Gold was first discovered in Australia in New South Wales in 1851 by a miner recently returned from the California Gold Rush.  He had noticed a similarity between California and the country side back home.  Making haste he returned to stake his claim before anyone else made the connection and beat him to it.  That same year, gold in even bigger quantities was discovered in neighbouring Victoria and the rush was on

For the princely sum of 30 shillings a month a prospector would be licensed to fence off 8sq feet of land on which to sink a shaft.  Right beside him would be a similar 8'x 8' allocation.  One might yield a million pounds worth of gold the other nothing

The rectangular shafts would be cut by experienced European miners such as the tin miners who flocked here from Cornwall.  The Chinese quickly followed and they being more superstitious, sank round shafts allowing no corners for evil spirits to lurk

The much prized alluvial gold quickly began to run out and the miners turned to more draconian devices to force the gold from the rock.  The water canon pumped about 10,000 litres of water a minute at tremendous pressure.   It had a box of rocks on the back as a counterbalance to prevent the nozzle from bouncing around and injuring its operator

Contained a massive gas powered engine.  Wood provided the fuel for the process and in so doing helped to de nude the area of indigenous box and iron bark trees.   Prior to the arrival of the miners,  iron bark wood was used to make boomerangs and it's bark to make huts called 'Williams'.  In a few short years the area was decimated, first the creeks and gullies then the forests, fortunately the latter are re-growing

Homesick Manchunians weren't the only ones naming places.  There are reefs named Cornish, Spanish, South American, Switzerland and Frenchman's,  a Turk's Hill and Chinaman's Flat.  On a more personal note Cranky Ned and Dirty Dick were real people.  More worryingly, Dead Man's Gully, Murdering Flat and Bung Eye Gully.  I could hope all these namers of places went home millionaires but truth be told it was a brutally hard life

A volunteer at the art gallery told me her mother remembered this dry creek bed flowing.  Were it to flood again the heavy boulders and chained iron cylinders filled with concrete would float.    I would love to know the significance of the decorations on the clay brick.  I only saw two names, Tracy and Daniel and no date

'Dingo Limbo' for the worlds oldest canine species. Their calls sent shivers down my spine

 2005 was a pivotal year for this former Dingo Farm, it's bankrupt owner died leaving what turned out to be 250 + dingoes mal nourished and in poor health.   They needed a buyer with deep pockets to buy the farm and agree to 36 requirement of the Department of Primary Industries.  Enter Tehree and Hamish Gordon who acquired he property in July that year with plans to restore the farm and make it a focal point for touring and education.

They were closed to visitors in January of 2006 but it is now (2018) described as 'a wildlife oasis full of love and dingoes'

The Great Northern Exploration Expedition

Mostyn Street peters out at a bush land park and the Burke and Wills monument.  It has stood on a hilltop dominating the town since 1861.  The previous year Robert O'Hara Burke a local policeman with no previous experience of exploration or the outback, was chosen to lead one from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria.  A young English doctor similarly qualified joined him as the expedition surveyor.   It was a disaster from the beginning but three men succeeded in being the first to cross the continent

On the way back Burke and Wills got separated from Hall who was found lost in the desert by a group of Aboriginals and survived to tell the tale.  Burke and Wills declined such help and perished Although Hall is mentioned on the monument it is Burke and Wills who became Australia's most famous explorers