wi uiMumuiaMui i ima sBessvf awtuim tm mnmmmti'^^^ 
 
 / j! 
 
 
 5y A c 
 
 drfJw^-^'it.AUiAyi(,>A/^ ix,^. A*:C'' -V -.4
 
 ■^ f 
 
 PacAA."^ 

 
 W--7 
 
 THE HI8T0RY OP BALLARAT.
 
 TH K 
 
 History oe Ballarat 
 
 KKOM TIIK 
 
 FIRST 1V48TORAL SETTLEMENT 
 
 PRESENT TIME. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BRAMWELL WITHEES 
 
 JOURNALIST. 
 
 WITH PLANS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND ORKilNAL DOCUMENTS. 
 
 liallarat : 
 Printed by F. VV. Niven and Co., 40 Stdrt Street. 
 
 mdccclxxxvii.
 
 L. N. 
 
 TO YOUR MEMORY, 
 
 ^y H S E 
 
 FRAGRANCE 
 
 "NO TIME CAN CHANGE," 
 
 I REVERENTLY DEDICATE 
 
 THIS RECORD 
 
 OF 
 
 CHANGE.
 
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 This little History, in eight chapters, only touches a few of the 
 more prominent incidents connected with pastoral settlement and 
 the gold discovery in the Ballarat district. The compiler has 
 seen the growth of the town from a mere collection of canvas 
 tents among the trees and on the grassy slopes and tlats of the 
 wild bush to its present condition. Less than 20 years ago there 
 was not a house where now stands this wealthy mine and farm- 
 girdled city, whose population is nearly equal to the united popu- 
 lations of Oxford and Cambridge, and exceeding by several 
 thousands the united populations of the cities of Winchester, 
 Canterbury, Salisbury, and Lichfield at the time of the gold dis- 
 covery. This is one .of the truths which are magnificently 
 stranger than fiction. 
 
 Some of the first workers in this mighty creation are still 
 here. Of the pastoral pioneers there are still with us the Messrs. 
 Learmonth, Pettett, Waldie, Winter, Fisken, Coghill, and Bacchus ; 
 and the Rev. Thomas Hastie is still living at the Manse at 
 Buninyong. 
 
 Down the valley of the Leigh, where the Sebastopol streets 
 and fences run over the eastern escarpment of the table land, may 
 still be seen the sandstone foundations of a station begun by the 
 Messrs. Yuille, whom the coming of the first hosts of gold-hunters 
 scared away from a place no longer fit, in their opinion, for 
 pastoral occupation. Those unfinished walls are in a paddock 
 overlooking a little carse of some four or five acres by the creek 
 side, owned by an Italian farmer, and close to the junction of 
 the Woolshed Creek with the main stream in the valley. On the 
 other side of the larger stream rise basaltic mounds, marked with 
 the pits and banks of the earlier miners. Like the trenches of an old 
 battle-field, these works of the digging armies of the past are now 
 grass-grown and spotted with wild flowers. All around, the open 
 lands of fifteen years ago are turned into streets and fields and 
 gardens. A little way lower down the valley, where the ground
 
 VUl PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 has a broad slope up from the left bank of the Leigh to the foot 
 of the ranges, was the Magpie rush of 1855-6. For a mile nearly 
 every inch of frontage was fought for then, and a town of over 
 four thousand inhabitants sprang up. Gold was found plenti- 
 fully, and warehouse, hotel, and saloon crowded close with 
 dwelling and church along the thoroughfare. A summer flood 
 surprised the dwellers on the lowland and carried oft" lives as well 
 as property, mingling a tragic sorrow with the losses of the un- 
 successful. Time, less sudden than the midsummer freshet, but 
 more sAveeping, has cleared the ground of almost every vestige of 
 the busy but fragile life of fifteen years ago. But the eternal 
 sense of the Infinite survives " our little lives" and all their fitful 
 pulsations of varying passion. Yonder, where, by the bush track 
 side, the rounding slope swells upon the south, stands a church, 
 sombre, lonely, and silent as the Roman sentinel at Pompeii when 
 all around him had fled or fallen. This is all, save here and there 
 heaps of broken bottles and sardine tins half hidden by the grass, 
 and a few faint trench and building lines, softened by the rains, 
 and bright at this time with the young verdure of the turning 
 seasoji. Tlie most curious eye could now discover no other traces 
 of the rush if it were not for the broader and deeper marks left 
 where the first miners fought their industrial way, and where, for 
 years, their followers retraced the golden trail. On going up the 
 Yarrowee banks northward a space, as one looks up the valley 
 he sees, beyond the city, the bare top, the white artificial chasms 
 and banks and mounds, where Black Hill raised its dark dense 
 liead of forest trees before the digger rent the hill in twain, and 
 half disembowelled the swelling lieadland. 
 
 Besides the pastoral settlers already mentioned, tliere are yet 
 with us some of the first discoverers. Esmond is still here. 
 Woodward and Turner, of the Golden Point discoverers, are still 
 l)ere in Ballarat, and Merrick and some others of that band 
 remain in the district. Others who followed tliem witliin the 
 first week or two are also amongst our busy townsfolk of to-day. 
 
 While these remained it was thouglit desirable to gather 
 sonio of the honey of fact from fugitive opportunity, th.it it might 
 bo garnered for tlie historian of the future. Nearly all the per-
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. IX 
 
 sons whose names have been mentioned above have assisted in 
 the preparation of this narrative by furnishing valuable contri- 
 butions from their own recollections, and the compiler takes this 
 occasion to thank them and others, including legal managers of 
 mines, whose ready courtesy has enabled him to do what he has 
 done to rescue from forgetfulness the brief details here chronicled 
 touching the history of this gold-field. He has borrowed some 
 facts and figures, too, from Mr. Harrie Wood's ably compiled 
 notes, published in Mr. Brough Smyth's " Gold-fields and Mineral 
 Districts of Victoria." To the oflicers of most of the public in- 
 stitutions referred to he also owes the acknowledgment of much 
 courtesy ; and to Mr. Huyghue, a gentleman still holding office 
 in Ballarat, and who was in the public service here at the time of 
 the Eureka Stockade, thanks are due, both by the publislier and 
 compiler, for notes of that period, and for the extremely interest- 
 ing illustrations of the Stockade, the Camp, and other spots 
 copied from original drawings. The publisher also acknowledges 
 the courtesy of Mr. Ferres, the Government printer, in supplying 
 original documents, and of Mr, Noone in giving valuable assist- 
 ance in connection with their reproduction by the photo-litho- 
 graphic process. The contributions of newspaper correspondents 
 during the Eureka Stockade troubles have also assisted the com- 
 piler, and notably the letters of the correspondent of the Gcelong 
 Advertiser in 1854-5. But to Mr. John Noble Wilson, the com- 
 mercial manager of the Ballarat Star, is due, on the part of all 
 concerned, the recognition of his suggesting the narrative, of his 
 constant cordial co-operation, and his untiring ingenuity in 
 making suggestions and collecting materials both for the text and 
 the illustrations. The reproduced proclamations by the Govern- 
 ment, which the reader will find at intervals, as well as many of 
 the original documents, are the fruit of that gentleman's assiduity 
 in collecting materials of interest and pertinence. 
 
 It has been necessary to record the fact that the tragic issue 
 of the license agitation was mainly due to the mistakes of the 
 governing authorities, even as the unrighteous rigors of the 
 digger-hunting processes were made more poignant by the 
 haughty indiscretions and brutal excesses of commissioners and
 
 X PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 troopers. But it is equally incumbent on the recorder to recog- 
 nise the more agreeable fact that there were officers in both 
 grades who did their harsh duties difterently. Some of these are 
 still in the service, and retain the respect they won in the more 
 troublous times by their judicious and humane administration of 
 an obnoxious law, for the existence of whicli they were in no way 
 responsible. 
 
 In the matter of gold statistics there has been found great 
 difficulty, for the early records were imperfect, and the latter ones 
 are little, if in anywise, superior ; while searches for the first 
 newspaper accounts of the gold discovery have shown that, both 
 in Melbourne and Geelong, the public files have been rifled of in- 
 valuable portions by the miserable meanness of some unknown 
 thieves. 
 
 The future we have not essayed to divine. What the past 
 and the present of our local history may do to enable the reader 
 to speculate upon the future, each one must for himself determine, 
 though the faith of the Ballarat of to-day in the Ballarat of the 
 future may, we think, be more accurately inferred from tlie stable 
 monuments of civic enterprise, and the many signs of mining, 
 manufacturing, and rural industry around, than from the oc- 
 casional forebodings of fear in seasons of depression. In less 
 than two decades we have created a large city, built up gi-eat 
 fortunes, laid the foundations of many commercial successes, and 
 sown the seeds of yet undeveloped industries ; and those who 
 have seen so much should not readily think that we are near the 
 exhaustion of our resources, either in the precious minerals, or 
 the still more precious spirit of enterprise and industry necessary 
 for the development of the wealth of nature around us. For the 
 good done, and for the doers of the good, we may all be thankful, if 
 not proud ; and, in proportion as we are thus moved, we may look 
 with confident hope towards the future, who.se uncertain years are 
 lit up with the radiance of the past, and shaped to our vision by 
 the promise of the present. 
 
