The first recorded account of a permanent settlement at Yarrandyte appears in the Argus for January 1st, 1855. The place was then fairly firmly established as a mining camp and this can be looked upon as the beginning of the township.
The only reliable account by which we can estimate the date the diggers decided to give the locality a further trial is by a question the President of the Gold Rewards Committee, Dr. Greeves, asked Michel at the Committee hearing on December 5th, 1852. Asked whether the field was still being worked, Michel replied — "No, the superior yields of other fields has drawn the parties away, but until very lately there were some two or three persons still working there."
It would then appear fairly clear that the diggers commenced to return to Anderson's Creek some time in the first half of 1854, and that it was the publicity given to the locality by the meetings of the Gold Rewards Committee that induced the diggers to give the area a further trial.
The "occasional correspondent", who wrote on January 1st, 1855, gave a concise account of the township. He estimated the village to contain 20 tents and had a population of six to seven hundred, the majority being spread over "Gerretts Flat" (as the area between the Church of England and the bridge was then called). He counted no fewer than 11 stores, all housed in tents, the two principal ones being owned by a Mr. Truse on the site of the present Post Office, and the other by a Mr. Theis, who flew a red and white flag over his establishment in what is now the main shopping block. Today the business is well being conducted.
The writer was confident that good gold was being found. On January 22nd the writer paid a further visit to the township and states that considerable progress had been made. The first water wheel had been erected by Wilson's party by felling a large gum tree into the Yarra River, on which was placed a wooden frame with a wheel attached. This was connected by means of a chain to a Californian Pump and the result was an endless stream of water into Wilson's "Long tom" (a cone shaped device used for puddling gold).
Mr. Truse had purchased a horse and light cart for general carrying and also hoped to carry some holiday makers from Melbourne who were showing considerable interest in the place.
By all accounts, it would appear that when the diggers returned to the locality, they went first to Anderson's Creek which again did not answer with the required amount of precious metal, and they shifted further into the next gully — then known as Strodes Gully, about the top of Tradies Ave. — but owing to the dry times and lack of water they decided on shifting into the bed of the river, where they were busily engaged when the scribe visited the town whilst seeking adventure during his Christmas holidays.
An extraordinary feature of the field was the conflicting statements which appeared for many years in regard to the value of the gold found. Some writers persist in painting the field in the most glowing terms and others were just as intent on running the field down.
Of the various writers who wrote of the locality at this time, probably the most reliable was one who wrote: "The diggers were as usual mysterious and uncommunicative, their statements are more aimed to convey information by inference rather than by decisive intelligence. They all concurred that their labour was just finding them in rations, but the energy by which some parties prosecuted their work, convinced me that they were animated either by greater success than they cared to acknowledge or some well grounded anticipation of it."
On February 16th, 1855, the Secretary of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, Mr. R. Webley, paid Anderson's Creek the honour of a visit. He wrote, "partly for private reasons, but principally with the view of judging for myself of the auriferous capabilities of the district known as Anderson's Creek, I was induced to pay the place a visit on Friday last.
I proceeded at once to that part of the Yarra where the operations are almost exclusively confined. The results are neither uncertain nor poor in value. In the former case, success was the exception, now it is the rule. I have no hesitation in stating that, in my opinion, the majority of those at work are doing tolerably well and making good wages. In fact, if such results were obtained in some outlandish place ten times the distance from Melbourne, it would result in an immediate rush."
The next week, however, another correspondent wrote that the Anderson's Creek miner considered himself very fortunate to earn even fair wages. "As he pays no Licence fee, and receives all his water and fuel etc. free, he can live after a fashion on 20/- per week and that was what most diggers are doing, though unfortunately some cannot even earn that." He added, however, that the healthiness of the situation, the flowering shrubs, the stately trees, had an air of quiet solitude which led his mind forward to the time when substantial brick villas, domes and stores would replace the dilapidated tents which then comprised the settlement.
