Bendigo General History - Department of Planning and Community ...

was possibly the first to debunk theories of the diminishment of gold at depth. When it
petered out in the reef he had been working at 200 feet, he drove deeper to uncover a new
reef at 300 feet equally rich. His success lent spur to the efforts of his contemporaries. On
Hustler’s Reef, Latham, and Watson continued to exploit a rich claim and at Happy Valley,
Gibbs, Annear, Wells, Rodier and Young - ‘The Happy Family’ as they were known - were
meeting with much success. Cooper was reefing at Comet Hill and Buckie and others at
Windmill Hill. At Eaglehawk, McNair and Caldwell were tapping the eagle Reef and just
west of Sandhurst, C.J.Brown, with capital won from highly remunerative storekeeping at
Eaglehawk and Sandhurst, was following a golden trail at Break-o’-Day. For a length of 150
feet the outcropping quartz was splashed with gold, yielding 30 ounces to the ton. From 2,000
tons of quartz Brown took away some £7,000 worth of gold. There were others in the
vanguard of quartz reefing - Rae and Jackson, Wittscheibe and Company, Luffsmann and
Company, Woodward, Noy and Captain Sterry, and not least amongst those who in the latter
part of the decade were firmly convinced of the future of the reefs, was the young
Englishman, George Lansell, then in partnership with his brother as a candler at View Point. 1
Whipstick nuggets
Sept 1855 Red Jacket Gully - 48oz. From 1855 to 1864, 8 were found) 2 Whipstick - Minor gullies and
rushes
18 April 1856: Canadian Hill ... [reporter from Bendigo Advertiser 29 April 1856]. Canadian Hill
situated near the Whipstick's southern fringe only 2 miles from Eaglehawk, where 2,000
people were camped. Here the gold was in the surface of red clay. There was no water but
the miners were digging dams to catch winter rains and stacking the dirt in heaps ready to
wash off later.
April 1856: Peter the Great ... [reporter from Bendigo Advertiser 29 April 1856] … Peter the Great gully
being worked. Adelaide Hill ... a miniature of Bendigo's famous White Hills (cemented
gravels) was being prospected ... Adelaide Hill for many years proved a tantalising area to the
diggers. The sinking was often deep and hard ... There was a minor rush in 1858 ... A
number of sawpits were operating around Adelaide Hill in 1858 ... The sawn timber was used
for "the construction of puddling machines, tent store frames and bush erections of all kinds".
Towards the close of July 1860, 3 men prospecting the north-eastern slopes of Adelaide Hill
struck payable gold at the shallow depth of 4 feet. By the 2 of August, some hundred claims
were pegged ... the lead was traced northwards where the sinking increased from 20 to 30 feet
and over. It was estimated that by 13 August, between 250 and 300 men were on the site ...
Scarcely a week later the lead had been followed into private property, several paddocks
owned by Mr Matchett, a Sandhurst business man [land owner set terms, usual strife] ... 26 of
August it was reported that although 1,000 claims were pegged out shepherding. Towards
the end of September much of Mr Matchett's land was deserted and many miners had left the
rush. As the lead was followed northwards, the shafts were over 70 feet deep. Most claims
were poor, and also there were carting/ crushing costs. One party was carting 4-1/2miles to
Catherine Reef Battery. 3
1856: By 1856 the problem had begun to assume alarming proportions. Many fine holes
along the creek had been filled and irretrievably ruined, and the spreading sludge was
beginning to damage private property. As Warden, Panton urged the puddlers to cut sludgedrains.
As a result, a haphazard network of drains came into being feeding into the main
channel. The creek itself was already inundated and as winter rain and floods gouged out the
old channel, the spreading floodwaters deposited thick layers of silt and slime about the
shops... 4
1 Cusack, 1973, p125
2 Perry, 1975, pp166-176
3 Perry, 1975, pp190-198
4 Cusack, 1973, p117