 Among modest writers it is the fashion not only to write pre- 
 faces, but to excite attention to wonderful merit by apologies for 
 defects. The present writer burns to be in tlie fashion. He
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. XI 
 
 craves the indulgence of the reader in informing that important 
 personage that the ordinary duties of a reporter on a daily morn- 
 ing paper are not luxuriously light, and that tlie compilation of 
 the following narrative has been a refreshing appendage to the 
 daily discharge of sucli ordinary duties, plus a bracing exercise of 
 sub-editorial function. He has, no doubt, amply vindicated 
 Bolingbroke's accurate apothegm, and especially in tliis preface. 
 Both preface and narrative may be regarded as a verbose 
 exaggeration of the importance of the subject. The answer to 
 that is, that the writer has written mainly for those who know 
 the place, and, knowing it, are proud of it ; for those who believe 
 in the future in reserve for it, for the colony to which it belongs 
 to-day, and for the empire of which it some day may be a not 
 altogetlier unimportant portion. 
 
 In the City of York, where memory and fancy, busy with 
 the records and the remains of the past, make of the softened 
 lights and shadows and many-colored figures of mediaeval English 
 history an inexpressible charm, the glorious Minster rises over all 
 supreme in its solemn and saintly beauty. Whatever pilgrim 
 there has studiously perused that marvellous " poem in stone" may 
 have seen over one of the doorways the work of some loving and 
 pious egotist in the following inscription : — " Ut rosa flos florum, 
 sic tu es domus domorum." Let us be permitted, with similar 
 egotism, if not with equal piety, to inscribe here, as over one of 
 the portals of approach to one of the golden fields and cities of 
 Victoria : — Ut aurum metallorum pretiosissimum, sic tu es cam- 
 porum aureorum princeps, urbiumque opulentissima. 
 
 W. B. W. 
 
 Ballarat, 22nd June, 1870.
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 This second edition was called for as the first was out of 
 print, and this new issue and all the autlior's interest in the His- 
 tory are the sole property of the publisliers. In transferring my 
 rights to the publishers, I undertook to write what was deemed 
 necessary to bring the narrative "up to date." To do this and 
 supply some omissions from the first edition were, both, desirable, 
 and the attempt has been carried out as far as the publishers' 
 views as to space have permitted. How inadequate the realisa- 
 tion is, my repeated wails in the text admit as frankly as possible. 
 Independently of the omissions from the first edition, the de- 
 velopments of the city and suburbs during the 17 years since 
 1870 involved so much matter that it was found impossible to 
 deal with it all in a satisfactory mannei- within the space avail- 
 able ; but it is hoped that the leading events of the period liave, 
 at least, been in some way recognised. And e^en that could not 
 have been done had it not been that the author, with some few 
 exceptions, met everywhere the readiest will to assist him by 
 supplying the ofiicial information required. In the body of the 
 work these courtesies have been generally acknowledged^ and I 
 desire to repeat liere my sense of indebtedness in that respect to 
 very many citizens. It is not for me to judge how ill or well my 
 part of the work has been done, but it may be permitted to me 
 to say tliat the publishers and printers have finished their work 
 in a manner that does credit to them and to the arts tliey repre- 
 sent. Mr. Niven has enriched the edition with many illustra- 
 tions from his own pencil, and the photo-litliographs of official 
 and other documents which give Jac siiidliS of tliose papers, 
 bespeak the resources of the publishers' establishment. The appo- 
 site; d(!signs on the cover, and their engraving and pi'inting, are all 
 the product of the pul>lish('rs' own office, and compare creditably 
 witli the work of old-world linns. Tin; map of the; mines, at 
 page 2i^)2, has been prepared from survc^ys .specially made by 
 Mr. IlobcTt Allan, mining surveyor, and is a document of
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. XUl 
 
 interest and value. To Mr. Anderson, the head printer, I owe 
 my thanks for many intelligent suggestions in the course of the 
 revisal of proofs, and his vigilant eye detected some errors in 
 Appendix A which had lain unnoticed ever since the issue of the 
 edition of 1870. It is hoped that the present edition is nearly 
 free from literal errors, but two or three have been noticed since 
 the matter passed througli the press. In the bottom line, page 
 61, the date 18.5.5 should be 1854 ; in the lieading to Chapter VI. 
 " representative charges" should be " representative changes ;" 
 and in the bottom line, page 28.5, the date 1857 should be 185G. 
 
 A word to scholars, that they may not believe a lie. I am 
 no Latinist. As a poor pavior on the high road of letters, I 
 picked up some Roman tesserce by the way side, and, to please my 
 fancy and give bits of color and tone of reminiscence and mean- 
 ing not else handy, inserted them here and there in the ruder 
 work. Only that, my learned brothers of the great republic. 
 
 The writer of even so small a history as this, is but as the 
 voice of one crying in a wilderness of facts and dates, in hope 
 of reducing them in some soi't to cosmic order. Like the life it 
 essays to depict, history is only a drama, and the historian 
 merely sets the scenes, and lifts the curtain, where else had been 
 uncertainty or oblivion. 
 
 Our revels now are ended. Tlie actors here, too, were 
 all spirits. Many, as squatters Pettett, Waldie, Winter 
 Bacchus, one of the Learmonth's, besides a host of mining and 
 civic pioneers, have melted into air since the fii'st edition was 
 issued. The veteran Thomas Hastie still lives at the Buninyoii"' 
 manse, and others still grace, or disgrace, with their corporal pre- 
 sence, the scenes of their exj)loits. There remain Humtiray and 
 Lalor, and, with other of Lalor's Stockade subalterns, the fold- 
 finder Esmond. Humfiray and Esmond are in the shallows, but 
 Lalor, on whose " rebel" head a price was once set, floats proudly 
 as the able and well-salaried Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. 
 His political friends are not ashamed to plead for a retirin"' 
 pension for him, after he has, for many years, been liberally paid 
 for his services in a nominally pension-hating democracy ; whilst
 
 XIV PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Esmond, but for whose discovery Lalor might never have been 
 here, has failed to get leave to earn State wages enough to keep 
 the wolf from the door. 
 
 The fingers of change move swiftly. Whilst facts and figures 
 have been shaping for the printers of this edition, the funerals of 
 some of those who furnished the matter have passed by. Since 
 the last chapter has been in type, the old mess-room of the civil 
 and military ofiicers of the Camp has been sold, and its materials have 
 been removed piece-meal. Thirty years ago, the present Premier of 
 Victoria stood in his blue serge shirt on the verandah of the house, and 
 unsuccessfully tried to persuade his brother blue-shirts to return 
 him, at that time, to the court then sitting there. " Rebel" 
 bullets fell about the house during the ante-Stockade trouble, and 
 then the vanquished victors of the Stockade sent representatives 
 to sit in the mess-room as a Local Court, with Warden Sherard 
 as first chairman, and thereafter, as long as the coui't lived, with 
 the merry, brown-eyed Daly, and with the merrier and caustic 
 Miskelly as the clerk for awhile. Ex-Chairman Sherard is still 
 here, as Savings Bank actuary, but Daly and many others, who sat 
 there a generation agone, are dead. The old historic house itself 
 is now gone, too, and a free public library is to be built upon the 
 site. 
 
 For myself, I now vanish for ever from this stage, to write 
 editions of this History no more — if this be history. But 
 though I now retire behind the scenes, so far as this work 
 is concerned, I shall not forget the play nor the leading 
 players. The largest portion of my life has been spent here, and 
 if there be any possiljility of the realisation of such a sad conceit 
 as that of the Tudor Mary, who said Calais would be found 
 written upon her heart, the name of this beautiful city of Bal- 
 larat may he found written upon miiie. 
 
 W. B. W. 
 
 Ballarat, 3rd August, 1887.
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, PLANS, etc. 
 
 General View of Ballarat, 1887 ... 
 
 King Billy and Ballarat Tribe, 1850 
 
 Ballarat in 1852 from Mount Buninyong ... 
 
 Drays on the Road to the Diggings 
 
 Creswick Creek from Spring Hill, 1855 ... 
 
 Ballarat Flat, 1855, from Black Hill 
 
 The "Township" from Bath's hotel, 1855... 
 
 John AUoo's Restaurant, Main road, 1853 
 
 Deep Sinking, Bakery Hill, 1855 
 
 First Quartz Mill, Black Hill ... 
 
 Arrival of the Geelong Mail Coach 
 
 Gold -digging License ... 
 
 Business License 
 
 Arrival of Troops 
 
 Site of the Eureka Stockade 
 
 Government Notices 
 
 Proclamations 
 
 Soldiers' and Diggers' Graves 
 
 The Stockade Memorial 
 
 Golden Point and Yarrowee Creek 
 
 First Horse Puddler 
 
 Band and Albion Consols Mine, 1887 
 
 Madame Berry Mine, 1 887 
 
 Mining Plan of Ballarat 
 
 Mining Registrar's Old Office 
 
 View of Sturt street 
 
 Lake Wendouree 
 
 TO FACE PAGE. 
 