William Westgarth, the distinguished early writer and politician, visited Anderson's Creek in company with John O'Shaunessy, John Pascoe Fawkner and John Hodgson on February 24th, 1855. They were members of the Gold Complaints Committee which toured Victoria on a fact finding mission after the disturbance at Eureka. Westgarth devotes a whole chapter to Anderson's Creek in his book "Victoria and the Australian Goldmines in 1857" (referred to in chapter on Templestowe). He states:
"We saw the river pleasantly sparkling in the sunbeams as the waters wound its devious course through high and wooded banks. Bushfires seemed to have been recently raging along these banks, scorching the trees and burning off the grass, giving a very grim aspect to the landscape, notwithstanding the considerable stream of clear water.We found the digging population chiefly on or near the river banks. They did not exceed 250 in all and were scattered for about a mile of the river's length. The search for gold here was on a different plan to any we had previously noticed. The trials in washing auriferous material taken from the sinkings in the valley above had not answered owing to the lack of water and after carrying the material to the Yarra the production was so poor that it had to be abandoned. The miners proceeded to the new and bolder plan of getting at the bed of the Yarra itself, at places where they had ascertained the bottom to be of slaty rock. This rock intercepts the particles of gold which the river has for ages been bringing down its stream from the auriferous reservoirs higher up.The plan was to secure a considerable slice of the river bed by driving piles close together and filling up crevices with sand from the river bank. They then pumped out the water and commenced to dig out the material in the river bed. The rewards appeared poor; one party spoke of two oz. a week among four of them."
Six or eight parties were at work and others seemed every now and then to join on below and extend the length of the encroachment. The water oozed plentifully into the holes and someone had to keep constantly baling out. This was considerable labour in the mornings, for overnight the hostile element had it all to itself and long ere morning it had filled the cavity up to the river level.
These were most precarious holdings, for a rise of one foot in the level of the Yarra would sweep them all away. The diggers seemed quite well aware of this and were making all haste accordingly, reasoning that they must expect rains within 3 weeks.
Hearing of a larger operation of its kind about a mile up the river, we walked along the banks till we arrived at the spot. Here we found where a small narrow island divided the river into two channels for about 360 ft., it was proposed to dam up one of the channels, pump out all the water and get at the bottom with all accumulated gold deposits. The dam had already been run out and we observed two carpenters making a kind of millwheel, which they expected would be moved by the river sufficiently to keep a pump in constant operation.
The people all seemed very quiet; only one case of disturbance had occurred — a man robbing a tent of some few articles. After an hour or two of rest, during which some of the miners seemed rather curious to know who we were and what we came for — a curiosity, however, which we did not satisfy. We returned to town, arriving safely before dark, with no other accident than a broken pole to our carriage, occasioned by one of the horses taking a determined attempt to lie down upon the road — a common fault amongst horses in the colony.
There is no further mention of Anderson's Creek for several months. The field probably struck pretty hard times during the winter months, the miners not being in a position to stand a long lay off from work and quite a few left the locality, but a number stayed on determined to see it out and the following October we find the miners exploring the possibility of working the quartz reefs which abounded in the hills adjoining the river.
"The ranges in the neighbourhood of Anderson's Creek are beginning to attract notice," wrote the Argus for the 23rd October, 1855. "We were shown some very rich specimens from that locality yesterday, and it is said that five parties were at work on the reef."
Three weeks later a Mr. McArthur came to town in order to purchase a Belper Patent Quartz Crusher, but the machine had to be imported from Sydney and it was several months before it arrived; this was unfortunate for the field as the want of a good quartz crusher did much to retard the mining for many years.
As the system of quartz crushing was in its infancy and, in fact, had only been introduced into Victoria about 6 months before, the diggers were decidedly suspicious of it, especially the amalgamating process whereby the gold was extracted by means of crushed quartz passing over a solution of quicksilver. There were several instances where the Anderson's Creek miners refused to have their quartz crushed, claiming that the process was not a success.
Mr. Richard Copper, a colourful figure in early mining, who was associated with the creek for some years, set up a home-made crusher but it still did not answer, as the quartz and sandstone at Warrandyte are known to be among the toughest in Victoria. Early in 1856 considerable quantities of quartz were taken to Mr. James Dew's foundry at 164 Bourke Street East, but the miners were still under a disadvantage by the time they paid £6 a ton crushing fee, £1 for cartage and the wages of one or two of their number to accompany the quartz and fix up for the returns, there was really little left for the hard working diggers.
