THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9642, 6 November 1909, Page 3

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN AUSTRALIA.

LAND OP THE GOLDEN FLEECE. It is definitely recorded that in 1823 a surveyor named M'Brien discovered gold in the Bathurst district of New South Wales. Again, in 1839, Count Strzelecki, the famous Polish explorer, found gold, but in response to a request of the Governor, Sir George Ginp->, he "kept the matter secret for fear of the serious consequences which, considering the condition and papulation of the colony, were to be apprehended." It is recorded to the credit of quite a number of other persons that they "discovered" the precious metal, but the man who really sat the mining industry going which, in its various branches, has so far brought to Australia's purse over £690,000,000, was Edward Hammond Hargraves. Hargraves was a squatter living near the town of Bathurst, and the drought of 1844-1848 had all but ruined him. About the last named year the news of the rush to the Californian diggings reached Australia, so Hargraves determined to try his luck there. He met with no succes, but noticed the similarity between the Californian auriferous region and the geological formation of the district round his home in New South Wales; Armed with this knowledge he r ;furned immediately and began prospecting. After a little search he was rewarded early in 1851 by finding golden specks in almost every panful of dirt he "washed."

Hastening to Sydney with the great news, he displayed to the astonished Government officials several ounces of pure gold in proof! of the bona fide 9of his discovery. A surveyor was forthwith dispatched with Mr Hargraves, and when he confirmed the news excitement in t>e c?]ony knew n? The discoverer's reward do<3d not appe; >* to have been very handsome. Within a twelve month of his makner th: discovery known, gold to the v:I'"" f £2,660,946 was won in New Wales; yet Hargraves was only granted a sum of £IB,OOO by the Government of New South Wales and Victoria.

By an exactly similar circumstance was gold discovered in Victoiia. James Esmond, a mail coach driver at Buinyong, went to California, where he noticed the Fame resemblances that had struck Hargraves. He, too, returned to Austra lia conjuring up visions which seamed more likely to be false than true. On landing in Sydney he heard of Hargrave's'discovery on the other side of the Blue Muuntains in New South Wales, bu", nit to hi drawn from his purpose, he made straight for Buninyong, in Victoria. In July, 1851, gold was dincover-d or. a tribu- ] tary of thejiver Luddon, and by the end of the year £500,000 worth of the metal had been won by the use of the most primitive implements on the goldfields of Clunes, Buninyong, Mount Alexander, Ballarat jjand Bendigo. In 1852 Victoria's yield was no less than £10,953,936, and in 1856 it was £12,000,000. It is worthy of no.e that in 1850 the Hon. W. Campbell bad found gold at Clunes, but concealed the fact for a time for fear that the announcement might prove injurious to the quatter on whose run the discovery was made.