 ( Frontispiece), 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 24 
 
 32 
 
 40 
 
 48 
 
 56 
 
 64 
 
 72 
 
 ... 80 
 
 88 
 
 96 
 
 .. 104 
 
 ... 112 
 
 ... 120 
 
 ... 128 
 
 ... 152 
 
 160 
 
 176 
 
 ... 200 
 
 208 
 
 224 
 
 ... 232 
 
 ... 240 
 
 248 
 
 ... 256
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BALLARAT BEFORE THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 First Exploring Parties. — Mount Buninyong. — Mount Aitkin. — Ercildoun. 
 — Ballarat. — Lake Burrumbeet Dry. — .Settling Throughout the Dis- 
 trict. — First Wheat Grown. — First Flour Mill. — Founding of liuninyong. 
 — A Wide Diocese. — Appearance of Ballarat. — The Natives. — Aboriginal 
 Names. — The Squatters. — Premonitions of the Gold Discovery. 1 — 16 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 California and tJie Ural. — Predictions of Australian Gold. — Discoveries of 
 Old Bushmen. — Hargreaves and others in New South Wales. — Effects of 
 Discovery at Bathurst. — Sir C. A. Fitz Roy's Despatches. — First Assay. 
 — Esmond and Hargreaves. — Esmond's Discovery at Clunes. — Previous 
 Victorian Discoveries. — Esmond's the First Made Effectively Public. — 
 Hiscock. — Golden Point, Ballarat.— Claims of Discoverers as to 
 Priority. —Effects of the Discovery. — Mr. Latrobe's Despatches. — His 
 Visit to Ballarat. — The Licenses. — Change of Scene at Ballarat. — Mount 
 Alexander Rush. — Fresh Excitements. — Rise in Prices. ... 17 — 45 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM THE GOLD DISCOVERY TO THE YEAR OF THE EUREKA 
 STOCKADE. 
 
 Great Aggregations of Population. — Opening up of Golden Grounds. — A 
 Digger's Adventures. — Character of the Population. — Dates of Local Dis- 
 coveries. — Ballarat Township Proclaimed. — First Sales of Land. — Bath's 
 Hotel.— First Public Clock.— Tatham's and Brooksbank's Recollections.— 
 Primitive Stores, Offices, and Conveyances. — Woman a Phenomenon. — 
 First Women at Ballarat. — Curious Monetary Devices. — First Religious
 
 XVlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Services. — Churches. — Newspapers. — Theatres. — Lawyers. — First 
 Courts. — Capture of Roberts, the Nelson Robber. — Nuggets. — Golden 
 Gutters. — Thirty or Forty Thousand Persons Located. ... 46 — 71 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DIGGER HUNTING. 
 
 The Gold License. — Taxation Without Representation. — Unequal Inci 
 dence of the Tax. — Episodes of Digger Hunting. — Irritating Method of 
 Enforcing the Tax. — Suspicions of Corruption among the Magistrates 
 and Police. — Visit of Sir Charles and Lady Hotham. — Big Larry.— 
 Roff s Recollections. — Reform League. — Murder of Scobie. — Acquittal of 
 Bentley. — Dewes Suspected. — Mass Meetings. — Burning of Bentley's 
 Hotel. — Irwin's Narrative. — Arrest of Fletcher, M'Intyre, and Westerby. 
 — Re-arrest of Bentley. — Conviction of Bentley. — Rich's Experiences. — 
 Conviction of Fletcher, M'Intyre, and Westerby. — Demand for their 
 Liberation. — Increased Excitement. — Fete to the American Consul. — 
 Foster. — Sir Charles Hotham. — Arrival of Troops. — Troops As- 
 saulted. — Bakery Hill Meeting. — Southern Cross Flag. — Burning the 
 Licenses. ... ... ... ... ... ... 72 — 96 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EUREKA STOCKADE. 
 
 The Last Digger Hunt. — Collision between the Diggers and Military and 
 Police. — Southern Cross Flag again.- — Lalor and his Companioais Armed, 
 kneel, and swear Mutual Defence. — Irwin's Account. — Carboni Raffaello. 
 — His Pictures of the Times and the Men. — More Troops Arrive. — The 
 Diggers Extend their Organisation Under Arms. — Lalor "Commander- 
 in-Chief." — Forage and Impressment Parties. — Original Documents. — 
 Shots Fii-ed from the Camp. — The Stockade Formed. — Narrative of a 
 Government Officer in the Camp.— Attack by tlie Military and Taking of 
 the Stockade. — Various Accounts of the Time. — Raffaello's Description, — 
 Other Tragic Pictures. — First Stone House. — Bank of Victoria Fortitied. 
 — A Soldier's Story. — List of the Killed. — Burials. — Rewards Otlcredfor 
 the Insurgent Leaders. — Their Hiding and Escape. — Charge Against A. 
 P. Akehurst. — Proclamation of Martial Law. — Feeling in Melbourne. — 
 Foster's Resignation. — Deputation of Diggers. — Humffray Arrested. — 
 Vote of Thanks to the 'i'roops. — Legislative Council's Address to the 
 Governor. — Hia Reply. — Prisoners at the IJallarat Police Court. — Royal 
 Commission of En<iuiry. — 'J'rial and Acquittal of tlic State Prisoners. — 
 Humlliay. — Lalor s and his Captain's Hiding Place and Peculiarities. —
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Cost of the Struggle. — Compensation Meeting at the Stockade. — RafTaello 
 there Selling his Book. — Subsequent Celebrations. — Soldiers' and Diggers' 
 Monuments. — The Burial Places. — The Insurgent Flag. — Death of Sir 
 Charles Hotham. — Hotham and Foster Vindicated. ... 97 — 163 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Ballarat Politically Active and Influential. — New Constitution.^ — Humffray 
 and Lalor Elected. — Their Addresses. — Humffi'ay in Trouble. — Lalor on 
 Democracy. — Lalor on the IStar.- — The Grand Trunk Affair. — Petition for 
 a Private Property Mining Law. — Neglect by the Parliaments of Mining 
 Interests. — Probable Causes. — New Political Demands. — Votes of Lalor 
 and Humffray. — Burial Expenses of Oovernor Hotham. — O'Shanassy 
 Chief Secretary. — Haines Succeeds, with M'CuUoch as Commissioner of 
 Customs.— O'Shanassy in Power Again. — Nicholson Cabinet. — Succeeded 
 by Heales, with Humffray as First Minister of Mines. — O'Shanassy in 
 Power Again. — Succeeded by M'Cvdloch. — The Tariff. — Re-call of Go- 
 vernor Darling. — Darling Grant Crisis. — Death of Governor Darling. — 
 Grant to his Widow and Family. — Sladen Ministry. — M'CuUoch in 
 Power Again. —Representative Changes. — Jones Declared CoiTupt, — 
 Defeats Vale.— The jNlacpherson Ministry. — Its Resignation. — Mac- 
 gregor's Failure. — M'CuUoch and ^lacpherson in Office Together. — Michie 
 Elected for Ballarat West. — First Berry Government. — M'CuUoch in 
 Power Again. — Joseph Jones, Minister of Railways. — Major Smith in the 
 Second and Third Berry Governments. — His "Merry Millions." — -His 
 Breach with Berry. — Ballarat Sticks to him. — C. E. Jones Returned 
 Again. — He and his Tribune. — R. T. Vale and Jones beat Bell and 
 Fineham. — Ballarat East Candidates : their Ups and Downs. — James, 
 Minister of Mines, Loses his Seat, and Leaves Political Life. — Council 
 Elections. — Wanliss Petitions Against Gore's Return. — A Local Self-' 
 Govei-nnient Paroxysm. — Local Court. — Mining Board. — Court of Mines. 
 — Local Courts Wrongly Constituted. — Mining Boards. — Judge Rogers 
 and Black Wednesday. — One Code of Mining Law Required. — Valuable 
 Services of the Earlier Courts and Boards. ... ... 164 — 19'2 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MINING. 
 
 Block and Frontage Claims. — Some Early Diggers. — Election Excitements. 
 — Opposition to Extended Ai'eas. — Such Opposition a Mistake. — Present 
 Ai'eas. — Progress of Mining Discoveries. — Increased Operative Dilficul-
 
 X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 ties. — Introduction of Machinery. — Luck in Digging. — Mining Agi-ee- 
 ments and Litigation. — The Egerton Case. — The Clunes Riot. — The 
 Browns Leases. — Pleasant Creek Jumps. — Stink Pots. — Private Property 
 Leases and Law. — Foreign Capital. — Sebastopol Drainage. — Prospecting 
 Board. — Koh-i-Noor, Band and Albion Consols, Llanberris, and Black 
 Hill Quartz Companies. — The Kingston Alluvial Field. — Gold Returns 
 and Mining Statistics. — Pre-eminence of the liallarat District. — West- 
 garth on the Purity of Ballarat Gold. — Assays of Ballarat Nuggets. — 
 Table of Nugget Dates, Weights, and Localities. — Sebastopol Plateau 
 Revival. — Increasing Proportion of Quartz Gold. — The Future to be 
 Chiefly Quartz Mining. — The Corner. — A Great Transition. 193 — 238 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE TOWN OF BALLARAT, 
 
 Area and Population of Ballarat.— Great Mining Collapse. — Municipal 
 Statistics of Ballarat West, Ballarat East, and Sebastopol. — Water 
 Supply. — Lake Wendouree. — Yacht and Rowing Clubs. — Hospital. — 
 Benevolent Asylum. — Orphan Asylum. — Female Refuge. — Ladies' Bene- 
 
 .-' volent Society. — lloman Catholic and Anglican Dioceses.— Churches. — 
 State and Church Schools — School of Mines. — Museum — Observatory. 
 — Public Art Gallery. — The Stoddart Gift. — The Russell Thompson Be- 
 ({ucst. — The Burns Statue. — Other Statues Projected. — Typography. — 
 Pliotography. — Lithography. — Public Libraries. — Mechanics' Institute. 
 — Academy of Music. — Eisteddfod. — Cambrian Society. — Musical 
 Societies. — Agricidtural and Horticultural Societies. — Iron Foundries.— 
 Implement Factories. — Woollen Mills. — Coachbuilding. — Flour Mills. — 
 Bone Mills. — Breweries. — Distilleries. — Cordial Factories. — Bacon Fac- 
 tories. — Tanneries. — lioot Factories. — Juvenile Industrial Exhibition. — 
 Fire Brigades. — Volunteers and Militia. — (i as Company. — Banks. —Re- 
 creation Reserves. — Cricketand Footl)all Clubs. — Hunt, Race, Coursing, 
 and Gun Clubs. — Roller Skating Rinks. — Acclimatisation, Caledonian, 
 and Hibernian Societies. — Reformatory. — Hope Lodge. — Railways. — 
 Tramways. —Public Olliccs. ^Public Halls. — Gaol and Court House. — 
 Camp. — Last of tlie Military. — Explorers' Monument. — Queen's Jubilee 
 and Old Pioneers. — Electric Telegraph and Telephone. — liainfall and 
 Temperature. — Henry Sutton. — Local Journalism. — Royal and Other 
 Visitors. — Reminiscences. — Past and 1 'resent Contrasts. .. 239 — 328 
 
 Appendi.x A ... ... ... ... ... ... 329 — 335
 
 ycr: 
 

 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BALLARAT BEFORE THE fiOLD DISCOVERY. 
 
