EARLY THEORIES AND PRACTICALITIES ON GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Abstract

The discovery of gold in Australia forced many changes to theory on the occurrence and origin of gold deposits. Initial discoveries appeared to confirm existing ideas on the global distribution of gold-bearing terrains. Later discoveries and research would show that this confirmation was largely coincidental, but nevertheless helpful in early prospecting.
Prior to the first Australian gold rush, theoretical predictions of payable gold were made by Sir Roderick Murchison and Rev. W. B. Clarke based on knowledge of accidental gold finds and geological analogy with known areas of significant gold occurrence, particularly the Ural region in Russia. These predictions were overwhelmed when Edward Hargraves, realised he might be able to spark a gold rush that would prove the existence of payable gold. Hargraves travelled to the Bathurst region of New South Wales where numerous gold finds had already been made and with local guides, prospected Lewis Ponds Creek and the Macquarie River. He demonstrated the methods of alluvial mining, to John Lister and William and James Tom enabling them to find sufficient alluvial gold to initiate a gold rush. The crowd of attracted diggers demonstrated the existence of a payable goldfield. The unstoppable first rush resulted in the pragmatic introduction of government regulation and administration to allow alluvial gold mining. Other discoveries of payable goldfields quickly followed. As the local scientific expert on gold, W. B. Clarke was commissioned to conduct two extensive surveys of the goldfields between 1851 and 1853. Clarke also drew on his geological knowledge to provide practical advice to the thousands of prospecting gold diggers. Gold-bearing quartz reefs and lodes were discovered, but it was predicted that these could not be mined economically. Theory also predicted that the reef gold would not continue to depth.
Practical observations and mining experience from the numerous discoveries led to revision of the widely held dicta on gold occurrence. Alluvial gold was found in a range of settings, including the recent drainage and ancient and buried leads. A wider variety of rock types was recognised as favourable for gold. Different styles of reef gold were identified and found to be economically mineable to great depth. Evolving ideas on the origin of gold deposits were widely discussed, tested, and refined.
Of the many players involved in the early discovery of gold in Australia, Clarke, Hargraves and Murchison probably had the greatest overall influence in terms of theoretical predication and practical outcomes that initiated the Australian gold-mining industry.

Full text

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
409
EARLY THEORIES AND PRACTICALITIES ON GOLD OCCURRENCE
IN AUSTRALIA
KENNETH G. McQUEEN
University of Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
ken.mcqueen@canberra.edu.au
Earth Sciences History
Vol. 40, No. 2, 2021
pp. 409–432
ABSTRACT
The discovery of gold in Australia forced many changes to theory on the occurrence and
origin of gold deposits. Initial discoveries appeared to confirm existing ideas on the global
distribution of gold-bearing terrains. Later discoveries and research would show that this
confirmation was largely coincidental, but nevertheless helpful in early prospecting.
Prior to the first Australian gold rush, theoretical predictions of payable gold were
made by Sir Roderick Murchison and Rev. W. B. Clarke based on knowledge of accidental
gold finds and geological analogy with known areas of significant gold occurrence,
particularly the Ural region in Russia. These predictions were overwhelmed when Edward
Hargraves, realised he might be able to spark a gold rush that would prove the existence of
payable gold. Hargraves travelled to the Bathurst region of New South Wales where
numerous gold finds had already been made and with local guides, prospected Lewis Ponds
Creek and the Macquarie River. He demonstrated the methods of alluvial mining, to John
Lister and William and James Tom enabling them to find sufficient alluvial gold to initiate
a gold rush. The crowd of attracted diggers demonstrated the existence of a payable
goldfield. The unstoppable first rush resulted in the pragmatic introduction of government
regulation and administration to allow alluvial gold mining. Other discoveries of payable
goldfields quickly followed. As the local scientific expert on gold, W. B. Clarke was
commissioned to conduct two extensive surveys of the goldfields between 1851 and 1853.
Clarke also drew on his geological knowledge to provide practical advice to the thousands
of prospecting gold diggers. Gold-bearing quartz reefs and lodes were discovered, but it
was predicted that these could not be mined economically. Theory also predicted that the
reef gold would not continue to depth.
Practical observations and mining experience from the numerous discoveries led to
revision of the widely held dicta on gold occurrence. Alluvial gold was found in a range of
settings, including the recent drainage and ancient and buried leads. A wider variety of rock
types was recognised as favourable for gold. Different styles of reef gold were identified
and found to be economically mineable to great depth. Evolving ideas on the origin of gold
deposits were widely discussed, tested, and refined.
Of the many players involved in the early discovery of gold in Australia, Clarke,
Hargraves and Murchison probably had the greatest overall influence in terms of
theoretical predication and practical outcomes that initiated the Australian gold-mining
industry.
Keywords: theories, gold, discoveries, Australia, W. B. Clarke, Edward Hargraves,
Roderick Murchison
doi: 10.17704/1944-6187-40.2.409
1. INTRODUCTION
The occurrence of gold in Australia was initially established by practical observation and followed
up by theoretical prediction of exploitable deposits. However, it was the masterful orchestration of
a gold rush by a shrewd, somewhat impractical prospector that finally established the existence of
payable gold. This was a major event in the history of Australia as well as in the history of
understanding gold deposits and their occurrence. It is instructive to examine the scientific theories
on the origin and distribution of gold, current at the time, and how these influenced and were
interrelated with discoveries and practical observation on the ground. It is also interesting to
consider how the new knowledge gained was used to revise theory for the benefit of gold
exploration and mining practice.

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
410
2. THEORIES ON GOLD OCCURRENCE
In the early nineteenth century, ideas on the origin and global distribution of gold deposits, as well
as many other metallic ores, were strongly influenced by the known association of these deposits
with mountain regions and the prevailing concepts of mountain chain formation. According to
Neptunist theory, eroded mountains were areas where the Primary and crystalline rocks were
exposed, and these rocks were considered the principal hosts for metallic ores. Ore veins in the
rocks were thought to be related to fluids descending along fractures (Werner 1791). According to
the Plutonists, magmas and volcanoes were related to mountain building and had a connection to
ore formation through injections of ‘fused’ material or ascending fluids (Playfair 1802).
Observations and reports by Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), particularly from his
1799–1804 expedition to South America, had stimulated global-scale thinking and the use of
analogy to understand and predict the occurrence of major geological features of the planet,
including its mineral resources. Humboldt was interested in the patterns and directions of major
geographic features such as mountain ranges and coastlines in different countries. He thought he
could see indications that mountain ranges were arranged in preferential directions and he
considered mountains the result of giant upheaving forces within the Earth rather than sequential
deposition from a universal ocean (Humboldt 1823, 1858). Analogy with present day processes
such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, figured largely in Humboldt’s thinking. A mineral
occurrence prediction by Humboldt using analogy, was that diamonds would be found in the gold
and platinum placer deposits in the Ural Mountains, based on their occurrence in similar placer
deposits in Brazil (Strnad 1991).
From 1829, Jean Baptiste Armand Louis Léonce Élie de Beaumont (1798–1874) developed
ideas on mountain building that extended the observations and thinking of Humboldt. Élie de
Beaumont proposed that there had been a succession of mountain-building episodes over geologic
time (‘epoques de soulevement’) resulting from periodic crustal contraction as the Earth gradually
cooled. He also proposed that mountain chains formed in the same episode would have uniform
parallel directions, a feature broadly consistent with his observations of the ages of rocks in
different mountain ranges. He further noted that linear chains of volcanoes were related to some
mountain ranges, but he did not consider volcanic activity as the direct cause of mountain uplift
(Élie de Beaumont 1831). In 1847 Élie de Beaumont published his seminal article Note sur le
émanations volcaniques et métallifères in which, by analogy with active volcanic areas, he
attributed the source of thermal waters to igneous processes around crystallising igneous intrusions
and suggested deposition of contained metals in fissures and faults (Élie de Beaumont 1847). This
was the initiation of the hydrothermal magmatic theory for ore deposit formation.
Charles Lyell (1797–1875), champion of uniformitarianism, was also attracted to the idea
of ore deposition from hot aqueous fluids and vapours, by analogy with modern volcanic hot
springs. He pointed out
that mineral veins are most metalliferous near the contact of plutonic and stratified deposits, specially
where the former sends veins into the latter, a circumstance which indicates an original proximity of
veins, at their inferior extremity, to igneous and heated rocks. It is also ascertained that all the
substances with which hot springs are impregnated agree with those discharged in a gaseous form from
volcanoes. (Lyell 1855, p. 608).
An alternate ore-forming theory, based on the concept of lateral secretion and concentration
of ore and gangue elements from the enclosing host rocks via aqueous fluids, was also developed
from the mid-1800s. A similar idea had been proposed by Georgius Agricola (1494–1555) in his
book De Ortu et Causis Subterraneorum of 1546 (Adams 1954). Proponents of the lateral secretion
theory included geochemist Karl Gustav Bischof (1792–1870), mineralogist Gabriel Auguste
Daubrée (1814–1896) and later, Thomas Sterry Hunt (1826–1892) (Bischof 1847–1855; Hunt
1873) Variants of this theory involved secretion from the immediate host rocks or secretion and
distal transport from large masses of rock, both by either surface, connate, metamorphic or

