsequent owners, and under later guises, variously identified as The New Pig Tail, The Nulli Secundus, Hornabrook’s Reward, and finally in 1906 to 1908 as the Caledonia Consols No Liability, Anderson’s Creek, the mine was never to attain the success experienced by its original discoverers. It ceased to be mined in 1908. (66 The Evelyn Observer and Bourke East Record, 20 March 1908, p. 3)
Frank Lowe and Mr Weekes looking for colour in the early 1900s. Lowe was a dancing teacher in Melbourne as well as a Warrandyte miner and musician. Frank Adams’ wife, Effie, was Mr Lowe’s daughter. (Photo: WHS)
The sites of many Warrandyte mines are hidden away on private property; however, at the foot of the Bruce Bence Track in Whipstick Gully, on the Fourth Hill, and in the Forest Reserve in the south of the township, some can still be visited.
Adventure and Exploration
More than three decades after the expiry of that last gold mining lease, the mines of Warrandyte hold their appeal. Peter Hanson was first drawn to Warrandyte’s gold mining history as a boy of four or five, living near Geraghty’s Tunnel – 'I used to love exploring those tunnels' - and he is particularly concerned with preserving mine sites: mainly so that kids can enjoy them still'.While tunnels are perceived as relatively safe, Hanson says that shafts that have fallen through recently have been filled in, in accordance with Mines Department policy; it is a state of affairs that worries him because there are very few shafts left: ‘shafts are considered dangerous, in the eyes of most people, so they've been used as rubbish dumps since mining finished, basically. The Mines Department had a campaign, mainly in the 1960s, to 'cap' them (near the top they'd put a concrete slab and then they'd fill it over).'
The mine site on the Hanson property has provided Peter with the thrill of discovery of an archaeological nature: Tve dated it back to the 1880s because there’s been a whole lot of bottles etc. When the miners were digging it, and creating a mullock heap, they'd throw their rubbish on it - their bottles - and when the Mines Department came along in the 1960s they bulldozed it all back in. Then, of course, I dug it back up again, to 11 metres deep.' Hanson judged that the shaft must have been fairly deep by the amount the infill had sunk - around 1.5 metres. In excavating the site by hand he was careful not to touch the edges: cNow you can still see the original pick marks all the way down and so I wouldn't touch the edges.'
Opposite: Miners assembled in front of the Warrandyte Hotel, later destroyed by fire in April 1925. The site that is now occupied by the Warrandyte Mechanics’Institute. (Photo: WHS)
The Tower Hotel was built in 1881 in Doncaster Road. It was destroyed by fire in 1895, and a new brick hotel built instead. The building on the right contained bedrooms and a large entertainment room. Several hotels were built in Doncaster after the discovery of gold in Warrandyte, as it was a convenient stopping place for gold prospectors and miners. (Photo: DTHS)
The prospect of gold on such a marvellous day brought people out in their hundreds. The districts youngest and oldest were entertained by three monstrous Chinese dragons prancing and lunging at the gathered populace. Brawny blacksmiths worked over red hot fires, bending iron to their will and fashioning useful fire dogs, camp stoves and candleholders for the newcomers. Source: Prudence Truby King, 'Alarums and excursions!' Warrandyte Diary; July 2001, p. 10.
Rediscovery
In 2001 the City of Manningham supported celebrations designed to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold in Victoria in Warrandyte. Saturday 30 June was selected as the day on which these events would occur. The 1853 Select Committee of the Legislative Council had noted in their report that Michel and party 'discovered the existence of gold in the quartz rocks of the Yarra Ranges, at Anderson’s Creek, in the latter part of June'. Eighty years later, historian Charles R. Long, who also happened to be Michel’s son-in-law, made the following bold statement in an article which was published in The Argus, 19 August 1933:
On the last day of June 1851, in the neighbourhood of Deep Creek, now better known as Mullum Mullum, flowing from the south into the Yarra, not far from Eltham, gold in quartz was discovered, and the reef was traced for some distance. (69 Charles R. Long, ‘The First Goldfield, Andersons Creek’, The Argus, Melbourne, 19 August 1933, p. 9, col. 2)
The date, 30 June, may be correct, or it may be spurious. Conclusive evidence either to sup- port or refute it has not yet emerged; but it is a date that has been vigorously adopted in the name of celebrating what was the beginning of a significant era in Warrandyte’s (and consequently Manningham’s) history.
For the festivities, visitors and residents alike were encouraged to enter into the spirit of times past by coming in costumes reminiscent of the 1850s. Every effort was made to simulate the life and times of the gold diggings. Tea-rooms, saloon bars, church and school settings of the gold-rush era were recreated. Many market stalls were set up inviting visitors to enjoy billy tea and damper, staples of many a nineteenth-century miners diet. There were opportunities available, for those infected by gold fever, to pan for gold in the nearby Yarra River and many people experienced a bumpy ride as they travelled by horse and cart through the township. Tours of former goldmine sites gave participants some idea of the isolation and hardship many of the miners must have experienced.
Members of the Warrandyte Theatre Company re-enacted the discovery of gold at the very spot where Louis Michel struck gold' and many of his descendants attended the celebrations. The day concluded with a sell-out bush dance at the Grand Hotel where Paradiddle, 'Warrandyte's renowned bush band', played music from the gold era. Even if 30 June was not the exact date on which gold was discovered in Warrandyte, it was firmly established in 2001 as the day on which the anniversary of the discovery was enthusiastically celebrated. (70 Warrandyte Diary, July 2001, p. 9)
Adit mine in McIntyres Road, Park Orchards, 2001. (Photo: Peter Hanson)
Miners hut on the Manton gold lease on Fourth Hill, used from 1953 to 1965, shown here in 2001. (Photo: Peter Hanson)
Source: Barbara Pertzel & Fiona Walters, Manningham: from country to city, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2001. Manningham Council granted permission to reproduce the book contents in full on this website in May2023. The book is no longer available for sale, but hard copies of the original are available for viewing at DTHS Museum as well as Manningham library and many other libraries.
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