Part 3 (2/2)

But the fareater treasures were a few months afterwards discovered in Victoria; and the continued steady yield there put all other discoveries coinal diggings at once withdrew from the tributaries of the Macquarie, and nu of the richer auriferous creeks in the neighbouring colony

CHAPTER II

_GOLD IN VICTORIA_

”Gold, precious yellow, glittering gold!

What can it not do and undo?”

The exodus of gold-seekers from the Port Philip district to the Sydney side alarpopulation in a rising pastoral coricultural and pastoral interests were likely to be seriously affected if the bone and sinew of the labourers sought employment in the rich mines on the banks of the Turon instead of on the corn-fields and pasture lands of the Port Philip district Besides, the Port Philippians had for so to procure separation from New South Wales; in fact, the act of separation was just about to take place, and this stroke of luck in favour of the older colony by heightening its prospects correspondingly humbled those of the new colony, and tended to sink it into insignificance The Mayor of Melbourne, therefore, convened a public etic and influential men were formed into a Gold Discovery Committee This committee, in order to avert the threatened crisis, offered a reward of two hundred guineas to the person who should discover a payable gold-field within the district

JAMES ESMOND, THE VICTORIAN PIONEER DIGGER

About anewspapers announced the discovery of gold at Clunes, on the 1st of July, by James Esmond, a pioneer who does not appear to have heard of the promised reward

The adventures of this first of Victorian diggers were in raves In 1848 Ja and Horsham For several years he had filled the box-seat, in which position he received co of the horses, and his courteous behaviour to his passengers But at length the dreary h the bush and over the rocky ranges of the Pyrenees proved too weariso driver He therefore thren the reins and abandoned his olden treasures of California were being circulated throughout the district, and were listened to with eager ears by young Esratify an intense love of adventure that pros, and at the saolden smiles Thus he determined, and in due course arrived in California He soon experienced the discoold Ill-luck attended all his toiling, andlife that he resolved to return to his old occupation, which, although lacking the exciteement and uncertainty Esraves back to New South Wales This was purely by chance, and probably the two e After two months spent idly in Sydney he ca vessel, which took three weeks to e between the two capitals Es, and as his old position was occupied by anotherbetter than bushman's work could be had, so he undertook to cut down ti-huts on a station in the Pyrenees This arduous as shared by one companion In its loneliness and want of variety it was so directly opposite to the eventfulness of Esht work for weeks without seeing another hu But the dull unifored by the arrival on the scene of a Gerist named Dr Bruhn, who showed to Eshbourhood, and told the wondering pair that a practical old-field in the district This unexpected announceain tempt Dame Fortune He easily persuaded his mate to join hi and hut-building, and with pick and tin-dish set forth in search of fortune's golden gifts As an early poetical chronicler thus puts it:--

”Behold hi with his partner, set out To prospect the unexplor'd ranges about; They pass the poor natives, crouch'd round their rude fire, Nor linger the beautiful birds to adaroo furtively peeps fro opossuold little rest will they draw”

Es tour on the 1st of July 1851 (separation day) They soon attained the object of their expedition, and with very little effort On reaching the banks of Deep Creek, a tributary of the Loddon, they were gladdened by the sight of glistening quartz A little diligent fossicking there was rewarded by the unearthing of a few rich speciold, or what appeared to be such In order to make sure of the richness of the metal, Esmond deter On arriving at that town the pureness of the gold was vouched for, and eager inquiries were made for the locality where the precious treasure could be found

Ese his secret, and hastened to obtain the necessary i the coveted field It was the 6th of July before his digging expedition (the first in Victoria), which consisted of threeGeelong, Esmond disclosed his destination to the assayer, who advised other parties fitting out for the Turon diggings to reold-fields being shortly found close at hand

In the meantime another discovery was announced A party of six old in the bed of Anderson's Creek, a tributary of the Yarra, and only a few miles fro the tide of eration to New South Wales

Esmond's field attracted about thirty ust It then becaer to be found in the alluvial deposits Theinto severe straits because of the poorness of the shallow diggings, when a visitor to the place brought the welcogers in the neighbourhood of Buninyong

As was Esinal prospector He joined a party of nine, who marched over the hills to the newly-discovered fields With this party ill leave the pioneer, for he afterwards worked in company with others, and h reularly unfortunate in his speculations Subsequently L1000 was voted to hirant of a piece of land on the site of the first gold-field

OTHER PIONEERS

The rich discoveries at Clunes excited the cupidity, or perhaps we should say the spirit of adventure, of many of the colonists, and tempted them to leave their ordinary occupations to join in the search for gold A resident of Buninyong, na hills A brief search was rewarded by the discovery, in one of the ht yellow grains, which, froht must be the preciousfor the purpose of having the on the 10th of August, and had soentleman who had seen Esmond's specimens a feeeks before pronounced Hiscock's ”find” to be true gold, andthan that found at Clunes When Hiscock's discovery wasand set out for the gully But the weather was cold, and the continual pouring of rain daan to seek for the precious , not venturing to caround there was sounder canvas extreold almost iht of the arrival of its discoverer in Geelong over forty diggers at work in Hiscock's gully But ill-luck attended the efforts of most of these pioneers, and continual disappoints at Clunes

With this object in view, a digger nae, and would have taken himself to Clunes; but when he learned that four pounds was the price of carriage in the waggon about to start for that place, he resolved to give Buninyong another trial Early nexthe returned to his wondering old, which he said was the result of that day's seeking ast the hills five or six miles away His ain disappeared--this tian A few days elapsed, and the twostill away, his mate went out in search of them Then the absence of the threeFour otherthe cause of the sudden disappearance, and hoping to share in any fresh discoveries, went stealthily out of the townshi+p and endeavoured to track the supposed lucky prospectors But the latter did not wish to be discovered, and attempted to elude their pursuers

However, all their efforts to escape observation were in vain, for in a very short time the place that Dunlop had discovered attracted al, who soon displaced the few miserable native wanderers who had roaruesomely named--”monarchs of all they surveyed, and lords of the fowl and the brute”

Shortly afterwards the treasures of Golden Point were revealed A fah had secured a half-worked clai carried it below a layer of pipe-clay into the midst of some decayed slate, they struck the first of those rich pockets which were afterwards found in such abundance throughout the Golden Point Field

Before the end of August thecreeks becaathered the first crops of the Ballarat gold-fields In Septes were opened at Mount Alexander, and two or three weeks later the yield of those at Bendigo eclipsed for a tilories of all other fields