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
411
hydrothermal fluids/vapours. Ideas also varied as to whether the fluids were descending from the
surface or ascending from great depths.
The eminent British geologist, Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871), developed a
special interest in gold deposits and their distribution. Murchison was strongly influenced by his
first-hand knowledge of gold deposits in the Ural region of Russia, the main area of new gold
production in the early nineteenth century (Green 1968). He adopted the evolving theory of
meridional arrangement of mountain chains and mineralised belts, which seemed to suit the
location and orientation of the Ural Mountains, the Andes, and later discovered gold deposits in
Siberia and the north American cordillera (Stafford 1989; Aalto 2017). Like Élie de Beaumont,
Murchison considered that mountain formation and deformation occurred in distinct episodes. The
gold deposits in the Urals were hosted by rocks of Murchison’s Silurian System and he proposed
the Silurian strata had been uplifted and deformed during the Permian and then later ‘infused’ with
gold in quartz veins near the surface. Murchison was also of the view that gold was the last of the
metals to be emplaced. The rich alluvial gold deposits he considered the result of catastrophic
floods distributing the eroded detritus of the veins (Murchison 1844). This was the generally held
view for the origin of alluvial deposits, although there were some observers who suggested that
gold could also be formed in the alluvial ‘drift’ (see Liversidge 1893a). Murchison predicted that
in general, only the alluvial gold deposits would prove to be economically mineable.
Around the time of the Australian gold discoveries in the mid-nineteenth century, theories
on gold and other ore formation could thus be summarised as:
• Injection of ‘fused’ or ‘gaseous’ material from molten igneous rocks;
• Deposition of metallic minerals in fractures from magmatically derived hydrothermal
fluids; and
• Secretion of metals from host rocks and transport into veins and lodes via aqueous fluids
or gases.
Alluvial gold deposits were explained as mechanical accumulations of gold, reworked by erosion
from weathered bedrock deposits into recent alluvium. These were then the ideas that influenced
subsequent development of theory and theoretical prediction of gold occurrence in Australia.
3. EARLY GOLD DISCOVERIES IN AUSTRALIA
There were numerous findings of gold in Australia before the famous gold rushes initiated by
Edward Hargraves in May 1851 at Ophir, New South Wales (Figure 1). The first vague reports are
of gold finds by convicts working west of Sydney during and after construction of the first road
across the Blue Mountains from late 1814 (Clarke 1851). It is highly likely, though not recorded,
that these discoveries were brought to the attention of Governor Lachlan Macquarie and it is
possible that he was also given or shown samples of the gold. Information on these early finds was
suppressed and the specimens of gold considered as potentially dangerous curiosities.
In 1820, naturalist Fedor Ivanovich (Friedrich Wilhelm) Stein (died circa 1845) reported the
presence of gold in the ‘So-called Blue Mountains’. Stein was a member of the Russian expedition
of the two ships Otkrytie and Blagonamerenny, led by Lieutenant-Captain Mikhail Vasilyev. With
the permission and support of Governor Macquarie, Stein completed a ten-day journey through the
Blue Mountains from 7–17 March 1820. He was accompanied by expedition artist Emelian
Mikhailovich Karneev (1778–1839) and guided by colonial botanist Allan Cunningham and Lt
William Lawson, Commander of the Bathurst settlement and a member of the party that first
crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813. Although the area visited was limited, Stein made detailed
observations of the gravels in the rivers, as well as the rocks he encountered in situ, and suggested
that gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, manganese, bismuth, nickel, arsenic and tungsten would be
found in New South Wales. He reported that he “found gold, silver, copper lead and iron” (Stein

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
412
1830; Branagan 2010). However, it is not clear from the context if he discovered these metals
himself or if he was shown or told about their occurrence in the area.
Figure 1. Map of south eastern Australia showing key locations mentioned in the text.
In early 1822, Governor Macquarie, his wife Elizabeth and son Lachlan returned to Britain.
Mrs Macquarie was apparently given a gift of gold, described as being the first gold found in
Australia and later fashioned into a pair of gold earrings. It is not known whether the earrings were
made in Sydney before she left, or in Scotland on her return (Clarke 2000). The source of this gold
is not clearly established, but it may have been gold found by one of the early convict road workers.
The earrings are now held in the Treasures Collection of the National Library of Australia.
On 15 February 1823, Assistant Surveyor James McBrien recorded in his field-book that
near the Fish River, 24 kilometers southeast of Bathurst (Figure 1), he found “numerous particles
of gold in the sand in the hills convenient to the river” (Pittman 1901, p. 1). Although the gold was
not collected or tested, this is generally considered the first officially recorded report of gold
discovery in Australia.
Subsequent ‘discoveries’ were made by scientific explorers, the first being the Polish
naturalist Jan Lhotsky (1795–1866), who arrived in New South Wales in May 1832. Lhotsky
claimed to have found gold during an expedition to the Australian Alps in 1834, but due to his

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
413
somewhat eccentric personality and outspoken criticism of the colonial administration and elite he
was an unpopular figure and his claim, along with many of his other achievements, was not
recognised (Andrews 1979, pp. 128, 224–225).
The more popular, and consequently better-known Polish explorer, Pawel Edmund
Strzelecki (1797–1873) arrived in Sydney in April 1839. On a trip to the Blue Mountains in the
same year Strzelecki found a sample of pyrite containing gold at Vale of Clwydd near present day
Lithgow east of Bathurst. In a report to the Government he stated that the pyrite yielded “a very
small quantity or proportion of gold, sufficient to attest its presence, insufficient to repay its
extraction” (Pittman 1901, p. 1). From December of the same year to 1840, Strzelecki made his
now famous trip to the Australian Alps and Gippsland, during which he located and named
Australia’s highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 meters above sea level). After his return to
Europe in 1843, Strzelecki published the results of his explorations in Australia in a work entitled
Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (Strzelecki 1845). In this
publication he made no mention of his discovery of gold, but in a subsequent Supplement to the
book, published in 1856, he explained that after mentioning his discovery to Governor George
Gipps he was requested to “keep the matter secret” (Strzelecki 1856, p. 4). In a letter postmarked
26 October 1839 to James Macarthur, Member of the Legislative Council and prominent in the
Sydney elite, Strzelecki also claimed to have found “gold in specks in silicate” in the County of
Wellington, near the town of the same name (Strzelecki 1853, reproduced in Strzelecki 1856, p. 9).
It is noteworthy that both Lhotsky and Strzelecki targeted their expeditions on the mountain
areas of New South Wales, as by analogy with Europe these were likely to be the most interesting
from a natural history and geological point of view, and with the greatest potential for mineral
discoveries. Both travelled to the Blue Mountains, Australian Alps and Tasmania, with Strzelecki
essentially following in the footsteps of Lhotsky, who he never acknowledged even though he
would have been aware of the latter’s activities and findings. Lhotsky had departed from Australia
in April 1838 just a year before Strzelecki arrived. Perhaps Strzelecki did not wish to tarnish his
own reputation through reference to his unpopular countryman.
During this period there was also an unconfirmed discovery of a ‘gold and silver mine’ in
the northern Hunter Valley region. The discovery, reported in the Australian newspaper on 4 July
1837 (Anon. 1837), was made by a Russian stockman at a location 48 kilometers beyond the
Segenhoe estate of Thomas Potter Macqueen (that would put the locality about 62 kilometers north
of Muswellbrook and within the Liverpool Range). Samples of ‘ore’ were apparently sent to the
Colonial Secretary, Edward Deas Thomson, in Sydney, but nothing more was heard of this find.
The Reverend William Branwhite Clarke (1798–1878, Figure 2), often referred to as the
‘father of Australian geology’, arrived in Sydney in May 1839 to take up an appointment at St
Peter’s Anglican church, Campbelltown. After a week, Bishop Broughton changed his appointment
to the headmastership of The King’s School, Parramatta, with charge of the near-by parishes of
Castle Hill and Dural. With his previous interest and training in geology Clarke very quickly took
to observing and describing the geology, stratigraphy and mineralogy of the colony, initially during
his ecclesiastical travels. In February 1841 he made a trip to the western Blue Mountains and while
chipping in the “granite and quartziferous slates west of Hartley, near the heads of Cox’s River and
Windburnvale Rivulet”, observed particles of gold (Clarke 1860, p. 290; Pittman 1901, p. 2).
Although familiar with gold from previous observation of gold in granite near Mont Blanc, Clarke
was hesitant about the significance of his find. At this point he was not an authority on gold
occurrence, but he decided to improve his knowledge through reading and systematic collection of
rocks and mineral samples from the region (Moyal 2003). In 1842 Clarke found alluvial gold in the
bank of the Wollondilly River, north of Goulburn, and was able to recover a pennyweight (1.555
g). During March 1844, while on a clerical exchange with the rector at Muswellbrook, he
discovered specimens of gold in quartzites along the Page River in the Liverpool Range (Moyal
2003). Shortly after this find he called on Governor George Gipps and showed him a sample of
gold, to which, according to Clarke, the Governor replied, “put it away Mr Clarke or we will both
have our throats cut” (NSW Legislative Assembly 1861, p. 1163). Needless to say he did not

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
414
request a reward or promote a gold rush. However, he did go on to make other discoveries,
including near Bathurst in 1845.
Figure 2. Reverend William
Branwhite Clarke circa 1840.
Courtesy John Clarke and Ann
Moyal.
From 1843 to 1844, a shepherd named Hugh McGregor, probably unbeknown to Clarke or
the Governor, had been mining small quantities of gold from a quartz reef at Mitchell’s Creek, near
Wellington (Figure 3). This gold he quietly took to Sydney to sell to some of the jewellers for a
return, over time, of an estimated £200 (Anon. 1851; Pittman 1901). He continued at this activity
until a ‘lady friend’ made persistent enquiries about the source of his additional income and he
‘spilt the beans’ (Anon. 1856). McGregor then appears to have given up his mining activities,
possibly because he had gouged out the easily accessible gold or perhaps received ‘advice’ from
the authorities to desist. From 1869, the site of McGregor’s reef became the Mitchell’s Creek Gold
Mine, with the associated township of Bodangora (Lindlay 1890).
Further discoveries of gold were made in the Bathurst region in the late 1840s by William
Tipple Smith (1803–1852). Smith had emigrated from Suffolk in 1835 with his younger brother
Thomas and set up as a lapidary jeweller in Sydney. He appears to have had some training in
mineralogy and certainly a keen interest in minerals, offering to examine minerals and ores as part
of his business (Silver 1986, pp. 8–14). In September 1847 Smith read an article in the Sydney
Morning Herald written by W. B. Clarke with reference to ideas by Roderick Murchison,
describing the similarities between the geology of eastern Australia and the gold-bearing regions
of the Ural Mountains (Clarke 1847). The article inspired Smith to commence a search for gold.
He was no doubt aware of the gold finds around Bathurst and commenced his search in this area.
Within weeks Smith had obtained samples of gold in quartz, sufficient to suggest it was widespread
in the area. In February 1848 he wrote to Murchison and sent specimens of gold, to inform him that
he had confirmed the prediction of significant gold in eastern Australia (Murchison 1849). In the
first half of 1848 Smith made a second trip to Bathurst, specifically to the area between Lewis
Ponds Creek, Yorkey’s Corner and Frederick’s Valley Creek, 50 kilometers to the northwest.
During this trip he found additional specimens of gold and observed ‘granular gold’ in some of the
creeks and gullies. He also learnt that the local shepherds had been finding good-sized nuggets and
specimens and he procured a 3.5 oz specimen (Silver 1986, pp. 21–25). Now convinced that gold