About 80 shafts were being worked within a 2 mile radius of the town; heaps of untreated quartz were beginning to mount up and several of the miners were returning to work the river as it proved more consistent. Visitors continued to give inflated accounts of the field in the Melbourne press and this brought some terse comments from the diggers. One wrote:
"The paragraph in your paper may mislead many people, who can ill afford to lose time and money coming all the way up here to find that the place is not nearly so promising as the article makes out.
There are some few holes in Thompson's Gully which are giving the men wages, but no more. With respect to Kennedy's claim, they obtained some oz. in ten days, to be divided amongst 5. Cameron's party obtained about 4 oz. in the same time, and the assertion that Groves obtained 18 oz. I can speak positively that he obtained only 3½ oz."
Though this correspondent is undoubtedly closer to the mark than the many who made such wild claims, there can be no doubt that some good finds were made. The thousands of pounds that were invested — mostly without success — in such claims as the 4th Hill Tunnel, the Pound Bend Tunnel and many others, would never have been spent if rich finds had not been made in 1856 — 1857.
Most of the tent storekeepers had closed up shop and gone back to the city long since, but the residents were speaking highly of the two or three that still remained. Prices were very reasonable considering the difficult haulage from Melbourne. Tea sold at 3/- lb., sugar 4d., potatoes 1/- cwt., bread made by a young English lad, but quite eatable, was 1/2 for a 4lb loaf. Prime mutton was 6d. etc. It is noticeable that many of the miners were determined to make Warrandyte their permanent home even in that early day. Several miners' cottages etc. were slowly springing up among the tents and the township can no longer be considered a wayside mining camp.
The Rev. Mr. J. Goethe, one of Melbourne's earliest Lutheran Ministers, paid a surprise visit to the township in January, 1856, and held an open air meeting on the river front. He had a small but attentive congregation and, at the conclusion, he promised to come up and see them again.
In February there was consternation in the camp when some miners from the Caledonia Gully claimed the right to work "Thomson's Presumptive right at the foot of Pig Tail Hill". Some extremely rich results had been obtained from this property a few months before, but Mr. Thomson had warned them off and even went as far as prosecuting some of the miners for damaging his property. On this occasion, however, the miners had refused to leave point blank, claiming that they had the right to mine when and where they pleased.
The Manager, Mr. Henry Frencham, remonstrated with them and requested them to leave but all to no avail. Mr. Walter C. Brackenbury, the newly appointed mining warden, came post haste from his temporary domicile at Queenstown and was accompanied by Police Inspector Bookey and six troopers. Brackenbury listened to both sides of the case; Thomson claimed the miners had done untold harm to his property; they had even dug up his private garden and his stockyard.
A pocket compass was produced in an effort to define the boundary to which the men could work, but it was not a success and Brackenbury ruled that the miners would have to await the arrival of a Government Surveyor. This was not very acceptable to the diggers, but Thomson settled the matter by offering to allow the miners to work his property providing they paid a fee of £1 and paid another £1 as deposit against their not leaving the place in proper order. Ballots were held for the claims a few days later and there was keen competition as the claims were known to yield as much as 4 oz. to the tub. Many mining disputes could have been settled in a similar manner without the costly legal action that was so often the case.
A petition was sent to the Government praying for the establishment of a goldfields' court, so as to prevent any unpleasant disputes which could occur among the miners. These courts seldom adjudicated, but were more in the line of goldfields' councils. They made rules and regulations to govern the working of the field, but the carrying out of them was, of course, the work of the goldfields' warden.
Mining matters were progressing slowly, and the second winter did not prove as great a hardship as the first; in fact it would not be an exaggeration to state that quite a sizeable rush had set in by the end of June. On July 1st, 1856, the usually reliable "Gold Circular" published by the Herald, spoke highly of the locality and stated that as much as 100 oz. to the ton of quartz were being obtained. A week later a correspondent wrote:
"For some time these diggings have not attracted much attention, in consequence of winter rains etc. and a considerable number of miners left the place, but in spite of the fact of no crushing machine, there are bright hopes. The 4th Hill astonishes the whole township by yielding as much as 4 oz. to the tub of clay and loose quartz attached to the reef. Black and Co.'s claim is yielding 4 oz. to the tub. Thompson's Gully is also very successful and even the storekeepers are closing their businesses in order to go digging."
