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1871
14 April 1871
GULGONG.
The above place is about eighteen miles from Mudgee, and is reached by what is known as the "Pipeclay-road," which passes through the old Pipeclay diggings, and for several miles is a very rough, and in wet weather must be a very boggy road. There are many industrious settlers located along this road; but they have nothing to thank the paternal Government of this colony for in the shape of road-making. If the crops are good, they are carried at a snail's pace through mud, and go floundering in and out of holes, bogs, ruts, and through dangerous creeks and rivers, having no indication as to the height of the water; such valuable but simple matters, like direction posts and mile notices being too good, and the cost of such too small for the, wise - acres who are perpetually fighting for the Government salaries they so wretchedly earn as Ministers of the Crown. The second is a good bush road, via Green Swamp, first run over by miners. It is better for the traveller to go the latter road, and return by the former, if Mudgee is his head-quarters; but only then if the weather is fine, or his trusty nag and machine may "come to grief."
For several miles before reaching this gold-field the thousands of trees that are seen "barked," sufficiently indicate the approach to some large township, and as you wind your way round the trees and over long hills of easy ascent, the calico tents and the bark huts of the toiling diggers are met with in all directions, until the seat of the principal field is in view. The field is many miles in extent, covering many bills of various sizes, several being large ones, with the expected gold bearing quartz cropping out all over them. The views from almost every point are good; some of them would form good Australian pictures for our cottage walls, many of them being on the slopes of magnificent hills. Let the reader imagine hundreds of men in various-coloured attire; some with the dish, the cradle, the windlass and other machines at work; the many shaped huts and tents; the handy wife of the honest digger, moving about in her coloured dress; the clothesline full of white linen, crimean shirts, and coloured blankets, studded amongst the everlasting gum, box, or ironbark trees - with those pets of the miner and his wife, the useful milking-goats (in hundreds), and their trusty dogs. And many such pictures are to be obtained at Gulgong. But a view of the two principal streets would surprise the Sydney merchant who had never seen a gold-field.
Stores, public-houses, and other business places cover not less than three-fourths of a mile in extent ; and the question will soon be settled if there are not too many for the field? The storekeepers bear well-known names - several from Mudgee, others from Grenfell, and the now defunct gold and diamond field, the Two-mile Flat; beside others who, not wishing to be "behind the times," are still building, and selling "sub rosa" for Sydney firms. The large trade transacted in the earliest days of the "rush" to this field by those well-known diggers'-storekeepers, C. Young and his neighbour, Angove, I am afraid will prove disastrous to many who envied them their hardly-earned profits. If the present Minister for Lands would but apply his "Permissive" bill to store-keepers, or "protect" the Sydney merchants by limiting the stores to a given number of the inhabitants, many of our own anxious traders would escape great losses. There are enough stores and stock on this field for 10,000 inhabitants; while from some defect in the gold-fields regulations, from the poor prospects of the field, the numbers are decreasing, and may not be over 2000 at the present time.
Most of the buildings are slab or bark, with weather-board fronts; but several substantial looking and well built iron stores of large dimensions are there - the three banks (Oriental, Joint Stock, and New South Wales) being miserable looking huts, involving great discomfort to the several officers of such. Why don't the directors of the several banks, when they determine to open on a gold-field, give Hudson, brothers, or Dean (the builders) orders for a small but comfortable wooden house, and send it off ready to be put up? The firms I have named will make them offices and houses complete, from £30 upwards, and much of the inconvenience necessarily pertaining to a gold-field would be avoided by their officers. And why the Government should not do likewise, I know not. The police have very arduous duties to perform at all new rushes, and the manner in which they are huddled together is a disgrace to their superior officers who allow it. I saw the police quarters at Gulgong, a place only fit to hold two horses, in which there were four troopers and one or two prisoners. And this open-slabbed hut was the only place the police had to keep their papers, to sleep in and to cook and feed in - in short, it was their parlour, their kitchen, their office, their bedroom, and their lock-up! It is neither safe, nor is it respectable, that such should occur; nor would it be so unless some of their principals were blockheads.
There are, as usual, many inns and hotels - the three principal belong to Mr. Self and the two brothers Driscoll who do all they can to make such temporary buildings as comfortable as possible, and that is but little. At some of the inns the ''loafer"- and on this field they can be counted by hundreds - gets his night's drink cheap by taking the lead at the several "free and easies," and attracting many real diggers from their natural rest beyond midnight with his wretched attempt at singing. Imagine hardworking men listening to a lot of wretched rhymes, badly pronounced by a lot of idle, dirty, and loathsome loafers! At one of these low inns, in a room the roof of which was only some twelve feet high, and the windows and doors were closed, over thirty voices were shouting the following chorus in an atmosphere polluted by vile oaths, obscene language, and the filthy breath of drunkards whose daily meals are never token without onions - pickled or raw! The first two words were given out at the highest pitch of each voice1
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23 December 1871
Plan of Gulgong.
APPENDED to the "Report of the Commissioners to the Western Gold-Fields," is a sketch of Gulgong, which although on a very small scale-two miles to an inch- affords much useful information. The area included within the sketch is 64,119 acres, and it is computed that out of this no less than 16,796 acres have been alienated to private persons. In order to show where these alienated lands are situated, the position and direction of the several leads, &c, we have had the sketch engraved.
It appears that with the exception of 2758 acres taken up by free-selectors and by owners of Volunteer land orders, the greatest part of the remainder of the alienated lands is the property of Richard Rouse, Esq. A reference to the index given herein will enable the reader to understand the position and proportions of the several properties, as well as the various leads, &c.
SKETCH SHOWING THE POSITION OF GULGONG, THE DECLARED LEADS OF GOLD, AND ALIENATED LAND.
N.B.-The uncoloured portions are Crown lands, and the dark tinted areas private property, belonging to the following owners :-
R - Property of Richard Rouse, Esq.
C - Property of George Cox, Esq.
B - Property of H. Bayly, Esq.
L - Property of A. J. Liddington, Esq.
S - Free selections.
INDEX TO THE VARIOUS LEADS, &c,
B.L. - Black Lead
H.V. - Happy Valley
R.G. - Rapp's Gully
S.S. - Star of the South
R.S. - Royal Standard
H. - Helvetia
C. - Cosmopolitan
A. - Adam's Lead
P. - Parramatta Blocks
M. - Moonlight Lead
C.N. - Caledonian
V. - Victoria Lead
3M.R. - Three-Mile Rush
3M.L. - Three-Mile Lead
F. - Fenian Lead
C.F. - Castlereagh Flat
C.A. - Canadian
S.F. - Slasher's Flat2
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