 First Exploring Parties. — Mount Buninyong.— Mount Aitkin.— Ercildoun.—Ballarat. — 
 Lake Burrumbeet Dry.— Settling throughout the District. — First Wheat Grown. — First 
 Flour Mill. — Founding of Buninyong. — A Wide Diocese.- Appearance of Ballarat.— The 
 Natives. — Aboriginal Names. — The Squatters. — Premonitions of the Gold Discovery. 
 
 A L L A R A T is one of the wonders of tliis 
 century. Young in years its mutations have 
 been many and I'apid, and its marvellous 
 progress has given to it a seeming antiquity 
 beyond its urban years. Our task is to trace 
 an outline of the rise and progress of this 
 golden city. This task takes us Ijack to 
 days that seem, in the swift marcli of colonial 
 events, to belong already to a remote antiquity. While the sailoi'- 
 King William IV. was but newly buried, and Queen Victoria was 
 still an uncrowned maiden ; while only a few rude huts, sprinkled 
 about tlie still uncleared slopes and gullies, failed to scare away 
 tlie native animals that haunted the bush where the City of Mel- 
 bourne now stands ; while the pleasant Ijorders of the Bay of 
 Corio, where Geelong is to-day, were not graced by a single house, 
 but only bore on their silent slopes a few scattered tents, a small 
 band of settlers started from the Corio shore to explore the un- 
 known country to the north-west. This was in the month of 
 August, 1837. The party comprised jNIr. Tliomas Livingstone 
 Learmonth ; Mr. D'Arcy, a surveyor ; Dr. Thompson, late of 
 Geelong ; Mr. David Fisher, then manager of the Derwent
 
 2 , HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Company, Tasmania ; Captain Hutton, of tlie East India 
 Company's Service ; and Mr. Henry Anderson. With them they 
 took suital)le equipment and provisions. From Bellpost Hill they 
 saw in the distance, north-westward, a mount, to which they 
 directed their course, steering- tlieir way l)y compass, and thus 
 they arrived at and ascended Mount Buninyonjj;. From the Mount 
 the explorers saw tine country to the north-westward, Lake 
 Burrumbeet, and the distant ranges of the Pyi-enees and the 
 (jrampians. An ocean of forest, with island hills, was all around 
 'them, l)ut not a .speck visible that spoke to them of civilisjition. 
 But the promising landscape drew the explorers on westward and 
 north-westward. They descended the Mount, the party divided, 
 their compass-bearings were not well kept, the provision-cart failed 
 to be at the appointed rendezvous, and thus, broken into sections, 
 the explorers found their way back to the coast, some of them 
 unable to tind their provisions, and therefore fasting by the way. 
 
 In January of the next year explorers set out again. The 
 party this time consisted of Messrs. J. Aitken, Henry Anderson, 
 Thomas L. Learmonth, tSomerville L. Learmonth, and William 
 Yuille. The starting point was Mr. Aitkens house, at Mount 
 Aitken, and thence the exjilorers went towai'ds Mount Alexander, 
 which at that time liad just l)een occupied by a party of over- 
 landers from Sydney, consisting of Messrs. C. H. Flxlen, Yaldwin, 
 and MoUison. From Mount Alexander they followed the cours(> 
 of the Ijoddon, passed over wjiat lias since l)een proved to l)e a 
 licli auriferous country, and l)ore down on a prominent peak, 
 wiiich the explorers subsecjuently called Ercildoun, from the old 
 keep on the .Scottish bordei", with which the name of the Lear- 
 month's ancestoi', Tiiomas the llhyniei-, was associated. Tlieii- 
 course l)rought them to the lake district of l>urrund)eet and its 
 jicli natural pastures. The days were hot but the nights cold, and 
 the party, camping at night on an eminence near Ercildoun, 
 suffered so much from cold that they gave the camping place the 
 name Mount Misery. There was water then in P.urrumbeet, but 
 it was inten.sely salt and very shallow. Next year, 1839, Lake 
 Burrumbeet was (juite diy, and it i-eniained dry for several 
 succeeding summei-s. It was covered with rnnk vegetation, and
 
 EARLY SETTLEMENT. .5 
 
 tlie j4'roun(l aJlbrded excellent pastui-e after tlie ranker i^'rowtli 
 liad been burnt ort". The country thus discovered was occupied 
 during the year 1838, and other settlers, pushing on in the same 
 direction, in a couple of years completed the occupation of all the 
 fine pastoral country Jis far westward as the Hopkins ]|i\'er. 
 The bi'others Learnionth, Mr. Henry Anderson, Messrs. Archiljald 
 and W. C Yuille, and Mr. Waldie settled on the sul)se([uently 
 revealed gold-fields of Ballarat, Buninyong, Sebastopol, and their 
 immediate vicinities. Some memliers of the Clyde Company, 
 of Tasmania, visited the Western disti'ict in 1838, that company 
 giving the name to the Clyde Inn, of the old Geelong coach road. 
 Tliey settled upon the Mooraljool and the Leigh, Mi-. Ceorge 
 Russell being the manager. Major Mercer, who ga\'e the name 
 to Mount Mercer, and Mr. D. Fisher, were of that company. 
 The Narmbool run, near Meredith, was taken by Mr. Ne\ille in 
 1839. Ross' Creek was named from Capt. Ross, who in those 
 early days used to perform the feat of walking in Highland 
 costume all the way to Melbourne. But in those times travelling 
 was a more serious matter than in these days of railroads, coaches, 
 cabs, and other vehicles, with good roads and a generally settled 
 country. Then there were no roads, few people, and a thick 
 forest, encumbered about Ballarat, too, wltli the nnti\e hop. 
 Mr. Archibald Fisken, of Lai Lai, was the Hrst person to di'i\e a 
 vehicle through the then roadless forest of Warrenhei}) and 
 Bullarook. In 1846 lie drove a dog-cart tandem with Mr. W. 
 Taylor through the bush to Longerenong, on the Wimrnera. 
 
 Messrs. T. L. and S. L. Learinonth, whose father was then 
 ill Hobarton, settled their homestead on what became known as 
 the Buninyong Gold Mining Company's ground at Buninyong. 
 Mr. Henry Anderson, who was the earliest ^^'ioneer in what is now 
 known as Winter's Flat, planted his homestead near the delta 
 formed by the confluence of the Woolshed Creek and the 
 Yarrowee, Messrs. Yuille subsequently taking that homestead 
 and all the country now known as Ballarat West and East and 
 Sebastopol. These settlers gave the name to Yuille's 8wamp, 
 more recently called Lake Wendouree. The Bonshaw run was 
 taken up by IVlr. Anderson, 'who named it Waverley Pai'k, and
 
 4 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 ]\Ir. John Winter coming into possession shortly afterwards gave 
 to it the present name, after his wife's home in Scotland. Messrs. 
 Pettett and Francis, in 1838 (as managers for Mr. W. H. T. 
 Clarke), took up the country at Dowling Forest, so called after 
 Mrs. Clai'ke's maiden name. Sliortly after they had settled there 
 Mr. Francis was killed by one of his own men with a shear-blade, 
 at one of the stations on the run. Before Mr. Pettett took up 
 the Dowling Forest run he was living at the Little Rivei', and a 
 native chief named Balliang offered to show him the countiy 
 about Lai Lai. The chief in speaking of it distinguished between 
 it and the Little River by describing the water as La-al La-al — 
 the a long — and by gesture indicating the water-fall now so well 
 known, the name signifying falling water. Mr. Waldie sub- 
 sequently took up country north-west of Ballarat, and called liis 
 place Wyndholm, where he resided till his decease. Messrs. 
 Yuille had settled originally on the Barwon, near Inverleigh, but 
 finding tlie natives troublesome they retired to Ballarat. Mr. 
 Smytlie, who with Mr. Prentice held the run, gave tlie name to 
 Smythe's Creek, as Messrs. Baillie had to the creek at Carngham 
 their run there being aftei'wards transferred to Messrs. Russell 
 and Simson. Mr. Darlot also occupied a run there. Creswick 
 Creek has its name from Henry Creswick, wlio settled upon a 
 small run there. Two brotliers Creswick had previously held 
 country close to Warrenheip. The Messrs. Baillie were sons of 
 Sir William Baillie, Bart., of Polkemmet, Scotland. Mi-. Andrew 
 Scott settled witli his family at the foot of Mount Buninyong, 
 where he had a snug run in which the mount and its rich sur- 
 rouiidiiig soil wei-e included. Mrs. Andrew Scott was tlie first 
 lady who travelled through this district. She drove across tlie 
 dry bed of Lake Burrumbeet in the year 1840. The country 
 about Smeaton and Coghill's Creek was takt'ii ii]) in the year 1838 
 by Captain Hepburn and Mr. David Coghill wlio canu^ overland 
 from New Soutli AV^ales with sheep and cattle, following the route 
 of Sir Tliomas Mitchell in his expedition of ex])loration in Port 
 Phillip in 183G. AVith tliem came Mr. I>owni;in, who also brouglit 
 stock. H(! took iij) a run on the Campaspe, while his comj)anions 
 canie on further south. Tlie Murray was veiy low when they
 