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
415
was widespread, Smith arranged a meeting with the Colonial Secretary, Edward Deas Thomson,
on 24 January 1849. He informed the Secretary that he ‘had discovered an extensive goldfield’ and
offered to divulge its location if he received a reward for his effort and expenses. The information
and request of a reward were passed on to Governor Charles Fitz Roy who responded with the
decision that a reward could only be paid after the nature and value of the discovery was
established. Smith declined to reveal the location of his discovery on these conditions (Pittman
1901, pp. 3-4; Silver 1986, pp. 31–38).
Figure 3. The quartz reef worked by Hugh McGregor at Bodangora near Wellington, NSW.
Photo K. McQueen, April 2014.
There were early gold finds in other parts of Australia. In the area of Victoria, at least twelve
discoveries of gold were made between 1841 and 1850, mostly by rural workers (Flett 1977, pp.
ix–xxii). In 1841, it was variously reported that two men, named Sharp and Armstrong, had found
gold in the Plenty Ranges of the Port Phillip catchment. They sent the gold to Van Diemen’s Land,
but receiving no reply gave up further search. A stock assessor, W. H. Jackson, found ‘pieces of
rock like glass’ near the future site of Bendigo while crossing from John Catto’s sheep run on the
Lodden to the Campaspe River in 1844. It was only later that he became aware that the visible
metal in the rock was gold (Flett 1977, p. ix). The following year, squatter David Reid found gold
while cutting a mill race near Yackandandah in northeast Victoria and George Inness, a timber
splitter from Buninyong, claimed to have discovered gold at Black Hill near the later site of
Ballarat. John Phillips, a surveyor making a systematic search for copper in western Victoria during
1847, observed gold over a large area of the Pyrenees Ranges (Flett 1977, p. ix).
In March 1847, a shepherd walked into the jewellery shop of Joseph Forrester in Collins
Street, Melbourne, with a gold nugget the size of an apple and later that year gold was found by
William Richfould, a shepherd on J. W. T. Clarke’s run at Heifer Station Creek, near Navarre
(Anon. 1847). To top this, in January 1849 another shepherd, Thomas Hood, astounded the

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
416
residents of Melbourne by selling a large nugget of gold estimated to be worth £80 to jeweller
Charles Brentini. Brentini forwarded the gold for assay to Alexander Duchene, who pronounced it
of high quality and then proceeded with the shepherd to the site of discovery on the Glen Mona
Run of McNeill and Hall, near Amherst in the Pyrenees. Duchene prospected the area and returned
to Melbourne with glowing reports of a goldfield. A second trip was made to the site by Duchene,
Brentini and Joseph Forrester. The party became separated, but Duchene returned to Melbourne
with a nugget weighing 32 ounces. The nugget was loaned to the Argus newspaper for inspection
and then displayed to the public in Brentini’s shop. This news caused a small ‘rush’ from
Melbourne, although most of the participants never made it to the site. However, local shepherds
and farm servants were soon on the scene (Anon. 1849a; Anon. 1849b; Flett 1977, p. x). The search
was quickly put to an end when the Government sent a party of ten troopers to “take possession of
the Gold-mine”, prevent any unauthorised occupation of Crown Lands in the neighbourhood,
remove the gold-seekers and prevent any further digging in the area (Anon. 1849c). The story was
then widely dismissed as a hoax, although gold from the area continued to be supplied to the
jewellers until 1850 (Flett 1977, p. x). At this time Melbourne was gripped by excitement from
news of the Californian gold discoveries and the episode became conflated with other local claims
which were clearly spurious. Another important discovery was made by squatter William Campbell
in March 1850 on the station of Donald Cameron at Campbells Creek. In February 1851, George
Hermann Bruhn, a prospecting physician, chemist and artist, who had heard of the indications of
gold in the Pyrenees, travelled to Cameron’s station. He observed gold in the quartz reefs on the
property and passed this information onto James Esmond who followed up in June with further
prospecting. This would be the prelude to development of the rich reefs at Clunes from 1855 (Anon.
1931; Aitkin 1988; Woodland 2001).
Gold had also been found in ores of other metals and their gossans. Following discovery of
copper in South Australia and during the resulting copper boom from 1845, gold was found in
association with some of these ores. In April 1846, Captain Thomas Terrell of the Victoria Mining
Company, observed gold in the gossan of a copper deposit at Montacute in the Adelaide Hills. The
discovery caused a brief sensation and some investment, but only 24 ounces were ever produced
(Drexel 1982; Cooper 2011, p. 199). Between 1846 and 1849 there were reports of other small
discoveries, including of alluvial gold, in the Torrens and Onkaparinga rivers (Anon. 1849d). Gold
was detected in Western Australia in 1848 in specimens of lead ore found in the bed of the
Murchison River near Northampton. These samples were sent for assay to Adelaide by explorer
James Perry Walcott a member of A. C. Gregory’s expedition to the area north of Perth (Gregory
1852).
There are several reasons why these early and widespread discoveries did not spark a major
gold rush. Many lacked the evidence for large exploitable deposits or presented as gold in reef
quartz, not easily extracted without expensive machinery. There was uncertainty about the legality
of mining gold, as it was assumed to be the property of the British Crown. Clearly the discoveries
were also deliberately downplayed or concealed by the authorities, nervous of disrupting the
economic and social status quo.
4. THE ROLE OF THEORETICAL PREDICTION IN GOLD DISCOVERY
Most of the early gold finds in Australia were accidental and the result of direct observation by
people working and living on the land. Some discoveries were at least partly guided by science,
including those of Lhotsky, Strzelecki, Clarke and Smith. After his initial discovery, Clarke had
quickly developed a strong interest in gold and its occurrence, and began to research the topic in
detail. He was attracted to the theory of linear and meridionally aligned mountain chains as the key
control on mineral fields, including of gold. As gold discoveries continued to be made in Australia
these were used to extend and confirm the meridional theory. Roderick Murchison incorporated
eastern Australia in his version of the theory after examining rock samples and other information
shown to him by Strzelecki in 1843, following the latter’s returned to Europe. In 1838 he had also
been introduced to Lhotsky by John Franklin, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land, and

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
417
although Murchison referred to Lhotsky as “a mad Polish friend of yours” he garnered useful
information from him regarding the geology of eastern Australia (Stafford 1988, p. 72). With his
knowledge of the Urals, Murchison was able to draw geological parallels between these two
regions.
In the meantime, Clarke diligently collected rock samples, examined fossils and studied the
stratigraphy of the highlands and other areas of south-eastern Australia to compare with the
sequences of Europe. He actively published the results of his work in the local newspapers and
communicated his findings and samples back to Europe, mainly to Adam Sedgwick (1785–1873),
who he had studied under at Cambridge University (Moyal 2003). A fossil discovery at Woolshed
Creek, near present day Canberra, in 1844, together with earlier discoveries of trilobites in the
Paterson River valley north of Sydney, allowed Clarke to establish the presence of Murchison’s
Silurian strata in Australia (Clarke 1843, 1848). He concluded that the widespread ‘schistose’ rocks
with the signs of gold were part of the Silurian System, as then known, and that the gold occurrence
was partly related to the intruding granites and ‘greenstones’.
In 1844, Murchison in his first presidential address to the Royal Geographical Society
inferred the presence of significant gold in Australia, particularly along the Great Dividing Range,
(Murchison 1844). This was with his full knowledge that gold was present, at least in small
amounts, in the Bathurst region of New South Wales combined with additional geological
information provided by his other contacts in Australia, principally W. S. Macleay and John
Franklin. He followed this up in 1846 with a recommendation that unemployed Cornish tin miners
be encouraged to emigrate to Australia to prospect for gold (Murchison 1846). After receiving the
gold specimens sent by William Tipple Smith in 1848, Murchison advised Earl Grey, Secretary of
State for the Colonies, to commission a mineral survey of New South Wales. He pointed out that
if the results of such a survey were favourable it could lead to “extensive public works in which
convicts would be employed; or to the declaration on the part of the Government, that the field was
open to Settlers, on the payment of certain dues” (Murchison 1848, p. 1). Grey did not act on the
advice and in a separate memorandum to Under Secretary Hawes stated he would prefer that gold
or silver were not found as it would tempt the settlers “from other branches of industry of which
the results if less brilliant—are much more certain” (Grey 1848, Memorandum G 13/11).
In Australia, Clarke had developed his own prediction of significant goldfields, based on his
gold discoveries and comparisons between the geology of New South Wales and of Russia,
particularly the Ural Mountains (Moyal 2003, p. 15). His knowledge of the latter was based on a
recently received report presented to the Geological Society of France by Edouard de Verneuil, an
associate of Murchison. On 28 September 1847, Clarke published an article in the Sydney Morning
Herald, entitled ‘Geology: Comparison of Russia and Australia’ in which he noted that “besides
lead and copper which exist in the Blue Mountain ranges, auriferous sands will be found in the
rivers flowing from them” (Clarke 1847, p. 2). This statement is what galvanised William Tipple
Smith to make his gold search northwest of Bathurst. Clarke used the meridional theory to support
his prediction of gold occurrences but adopted a more geometrical version than that proposed by
Murchison. He noted that the eastern Australian ‘cordillera’ was located exactly 90º from the Ural
chain and that the lengths and elevation of both mountain belts were similar. The slopes were
reversed in the different hemispheres, with the escarpment to the east and slope to the west in the
Dividing Range and vice versa in the Urals. In the Urals, the best alluvial gold deposits were on
the eastern slopes, suggesting by analogy that they should be on the west in New South Wales.
Clarke was convinced that proximity to the 149º meridian would be a major control on gold
distribution. Initially this prophesy appeared to work well, due to the coincidental north-south
orientation of the structural grain to the Palaeozoic rocks of eastern Australia, but eventually many
exceptions would be discovered. As he refined his theory to match the emerging evidence, the
geometry became increasingly complex with subsets of longitude being proposed (Clarke 1851).
From observation, Clarke also predicted that mountains of high elevation were not a prerequisite
for significant gold occurrence, as held by some theorists. Later he even specified that most alluvial
gold would be found at elevations between 152–610 meters (Clarke 1861, pp. 53–54). His thinking

