LURE OF GOLD

Hokitika Guardian, 7 April 1931, Page 2

LURE OF GOLD

A MAGIC CAVERN. LONG AUSTRALIAN SEARCH, In a desert land of low granite ranges in Central Australia sum,, Hundreds of miles north-west of Alice Springs, is a wonderful cave of gold, says the Observer. It was this for which Captain Bitten Irigh aiuj Air Jianiro the airman woo wore found recently alter having been stranded for three weeks in Central Australia, arc thought to have been ■r i rcb i ng. ’i ho roaming wild natives who are die sole inhabitants of the country ai» -a id to bat e tales of the cave i . gold; hut only one white man lias seen it. lie brought back witli him to chilisaLion rich specimens of his find. But before lie could return, to reap the harvest of gold, he died. He left be, hind him a rough sketch showing where lie bad stumbled purely by luck in the strange Alladin’s Cave. 4 hat ■sketch to-day is in the possession of IV Herbert Basedow, who has been on several expeditions into the country <f the cave. Pome day he hopes to find lie hidden wealth ol gold. Prospectors have bunted for IT. and organised expeditions have gon 0 out on a systematic trial —only to return with disappointing specimens and in--1 spiring possibilities. Wild, PIN!) IT. “'Don’t make any mistake about it,” said IV Basedow. “One of these days a party of prospectors will stumble right over the top of this wonderful cave.” He will not reject all th<> spectacular theories about it which arc current among prospectors in the North. Dr Basedow traces the origin ot the glow j;ig report ol the mysterious cave hack to an old prospector named Earle, who died many years ago. Parle claimed to have discovered this cave and to have brought back some womlertul specimens of gold quartz, richly studded vuh gold “('n ins dearth bed,” went, on Dr Basedow, “lv recalled his discovery U) the late Hilary Boucaut, a brother ol Judge Boucaut. In his dying depositions Parle swore solemnly lie had discovered the cave. He said that sonic day it would lie re-discovered and fortunes made. There was no doubt the old prospector was sincere and tremendously confident.” But long before then the .Myni", natives who inhabit this district, k‘q>t talking at out gold there. Dr Basedow said that when he was in tne South Australian Department (if Al.ines the then Government geologist, Air 11. Y. L. Brown showed him samples of beautiful green quartz which were reported as having come iroin the locality of the cave. AN EXPEDITION. It was these which led to the organisation of a Government expedition in 1993, The leader was Air L. A. "Wells, then inspector and valuator of the Pastoral Board, and Dr Basedow and Air F. R. George were members, with several other prospectors. The expedition was absent for about 10 months, and made thorough search of the country. Its members saw outcrops of green quartz, but no rich stwddi-ngs of gold. And of the- old prospector’s cave they found no trace, ihe expedition worked in a western corner ot the Northern Territory about 300 miles from Alice Springs—a wide expanse, and tern herons, but not inaccessible.

Dr B-.i.-imlow says the Blacks are numerous, and have la on hostile to parties of pro■ pernors; they must, at any rate, be regarded as treacherous. There is evidence of murders having taken place in this country, and oil the expedition which I)r Basedow accompanied, graves of white men were seen. The party organised by the South Australian Government in 1906, and led by tlm late Air K. 11. George. had a perilous experience in this region of the elusive cave of go hi. The natives attacked so menacingly that the expedition was forced to return to Alice

Springs, where Air George subsequently died.

NOT A GLI.MI’.SK. Dr Basedow docs not know whether there have been any organised efforts since to p-onetraf-o the secrets of the gold area ; l»ut- lie was immediately north of it with the AUKny party in 1926. What was described a.s “likely auriferous country” was seen, but Tint even a glimpse of the mysterious cave was otbained. There were outcrops of quartz, some opening up to eight pennyweights, of gold—very healthy looking from a mineral point of view, thought Dr Basedow. ,So the old prospectors cave of gold remains midis-overed still, ft must be locked away somewhere in the rugged bosom of tho°o arid mountainous expanses that stretch away to the West Australian border where it touches the Northern Territory.

The late R. 'l'. Afaurice, the intrepid South Australian explorer, mav have known something about this Wonder of Wonders, because lie was always very friendly with the blacks, and it is said the Myall wanderers brought, him .specimens of great beauty—specimens ol that bottle-green quartz with the flashing gold. There is a story of a prospector who, about 1900, got into the country of Aladdin’s Cave, travelling over from Queensland and across the Aritunga fields. He was fossicking around for a field of brilliant rubies, which proved to be garnets; and. so record runs, went on and on until lie lost his bea.r-

Ho may at least have been in the neighbourhood of the- great mystery. But lie was lucky to get back to civilisation. All bis horses were lost, the Inst one perishing on the shores of Lake Amadous. From that point- the lonely geld seeker is supposed to have tramped into Alice Springs.

There is believed to be an expedition somewhere in this region at present. and no doubt tho spirit of the old prospector Earle will keep beckoning tlievr, undaunted fossickers in Australia’s untamed Never-Never until one day smuebodv. luckier than all the others, may stumble on that glittering cave of gold.