By the late 1850s easily-found gold was beginning to give out. Shallow alluvial deposits that had drawn thousands to the Victorian gold fields were becoming harder to find.
Quartz is one of the most common minerals of the Earth’s crust. Most quartz veins do not carry gold, but there are reefs of quartz that contain gold, many in Victoria.
When alluvial gold ran out Victorian gold seekers took up quartz mining. Diggers no longer washed gold from creek beds, but mined quartz reefs underground. This was a different operation. Shafts had to be sunk, drives cut, and heavy machinery brought in to crush the stone and free the gold.
Britannia Quartz Mining Company, (Registered) Carngham showing the mine site and buildings, pumping and winding engines, stamping battery and engine, and sections of underground workings showing tunnels and bed-rock or “country.” Shareholders are listed and some statistics given. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H6866
Mining quartz required a different kind of organisation. Few diggers could meet the cost of this kind of mining on their own. Claims were worked by companies or syndicates. Shares were issued to raise capital, drawn not only from miners but from local tradesmen, storekeepers, and outside investors. Deep quartz mining required large networks of investment and speculation.
Miners found their working life changed. Men who had once laboured independently along the creeks now were employed for wages, working underground in cramped and dangerous conditions. The freedom of the early rushes gave way to the discipline of large mining operations.
Mining and processing the quartz
To reach the gold, miners sank deep shafts into the earth, following the quartz reefs. From these shafts, tunnels—known as drives or levels—were cut horizontally at different depths, in search of payable stone.
Broken quartz was brought to the surface with buckets or skips hauled up the shaft by large steam engines. If too much water seeped into the workings pumps had to be installed to keep the mine from flooding.
Above each shaft stood the poppet-head, a prominent feature of any large mine. The winding gear held and guided the cable that raised and lowered the buckets of stone. Once at the surface, the ore was tipped and carried away—either to be processed or discarded as waste, mullock.
Crushing the quartz was the next stage in the gold recovery process. The gold was not visible in nuggets, but locked within the stone in fine particles. To release it, the quartz was fed into crushing batteries, where heavy iron-shod stampers rose and fell in a steady rhythm, pounding the rock into a fine powder. These batteries often worked continually, day and night, except on Sundays. The noise carried across the countryside.
The crushed quartz was mixed with water and passed over sloping tables. The ore was then mixed with cyanide solution in large tanks to separate the gold from the waste. Cyanide leaching was efficient and lower ore grades could be treated profitably.
Cyanide pits Homebush
Mullock heaps are mounds of waste rock, sand, and clay excavated during mining.
Mullock heap at Homebush early twentieth century
Quartz mining was costly and uncertain, and many ventures failed. Even so large scale deep mining turned temporary gold fields into settled towns.
The first gold rush in Australia began in May 1851 when a prospector, Edward Hargraves, discovered payable gold near Orange, New South Wales, at a place he called Ophir. Before the New South Wales Colonial government could respond adequately, Hargreaves publicised his find, and it was too late to impose a ban on digging for gold. Since the colonial government could hardly mine the gold itself and martial law was out of the question, the decision to was taken to manage what was a fait accompli with a system of licences to dig. On 22 May 1851 Governor Charles Fitzroy of New South Wales proclaimed the Crown’s right to all gold discovered in New South Wales and announced that licenses would be issued to authorise mining. The next day the associated regulations were published, with the fee for a license to dig set to one pound ten shillings per month.
On 1 July 1851 Victoria separated from New South Wales. Gold finds in Victoria were announced the same month. Victoria copied the New South Wales licensing system. Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria Charles La Trobe issued a proclamation on 16 August 1851 similar to the proclamation of May in New South Wales. The Proclamation declared that all persons taking gold from the soil or digging for it would be prosecuted unless authorised. Regulations for the issue of licences for the purpose would be speedily published.
The aim of licensing was to deter digging for gold. A licence was 30 shillings a month, high enough to force unsuccessful diggers back to their normal jobs. The annual fee was £18, the yearly salary of a mounted policeman. At the same time, shepherds and farm servants received wages of about £25 per year. A licence to dig was required whether or not gold was found.