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
418
here appeared to be that in regions of higher elevation the gold may not yet have been eroded from
the reefs and at lower elevations it was likely to be buried under thick sediments.
In 1849 the British Colonial Office, prompted by further reports of gold in Australia, the
copper boom in South Australia, and probably also the Californian gold rush, finally decided to
appoint a Geological Surveyor for New South Wales. The candidate eventually selected and
appointed in June 1850 was Samuel Stutchbury (1798–1859), a museum curator with a broad
background in geology and biology. He had visited New South Wales in 1820 as a naturalist with
the Pearl Fishery Company’s expedition to the Pacific (Branagan and Vallance 1976; Branagan
1992). Clarke had put his own name forward for this position and was somewhat put out by the
appointment (Clarke 1850; Branagan 1992). Stutchbury arrived in Sydney in November 1850 and
shortly after met briefly with Clarke, who showed him a map of the Bathurst district, which he
jokingly referred to as Australian Siberia. He advised Stutchbury to go there “not for banishment
but for gold” (Clarke 1860, p. 6; NSW Legislative Assembly 1861).
5. THE GOLD RUSH AND INTERPLAY OF THEORY AND PRACTICALITY
Theoretical predictions on where to find gold were overwhelmed in early 1851 with the start of the
first Australian gold rush. The rush was masterfully orchestrated by Edward Hammond Hargraves
(1816–1891, Figure 4), who had been to the California gold rush from July 1849 to December
1850. While there he made two important friends Enoch William Rudder (1801–1888) a
Figure 4. Edward Hamond
Hargraves 1853, portrait
lithograph published in the
Sydney Morning Herald.
Courtesy Dixson Library, State
Library of New South Wales.

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
419
metallurgist, and Simpson Davison (1816–1861). Hargraves had little success at the Californian
diggings, but he had learnt the methods of alluvial gold mining, noted how the gold occurred and
most importantly observed how a gold rush operated. He grasped the simple premise that to find
gold you need to look for it, and the more people looking the greater the chance of success. He also
noted and discussed with his colleagues the broad similarities between the rocks and terrain of
eastern California and those of the Bathurst region, with which he was familiar (Hargraves 1855,
p. 99). He had almost certainly heard of the various gold finds around Bathurst and Wellington up
to 1849. He decided to return to Australia, ‘find’ gold where he knew it would be, publicise the
‘discovery’ and spark a rush. Even if he did not recover significant gold, the numerous diggers
attracted to the rush would likely find payable gold and he would achieve fame and possibly a
reward for discovering a goldfield.
Hargraves arrived in Sydney on 7 January 1851 and tried to obtain a government grant to
finance his venture. This attempt failed, but his friend William Northwood lent him £105 to
purchase a horse and provisions. On 5 February 1851 he set out alone on horseback across the Blue
Mountains intending to reach Wellington, where the shepherd McGregor had mined gold. On the
way he also planned to visit ‘Coombing’, the property of Mr Thomas Icely at Carcoar, where Icely
had been mining small amounts of gold from a quartz reef. Near Bathurst, he encountered Icely,
who was travelling to Sydney, and declining the offer to still visit the property in Icely’s absence,
Hargraves decided to continue directly to Wellington. After becoming lost he reached Guyong on
10 February, where he stayed at the Wellington Inn run by Susan Lister, the recent widow of
Captain John Lister who had formerly employed Hargraves as a cabin boy (Hargraves 1855, p.
111–125; Silver 1986, pp. 45-49).
On 12 February 1851, Susan’s son, John Jr., offered to guide Hargraves to the nearby Lewis
Ponds Creek area where gold-bearing quartz had been found. The country was in summer drought
and Lewis Ponds Creek was mostly dry, however Lister was able to find a water hole at its junction
with Radigan’s Gully (Figure 5). After resting here for lunch, Hargraves washed six pans of
alluvium and found five specks of gold (Hargraves 1855, p. 111–125; Silver 1986, pp. 45–49). This
Figure 5. View of Hargraves’ initial discovery site (five specks of gold) on Lewis Ponds Creek at the junction with
Radigans Gully. This site is 3.5 kilometers south of Ophir. Photo K. McQueen, November 2015.
was encouraging, but Hargraves deemed it necessary to explore further and with Lister and his
friend James Tom as guides, spent eight days prospecting the area to the Macquarie River, without
success. Hargraves then prospected the river towards Wellington, again without success. After his
return to Guyong in mid-March Hargraves instructed James and his brother William Tom in how
to build a Californian cradle for washing gold. He then travelled to Sydney with his five specks of
gold to inform the Colonial Secretary Deas Thomson that he had found a goldfield and was

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
420
requesting a £500 reward. As with William Smith, the Colonial Secretary was unimpressed and
suggested the claim should be put in writing. However, Hargraves’ friend, Enoch Rudder, had
already written to the press announcing that a goldfield had been discovered (Rudder 1851). In the
meantime, William Tom and John Lister, using the cradle, had recovered about 4 ounces of gold,
including some small nuggets. Most of the gold was found near the junction of Lewis Ponds and
Summer Hill creeks, the former Yorky’s Corner, about to be renamed Ophir. Hargraves was
notified and immediately returned to Guyong, where he persuaded Enoch Rudder to clean and work
some of the gold into a larger, artificial ‘nugget’ to impress the Colonial Secretary (Figure 6,
Rudder 1861, pp. 21–22). On 8 May 1851, he organised a meeting of prominent Bathurst citizens
at James Arthur’s Carrier’s Arms Inn to announce his discovery and exhibit the gold (Anon. 1851).
Three days later there were more than 400 people at Ophir—the rush was off and running.
Figure 6. The artificial ‘nugget’ produced by Hargraves and Enoch Rudder in May 1851, by hot hammering smaller
nuggets of gold. The ‘nugget’ is 6.7 centimeters long and weighs 85.63 grams (2.75 ounces).
Courtesy Macleay Museum, Sydney University (Mus. No. SC2008.5).
When the gold rush began Samuel Stutchbury was at Carcoar, southwest of Bathurst, at the
start of his geological survey. He was immediately directed by the Government to proceed to Lewis
Ponds Creek and report on the alleged discovery. He met Hargraves at ‘Coombing’ and on 14 May
accompanied him to Ophir. Stutchbury reported that gold had been obtained ‘in considerable
quantity, many persons with merely a tin dish or other inefficient apparatus having obtained one to
two ounces per day’ (Stutchbury 1851). He was even able to observe Hargraves pan 21 grains (0.72
grams) of gold in three hours (Hargraves 1855, p. 122). While at Ophir, Stutchbury, as the only
government official on hand, also provided practical assistance by bringing some order to the
goldfield before the arrival of newly appointed Gold Commissioner, John Richard Hardy (1807–
1858) (Hardy 1851; Branagan 1992). Stutchbury then continued with his original survey, extending
it northward through Mudgee and Wellington almost to Dubbo, then back to Wellington in the
early part of 1852. During the survey he examined and described the geology of much of the
auriferous terrain of the Macquarie River area and discovered platinum and diamonds (Branagan
1992, pp. 103–104).
Prior to the gold rush and the appointment of Stutchbury, Clarke had been hoping to obtain
funding from the Government to publish his geological researches, including maps and sections.
The new developments derailed this possibility, as well as later plans for a co-ordinated survey by
both Clarke and Stutchbury (Moyal 2003). Nevertheless, once the rush started Clarke volunteered
his services to the Government to assist in the search for gold. He submitted a list from his own
field work of the places where gold would be found, and drafted revised instructions for the
Geological Surveyor, specifying precise data to be sought and defined locations where Hargraves,

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
421
as a newly appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands, could focus his search for gold. He also
quickly compiled a pamphlet for use by the miners, entitled Plain Statements and Practical Hints
Respecting the Discovery and Working of Gold in Australia in which he distilled much of his
theoretical knowledge and provided practical information. His geometrically complicated,
meridional theory was probably difficult for the average digger to take in, but importantly he
stressed the need to look for gold in areas with the right rocks. He concluded that gold was generally
formed in quartz veins traversing ‘schistose’ rocks and that the most fertile sites would be where
greenstone or hornblendic rocks intruded, “the gold having probably been produced by the
influence of the igneous masses” (Clarke 1851, p. 21). This was good, useful geological advice for
finding gold in the Bathurst region. Published in June 1851 the pamphlet rapidly sold out to hopeful
diggers flocking to the rush.
Following the initial strike at Ophir, alluvial gold discoveries were made in rapid succession
around Bathurst, particularly along the Turon River, as well as other tributaries of the Macquarie
River (McQueen and Barnes 2010). By October 1851, the population of miners on the Turon was
around 12,000 (Higgins 1990). In Victoria, which had just separated as a new colony from New
South Wales, there was concern that a large part of the population might desert to the diggings in
the north. In June, a committee of Melbourne dignitaries offered a reward of £200 for the discovery
of a payable goldfield within 200 miles (320 kilometers) of Melbourne. The following month, a
group led by Louis Michel from Warrandyte, just east of Melbourne, and another led by James
Esmond at Clunes, submitted gold and applied for the reward, but no reward was paid at this stage
(Flett 1977, p. xix). Meanwhile numerous other discoveries were quickly coming to light and
Victoria’s rushes were soon underway. The many early gold finds that predated the rushes,
particularly in Victoria, could at least partly account for the surprisingly rapid spread of discoveries.
Many people already knew where there was gold.
The Government of New South Wales was keen to learn more about the extent and nature
of its new goldfields and in August 1851 suggested W. B. Clarke be commissioned to conduct a
detailed survey. After obtaining permission from his Bishop, Clarke was employed as a Geological
Surveyor at a salary of £300 to compensate the loss of his clerical stipend (Moyal 2003, p. 17). He
commenced his survey on 12 September by heading southwest to the recent gold discoveries in the
Araluen Valley and then further south to the high country close to his favourite meridian. On this
trip, as well as a pan and cradle, he carried a barometer and took numerous altitude measurements
to test his ideas on the best elevation for alluvial gold. He completed the survey of the southern
goldfields in July 1852 and in September commenced a similar survey to the north, in the New
England region. The second survey was completed in May 1853 (Moyal 2003, pp. 17–23). Both
surveys were highly successful, with numerous sites of gold, other metals and gemstone
occurrences detected (e.g., Clarke 1856, 1860; McQueen 2009). However, the spread of
prospectors had been so rapid that they had already located much of the alluvial gold. Clarke was
able to describe these new fields and provide practical advice to the miners on the ground. During
these surveys Clarke vastly extended the arena of his geological investigation, covering 155,400
square kilometres of country and writing 29 detailed reports to the Government. (Moyal 2003, p.
17). He was able to greatly improve his knowledge of gold occurrence and refine the key indicators
or ‘constants’. His reports and publications in the local press established him as an authority on
gold. Importantly the surveys also gave him the opportunity to collect large volumes of samples
and observational data to improve the geological understanding of New South Wales. His surveys
extended into northern Victoria as far as Omeo and the area of southern Queensland to the Brisbane
River. In 1856 Clarke visited Tasmania, partly to convalesce with his sister Sarah and brother-in-
law, Rev. William Trollope, on their property at Green Ponds (Kempton). Small amounts of alluvial
gold had already been discovered in Tasmania from February 1852, including at Fingal in the
northeast (Ward 1852). During his stay Clarke visited South Esk and St Pauls River to advise the
Fingal Gold Committee on gold prospects. Initially he could find no gold in samples he collected
and advised the Committee to direct their attentions to northwest Tasmania, particularly west of
the Tamar River and the high country around Frenchman’s Cap. When he returned to Sydney, he