 THE FIRST FARM. 5 
 
 crossed, and tlie stock was easily passed over. At the Ovens they 
 found a dry river-bed ; Lake Buri-uniljeet was also dry that year. 
 When Messrs. Hepljui'n and Coghill had left sheep at the 
 Campaspe and Brown's Creek on their way, they pushed on, and 
 from Mount Alexander they descried the Smeaton Hills, and, 
 continuing their journey, found and took up the unoccupied 
 country there. Smeaton Hill was called Quaratwong l)y the 
 natives, and the hill Ijetween the Glenlyon road and Smeaton 
 Hill was called Moorakoil. Captain Hepburn, a seafaring man 
 originally, was one of the Hepburns of East Lothian, Scotland, 
 and Smeaton was named by him after the East Lotliian estate 
 held by his I'elative, Sir Thomas Hepburn. Mr. Coghill was the 
 first to plough land at the creek which bears his name, and in 
 wliich locality there now is found one of the broadest and richest 
 tracts of farming land in Victoria. He brought with him over- 
 land a plough, a harrow, and the parts of a hand steel flour-mill. 
 In 1839 he ploughed and sowed wheat, and thus grew and ground 
 the first corn grown there. In 1841 Captain Hepburn erected a 
 water-mill for corn on Birch's Creek ; that was the first mill of 
 that kind. Birch's Creek was named after the brothers Arthur 
 and Cecil Birch, who, with the Rev. Mr. Irvine, came overland 
 soon after Messrs. Hepburn and Coghill, and settled at the Seven 
 Hills. Besides the run at Coghill's Creek, taken up by Mr. 
 Coghill for some others of his family. Cattle Station Hill was also 
 taken by him. This run lay between Glendaruel and the Seven 
 Hills, and was part of the purchased estate belonging to the 
 Hepburns. The late Captain Hepburn long acted as a justice of 
 the peace, and he was one of the squatters whom M'Combie 
 mentions as having taken part in a meeting held on the 4th of 
 June, 1844, in front of the Mechanics' Institute, Melbourne, to 
 protest against Sir G. Gipps' squatting policy, and to urge forward 
 the movement for the separation of Port Phillip from New South 
 AVales. The squatters mustered on horseback that day on Bat- 
 man's Hill, and thence rode to the meeting in Collins street, the 
 " equestrian order" thus giving an eai'ly example of the right 
 freemen have, even in a Crown colony, to air public grievances 
 publicly and fearlessly.
 
 6 HISTORY OF 13ALLAKAT. 
 
 Lai Lai was taken up in tlie year 1840 by Messrs. 
 Blakeuey and George Airey, the latter a brother of the Crimean 
 officer so often and so flatteringly mentioned in Kinglake's 
 " History of the Crimean War." In the same year, Messrs. Le 
 Vet (or Levitt) and another took up Warrenheip as a pig-growing 
 station, but the venture failed, and some of the pigs ran wild in 
 the forest there for years, and preyed on each other. After 
 Messrs. Le Vet and Co. had been there awhile, the run was 
 taken up on Ijehalf of Messrs. Verner, Welsh, and Holloway, of 
 the Gingellac run, on the Hume, by Mr. Havertield (at present 
 the editor of the Bjndigo Advertiser), Le Vet and partner 
 selling their improvements for about .£30. Shortly after Mr. 
 Havertield came to Warrenheip, Bullarook Forest was occupied 
 by Mr. John Peerman, for Mr. Lyon Campbell. The Mr. 
 Verner mentioned above was the tirst Commissioner of the 
 Melbourne Insolvency Court. He was related to Sir William 
 Verner, a member in the House of Commons for Armagh. Mr. 
 Verner took j)art, as chairman, at a Separation meeting held in 
 Melbourne on the 30th December, 1840, and soon after that he 
 left tlie colony. JNIr. Welsh was the late Mr. Patricius Welsh, 
 of Lallarat ; and Mr. Holloway liecame a gold-broker, and died 
 at tlie Camp at Bendigo. In the year 1843, Mr. Peter Inglis, 
 who had a station at Ijallan, took up the Warrenheip run, and 
 shortly after that purchased tlie Lai Lai station, and throwing 
 tliem botli together, grazed on the united runs one of the largest 
 jierds in the colony. The western boundary of Mr. Inglis' 
 WaiTenlicip luu iiiarclicd with the eastern boundary of Mi\ 
 YuiHes run, the line being struck Ijy marked trees running from 
 Mount liuninyong across Brown Hill to Slaty Creek. Mr. 
 Donald Stewart, now of IJuninyong, was stock-rider for Mr. 
 Inglis, on the Wancnheijj and Lai Lai .station.s, and superin- 
 tendent duiiiig the minority of the present owner of Lai Lai. 
 In 1^=39 Mr. W. II. I Jacchus brought cattle from Melbourne and 
 graz(Hl tliiiin on his lun of Buri'umbeetup, the centre of which 
 run is now occiipiid liy tlit; Ballan pound. There is a waterfall 
 on the Moorabool tht^rc, which, for its picturestjuc heauty, is well 
 worth \isitinu'. The run e.vteiided on the Ballarat side of the
 
 UUNINYONfJ. < 
 
 Mooivibnol to about midway to tlie Lai Lai (Jreek. Mr. Ijafclius 
 still resides in the same locality, his pi'eseut station bein.ijj known 
 as Pei'ewui', or Peerewurr, a native na-me, meaning waterfall and 
 opossums. It was originally held by Messrs. Fairl)aii-n and 
 Gardner. Buninyong was a village, or township, long before 
 Ballarat had any existence as a settlement. The tirst huts were 
 built at Buuinyong in the year 1841, by sawyers, splitters, and 
 others, Mr. George Junes being then called the " King of the 
 Splitters." George Gab, George Coleman, and others, were the 
 pioneers in the Buninyoug settlement. Gab had a wife who used to 
 ride Anrizouian fashion on a tine horse called Petrel, and both 
 husband and wife were energetic people. Gab opened a house of 
 accommodation for travellers on the spot where Jamison's hotel 
 was afterwards built. The tirst store in the neighborhood was 
 opened at the Round Water Holes, near Bonshaw, by Messrs. D. 
 S. Campbell and Woolley, of Melbourne, who almost immediately 
 afterwards removed to a site next Gab's, at Buninyong, whose 
 place they took for a kitchen. Gab tlien removed and built 
 another hut opposite to the present police-court, and he opened 
 his new hut also as a hotel. A blacksmith named M'Lachlan, 
 with a partner, opened a smithy opposite to Campbell and 
 Wooley's store. This was the nucleus of the principal iidaud 
 town then in the colony. In t!ie year 1844 Dr. Power settled 
 there, and built a hut behind what was afterwards the Buninyong 
 hotel. He was the tirst medical man in the locality, and for years 
 the settlers had no other doctor nearer than Geelong. The young 
 township became a favorite place with bullock teamsters, who 
 were glad to build huts there where they could leave their wives 
 and children in some degree safe from aboriginal or other 
 marauders. In the year 1847, the Rev. Thomas Hastie, the tirst 
 clergyman in the district, came to Buninyong. His house, and 
 the church in which he performed service, were built entirely by 
 the residents in Buninyong, both pecuniary gifts and manual labor 
 being contributed. Then, as afterwards, the Messrs. Learmonth 
 were among tlie foremost movers in the promotion of the mental 
 and moral, as well as material welfare of the people about tliem. 
 Mr. Hastie, in a letter to us, says : — 
 
 Before I came in 1847, the Messrs. Learmonth had made several efforts
 
 8 IlISTOKY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 to procure the settlement of a clergyman at Buninyong, but had failed, 
 partly from want of support, but chiefly from their inability to procure one 
 likely to be suitable. Overtures had been made to Mr. Beazely, a Con- 
 gregational minister then in Tasmania, and afterwards in New South 
 Wales, but he declined them. The Messrs. Learmonth were willing to 
 take a minister from any denomination, and the cii'cumstance that a 
 Presbyterian clergyman was settled here arose from the fact that no other 
 was available. Until after the gold discovery thei'e was no minister in the 
 interior, tliat is out of Melbourne, (ieelong, Belfast, and Portland, but 
 Mr. Hamilton of Mortlake, Mr. Gow of Campbellfield, and myself. For 
 many years my diocese, as it may be called, extended from Batesford, on 
 the Barwon, to Glenlogie, in the Pyrenees, and included all the country 
 for miles on either side, my duties taking me from home more than half 
 my time. Before I came the Messrs. Learmonth had contemplated the 
 establishment of a cheap boai'ding-school for the children of shepherds and 
 others in the bush, but for prudential reasons they deferred the matter 
 till the settlement of a minister offered the means of supervision. Im- 
 mediately after I came the project was carried out, and subscriptions were 
 received from most of the settlers in the Western district. The school was 
 opened in 1848 by Mr. Bedwell, £10 a year being charged for board and 
 education. 
 