In September 1851 Captain Henry Dana and a detachment of the native police went to Boninyong (later Buninyong) goldfield near Ballarat with the Gold Commissioner Francis Doveton and his assistant David Armstrong. At the Ballarat they announced to the diggers that mining for gold that the government required diggers to obtain a licence. The announcement was poorly received. Dana later reported to the Colonial Secretary that the first few men who paid up their licences were ‘struck and pelted by a mob’ and but for the presence of the Native Police, the diggers who paid would have been seriously injured. When tempers had cooled men began to come to the tent to apply for licences, and by two o’clock eighty-eight had been issued.
The first licences were issued on a Saturday but Dana and Doveton continued to issue licences the next day, a Sunday, the sabbath. For this they were criticised in a newspaper report. They were attempting to get through an enormous workload. A commissioner’s report mentions that Dana and Doveton stayed up half the night in those early days, hand-copying licences when they ran out of printed forms.
In early November 1852 my third great grandfather, Philip Robert Champion Crespigny (1817-1889), was appointed an Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Goldfields. His first posting was to the Tarrangower Field near Maldon, fifteen kilometres northeast of Castlemaine, then known as Forest Creek (part of the Upper Loddon district). He issued and enforced miner’s licences and inspected claims.
Few miner’s licences have survived; mostly held by museums and libraries. There is no central index to miner’s licences. I have found two licences signed by P.C. Crespigny.
On 5 February 1853 License no. 144 was issued to George Bencraft (1831-1924) by Commissioner P. C. Crespigny . State Library of Victoria Collection (H41033/19)
George Bencraft paid one pound 10 shillings and was licensed to dig, search for and remove gold on and from any such crown lands in the Upper Loddon district. He had arrived in Geelong on 20 January, sixteen days earlier. I am not sure how long Bencraft was a miner. By 1860 he was in business as a miller and manufacturer of oatmeal.
A license issued in March 1853 by Philip Crespigny in the Loddon district to John McDonnell (1829-1917). It appears McDonnell did not last long as a gold miner and became a clerk in the New South Wales public service the following year. The license was presented to the Royal Historical Society of Australia by John McDonnells’s son Aeneas J. McDonnell. The framed license is in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum.
In 1852 the regulations printed onto the licence were:
1. Every licensed person must always have his License with him ready to be produced whenever demanded by a Commissioner, or Person acting under instructions, otherwise he is liable to be proceeded against as an unlicensed person. 2. Every person digging to Gold, or occupying Land, without a License is liable by law to be fined, for a first offence, not exceeding five pounds; for a second offence not exceeding 15 pounds; and for subsequent offence, not exceeding 30 pounds. 3. Digging for Gold is not allowed within ten feet of the edge of any Public Road, nor are the roads to be undermined. 4. Tents or Buildings are not to be erected within twenty feet of each other, or within 20 feet of any Creek 5. It is enjoined that all persons on the Gold Fields maintain a due and proper observance of Sundays.
The cost of the licences, in particular that the fee was payable whether or not the miner was successful, made them very unpopular. In addition miners resented police checking for licences and arresting and fining the unfortunate diggers who could not produce them.
After the rebellion at Eureka a series of reforms saw the licence fee abolished and replaced with a miner’s right issued at an annual fee of 5 shillings. This gave the holder the right to dig for gold and importantly the right to vote. Further revenue was realised by a tax on exports of gold.
Related posts and further reading
In British, Australian, and other Commonwealth English, licence is the noun (the document) and license is the verb (the action of granting permission). In American English, license is used for both the noun and the verb.
In 1851, when the first diggers arrived on the Mount Alexandergoldfield near Castlemaine, it was said that nuggets could be picked up without even digging. When this ran out fossickers then looked for alluvial gold in creeks and rivers or deposited in silt on river banks and flats. They used pans, sluice boxes, and cradles to separate this gold from the dirt.