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
422
crushed some of the quartz samples from Fingal and did find gold to be present (Moyal 2003, pp.
27–28). Throughout all his travels Clarke took an interest in everything he came across, the
geography, geology, soils, climate, water and biota, truly the Humboldtian approach (Young 2015).
In 1860, Clarke published a compilation of his reports on the southern goldfields together
with additional information and a synthesis of his ideas on gold occurrence and deposit formation.
From the very beginning he recognised that the alluvial gold was derived from weathering and
erosion of the gold-bearing quartz reefs and believed that reef mining would become an important
source of gold when the richer, but more limited alluvial gold was mined out (Clarke 1860, pp.
253–267). This view was initially opposed by Roderick Murchison, who believed from his
observations in the Urals, that mining reef or lode gold would not be payable and that such deposits
would not persist to any significant depth. This was despite his knowledge of the hard-rock
Berezovsky deposit that had been worked since 1745 (Collie and Diemer 2004, p. 227). Clarke was
able to point to rich quartz reefs that were being successfully mined in New South Wales and
Victoria. He also demonstrated comparative indications from his elevation measurements that reef
gold was developed at a wide range of crustal depths (Clarke 1860, pp. 255–258).
As alluvial mining continued, some features of the deposits were puzzling to the miners,
including the presence of gold-bearing alluvium on the sides of valleys and in leads buried by basalt
lava flows. The latter were particularly prominent in central Victoria, around Orange and
Tumbarumba in central and southern NSW, and in northern NSW. Some of the alluvial gold
appeared water-worn, but some did not. Simpson Davison, partner of Hargraves in California,
proposed a theory to account for alluvial gold formation by means of a ‘perishable lava’. His theory
was that gold was formed in, and distributed by an erupted lava, which then weathered away leaving
the gold on the surface to be variably reworked in the soil and alluvial channels. Unusual
‘honeycomb rock’ found at some of the diggings and brown ‘ochreous material’ and pebbles were
interpreted as the incompletely disintegrated lava and final remains respectively. The gold-bearing
quartz veins and igneous dykes were invoked as the eruption sites or vents for the ‘perishable lava’.
Davison presented his theory in two published letters to Hargraves (Davison 1854a, 1854b) and
later in a book entitled Discovery and Geognosy of Gold Deposits in Australia (Davison 1860).
The presence of basalt or ‘trap rock’ along the Great Divide of eastern Australia, including close
to many of the goldfields, and the occurrence of gold in deep leads with overlying basalt lava also
suggested that gold deposition was in some way associated with volcanic activity. The ‘molten’
appearance of some of the coarse gold and nuggets was taken by many of the miners to indicate
gold emplacement as liquid metal.
Another interesting feature of the alluvial goldfields in Australia, particularly in the Bathurst
and central Victorian fields, was the occurrence of large nuggets. Although masses of gold had
been found in the quartz reefs, for example ‘Kerr’s Hundredweight’ found at Lousia Creek in June
1851, the greater abundance of alluvial nuggets compared to large gold masses in the reefs led to
the notion that nuggets could form or grow in the alluvium. This idea was tested by Archibald
Liversidge (1846–1927), Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at the University of Sydney,
through careful examination of the structure of numerous gold nuggets and chemical experiments.
He concluded that while it was possible to dissolve and reprecipitate small amounts of gold from
groundwater, the nuggets could not have formed in this way and were large lumps of detrital gold
eroded from reef deposits (Liversidge 1893a and b). Despite this finding, the notion that gold
nuggets could grow like potatoes in the alluvium and soil persisted amongst many alluvial miners.
Interestingly in the early twenty-first century the idea was again tested with the same conclusion
(Hough et al. 2009).
6. THE SHIFT TO HARD-ROCK GOLD MINING
6. 1 The depth controversy
As the rich and easily accessible alluvial gold was worked out, attention progressively turned to
mining the gold-bearing quartz reefs and auriferous sulphide lodes. This development had been

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
423
predicted by Clarke and resulted in a shift to mining by syndicates and companies with the capital
to introduce hard rock mining and the necessary processing technology. There was ongoing
speculation and controversy about the economic viability of reef mining and the depth to which the
gold would continue. Given the obvious success of the early reef mining, Murchison had modified
his views, accepting the possibility of economic, ‘surficial’ mining of the ‘veinstone’. However, he
still insisted that these deposits would not extend to significant depths (Murchison 1858; Clarke
1860, p. 255).
In November 1852, Alfred Selwyn (1824–1902) was appointed as Mineral Surveyor for the
colony of Victoria. He commenced careful scientific investigation of the Victorian goldfields and
based on the growing evidence from reef mining became a proponent, initially cautious, of the
persistence of gold to depth. By 1858 he was sufficiently convinced, from the levels of surface
exposure of different reefs in the Ballarat area and the depth of successful mining at the Mariners
Reef, Maryborough and the mines at Clunes, to predict that
the extraction of gold from quartz reefs if properly conducted, may be regarded as an occupation,
which will prove as permanently profitable in Victoria as the tin and copper mining have in Great
Britain (Selwyn 1858, p. 6).
Frederick McCoy (1817–1899), Professor of Natural Science at the newly established
University of Melbourne, maintained the contrary view. In May 1856 McCoy, along with Alfred
Selwyn and Joseph Panton, Mining Warden at Sandhurst (Bendigo), was appointed by the
Victorian Government as a Commissioner to investigate the gold resources of Victoria (MacArthur
1856). As the Chairman of the Mining Commission, McCoy made cursory inspections of the main
alluvial and reef mining areas and concluded that with the reefs, the “yield of gold decreased with
depth, after a certain small limit when mining in the solid matrix was attempted” (Mining
Commission 1857, p. 5). His conclusion was based on the marked depletion of gold values from
the near-surface, oxidised zone to below the water table in some very rich reefs, as well as analogy
with similar situations at gold mines in other parts of the world, as emphasised in the
pronouncements of Murchison. In this case, analogy with other gold deposits was clouded by the
fact that some of these, particularly in South America, were sulphide lode deposits, rather than
gold-only quartz reefs. In the sulphide deposits there was typically marked supergene enrichment
of gold near the surface, but at depth the gold grade reverted to its primary value in the sulphide
ore and in many cases was also highly refractory and difficult to extract. Mining engineer Evan
Hopkins (1801?–1888), who for a time was associated with the Port Phillip and Colonial Gold
Mining Company and familiar with the South American gold mines, fell into this trap when he also
predicted that the bedrock deposits in Victoria would not pay at depth.
The long-awaited final report of the Victorian Mining Commission was released in August
1863 and widely reported and commented on in the press. The report presented numerous
recommendations on the management and development of the goldfields, based on the
Commissioners’ observations and accounts by mining wardens and witnesses from the mining
industry. On the question of depth to which gold might continue in quartz reefs, the report favoured
the view of McCoy that gold decreased with depth. However, possibly influenced by the counter
view of Selwyn, the statement of this conclusion was so qualified and obtuse as to be completely
confusing (Royal Mining Commission 1863). Regarding comparisons with other world deposits, it
was generally decided that the gold deposits of Australia were so anomalous that ‘geological
induction did probably not apply’ (Mining Commission 1857, p. 5). Unphased by the confusion
and ‘expert’ advice that reef mining could be ‘ruinous’, practical miners continued downwards,
ultimately providing the evidence that the gold did continue to great depth.
The NSW and Victorian governments were obviously very interested in the gold to depth
debate as it dramatically affected their total gold resources. By 1869 at least twelve Victorian reef
mines had reached depths of 500 feet (152 meters) or more and the Secretary of Mines, Robert
Brough Smyth (1830–1889), noted that

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
424
the yields at different depths has reference to the mines of this colony, and proves sufficiently that we
have no cause to fear that our reefs will cease to yield gold at any depths to which we shall be able to
penetrate (Brough Smyth 1869, p. 263).
In 1875, the New South Wales Government offered a reward of £1,000 to the first reef gold mine
to reach a vertical depth of 800 feet (244 meters) in payable ore. The reward was won by the Great
Victoria Gold Mining Co. at Adelong in southern NSW in January 1877, when its workings reached
820 feet (250 meters) in ore grading 1.65 ounces of gold per ton (Slee 1876, p. 116). When the
main phase of reef mining at Bendigo ended in 1920 there were eleven mines deeper than 1,000
meters with the deepest, the Victoria Quartz Mine, at 1,406 meters (J. Lerk pers. comm. 2020; Lerk
1991; Figure 7).
Figure 7. Miners working a quartz reef at the Victoria Quartz Mining Co. at a depth of 1,297 meters, in 1900. At the time
this was the deepest gold mine in the world. On the right is Mining Inspector William Grainger. Miners are W. Healey,
Frederick Smith and J. Beveridge, man on left not identified, but probably the shift boss.
Photo taken by Vincent Kelly, courtesy James Lerk collection.
During the investigations of the Victorian Mining Commission one of the employees,
George Henry Frederick Ulrich (1830–1900), had taken special interest in the origin of the gold
reefs. Ulrich had trained at the Clausthal Mining School and was eminently qualified in geology
and mineralogy. He observed that the reefs lay in the strike of the sedimentary rocks, but that they
were irregular along strike and at depth, making for unpredictable mining. He described examples
at Maryborough and Bendigo where reefs tapered and disappeared only to reappear along strike or
at depth. Ulrich also described the mineralogy of the reefs noting the high purity of the gold, as
well as documenting in detail the various crystal forms, nuggets and distribution of gold within the
reefs. He rejected the theories of molten and fluid emplacement and instead hypothesised on
electromagnetic transfer of atomic gold from depth through the quartz mass, but wisely left the
question open until more evidence was forthcoming (Birch and Darragh 2015, p. 20). Useful