 Tlie gold discovery carried away the teachers, raised the 
 prices of everything, and Mr. Hastie had to see to the school and 
 its GO boarders himself ; but through all the difficulties the school 
 Avas maintained with varying fortunes, until at length it became 
 the Connnon-school near the Presbyterian Manse, with an average 
 attendance of some 180 children. 
 
 What is now the boroughs of Ballarat, Ballarat East, and 
 )Sebastopol, was then a pleasantly picturesque pastoi-al country. 
 Mount and range, and table land, gullies and creeks and grassy 
 slopes, lu^re black and dense forest, there only sprinkled with 
 trees, and yonder showing clear n^aches of grass, made up the 
 general landscape. A pastoral (juiet reigned everywhere. Over 
 tlie whole expanse there was notiiing of civilisation but a few- 
 pastoral settlers and their retinue — the occasional flock of 
 nibbling sheep, or groups of cattle browsing in the broad 
 herbage. There were three permanent waterholes in those days 
 wliere tlu; Sfjuatters used to tind water for their flocks in the 
 driest tiiiK^s of summer. One was at the junction of the Gong 
 (Jong cind the Yarrowec, or iJIakcney's Creek, as it was then
 
 
 00 
 
 z:
 
 PRIMEVAL RALLARAP. 9 
 
 callod, after the settler of tliat name thcie. Another was wlieie 
 the Yarrowee bends under the ranges by the- Urown Hill liotel, 
 and tlie otlier was near Golden Point. A])origines built their 
 mia-mias about Wendouree, the kang;iroo lea]!('(l uidiarnied d<nvn 
 the ranges, and fed upon the green slopes and fiats where the 
 Yarrowee I'oUed its clear water along its winding course dtown 
 the valley. Bullock teams now and then plodded their dull, slow 
 way_ across flat and range, and made unwittingly the sites and 
 curves of future streets. Settlers would lighten their quasi 
 solitude with occasional chases of the kangaroo, Avhei-e now the 
 homes of a busy population have made a city ; it was a favorite 
 resort of the kangaroo, and Mr. A. Fisken, of Lai Lai, and 
 other settlers often hunted kangaroo where Main, Bridge, and 
 other streets are now. The emu, the wombat, the dingo, were 
 also plentiful. The edge of the eastern escarpment of the plateau 
 where Ballarat M^est now is, was then green and golden in the 
 spring time with the indigenous grass and trees. Where Sturt 
 street descends to the flat was a little gully, and its upper edges, 
 where are now the London Chartered Bank, the Post-office, and 
 generally the eastern side of Lydiard street, from Sturt street to 
 the gaol site, were prettily ornamented with wattles. 
 
 I often passed (says Mr. Hastie) the spot on which Ballarat is built, 
 when visiting Mr. Waldie, and there could not be a prettier spot imagined. 
 It was the very picture of repose. There was, in general, plenty of grass 
 and water, and often I have seen the cattle in considerable numbers lying 
 in quiet enjoyment after being satisfied with the pasture. There was a 
 beautiful clump of wattles where Lydiard street now stands, and on one 
 occasion, when Mrs. Hastie was with me, she remarked, " What a nice 
 place for a house, witn the flat in front and the wattles behind ! '' Mr. 
 Waldie had at that time a sliepherd's hut about wliere the Dead Horse 
 Gully is on the Creswick Road, and one day when I was calling on the 
 hut-keeper, he said the solitude was so painful tliat he could not endure it, 
 for he saw no one from the time the shepherds went out in the morning till 
 they returned at night. I was the only person he had ever seen there who 
 was not connected with the station. 
 
 The ground now occupied by Craig's hotel on one side of the 
 gully that ran down by the " Corner," and by the Camp buildings 
 on the other side, were favorite camping places in the pastoral 
 days. Safe from floods, and near to water and grass, the spot
 
 10 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 invited herdsman and shepherd, bullock-driver and traveller, to 
 halt and repose. 
 
 The aborigines were nut numerous al)Out Ballarat even in 
 those early days ; a little earlier, however, as when Dowling 
 Forest was taken up, they were more numerous and were often 
 troublesome, being great thieves. Several of the adults were 
 strongly mai-ked with small-pox at the time the locality was taken 
 up for pastoral occupation. The natives, were considered inferior 
 to the Murray tribes, and wei'e generally indolent and often 
 treacherous. From time to time they were troublesome to the 
 settlers — as well to tlie good as to tlie bad. King Billy was tlie 
 name given to the chief of the tribes about here, and that regal 
 personage for many years wore a big brass plate bearing his title. 
 He was chief of the tribes about Mounts Buninyong and Emu, 
 and King Jonathan, of a Borhoneyghurk tribe, was his subordinate. 
 
 My brother and I (says Mr. Somerville L. Learinonth) began by 
 feeding and being kind to the natives, but not long after the esta1)lishment 
 of our first out-station, on the way to Smythesdale, we were aroused in the 
 dead of niglit by the intelligence that Teddy, the hut-keeper, had been 
 murdered. Some of tlie natives had seen the ration-cart on the previous 
 day ; tiiey watched until tlie hut-keeper went unarmed to the well for 
 water, liis return was intercepted, and one blow with a stone liatchet laid 
 him dead at tlie niuiderers' feet. Tae hut was robbed and a sheplierd 
 brouglit to the homestead the Pad intelligence. A party started next day 
 in pursuit of the natives, but I have often felt tliaukful that we failed in 
 finding them. On two occasions our men were attacked, but they resisted 
 successfully and their assailants retired. Frecjuently small numbers of 
 sheep were missing, but beyond this, and the stealing of small things when 
 allowed to come near a station, the nati^'os never injured us. I attribute 
 our immunity to having issued orders, whicii were enforced, that the 
 natives should on no pretext be harbored about any station. They are 
 most expert thieves. I remember seeing a woman who was employed in 
 gatlieiiiig potatoes quietly raise a large proportion witli lier toes, and place 
 the potatoes in lier wallet, the otiiers being openly put into the receptacle 
 provided by the employer. Another gentleman, surprised at the rapidity 
 with whicli his crop withered away, examined and found that tlic tubers 
 had ))een removed and the stems placed in tlic ground again. 
 
 The plact! wliere the Messrs. Learmontlis' hut-keeper was mur- 
 dered was called Murdering Valley. Tt is near tlie south-western 
 boundai-y of the borough of Scbastojiol, and was, a few yeai'S ago,
 
 PI(3NRER sqttatters. 11 
 
 the scene of ;i move Iion'il)le tniu'edy than tliat nf tlio mnrdev l)y 
 the aborigines. Once in 1S4^2 tlie natives were troul)lesoine on 
 Mr. Inglis' run at liullaii. They liad offered some insult to a 
 hut-keeper's wife and all tlu^ Eunjpean foi-ce of the station turned 
 out with tin kettles, pistols, sticks and other instruments of noise 
 and defence or offence — -a great noise and demonstration were 
 made to terrify the natives and tluis that trouble was got over. 
 Mr. Hastie says that when he first came to Buninyong the natives 
 were "comparatively numerous." Tliey used to come to the 
 manse for food, in I'eturn for wliieli they would fetch or l)re;ik up 
 tire wood. 
 
 As a pendant to the Rev. Mr. Hastie's pictiii'e of pre- 
 auriferous Ballarat, the following, given to the author l)y Henr-y 
 Hannington, Avill further help to illustrate the " oi-igins" of the 
 place. Mr. Hannington says : — 
 
 I was several times about Ballarat before the diggings in ISol. In the 
 year 1844 I was driving a team of bullocks for Mr. Diuican Cameron, of 
 Pascoe Vale, from his station. Yiiille's Swamp (Lake Wendouree) was a 
 camping place for teams, and the bullocks generally made off for the flat 
 by Golden Point, where the grass was always green in the driest of sum- 
 mers. The timber on the flat was white gum, not thick. The creek 
 opposite to (lolden Point was shallow, about 15 inches deep. There was 
 one water hole near Grimley's Baths (l)etween Bridge Street and the Gas 
 Works). 1 used to see a log hut or two about when I went after the 
 bullocks, and some sawyers and splitters had huts and a few cattle on the 
 ranges. The road from the Grampians to Geelong and Melbourne was the 
 same as at present. It went past where the Unicorn Hotel is (opposite to 
 the Post Office), then I'ound Dan. Fern's corner (Albert Street), across the 
 creek near (iolden Point, and then to Ihininyong, to the puhlichouse kept 
 by Mrs. Janiieson, who was called Mother Jamieson. From tliere it went 
 to Fisken's, near the Lai Lai Falls, for water for the teams. We had 
 several visits from the black lubras. The blaokfeilows seldom came with 
 them. We all had to carry firearms, as the blacks were treacherous, and 
 were spearing hut keepers and others every day. I got safe with my team 
 to Moonee Ponds, Pasco Vale, and had to come back to the Ballarat 
 District in 1S45, as there was an order from the Government for a few free 
 men to join the new mounted police, a)id I was sent to Mr. Edward Parker, 
 the protector of the blacks at Jim Crow Creek (Daylesford). I had nothing 
 much to do. Went ouce a week for the mail, and was often about Ballarat 
 looking up horses, as they always made for the flat opposite Golden Point. 
 Everything looked then pretty nnich as it had the year before.
 
