(原版)澳大利亞語文第四冊(cè) LESSON 27

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LESSON 27 SOME QUEENSLAND GOLDFIELDS

SOME QUEENSLAND GOLDFIELDS

IN the year 1867 Queensland was suffering from a want of confidence in its resources. The youthful industries of the colony were having a hard struggle for existence, and numbers of unemployed were wandering about the streets of the capital, looking for employment or seeking for Government relief.

Up to this date no goldfield of importance had been found in Queensland, and numbers of the more resolute of the unemployed were prospecting [1] in different parts of the colony. Towards the end of 1867, one of the prospectors, named Nash, reached the banks of the Mary River. Not far from the side of the main road between Brisbane and Maryborough, he came to what he thought was a gully worth trying for gold.

A few strokes of his pick disclosed quite a rich patch, and he at once set to work to collect as much of the precious metal as possible; at the same time taking every precaution to conceal his find from passing wayfarers.

In the course of a few days he had gathered gold to the value of several hundred pounds, but his workings were so plain to anyone who might wander a little from the track that it seemed quite impossible to hide his luck any longer. He, therefore, hastened to Maryborough to bank his gold, report the find, and claim the rich reward that was offered by the Government for the discovery of a payable goldfield.

DRILLING IN TUNNEL

In a few days every able-bodied man in search of work had set out for the new diggings, and in a short time the waters of the Mary River were running a tawny yellow from the washdirt of miners, who had set up their cradles for miles along its banks. Crowds of gold-seekers came from the other colonies to the Gympie Goldfield, and the merchants and storekeepers of Brisbane were kept busy supplying the wants of the miners, while the roads leading to the diggings were alive with teamsters carrying stores of all kinds to the workers.

Gympie proved to be a rich alluvial field [2] , and gold in plenty was obtained by the most primitive means. After the alluvial gold had been worked out, rich gold-bearing reefs were discovered, which still furnish employment for a large number of miners.

The rich discovery at Gympie encouraged prospecting in other parts of the colony, and in the year 1872 a party of five miners were looking for gold in Northern Queensland. They had met with little success, and were on the point of leaving the district, when one of them suggested they should try “those tors [3] ,” pointing to some hills about fifteen miles distant from their camp.

Next day they reached the tors, and found the largest of them to be about 300 feet high. Searching among the rocks about the base of the hills, they found a quartz reef thickly studded with gold. Each of them marked out a claim along the reef, and then the party rode off to report the find to the nearest Gold Warden. The Warden’s name was Charters, and the field became known as Charters Tors, which quickly changed into Charters Towers. This was the beginning of what has since proved to be the most extensive goldfield of Queensland.

Some of the richest reefs at Charters Towers were not rich on the surface, and their history goes to prove that the virtue of persistence [4] is most valuable in the making of a successful miner.

One mine, which belonged to five or six working men, was a true fissure lode [5] of good width, with an abundant supply of quartz, but near the surface the stone was of such poor quality that one by one the partners gave up in despair, till but one man was left. He, however, stuck to the claim through all the evil days, and for years he worked on, paying, when a little gold was won, what he could of the arrears of his store account.

VIEW OF POPPET-HEAD, GYMPIE

Storekeepers on the diggings will allow a man known to be honest to run an account for years. Their faith in the honesty and luck of this miner was well rewarded, although many of his comrades had come to regard him as “a crank” owing to the tenacity of his belief in his big poor reef. One day he “struck it rich,” and “as work proceeded the value of his find became more and more apparent. The Day Dawn Reef has long since been taken over by a company, and has richly rewarded its lucky shareholders.

Of all Queensland mines, by far the most wonderful is Mount Morgan. This rich patch of ground was acquired by a selector named Gordon, who had fenced it in and built his residence upon it, thus fulfilling the conditions to make it a freehold. The pasturage was poor and scanty, the country rugged, and Gordon, who kept a few head of cattle, found it very hard to make a living from it. He had no idea of the mineral riches beneath his feet. His connection with Mount Morgan is akin to that of the selector whose “Lost Chance” is so graphically described by one of Queensland’s poets, the late Brunton Stephens:—

“To have built, my hovel o’er it—to have dreamed above it nightly,—

Pillowed on the weal of thousand lives and dead unto my own!

Planning paltry profits wrung from year-long toil, and holding lightly What lay acres wide around me, naked-bright or grass-o’ergrown.”

One night Gordon’s selection was visited by two brothers, named Morgan, and to them the selector mentioned his belief that there was copper on his holding, as he had noticed curious green and blue stains on some of the rocks. During the night there was a sharp shower of rain, and one of the brothers, in looking for his horses in the morning, noticed indications of rich mineral wealth.

Taking away a few samples in their pockets, the brothers bid their host adieu, and left him to continue the hungry life which was all that the richest known spot on the globe was able to afford him. Shortly afterwards the Morgans returned and offered to buy Gordon’s selection, and he thought himself lucky to be able to sell it for ￡1 per acre.

MOUNT MORGAN

The Morgans had no idea of the true value of the property they had acquired, but they were confident that it would pay handsomely to work. To treat the stone it was necessary to erect a crushing battery, and the Morgans could not afford to do this. They therefore sold one half of their interest in the Mount to four residents of Rockhampton, for the sum of ￡2,000, the money to be used for buying machinery. In a few years all concerned were rich men, and the spot where poor Gordon’s cattle found a bare pasturage now gives employment to an army of workmen. There is but little doubt that the mineral belt of Queensland still contains immense hidden wealth awaiting the pick of the fortunate prospector.

—Compiled by A. EXLEY

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[1] prospecting: Looking for minerals.

[2] alluvial field: Ground from which the mineral may be won by washing the dirt away.

[3] tors: High rocks; lofty hills. The term is applied in Derby-shire to any lofty mass of precipitous rock.

[4] persistence: Perseverance under difficulty.

[5] fissure lode: A crack in the earth’s surface filled with mineral matter.