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
425
practical observations were also made by Henry A. Thompson a mining engineer familiar with the
Victorian gold reefs. Based on the characteristics of many of the veins, he favoured a replacement
process of ore formation, akin to the lateral secretion theory in which the mineral contents of the
veins are derived from the enclosing rocks. He contended that the replacement involved atom by
atom substitution of elements in the host rock by the vein elements, in the same way that one metal
can be chemically replaced by another. He also drew attention to the wall rock alteration, noting
that productive veins were seldom found in hard crystalline rock, but rather in rocks that had
undergone ‘decomposition’ (Thompson 1869).
6.2 Host rocks and slate vs granite
With the advent of reef mining or mining ‘in matrix’, more attention was focussed on the host rocks
for gold mineralisation. Most of the early alluvial gold rushes in the Bathurst region or Hill End
Trough of central New South Wales and in Central Victoria were in areas of deformed and
metamorphosed sedimentary rocks (the slate or ‘schistose’ rocks) containing gold-bearing quartz
veins. Later alluvial discoveries were made in dominantly granite terrain, for example in the
Braidwood-Araluen area southeast of Sydney and at the Rocky River and Timbarra fields in New
England. There was a resulting debate as to whether slate or granite rocks were the best host or
source rocks for gold (Davison 1858; Clarke 1858). Interestingly, aspects of this debate continued
into the late twentieth century (e.g., McQueen and Perkins 1996; Mustard 2001).
W. B. Clarke had made the early observation that ‘hornblendic’ or ‘syenitic’ granite,
particularly in the ‘transmutated’ or ‘disintegrated’ form, appeared to be an important host rock for
gold. In his description of the geology and gold occurrence in the Araluen-Braidwood region he
described dykes and zones of ‘transmutated’ granite and ‘porphyry’ in the granite intrusions and
came close to proposing that mineralised ‘quartz threads and dykes’ were the result of ‘segregation,
chemical affinity, galvanic or other forces (Clarke 1858; 1860, pp. 46–63). Clarke also noted that
gold in the granite commonly occurred with pyrite as lode or disseminated style mineralisation and
was concentrated as fine ‘gunpowder’ alluvial gold as the result of weathering of large volumes of
the altered and mineralised granite. The goldfield areas of central Victoria with meta-sediment
hosted quartz reefs also had numerous granite intrusions and there was speculation that the granite
played some role in the introduction of the gold (e.g., Thompson 1869).
In 1869 the then current theories and ideas on the origin of gold in the Victorian quartz veins
were summarised by Brough Smyth in his classic volume The Goldfields and Mineral Districts of
Victoria (Brough Smyth 1869). These ‘theories’ included: igneous injection of molten silica with
gold; aqueous deposition from the surface; sublimation processes in fissures; electro-chemical
transfer of gold into the reefs; and chemical replacement. With the extensive reef mining, a large
body of detailed observational data had been accumulated and this was used to support, modify, or
disprove the various existing theories. The laminated (stylolitic) nature of some reefs was used to
reject an igneous injection theory. Fissure filling by sublimation or aqueous deposition was
considered problematic given the thickness and extent of many of the quartz reefs and the
impossibility of maintaining large open spaces in rock at great depth and pressure. Chemical
replacement of pre-existing material in situ, with derivation of the vein constituents from the host
rocks was appealing, as it avoided the problem of open fissure filling. However, it could not account
for the clear structural control on many veins that appeared to infill fissures crosscutting different
rock types.
As more detailed observations were collated there was a growing realisation that not all
bedrock gold deposits were formed in the same way. The Victorian quartz reef deposits were just
one type, part of a group now referred to as ‘orogenic gold’ deposits. Lode and disseminated gold
in altered granite were a different style, now referred to as ‘intrusion related gold’ deposits.

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
426
6.3 The pyrites problem
Routine assaying of tailings from reef mining, an innovation pioneered by Henry Thompson at the
Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Company, Clunes in Victoria, revealed that significant gold
was not being recovered by the existing processing techniques. Experiments at Clunes in 1861
discovered that the pyrite or ‘mundic’ associated with the gold contained fine gold particles that
escaped extraction by mercury amalgamation (Woodland 2001). Essentially the gold was locked
in the pyrite. Over the next three decades scientific observation and experimental treatment by
metallurgists and practical mill managers led to the development of new processing methods to
overcome the pyrites problem (McQueen 2012). Methods evolved from: concentration and finer
grinding of the pyrite to release the gold for amalgamation; through roasting to break down the
pyrite; and to chemical treatments to extract the fine gold particles into solution, including by
chlorination and eventually cyanidation. As centralised, custom smelting of copper and lead ores
was introduced in Australia, pyritic gold ores could also be treated by blending with these ores and
extracting the gold into the copper or lead matte. By the early twentieth century effective treatment
was available for most pyritic and refractory gold ores. This achievement ultimately involved
transfer of expertise and ideas between metallurgists, engineers, chemists and inventors across
Australia and around the world.
7. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
The discovery of gold in Australia had a major influence on theory and knowledge of global gold
occurrence and it also led to many practical developments in gold prospecting and mining. The
existing concept that gold was restricted to certain meridional mountain chains and to either their
eastern or western slopes quickly proved untenable. Sequential discoveries from south to north in
eastern Australia, followed by discoveries across the north and particularly into Western Australia,
clearly indicated that gold mineralisation was not restricted to ‘Silurian’ or early Palaeozoic rocks.
By 1900 it was apparent that some of the largest deposits in Australia, including the Golden Mile
at Kalgoorlie, could be found in the oldest Archaean rocks. The known varieties of potential host
rocks and likely ore-forming processes were also extended. The idea promoted by Murchison, that
gold and other metal deposit formation was related to specific geological periods was progressively
abandoned. Later thinking stressed the importance of appropriate geological environments for the
genesis of certain ores, irrespective of their age. Subsequently, the significance of crustal evolution
through geological time re-emerged, together with the concept of metallogenic epochs favourable
for certain groups of ores (e.g., Lindgren 1933; Jacques et al. 2002).
Practical demonstration destroyed the advice that gold in bedrock reefs could not be
economically mined and disproved the theory that the gold grade decreased with depth. The latter
had some basis in fact near surface, but eventually it was realised that this was due to surface
weathering, chemical leaching and residual concentration of gold as a secondary process. The same
process also accounted for evidence suggestive of descending ‘atmospheric’ fluids being
responsible for the deposition of gold. By the 1870s it was proven beyond doubt that with the
appropriate technology, reef gold could be economically mined and to great depth.
The relative significance of scientific theory and practical action in the discovery of gold in
Australia became central to an inquiry held by the New South Wales Legislative Council in 1853
on the priority of gold discovery in relation to reward claims (NSW Legislative Assembly 1853).
To some extent, the decision on priority hinged on deciding which discoveries indicated ‘payable’
gold. By this time, Edward Hargraves had already persuaded the Government to give him a reward
of £5,000 as the finder of ‘payable’ gold. This was challenged by William and James Tom and John
Lister who had actually found the payable gold and had not been acknowledged by Hargraves.
Other potential contenders for priority of discovery included Strzelecki, W. B. Clarke, and William
Tipple Smith. Lhotsky was ignored and the shepherd, Hugh McGregor, had disappeared and was
conveniently discounted. William Tipple Smith had unsuccessfully asserted his claim but died just
before the official inquiry (Silver 1986). The result of the inquiry was that Hargraves was awarded

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
427
an additional £4,000 and the Toms and John Lister received £1,000 between them for assisting
Hargraves, but not for the discovery (Commission). Clarke was initially awarded £500, later
increased to £1,000 near the end of 1853. In 1854, the Victorian Government made their own
awards to the first discoverers of gold. Hargraves received £2,000, Clarke £1,000 and £1,000 was
reserved for the local discoverers in Victoria (Moyal 2003, pp. 26–27).
In his book Australia and its Goldfields, published in 1855, Hargraves proclaimed and
promoted his practical role as the first discoverer of payable gold. He largely denigrated all previous
discoveries of gold as ‘accidental’ or purely ‘scientific’. He was especially disparaging of Clarke’s
discoveries and his scientific prediction of payable gold in eastern Australia, siding with Murchison
as the pre-eminent scientific predictor of gold. Although not claiming any scientific training,
Hargraves did make much of his alleged insightful recognition of the similarities between the
Bathurst region and the goldfields of California as his motivation to return to Australia and find
gold. Regarding this analogy, both Enoch Rudder and Simpson Davison, his former partners in
California, claimed they had noticed the similarities and regularly discussed them with Hargraves.
All three partners decided to return to Australia, possibly all with the aim to find gold (Rudder
1861, p. 34). Rudder departed San Francisco first on 15 October 1850, but unfortunately his ship,
the Rosetta Joseph, foundered on Elizabeth Reef north of Lord Howe Island on 1 December (Green
1850). Rudder and his two sons spent 10 days at sea in an open boat under rough conditions, before
arriving at Port Macquarie. He arrived in Sydney shortly after Hargraves, who had departed San
Francisco on 23 November. Simpson Davison had initially planned to return to Australia with
Hargraves, but was delayed by pressing business activities and mishaps, including the great San
Francisco fire of May 1851. Davison finally returned to Australia in September 1852 (Monaghan
1966, pp. 137–140). Once in Australia, Hargraves was reluctant to include his former partners in
his plan to find gold, and their delayed arrivals suited his purpose. Clearly, he wanted the glory of
discovery for himself.
After Hargraves was appointed a roving Crown Commissioner of the goldfields, he was
decidedly unsuccessful in identifying new goldfields. Despite his overblown self-promotion and
inability to find more gold, Hargraves did play an important role in gold discovery by successfully
initiating the first gold rush, which attracted the numerous diggers who found the payable gold.
Once initiated, the rush forced the hand of the NSW Government to allow and legislate controls on
gold mining. The established administrative pattern was then largely adopted by the other colonies.
Importantly, Hargraves also introduced the Californian cradle as a more effective tool for extracting
alluvial gold. Later, other techniques for working larger volumes of auriferous alluvium, such as
sluicing, were introduced and developed by the practical miners, particularly those of Cornish,
German and Chinese tradition (e.g., Lawrence and Davies 2015).
Clarke considered Hargraves a lucky imposter. He was supported in this view by Captain
Philip Parker King, who, as official editor of the government gold surveys, had the task of reading
and editing the reports from both Clarke and Hargraves (Moyal 2003, p. 18, p. 382, Philip Parker
King to Clarke). King was a member of the Legislative Council and together with fellow member
James Macarthur, voted against the successful motion to make such a large reward to Hargraves as
the gold discoverer (NSW Legislative Council 1853). Clarke had the consolation that the Victorian
Government named him as the first discoverer of gold in Australia as part of their award. This
recognition at least allowed him to reassert the importance of science in searching for gold and in
understanding its occurrence. Clarke was certainly the most persistent scientific discoverer of gold.
A practical outcome from the gold rush for Clarke was that it enabled him to obtain some long
sought for Government funding, as well as some leave from his parish duties, through his two
government sponsored gold surveys between 1851 and 1853. This allowed him to extend his
broader geological knowledge of New South Wales, with resulting great benefit to the
understanding of the geology of eastern Australia. As time passed Clarke’s role in the discovery of
gold, particularly his efforts in mapping the gold occurrence and assisting prospectors with
scientifically based practical advice, was more widely recognised. In 1861 he was awarded a