During July Mr. Clement Hodgkinson, deputy chief surveyor, came in order to survey the township and marked out the most suitable location for a punt which the Government was planning in order to provide communication with Caledonia and other goldfields further to the north. Hodgkinson marked out a site behind the present post offices; this was unfortunate in that it gave the bullock wagon drivers a very dangerous and precipitous landing on the north bank, whereas a ½ mile higher up there was comparatively easy landing but it escaped the surveyor's notice. Several efforts were made to have the Government change the location but without success.
Melbourne speculators were visiting the locale almost every day, and some stated their willingness to invest quite large sums on the field. A German firm by the name of Hamburg and Co. were the first to try and satisfy the long felt want of a Quartz Crusher; the machine was situated on the river bank behind the township, but it was not a success and the firm returned to Melbourne after a few weeks. "The powder was produced," said the miners, "and the material was washed, but the gold would persist in passing off into the river with the tailings." Whether it was the fault of the machine or the antipathy of the miners is difficult to say.
Messrs. Dransfield, Dowling & Co. built a large crusher about 50 yards upstream from the bridge, but they had many difficulties to overcome in the erection and at least 6 months had elapsed before it was finally in working order, which was almost a disaster for the industrious miners of Anderson's Creek.
Messrs. McArthur, Lardy & Co. at long last received their machine. It was a spanking new Velyer, powered by a 26 horsepower steam engine, and was equipped for flour milling as well as quartz crushing. They set it up on the spot but recently vacated by the Hamburg Co. and for a time there was considerable competition between them and the Dransfield Co.
In September W. C. Brackenbury took up residence in a neat little cottage on the river side of Yarra Street midway between Forbes Street and Whipstick Gully. Brackenbury gave general satisfaction in the discharge of his duties and was very popular with the miners. As yet he had no policeman to assist him, but it was stated that his services would hardly be required as the people were among the quietest and best conducted in Victoria.
On Wednesday October 8th, Alfred Ford, the well known proprietor of Ford's Delivery Stables in Stephen Street, (now Exhibition Street) made his inaugural journey with the first coach to Warrandyte. Colourful posters announced the running and quite a large crowd turned out to witness the arrival but only to be disappointed as no coach arrived. About 8 o'clock in the afternoon several well dressed visitors came walking into town and cursing their luck all the while. They announced that the coach had become hopelessly bogged while crossing Deep Creek and they had no choice but to walk.
The crossing was repaired a few days later and Ford's Coaches ran a thrice weekly service for the remainder of the season. The township was fast becoming known as a holiday resort. The wooded hills, the river and the mining combined to make its attractions almost unequalled. A few weeks later Patrick Geraghty opened the Union Hotel (later the Warrandyte
It possessed every modern convenience with a good bar, six spacious rooms, large detached kitchen, stables, fowl houses and a good garden, and was very popular with the Melbourne people.
On the day following the unsuccessful coach journey, an unfortunate accident cast a gloom over the field. Patrick Halfpenny, the 4 year old son of a local miner, fell into a water hole opposite Webb Street and was drowned. Dr. Short — whose surgery was on the side of Melbourne Hill — tried vainly to resuscitate him for more than an hour. His death was the first on the field.
The much talked of punt was opened for traffic during November, and a road was surveyed to the north so as to connect with the Caledonia Road at Kangaroo Grounds, but it was suitable only for pack animals. The punt was erected by a Mr. Shorthouse at a cost of £292.10. 0. It was too small to carry a bullock team with safety, being only 25 ft. by 10 ft. and there was much apprehension that there would be a serious accident one day though there are no records of any during the five years that it plied across the Yarra. It possessed a rather severe toll — 6d. for bullocks and horses, 4d. for cattle and 1d. for sheep and pigs. Persons were charged 3d. with a free return on the day of travel.
Though this punt was essentially to provide communications with the goldfields further to the north, in reality it played an important roll in opening up the whole of the Upper Yarra Districts. Within a year road communications had been opened up with Eltham, St. Andrews, Lilydale, Healesville and even to Woods Point.
Source: We believe from handwritten notes in records that the following text is an unpublished manuscript in 2 volumes (Ch1-11 and Ch12-21) written by Louis Radnor Cranfield (1927- 14 Oct 1992) F.R.HIST.S. (Fellow of the Royal Historical Society). Find a Grave Record. National Library of Australia Record.
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