A NEW RUSH.

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A NEW RUSH.

"And there was gathering in hot haste."

When gold was first discovered at Stockyard Creek, Griffiths, one of
the prospectors, came to me with the intention of registering the
claim, under the impression that I was Mining Registrar. He showed me
a very good sample of gold. As I had not then been appointed
registrar, he had to travel sixty miles further before he could
comply with the necessary legal formalities. Then the rush began.
Old diggers came from all parts of Victoria, New South Wales,
Queensland, and New Zealand; also men who had never dug before, and
many who did not intend to dig--pickpockets, horse thieves, and
jumpers. The prospectors' claim proved the richest, and the jumpers
and the lawyers paid particular attention to it. The trail of the
old serpent is over everything. The desire of the jumpers was to
obtain possession of the rich claim, or of some part of it; and the
lawyers longed for costs, and they got them. The prospectors paid,
and it was a long time before they could extricate their claim from
the clutches of the law. They found the goldfield, and they also
soon found an unprofitable crop of lawsuits growing on it. They were
called upon to show cause before the warden and the Court of Mines
why they should not be deprived of the fruit of their labours. The
fact of their having discovered gold, and of having pegged out and
registered their claim, could not be denied; but then it was argued
by counsel most learned in mining law that they had done something
which they should have omitted to do, or had omitted to do something
else which they should have done, frail human beings as they were,
and therefore their claim should be declared to belong to some
Ballarat jumper. I had to sit and listen to such like legal logic
until it made me sick, and ashamed of my species. Of course, justice
was never mentioned, that was out of the question; if law and justice
don't agree, so much the worse for justice.
Gold was next found at Turton's Creek, which proved one of the
richest little gullies ever worked by diggers. It was discovered by
some prospectors who followed the tracks which Mr. Turton had cut
over the scrubby mountains, and so they gratefully gave his name to
the gully, but I never heard that they gave him any of the gold which
they found in it. A narrow track from Foster was cut between high
walls of impenetrable scrub, and it soon became like a ditch full of
mud, deep and dangerous. If the diggers had been assured that they
would find heaven at the other end of it, they would never have tried
to go, the prospect of eternal happiness having a much less attraction
for them than the prospect of gold; but the sacred thirst made them
tramp bravely through the slough. The sun and wind never dried the
mud, because it was shut in and overshadowed by the dense growth of
the bush. All tools and provisions were carried through it on the
backs of horses, whose legs soon became caked with mud, and the hair
was taken off them as clean as if they had been shaved with a razor.
Most of them had a short life and a hard one.
The digging was quite shallow, and the gully was soon rifled of the
gold. At this time there was a mining registrar at Foster, as the
new diggings at Stockyard Creek were named, and some men, after
pegging out their claim at Turton's Creek, went back down the ditch
to register them at Foster. It was a great mistake. It was neither
the time nor the place for legal forms or ceremony. Time was of the
essence of the contract, and they wasted the essence. Other and
wiser men stepped on to their ground while they were absent,
commenced at once to work vigorously, and the original peggers, when
they returned, were unable to dislodge them. Peter Wilson pegged out
a claim, and then rode away to register it. He returned next day and
found two men on it who had already nearly worked it out.
"This claim is mine, mates," said Peter; "I pegged it out yesterday,
and I have registered it. You will have to come out."
One of the men looked up at Peter and said, "Oh! your name is Peter,
isn't it? I hear you are a fighting man. Well, you just come down
off that bare-legged horse, and I'll kill you in a couple of minutes,
while I take a spell."
"It's no use your talking that way; you'll see I'll have the law on
you, and you'll have to pay for it," replied Peter.
"You can go, Peter, and fetch the law as soon as you like. I don't
care a tinker's curse for you or the law; all I want is the profits,
and I'm going to have them."
This profane outlaw and his mate got the profits, cleared all the
gold out of Peter's claim, and took it away with them.
It was reported in Melbourne that there was no law or order at
Turton's Creek; that the diggers were treating the mining statutes
and regulations with contempt; that the gold went to the strong, and
the weakest went to the wall. Therefore, six of the biggest
policemen in Melbourne were selected, stretched out, and measured in
Russell Street barracks, and were then ordered to proceed to Turton's
Creek and vindicate the majesty of the law. They landed from the
steamer on the wharf at Port Albert, and, being armed with carbines
and revolvers, looked very formidable. They proceeded on their
journey in the direction of Foster, and it was afterwards reported
that they arrived at Turton's Creek, and finding everybody quiet and
peaceable, they came back again, bringing with them neither jumpers
nor criminals. It was said, however, that they never went any
further than the commencement of the ditch. They would naturally, on
viewing it, turn aside and camp, to recruit their energies and
discuss the situation. Although they were big constables, it did not
follow they were big fools. They said the Government ought to have
asphalted the ditch for them. It was unreasonable to expect men,
each six foot four inches in height, carrying arms and accoutrements,
which they were bound by the regulations to keep clean and in good
order, to plunge into that river of mud, and to spoil all their
clothes.
Turton's Creek was soon worked out, and before any professional
jumpers or lawyers could put their fingers in the pie, the plums were
all gone. The gully was prospected from top to bottom, and the hills
on both sides were tunnelled, but no more gold, and no reefs were
found. There was much speculation by geologists, mining experts, and
old duffers as to the manner in which the gold had contrived to get
into the creek, and where it came from; where it went to, the diggers
who carried it away in their pockets knew well enough.
The diggers dispersed; some went to Melbourne to enjoy their wealth;
some stayed at Foster to try to get more; some died from the extreme
enjoyment of riches suddenly acquired, and a few went mad. One of
the latter was brought to Palmerston, and remained there a day or two
on his way to the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum. Having an inborn thirst
for facts, I conversed with him from the wooden platform which
overlooks the gaol yard. He was walking to and fro, and talking very
cheerfully to himself, and to the world in general. He spoke well,
and had evidently been well educated, but his ideas were all in
pieces as it were, and lacked connection. He spoke very
disrespectfully of men in high places, both in England and the
Colonies; and remarked that Members of Parliament were the greatest
rascals on the face of the earth. No man of sound mind would ever
use such language as that.
Some years afterwards, while I was Collector of Customs at Port
Albert, I received a letter from Melbourne to the following purport:
"Yarra Bend Asylum,