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
428
gratuity of £3,000 by the NSW Government for the publication of his researches, and granted a
small annual pension of £200 (Moyal 2003, pp. 28–29).
Roderick Murchison (Figure 8) never visited Australia, but he received great kudos from the
discovery of its gold. Murchison made theoretical predictions of payable gold based on his
geological observations in the Urals, knowledge of eastern Australia gleaned from Lhotsky,
Strzelecki and others, and the early reported signs of gold and the actual specimens he received
from William Tipple Smith. This information was woven into a theoretical framework of analogy
that he adopted from the ideas of Humboldt and Élie de Beaumont. Murchison became a self-styled
international authority on gold, developing a set of ‘golden constants’ to account for its global
occurrence. These constants could be summarised as: alluvia derived from Silurian rocks occurring
in meridional mountain chains and exhibiting evidence of metamorphism and igneous intrusion
(Stafford 1989). He maintained his advice that reef mining would not generally prove economic,
certainly not to any significant depth.
Figure 8. Sir Roderick
Impey Murchison, circa
1860. Courtesy British
Geological Survey
Photograph P 575783
Murchison played an important role in the discovery of gold in Australia and the resulting
gold rushes, through his ability, as the accepted, metropolitan ‘gold expert’, to influence scientific
and public opinion. He was also able to exert some influence with the decision makers in
government. His scientific status was used to give his pronouncements special credibility and
although he did modify some of his theory in the light of new discoveries he stuck to the key
elements. Paradoxically, Murchison’s advice from his theoretical convictions had some major

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
429
practical benefits. His advice that only alluvial gold could be profitably mined encouraged the early
prospectors in Australia to largely ignore the reefs and fan out across virgin territory in search of
the ‘alluvial’. Discovering and mining alluvial gold favoured individual or small groups of miners
who had limited capital, minimal experience, and access to only simple technology. A throng of
hopeful immigrants fitting these criteria flocked to the gold rushes. This rapidly led to new gold
discoveries and an injection of wealth across the general population, which triggered an economic
and social revolution in the development of Australia.
As alluvial gold production from Siberia, California and Australia began to increase, there
was concern in Britain that this huge addition to gold stocks would undermine the monetary system.
Murchison responded by advising that there would be a natural limit, defined by the extent of
Silurian rocks capable of hosting gold and the restriction to economically mineable alluvial deposits
(Stafford 1989). He predicted correctly that any excess would be absorbed by expanding commerce
or put to good use developing and populating the colonies. Murchison did not foresee the great
advances in mining and processing technology that would allow profitable deep reef mining to
ultimately produce much more gold than his ‘alluvial’. By the time most of his other theoretical
convictions and ‘golden constants’ of gold occurrence were superseded Murchison had died. He
thus avoided any ignominy of witnessing their demise.
Many characters played a role in the early Australian gold discoveries. Quite a few were
pivotal in key events or in promoting specific aspects. However, Clarke, Hargraves and Murchison
probably had the greatest overall influence on nurturing the fundamental discovery that led to
development of the Australian gold-mining industry—each in their own different way.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author acknowledges the National Library of Australia and the Geological Survey of New South Wales
for access to information, particularly through their online services (including ‘Trove’ and ‘Digs’). The State
Library of New South Wales, the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney and the British Geological Survey
allowed the use of images held in their collections. James Lerk and Robert Ashley provided helpful comments
on an early draft of the article and assisted in locating some images. Jim Woolnough is thanked for directing
me to information on Enoch Rudder. Reviewers Barry Cooper and Carol Bacon provided useful comments
and suggestions. John Diemer is thanked for his careful editorial assistance.
REFERENCES
Aalto, K. R. 2017. Philip Tyson’s 1849 study of the Californian gold prospects. Earth Sciences History 36:
30–40, DOI: 17704/1944-6178-36.1.30.
Adams, F. W. 1954. Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences. New York: Dover Publications, 309
p.
Aitkin, R. 1988. Talbot and Clunes Conservation Study for the Shire of Talbot and Clunes, Part B Background
Information. Ministry for Planning and Environment, Victoria, Unpublished report 556 p.
Andrews, A. E. J. (ed.) 1979. A Journey from Sydney to the Australian Alps by Dr John Lhotsky. Hobart:
Blubber Head Press, 279 p.
Anon. 1837. ‘No title’. The Australian, 4 July 1837, p. 2.
Anon. 1847. Domestic intelligence. Colonial Times, 8 June 1847, p. 3.
Anon. 1849a, The golden discovery. The Argus, 31 January 1849, p. 3.
Anon. 1849b. Gold. Bathurst Advocate, 17 February 1849, p. 2.
Anon. 1849c. Domestic intelligence. The Argus, 9 February 1849, p. 2.
Anon. 1849d. Reported discoveries of gold and silver. Adelaide Tiems, 5 November 1849, p. 3.
Anon. 1851. Discovery of an extensive goldield. Bathurst Free Press, 10 May 1851, p. 4.
Anon. 1856. District news—Wellington. Bathurst Free Press, 26 April 1856, p. 2.
Anon. 1931. The discovery of gold—The ghosts of 1851. Kalgoorlie Miner, 12 January 1931, p. 2.
Birch, W. D., and Darragh, T. A. 2015. George Henry Frederick Ulrich (1830–1900) pioneer mineralogist and
geologist in Victoria. The Royal Society of Victoria 127: 17–38.

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
430
Bischof, K. G. 1847–1855. Lehrbruch der Chemischen und Physikalischen Geologie, Volumes 1–3.
Supplement by F. Zirkel, 1871. Bonn: A. Marcus. (Translated by B. H Paull and J. Durmmond 1854–
1855 as Elements of Chemical and Physical Geology, 2 Volumes. London: Cavendish Society.
Branagan, D. F. 1992. Samuel Stutchbury and the Australian Museum. In: R. O. Chalmers Commemorative
Papers (Mineralogy, Meteorites, Geology), edited by L. Sutherland, 99–110. Records of the
Australian Museum, Supplement 15.
Branagan, D. F. 2010. The Russian Expedition’s Sydney visit in 1820 and some forgotten Blue Mountains
names. Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 143: 1–28.
Branagan, D. F., and Vallance, T. G. 1976. Samuel Stutchbury. In: Dictionary of Biography 6, 1851–1890,
edited by B. Nairn, 216–217. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Brough Smyth, R. 1869. The Goldfields and Mineral Districts of Victoria. Facsimile reprint 1980, Carlton:
Queensberry Hill Press, 644 p.
Clarke, P. 2000. Mrs Macquarie’s earrings. National Library of Australia News 10(10): 3–6.
Clarke W. B. 1843. Domestic intelligence—Progress of scientific enquiry in Australia. Sydney Morning
Herald, 6 April 1843, p. 2.
Clarke, W. B. 1847. Geology—Comparisons of Russia and Australia. Sydney Morning Herald, 28 September
1847, p. 2.
Clarke W. B. 1848. On the occurrence of trilobites in the Protozoic rocks of New South Wales with remarks
on the probable age of the formation in which they occur. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,
London 4: 63–66.
Clarke, W. B. 1850. Letter from W. B. Clarke to Adam Sedgwick 6 February 1850. In: The Web of Science:
The scientific correspondence of the Rev. W. B. Clarke, Australia’s Pioneer Geologist, Two Volumes,
by A. Moyal, 271. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 1340 p.
Clarke, W. B. 1851. Plain Statements and Practical Hints Respecting the Discovery and Working of Gold in
Australia. Sydney: Sands and Kenny.
Clarke, W. B. 1856. The discovery of gold in Australia. Sydney Morning Herald, 3 September 1856, p. 2 (a
compilation of extracts of reports from Clarke’s survey of the northern goldfields).
Clarke, W. B. 1858. Gold in granite. Sydney Morning Herald, 15 June 1858, p. 3.
Clarke, W. B. 1860. Researches in the Southern Goldfields. Melbourne: Reading and Wellbank.
Cooper, B. J. 2011. Geologists and the Burra copper boom, South Australia, 1845-1851. In: History of
Research in Mineral Resources, edited by Ortiz, J. E., Puche, O., Rabano I. and. Mazadiego, L. F,.
Cuadernos del Museo Geominero, 13. Instituto Geologico y Mindero de Espana, Madrid, pp.193-200.
Collie, M., and Diemer, J. 2004. Murchison's Wanderings in Russia. His Geological Exploration of Russia in
Europe and the Ural Mountains, 1840 and 1841. Keyworth: British Geological Survey.
Davison, S. 1854a. To E. H. Hargraves Esq. The Empire, 8 April 1854, p. 6.
Davison, S. 1854b. The new theory of the origin of gold. The Empire, 14 June 1854, p. 3.
Davison, S. 1858. Gold mining on the Rocky River. Sydney Morning Herald, 7 June 1858, p. 3.
Drexel J. F. 1982. Mining in South Australia, Special Publication 3. Adelaide: South Australian Department
of Mines and Energy, 303 p.
Élie de Beaumont, L. 1831. Researches on some of the revolutions which have taken place on the surface of
the globe. Philosophical Magazine, New Series 10(58): 241–264.
Élie de Beaumont, L. 1847. Note sur les émanations volcaniques et métallifères. Soc. Gèol. France Bull., 2nd
series 4(2): 1249–1334.
Flett, J. 1977. A Pictorial History of the Victorian Goldfields. Melbourne: Rigby. Introduction pp. ix-xxii.
Green, J. H. 1850. Wreck of the Rosetta Joseph. Shipping Gazette and Sydney General Trade List, 21
December 1850, p. 332.
Green, T. 1968. The World of Gold. London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 242 p.
Gregory, A. C. 1852. The settlers’ expedition to the northward from Perth, under Mr Assistant-Surveyor A.
C. Gregory. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 22: 66.
Grey, H. G. 1848. Memorandum to Under Secretary Hawes 13 November 1848 G13/11 In: A Fool’s Gold?
Appendix 8, by L. R. Silver (1986), 125. Milton: Jacaranda Press.
Hardy, J. R. 1851. Letter from J. R. Hardy to the Colonial Secretary, 5 June 1851. In: History of the Australian
Gold Rushes—By Those Who Were There, by N. Kessing (1981), 26–29. London, Sydney: Angus and
Robertson.
Hargraves, E. H. 1855. Australia and Its Goldfields. London: H. Ingram and Co., 240 p.
Higgins, M. 1990. Gold and Water: A History of Sofala and the Turon Goldfield. Bathurst: Robstar Pty Ltd.
Hough, R. M., Butt, C. R. M., and Fischer-Bühner. J. 2009. The crystallography, metallography and
composition of gold. Elements 5(5): 297–302.