“Tin dish washing” by S. T. Gill A miner swirls water over the earth in his dish to wash away the loose dirt, and uncover grains of gold in the bottom of the pan. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H5382
“Cradling” by S.T. Gill Two diggers working a cradle. One rocks it while his mate pours water over the dirt. The man rocking the cradle has a stick to break up clods of earth. A wheelbarrow of dirt for cradling stands nearby. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H25971
“Puddling, 1852” by S. T. Gill Beer barrels were cut in half and used to wash the dirt excavated by the miners. A constant supply of water was needed. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H5318
“Fair Prospects” by S. T. Gill Two miners standing beside a windlass over the mouth of a mine. They are examining a panful of earth for gold. The title suggests the signs are good. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H5306
“Bad Results” by S. T. Gill Two downcast diggers who have been testing the excavated dirt and have found it unpromising. They are sitting by the shaft of their mine, near the windlass. Nearby is the pan they used to wash their dirt. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H5305
“Fossicking” by S. T. Gill Two miners, watched by a brown and white terrier, use a sharp fossicking knife to go over a heap of earth abandoned by a previous miner. State Library of Victoria Accession No : H25966
As surface alluvial gold ran out, diggers were forced to excavate further and further. They followed so-called “deep leads”, gold-bearing watercourses that had been buried by silting, and in some Victorian goldfields such as Ballarat, by volcanic action. Deep-lead mining was more difficult and dangerous than alluvial mining. Miners formed large partnerships and syndicates to raise the capital for sinking deeper and deeper mines.
“View of Victoria Hill, Bendigo, taken from Old Chum Hill.” Photographed by N.J. Caire 1877 State Library of Victoria Accession No : H24853
Garfield water wheel and stamper battery at Chewton. In 1887, when it was constructed, the Garfield Waterwheel was said to be the largest waterwheel in the southern hemisphere. Built of timber, the 72 foot diameter wheel could be seen for miles around. For 24 hours a day, the racket of the 15 head ore-crushing battery powered by the wheel could be heard several miles away in Castlemaine, except on Sundays, a day of rest on the goldfields. The water wheel used until 1903 was dismantled in 1904.
Several of the great great grandfathers of my husband Greg were gold diggers. One, John Plowright (1831 – 1910), followed the rushes in Victoria with little success. From 1860 he was trying his luck at Homebush, a few miles north of Avoca. Greg’s great grandfather Frederick James Cross, also a miner, had settled there too. (In 1886 Frederick became the husband of Greg’s great grandmother Ann Plowright, daughter of John.)
In Homebush James Cross finally had some luck. (James was the son of Frederick and Ann nee Plowright, John Plowright’s grandson.) He and his mates found what appeared to be a promising reef and dug out a small amount of gold, not enough to make them rich but enough to keep them looking for more:
PROSPECTORS' DISCOVERY. NEW REEF AT HOMEBUSH MARYBOROUGH,Sunday - Very rich gold bearing stone has been struck at Lower Homebush The prospectors are Messrs Gus and John Nicholls, James Cross, and F. M. Nicholls. They originally commenced operations on an abandoned reef, about a hundred feet to the east of the present find, but on Thursday, while awaiting the return of one of the party, they determined to try an outcrop, which had previously been located. This outcrop had been exposed by the removal of the surface for road making purposes and it did not take long to uncover the cup of a reef, 7ft wide. Both walls were laid bare and at a depth of 10ft on breaking into the western or hanging, wall of the lode some splendid gold bearing stone was broken The party state that on Thursday afternoon specimens to the the value of £40 were obtained. Friday was devoted to properly exposing the cap, and on Saturday morning another lot of specimens were obtained probably equal in value to the first lot Although too soon to express any opinion on the find the chances are good. Up to the present the gold has all been found on the hanging-wall, associated with ironstone and a little iron pyrites. The reef runs north and south with a slight westerly underlie and has good walls. The land is on the northern slope of what is known as View Hill, Homebush, and within half a mile of the famous Homebush lead. The claim of Messrs. Wilson and Shields [Sheill], from which rich returns have been won for some time past, is a mile further north, on the same line. The gold in the specimen is of a heavy - solid character, one piece of golden stone, barely 2in. square, weighing over 12 oz., and is estimated to contain quite 5oz. of gold, The find has caused much excitement, and the claim had a great many visitors yesterday and today.
Greg’s great uncle James John Cross (1887 – 1963) was one of the miners.
THE HOMEBUSH RUSH. A GOOD YIELD. MARYBOROUGH, Sunday. At the Homebush Rush, Nicholls, Cross, and Nicholas crushed 15 tons at the Government battery, Avoca, for 30 oz. The reef is 7 feet wide. A rich specimen obtained on Thursday was not in the crushing. Webb’s Reward is down 53 feet. They will shortly open out for a continuation of the lode being worked by Nicholls and party.