"Strictly private and confidential
"Sir,--You are hereby ordered to take possession of and detain
every vessel arriving at Port Albert. You will immediately proceed
on board each of them, and place the broad arrow abaft the foremast
six feet above the deck. You will thus cut off all communication
with the British Empire. I may state that I am the lawful heir to
the title and estates of a Scottish dukedom, and am deprived of the
possession and enjoyment of my rightful station and wealth by the
machinations of a band of conspirators, who have found means to
detain me in this prison in order to enjoy my patrimony. You will
particularly observe that you are to hold no communication whatever
with the Governor of this colony, as he is the paid agent of the
conspirators, and will endeavour to frustrate all efforts to obtain
my rights. You will also be most careful to withhold all information
from the Duke of Dunsinane, who is a member of the junior branch of
my family, and at the head of the conspiracy. You will proceed as
soon as possible to enrol a body of men for the purpose of effecting
my deliverance by force of arms. As these men will require payment
for their services, you will enter the Bank of Victoria at Port
Albert, and seize all the money you will find there, the amount of
which I estimate at ten thousand pounds, which will be sufficient for
preliminary expenses. You will give, in my name, to the manager of
the bank, a guarantee in writing for repayment of the money, with
current rate of interest added, when I recover the dukedom and
estates. Be careful to explain to him that you take the money only
as a loan, and that will prevent the bank from laying any criminal
charge against you. Should anything of the kind be in contemplation,
you will be good enough to report progress to me as soon as possible,
and I will give you all necessary instructions as to your future
proceedings.
"I may mention that in seeking to obtain my title and estates, I am
influenced by no mean or mercenary considerations; my sole desire is
to benefit the human race. I have been employing all my leisure
hours during the last nine years in perfecting a system of philosophy
entirely new, and applicable to all times, to all nations, and to all
individuals. I have discovered the true foundation for it, which,
like all great inventions, is so simple that it will surprise the
world it was never thought of before. It is this: "Posito
impossibili sequitur quidlibet." My philosophy is founded on the
firm basis of the Impossible; on that you can build anything and
everything. My great work is methodical, divided into sections and
chapters, perfect in style, and so lucid in argument that he who runs
may read and be enlightened. I have counted the words, and they
number so far seven hundred and two thousand five hundred and
seventy-eight (702,578). Five years more will be required to
complete the work; I shall then cause it to be translated into every
language of the world, and shipped at the lowest rate of tonnage for
universal distribution gratis. This will ensure its acceptance and
its own beauty and intrinsic merits will secure its adoption by all
nations, and the result will be human happiness. It will supersede
all the baseless theories of science, religion, and morality which
have hitherto confounded the human intellect.
"Extract from my Magnum Opus.
"We may reasonably suppose that matter is primordially self-existent,
and that it imbued itself with the potentiality of life. It
therefore produced germs. A pair of germs coalesced, and formed a
somewhat discordant combination, the movements in which tended
towards divergence. They attracted and enclosed other atoms, and,
progressing through sleep and wakefulness, at last arrived at
complete satisfaction, or perfect harmonic combination. This
harmonic combination is death. We may say then, in brief, that
growth is simply discordant currents progressing towards harmony.
One question may be briefly noticed. It has been asked, when did
life first appear on the earth? We shall understand now that the
question is unnecessary. Life first appeared on the earth when the
earth first appeared as an unsatisfied atom seeking combination. The
question is rather, when did the inanimate first appear? It appeared
when the first harmonic combination was effected. The earth is
indeed to be considered as having grown up through the life that is
inherent in it. Man is the most concentrated and differentiated
outgrowth of that life. Mankind is, so to speak, the brain of the
earth, and is progressing towards the conscious guidance of all its
processes."
"Dunsinane."
It was not clear on what ground this noble duke based his authority
over me; but I had been so long accustomed to fulfil the behests of
lunatics of low degree that I was able to receive those of an
afflicted lord with perfect equanimity. But as I could not see that
my obedience would be rewarded with anything except death or
Pentridge, I refrained from action. I did not place the broad arrow
abaft of anything or anybody, nor did I make a levy on the cash in
the Bank of Victoria.

BOOK OF THE BUSH By GEORGE DUNDERDALE
 
Luckily for us there isn't much killing for gold going on, but up here there is a lot of jumping after the hard yacka has been done to get the overburden off spots.
I talked with one fella who had spent all day with his mate opening up a section, went home then came back the next day & some blokes he reckons it was at least 3-4 of them had hosed the lot into the hole then run A 4" dredge overnight & cleaned the whole lot out, the only other problem we have up here is cutting into the creek banks.
Forestry is onto it so their watching everywhere, all because people are making an absolute mess of the place. :mad:
 
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