KENNETH G. McQUEEN
431
Humboldt, Alexander von. 1823. A Geognostical Essay on the Superposition of Rocks in Both Hemispheres.
London: Longmans, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 482 p.
Humboldt, Alexander von. 1858. Cosmos: Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Volume 1,
Translated by E. C. Otte from the 1858 Harper and Brothers edition of Cosmos, Volume 1, Project
Gutenberg EBook, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/14565/ pg14565-images.html
Hunt, T. Sterry. 1873. The origin of metalliferous deposits. American Institute of Mining Engineers
Transactions 1: 431–426.
Jaques, A. L., Jaireth, S., and Walshe, J. L. 2002. Mineral systems of Australia: An overview of resources,
settings and processes. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 49: 623–660.
Kessing, N. 1981. History of the Australian Gold Rushes—By Those Who Were There. London; Sydney:
Angus and Robertson, 412 p.
Lawrence, S., and Davies, P. 2015. Innovation, adaptation and technology as habitus: The origins of alluvial
gold mining methods in Australia. Archaeology in Oceania 50 (Supplement): 20–29. DOI:
10.1002/arco.5047
Lerk, J. A. 1991. Bendigo Mining History 1851–1954. Bendigo, Victoria: Bendigo Trust, 79 p.
Lindlay, J. M. 1890. Description of the Mitchell’s Creek freehold gold estate. Annual Report on the New South
Wales Department of Mines for 1890, pp. 14–16.
Lindgren, W. 1933. Mineral Deposits 4th edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 930 p.
Liversidge, A. 1893a. On the origin of gold nuggets. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New
South Wales 27: 303–343.
Liversidge, A. 1893b. On the crystallization of gold in hexagonal forms. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal
Society of New South Wales 27: 344–346.
Lyell, C. 1852. A Manual of Elementary Geology, Chapter XXXVIII, Mineral Veins. London: John Murray.
MacArthur, E. 1856. Mining Commission. The Age, 7 May 1856, p. 2.
McQueen, K. 2009. Quidong Mineral Field, NSW: An intriguing discovery of W. B. Clarke. Journal of
Australasian Mining History 7: 74–99.
McQueen, K. 2012. Early developments in treating pyritic and refractory gold ores in Australia. Journal of
Australasian Mining History 10: 88–102.
McQueen, K., and Barnes, R. 2010. The Maitland Bar nugget: A key link to the gold rush heritage of New
South Wales. Journal of Australasian Mining History 8: 88–105.
McQueen, K. G., and Perkins, C. 1995. The nature and origin of a granitoid-related gold deposit at Dargue’s
Reef, Major’s Creek, New South Wales. Economic Geology 90: 1646–1662.
Mining Commission. 1857. The mining resources of Victoria—Second progress report. Extracts in The Age,
22 October 1857, p. 5.
Monaghan, J. 1966. Australians and the Gold Rush: California and Down Under, 1849–1854. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 317 p.
Moyal, A. 2003. The Web of Science: The Scientific Correspondence of the Rev. W. B. Clarke, Australia’s
Pioneer Geologist, two volumes. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 1340 p.
Murchison, R. I. 1844. Address to the Royal Geographical Society. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society
14: xiv-cxxvii.
Murchison, R. I. 1846. A brief review of the classification of the sedimentary rocks of Cornwall. Transactions
of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall 6: 317–316.
Murchison, R. I. 1848. Letter to Early Grey, 5 November 1848. In: A Fool’s Gold?, Appendix 5, by L. R.
Silver (1986), 122–123. Milton: Jacaranda Press.
Murchison, R. I. 1849. Letter Murchison to Smith, 29 June 1849. In: A Fool’s Gold?, Appendix 13, by L. R.
Silver (1986), 128–129. Milton: Jacaranda Press.
Murchison, R. I. 1858. Letter from Sir R. Murchison to H. Merivale, 27 March 1858. In: Copy of Despatch to
Lord Stanley 12 July 1858, printed by the Geological Survey, Victoria, 14 February 1860.
Mustard, R. 2001. Granite-hosted gold mineralization at Timbarra, northern New South Wales, Australia.
Mineralium Deposita 36: 542–562
NSW Legislative Assembly. 1853. Claims to the priority of discovery of gold and silver in Australia.
Proceedings of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 17 pp.
NSW Legislative Assembly. 1861. Evidence before the Select Committee on the Claims of the Rev. W. B
Clarke. Votes and Proceedings of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Volume 2: 1163.
Pittman, E. F. 1901. Mineral Resources of New South Wales. Sydney: Government Printer.
Playfair, J. 1802. Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth. London: Cadell and Davies, Edinburgh:
William Greech, 457 p.

GOLD OCCURRENCE IN AUSTRALIA
432
Royal Mining Commission. 1863. Character and approximate extent of our mineral resources and best mode
of developing the same. Report of the Royal Mining Commission Appointed to Enquire into the
Condition and Prospects of the Gold Fields of Victoria, Item 122, pp. 40–41.
Rudder, E. W. 1851. To the editor. Sydney Morning Herald, 4 April 1851, p. 2.
Rudder, E. W. 1861. Incidents Connected with the Discovery of Gold in New South Wales in the year 1851.
Sydney: Frederick White, 41 p.
Selwyn, A. R. C. 1858. Letter from Selwyn to Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria, 13 July 1858. In: Copy of
Report of the Geological Surveyor, 13 July 1858, Victoria: Geological Survey, 14 February 1860.
Silver, L. R. 1986. A Fool’s Gold? Milton: Jacaranda Press, 170 p.
Slee, W. H. J. 1876. Report on the Great Victoria Gold-mining Co. Annual Report of the New South Wales
Department of Mines for 1876. Sydney: Government Printer.
Stafford, R. A. 1988. The long arm of London; Sir Roderick Murchison and imperial science in Australia. In:
Australian Science in the Making, edited by R. W. Home, 69–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Stafford, R. A. 1989. Scientist of Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stein, F. W. 1830. Mineralogische Bemerkungen auf einer zwölftägigen Reise von Sidney in Nue-Sud-Wales
über Parramatta nach den sogenannten Blauen Bergen, report in St Petersburg archives translated and
published in part in Windle, K., Govor, E., and Massov, A. 2016. From St Petersburg to Port Jackson
(2016), Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2016, pp. 26–28. Also, English
translation in: Branagan, D. F. 2010. The Russian Expedition’s Sydney visit in 1820 and some
forgotten Blue Mountains names. Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales
143: 1–28.
Strnad, J. 1991. The discovery of diamonds in Siberia and other northern regions: Personal notes. Earth
Sciences History 10(2): 227–246.
Strzelecki, P. E. 1845. Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land: Accompanied by a
Geological Map, Sections and Diagrams, and Figures of the Organic Remains. London: Printed for
Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 462 p.
Strzelecki, P. E. 1853. Letter to James Macarthur from P. E. Strzelecki, reproduced in claims to the priority
of gold and silver in Australia. Proceedings of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 5 October
1853, and included in Strzelecki, P. E. 1856. Gold and Silver: A Supplement to Strzelecki’s Physical
Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and
Longmans, 33 p.
Strzelecki, P. E. 1856. Gold and Silver: A Supplement to Strzelecki’s Physical Description of New South Wales
and Van Diemen's Land. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 33 p.
Stutchbury, S. 1851. Letter from Stutchbury to Governor Sir Charles Fitz Roy, 19 May 1851. In: History of
the Australian Gold Rushes—By Those Who Were There, by N. Kessing (1981), 16–19. London;
Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Thompson, H. A. 1869. Quoted in: Brough Smyth, R. 1869. The Goldfields and Mineral Districts of Victoria.
Facsimile reprint 1980, Carlton: Queensberry Hill Press, pp. 237–241.
Ward, J. 1852. Tasmanian Gold Field. Launceston Examiner, 28 February 1852, p. 3.
Werner, A. G. 1791. Neue Theorie von der Entstehung der Gänge. Freiberg: Gedr. und verlegt in der
Gerlachischen Buchdr., 256 p.
Woodland, J. 2001. Sixteen Tons of Clunes Gold: A History of the Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining
Company. Clunes: Clunes Museum, 119 p.
Young, R. 2015. This Wonderful Strange Country: Rev. W. B. Clarke, Colonial Scientist. Thirroul, NSW:
Robert Young.