 12 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Hannington is only one of tlie voucliers for the water supply 
 of the Yarrowee valley, but as old or older settlers than he tell 
 us, as we liave in part seen already, of tlie occasional drying up 
 of what now seems to he j^ermanent waters. Tlius, one of the 
 Learmonths writing to the Corn Stalk, in April, 1858, says : — 
 
 ^Yheu we discovered the country around Bnrrumbeet, in January, 
 1S3S, there were then a few inches of intensely salt water in the lake. 
 In June of that year the water dried up, and in the three following years 
 Lakes Burrumbeet and Learmonth were quite dry and covered with coarse 
 grass, which the cattle and sheep fed over, and which was burned in each 
 of these sunnners. There was a little water in the middle of both lakes 
 not evaporated at the end of the summer of 1842, and since then there was 
 a gradual ijicrease in both till 1852 when it reached its maximum and has 
 been fluctuating since then. All the swamps and most of the springs that 
 now supply water were perfectly dry, or nearly so, in the years 1839, 1840, 
 1841. The Moorabool did not run in these years, and the Leigh and the 
 Barwon only for a few weeks, and then not more than knee deep. During 
 these dry seasons Burrumbeet was fringed with a sort of myrtle, which 
 must have been growing there for some time, for the trees had attained a 
 considerable size, as may be seen by their stumps and roots wliich are still 
 visible a hundred yards within water mark. \Mth regard to Yuille's 
 Swamp, from which Ballarat is supplied with water, it also was dry in the 
 years I have mentioned, but the water in it, when the winter rains did 
 not fail, was always good, which was not the case witli many of the 
 lagoons in the district. 
 
 Mr. Waldie corroborates Mr. Learmonth as to Yuille's 
 Swamp, and Mr. Learmonth, with smaller, other eyes than 
 those of subsequent water-supply caterers, remarks tliat if 
 Yuille's Swamp were improved by feeders from Waldie's Creek 
 " very inexpensive works would furni.sh Ballarat with an abundant 
 and cheap supply of water at all times." 
 
 Hannington, like many another waif of the old days, seems, 
 as we shall see by and bye, to have got stranded in the shallows 
 whilst other craft about him swept on to fair liavens. The 
 squatters, too, were not fixed like the l.ind they occupied, for they 
 h;id their exits and their enti-ances, as we have seen, and many 
 dcj)arte(l for good and alh Ft was thus with tlie L«'armonths 
 (•\ fntu.'illy, allieil tlicy r'cniain<'d t'nr many yeai's after the date of
 
 XATIVK NAMES. 13 
 
 tlu; days of which we are now treating. Their JBuninyoiig pre- 
 emptive tiiey k^t oil a niiuiug lease and after tliat they sohl tlie 
 hind. Still holding tlie Ei'cildoun estate, they ventured, them- 
 selves, some years later, upon the fortunes of mining, and took a 
 quartz mine at Egerton, appointed a manager, won a good deal of 
 gold, then sold the mine and sued tlie vendees, including the 
 manager, who liad sold as the vendors' agent and then joined the 
 vendees. But this matter is dealt with further down the stream 
 of our story. Not long after the law suit tlie last of the Lear- 
 months left the colony or was dead. Ercildoun, the place where 
 their famous merino flocks had borne them so many golden fleeces, 
 was sold to Sir Samuel M^ilson, and he eventually became an 
 absentee, living in Earl Beaconstield's house of Hughenden, and 
 after some defeats becoming a member of the House of Commons, 
 where he now sits as representative for Portsmouth. 
 
 Ballarat, or, more properly, Ballaarat, is a native name, 
 signifying a camping or resting place, balla meaning elbow, or 
 reclining on the elbow ; all native names beginning with bulla 
 have a similar significance. Wendouree is the anglicised form 
 of Wcndaaree, a native word, signifying "be oft'," "off" you 
 go." Yarrowee is probably a Scottish settler's use of the 
 Scottish Yarrotv, with a diminutive to suit the smaller 
 stream. Buninyong, or, as the natives have it, Bunning- 
 yowang, means a big hill like a knee — b^innin:/ meaning 
 knee, and yuwanc] hill This name was given by the natives 
 to Mount Buninyong because the mount, when seen- from a given 
 point, resembled a man lying on his back with his knee drawn 
 up. The Yow- Yungs, by the Werribee, is a form of Yuwaiig. 
 Station Peak, one of the Yow-Yangs, was called Villamata by 
 the natives. Warrengeep, corrupted to Warrenheip, means emu 
 feathers ; the name was given to Mount Warrenheip from the 
 appearance presented by the ferns and other forest growths there. 
 Gong Croiig, or Gang Gang, is an al>origiual name for a species of 
 parrot ; Burrumljeet means muddy water, and Woady Yaloak 
 standing water. Mount Pisgah, in the lake country, was first 
 known as Pettett's Look-Out, and Mount Rowan as Shuter's Hill. 
 l^Iount Blowhavd had no name among the settlers until one of
 
 li lllSTOUY OF BALLAKAT. 
 
 Pettett's slK'plierd-boys g■a^■c it tliat nniiu', from having often 
 proved the appropriateness of such a designation, since his ex- 
 pei'iences of windy days there had been frequent. 
 
 As a race the Australian squatters were brave and 
 adventurous. Many of them were men of liberal education and 
 broad and generous culture, and .some were men bearing old historic 
 names, as well as possessing the instincts and the discipline of 
 gentlemen. Others Avere vulgar boors, whose only genius lay in 
 adding Hock to flock, run to run, and swelling annually the balance 
 at tlieir bankers. The tirst squatters took tlieir lives in their hands, 
 for they liad to tiglit with various enemies — a treacherous native 
 population, drought, hungei', and on all sides difficulties. Says 
 Mr. Coghill, in a viva voce comnuinication to us : — 
 
 Every day, I may say for ten years, I have been many lioui's in the 
 saddle. I never had much trouble with the natives, only that they would 
 sometimes thie\e a little ; but I used always to make a point of going to 
 them and talking to them as well as I could, and explaining to them that 
 if they behaved themselves they woiild not be molested. I remember the 
 bother we had with our first wool. We did not know how to get it down 
 to ship, and we thought wc would send it by way of Morrison's station, on 
 the Campaspe. We had to eioss the Jim Crow ranges, and we were a 
 week among the gullies and creeks tliere before we could get a passage 
 with our wool across the ranges. 
 
 Tlie squatters were es.sentially exjilorers, and encountered all 
 the risks of exjiloi'.ition. ()\er mountain and valley, tlirough 
 forest and across phiin, tliey went where everything was new to 
 ci'.ilisation. Passing l)y arid, treeless, grassless wastes, mere 
 hfjuliiig wildci-ncsscs of desolation, tliey jiursucd thcii' way to 
 tracts of l)oundle.ss fertility, lands thnving, ])i-ospecti\('ly, with 
 milk and honey, })()tentially ricli in corn, and wine, and oil. 
 Ever ;inioiig tlic \irgiii newness of an unsubdued country, they 
 steeivd tlieir couise l)y (hiy guided by the sun or tlie conq)ass ; at 
 niglit, led l)y the skies, as, to (|uote the great New ICngland poet's 
 melodious, rjiild like conceit. 
 
 Silently, one l)y one, in the inlinitc meadows of heaven, 
 Hlo.ssonied tiic lovely staim, tiie foiget-nie uots of the angels. 
 
 Tills may seem to l)e a romantic \ie\v of the S([uatt<'r, l)ut it 
 is a real one. It is as real as tlie cutty pi])es, the spirit ilasks, 
 the night rugs, the camj) lircs, the ri\alries, ambitions, generous
 
 •IlIK COLIJKN HEOKET. 15 
 
 hospitalities, and occasioiuil incanncsscs of the rac-r. houljtless 
 tliey sought their own good, hut, ho\ve\ev unwittingly, they 
 actually became the beneticial oT;cupiei'S of the laud for othei's. 
 The teeming hosts drawn hither afterwards by the moi'e dazzling 
 hopes of fortune, and becoming eventually, and not without 
 reason, hostile to the S(iuatter, wei'e in great part fed by the 
 countless flocks and herds which the jiastoral pioneers had spread 
 over the wide pastures of this fair and fertile honu; of all the 
 nations. AVith what to the squatter must have seemed like rash 
 and boisterous violence, the sudden tide of population dashed its 
 confluent waves upon oui- shores, and the serried raids;s of the new 
 army of industry mai'ched boldly in upon the domains of the 
 squattei-, rudely disturl)ed his quiet dreams of perpetual 
 occupation, and added at once a hundredfold to the market value 
 of all his possessions. 
 
 From the first pastoral settlement to the discovery of gold 
 there was a wool-growing, cattle-breeding period of something 
 more than one decade. In that period the courage and the 
 enterprise of the stjuatters, the real pioneers of all our settlement, 
 had achieved no little in the direction of the development of the 
 value of the main source of all national wealth — the land. Mr. 
 M'Combie, in his " History of Victoria," remarks of the early 
 years of settlement : — 
 
 During tlie ten years that the province of Port I'liillip luul been 
 settled, it liad been daily progressing in population and wealth. Vast 
 interests had been silently growing up, and new classes were beginning to 
 emerge into importance. All depended upon tlie land. The first wealth 
 of Port Phillip was acquired from pastoral pursuits, and nearly every 
 person was either directly or indirectly engaged in squatting. 
 
