FRESH GOLD DISCOVERIES.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 491, 15 April 1869, Page 3

FRESH GOLD DISCOVERIES.

Private letters have reached Sydney from the Gulf of Carpentaria, announcing the discovery of a very rich and extensive goldfield on the Cloncurry Eiver, near where the copper mine was found, and about 150 miles from Burke town. The fortunate discoverers, it is stated, have, amongst other nuggets, secured a 30-ounce and a 40-ounce lump ; and there have already been brought into Burke Town 300 ounces, although there are but thirty diggers at the place. It has been long known that the ranges for 300 miles around the Gulf are auriferous, but this is by far the richest yield on record in that region. Mr. T. G. Williams, a squatter on the East Coast of Tasmania, has written to Mr Ritchie, solicitor there, mentioning that he has found a new goldfield in the district of Waterhouse. With a very rude machine, he has been able to wash three pennyweights of gold out of each bucket. The metal,

a sample of which has been sent tc town, is of a light colour and scalj nature; it is found in the immediate vicinity of a quartz-reef, also gold-bear-ing. The washing stuff is surface, but extending to the depth of some three feet, when it rests upon a subsoil of clay. The indicated ground is distant from Launceston some 40 miles, but no time has been lost in testing the truth of the communication. A party of four bushmen, headed by one who has had considerable experience in Victoria and New Zealand, have already started for Mr Williams's station, for the purpose of giving the ground a trial. The place is about twenty miles north-east of the Don Diggings. Mr Williams's is about the most credible report that has yet appeared.