A year later the Melbourne Ageindicated prospecting was still successful but the reef was still elusive and it seems Jim Cross was possibly no longer working with the Nicholls brothers.
MINING AT MARYBOROUGH MARYBOROUGH.— Some excitement has been caused at Homebush by the discovery, by Messrs. Nicholls Bros, and Stratman of some rich specimens on the surface. They are loaming the surface, in the hope of finding a reef which is believed to be close at hand.
MARYBOROUGH. Satisfaction has been caused locally by the news that the Working Miners' claim at Homebush has again been floated into a good solid company. It is freely admitted that the Homebush lead is one of the best in the State, and it is a matter for regret that it should have been allowed to remain idle for such a long time. The returns obtained from the Working Miners’ claim some years ago were excellent, but the mine was difficult to work in those days and was abandoned. The township of Homebush then sunk into obscurity until Messrs Wilson, and Shiells located a rich reef. Gradually, but surely, the mining industry began to stir, until other reefs were opened up. Then the attention of mining men was naturally turned to Homebush, and as a result it has been decided to resume operations in the alluvial ground. The revival has been steadily approaching, and has been predicted on several occasions by “The Star.” That our anticipations were correct is borne out by the interest that is now being centred on this field, which a few years ago was practically dormant. Daly and party, who discovered a reef at Homebush a few days ago, are putting through a crushing at the Avoca Government battery. Yet another reef has been located at Homebush by Messrs Squires and Trounsen. They have obtained some good prospects, and are taking out a crushing. Developmental work is being carried out by Messrs Nicholls Bros, and Stratman, at the Dreadnought claim, Homebush. At the Lord Nolan claim, situated at Mosquito, a quantity of stone has been taken out and will shortly be tested. The claim is surrounded with reefs, which proved very profitable some years ago. A well-defined lode exists in the Lord Nolan, and it is improving with depth. On the whole the mining industry in the district is looking much brighter than it has for some time. When the now alluvial claims are opened up, renewed prosperity is in store for Maryborough.
Another of Greg’s great great grandfathers was George Young, a miner at the Lamplough diggings, south of Avoca. The grandson of George Young, Cecil Young—Greg’s grandfather—grew up in Homebush. Greg inherited a small collection of picture postcards from Cecil, among them one of addressed to Miss Eva Hogan (1889-1913). It shows a group of miners and a dog at a puddling machine.
Addressed to Miss E Hogan Bromley near Dunolly and postmarked 6 August 1909. Dear Eva Just a line hoping you all are doing well, & did not get washed away. Tell dad Gus wrote to Charlie to give him a show if he gets it, that is all we know at present. When are you coming to see us. Give love to all from all yours Mary.
I think the writer of the card was Eva’s sister Mary (Hogan) Nicholls (1884 – 1984) who had married Gus Nicholls (Augustus Walsh Pugh Nicholls (1885 – 1969)) in 1905. Charlie might have been Gus’s brother, Charles Edward Nicholls (1876 – 1930).
I think the card shows members of the Nicholls family but don’t know who was who. It seems likely that the dog at least is the dog in the earlier picture. Perhaps Gus Nicholls is holding the horse and Jack Nicholls is standing in the trough holding the shovel.
Puddling machines were developed on the Victorian goldfields in the early 1850s. A circular trough in the ground, lined with wood or bark, was filled with clay and water. A horse circled the trough and dragged a harrow through the clay mixture, breaking up the lumps and turning it into a runny sludge. The gold released from the clay would sink to the bottom, and the watery clay would be drained off from the top. The residue at the bottom of the trough would then be cleaned up with a pan or cradle to collect the gold.
In 1910 Jim Cross married Eva Hogan. They had two children. In 1913 Eva died of septic poisoning. Jim moved from Homebush to Wonthaggi in Gippsland where he worked at the State Coal Mine.
Jim and Eva Cross photograph in the collection of a grandson
The Homebush mines did not yield gold in the quantities hoped for, and the miners and their families moved away. A derelict schoolhouse stands by itself in an empty paddock; nothing else remains.
A Stratman is mentioned as undertaking developmental work at the Dreadnough claim at Homebush with the Nicholls brothers. It could be one of two brothers:
Anne's Family History 