 But while those " vast interests had been silently growing 
 up," there had been occasional premonitions of a rapid and 
 turbulent change. While the shepherds fed their flocks by night 
 and by day, other voices than those of angels in the air were 
 heard in some places. In some of the more picturesque nooks of 
 the district traversed by the Pyrenees and their oti'-shoots, the 
 solitai'y shepherd, or S(|uatter, on one or two occasions, or oftener 
 still, saw sudden visions of easily won and boundless immediate
 
 IG niSTOKY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 wealtli. Where the broad belts of purple forest spread out, and 
 fair green glades and glens and ravines stretched over the swell- 
 ing ranses of the district, the bushman wandered from silence to 
 silence that only tlie elements or the birds of the native woods 
 ever disturbed. Then it was that the hrst whisperings were 
 heard of the rich secrets of the unmeasured geologic ages, and the 
 lirst gleams were caught of the visions that had in them, liowever 
 dim and formless then, the promise of a more brilliant epoch. 
 But it may be well supposed that those hardy pioneers recked 
 not then, even as they knew not, of the troubles that would fall 
 to the s(i[uatter with the sturdy democracy of tlie then coming 
 time. They were lords of all they surveyed. Of all earth- 
 hungerers, they were, assuredly, among the hungriest, for, as 
 AVestgarth says, they had " a cormorant capacity for land." 
 Over tens of thousands of acres of broad lands they roamed in 
 the jocund spirit of undisputed occupation, and the still broader 
 future lay unexplored, though even then tlie democratic invasion 
 was innninent. The visions we wot of had been seen, but if seen 
 were not all revealed. They were not at once blazoned forth to 
 the public ear, but stealthily treasured or stealthily told, for 
 instinct of change, of hope, of fear, more or less held back all who 
 had seen the bright spectacle. The governing authorities heard 
 of the things seen, and were ottered proofs of the reality of the 
 fateful discovery ; but the sainc instinct and honor of change 
 I'estraiued them also from giving the re\elations to the woi'ld. 
 But the sc^cret had escaped for ever when tlu; tirst glittei'ing speck 
 glai'<'d as a luiid omen of e\il, or lit up l)right lio])es that fell like 
 a burst of sudden sunshine upon the silent, solitary settler. The 
 new thing might be feared, oi- \vorslii])ped, fought against or 
 clierislied by the (iniid ui' scliish jiossessors of oHice and settle- 
 ments, l)ut it was to master all their purposes. Thus was 
 foreshadowed the ([uicker entry of Australia nniong the peoples 
 and tlie n.ilions, the coming of |Hi])iil;ition tVom ;tll (he eoi-iiei's of 
 the e.irUi Lo overnin the (|iii(t haunts of the, stjuaLler and the 
 sIk jiheiil, (he lM;^iiiiiin;4 "' n''^^ I'tV, new interests, and a grander 
 dentiny foi' the v, hoh'. continent.
 
 '. Ja 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 r J 
 
 
 CO 
 
 CM 
 
 id 
 CO 
 
 I- 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 m 

 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GOLD DISCOVERY, 
 
 California ;iii(l the Ural. — I'l-edictioiis of Australian (Jold. — Discoveries of Old Bushmen. — 
 nargrea\es and others in New South Wales. — Effects of Discovery at Bathurst. — Sir C. 
 A. Kitz Ko\ 's Despatches. — First Assay. — Esmond and Har^reaves. — Esmond's Discoxery 
 at Chines.— Previous Victorian Discoveries. — Esmond's the First Made Effectively Puhlic. 
 — Hiscoek.— Golden Point, Ballarat. — Claims of Discoverers as to Priority. — Effects of 
 the Discovery. — Mr. Latrobe's Despatches. — His Visit to Ballarat. — The Licenses. — 
 Change of Scene at Ballarat. —Mount Alexander Rush. — Fresh Excitements. — Rise in 
 Prices. 
 
 ?<>rv 
 
 O TENT us was the wonderful lamp of 
 
 Aladdin, and magniticent as were its successes, 
 tlie power of gold has equalled in its marvel- 
 lous etlects all that the warm orient fancy has 
 pictured for us in the Arabian Nights. Gold 
 has done even more than ever mere magician 
 achieved. It certainly has operated magically 
 in Australia, and in no part of the country 
 has it created greater marvels than in Ballarat. Everywhere the 
 resistless charm operates similarly, but it is not everywhere that 
 its material results are alike notable. California and Australia 
 have caught the more gorgeous lights and colors, and tliough some 
 dark shadows mingle with the magniiicence of the general results, 
 the gold discovery in both countries has worked prodigies, and 
 many of its creations remain. They not only remain, but are in 
 themselves seminal powers forecasting greater wonders in the 
 future. All that lies in tlie unknown future of this continent 
 must be connected with the past and the present, and these, in 
 their grander features, take their form from the matrix in which 
 they were born — the gold discovery of the year 1851. 
 
 California electrified Europe and the United feitates by its 
 gold discoveries in the years 1818-9, and that event was soon
 
 •18 IIISTOKY OF BALLAKAT. 
 
 followed by the discovery of gold in Australia. Geologists who 
 had studied maps and noted the auriferous mountain lines of the 
 Ural and California, no sooner heard of Australian sti'ata and the 
 bearings of the mountains and ranges, than the existence of gold 
 in this island continent was predicted. In the older settlements, 
 too, of New South A\^ales, the aboriginies and the whites had oc- 
 casionally stumbled upon glittering metals, as afterwards they did 
 also in Victoria ; but it was the Californian pi'ospector, Har- 
 greaves, who first publicly demonstrated the existence of gold in 
 Australia. Actually, the discovery by others seems to have occurred 
 both in New South Wales and Victoria about the time of the 
 Californian rush in the year 1849. From a despatch dated 11th 
 June, 1851, to Earl Grey from Sir C. A. Fitz Roy, then Governor 
 of New South Wales, we learn that some two years before then a 
 Mr. Smith announced to Sir Charles' Government the discovery 
 of gold. A dispatch from Mr. Latrobe, the Governor of Victoria 
 at the time of Esmond's discovei'ies, mentions the discovery of 
 gold some two or three years previously in the Victorian Pyrenees. 
 Smith was attached to some ironworks at Berrima. He showed 
 a lump of golden quartz to the Chief Secretary in Sydney, and 
 offered, upon terms, to reveal the locality of his discovery. The 
 Sydney Government, if we may take the Go\ernor's d(>spatch as a 
 guide, had some doubts both as to the veracity of the applicant 
 and the propriety of making known his discoveiy even if a reality. 
 
 Apart (says 8ir C. A. Fitz Koy) from my suspicions that the piece of 
 gold might have come from CaHfornia, tlicre was tlie opinion that any open 
 investigation Ijy tlic Government would only tend to agitate tlie public 
 mind, and divert persons from their proper and more certain avocations. 
 
 Then, on the 3rd April, 1851, Mr Hargreaves aj)peaied upon 
 the scene, Smith having vanished in refusing to "trust to the 
 liberality" of the Sydney (loveniincid. Mr. Hargreaves was a 
 man of greater faith than Smith, and lir disclosed the localities in 
 which lie iiad discovei'ed the pi-ecious inctjil. The localities were 
 near JJatliui'st. Tlic news spi-c.id ;dl over t In- colonics, nnd tin' 
 ]5atluirst and adjacent districts were iiislicd, lo (lie great terror 
 of (juiet pastoral S(!ttlers, and (lie ;iniioy;ince of (he resj)ectable 
 Government of Sydney. From the Governors despatches to
 
 THK FIKST GOLD DISCOVEKKKS. 19 
 
 Downing Sti'cet, it appe;irs that the official mind was niucli agitated 
 Avliat to do. Settlers ad \ised absolute prohibition of gold digging, 
 and the authoiities wei'e in doubt as to whether it might Ije safe 
 to impose regulations and a tax. Counsel's opinion was obtained 
 as to the property of the Crown in the precious mineral, and 
 ultimately a license tax of thirty shillings per month was levied 
 upon the Bathurst diggers. The Rev. W. B. Clark, the geologist, 
 gave excellent geological and political advice at the time, in the 
 columns of the >iydney Morning Herald. He sagaciously remarked 
 that " the momentary effect of the gold mania may be to upset 
 existing relations ; but the effect will be a rapid inci^ease of 
 population, and the colony must prepare herself for an important 
 growth in her influence upon the destinies of the world." 
 
 The police despatches to the Sydney authorities described 
 the miners as " quiet and peaceable, but almost to a man armed," 
 wlierefore the officer advised, " that no police power could enforce 
 the collection of dues against the feeling of the majority." 
 Hargreaves came to the aid of the authorities as a man strong in 
 counsel and Californian experience. A minute of Hargreaves' is 
 worth noting — " There existed (he says) no difficulty in obtaining 
 the fees in California." But this was no marvel, as will be seen 
 by the following revelation. " All the people (he continues) at 
 the mines are honest and orderly. I was alcadi there. If a 
 complaint be made the alcadi suunuonses a jury, and the decision 
 is submitted to. A man found guilty of stealing is hung im- 
 mediately." This was not less direct as a system of jurisprudence 
 than that practised, as Dixon and Dilke tell us, by the sheriff of 
 Denver, on the buffalo plains of America, where criminals had a 
 very brief shrift and a (juick nocturnal " escape" up the gallows 
 tree. Yet we do not learn tlirit in Denver, or anywhere else in 
 that part of America, " all the people" were either honest or 
 orderly, as Alcadi Hargreaves says they were in California. But 
 then the Sydney prospector left his alcadiship in the early days, 
 when the Arcadian simplicity of mining society liad not yet lost 
 the fresh bloom of what we will take to have been its eai'ly and 
 honest youth. The Batliui'st diggers appear to have behaved 
 pretty well on the whole.
 
 20 
 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 In July, 1S51, occurred what tlie Sydney Morning Herald 
 called " a most marvellous event," namely, the discovery of a mass 
 of gold 106 lbs. vk^eight imbedded in quartz. Tliis made every- 
 body wild with excitement. The Batlmrst Free Press, of IGth 
 July, said — "Men meet together, stare stupidly at each other, talk 
 incoherent nonsense, and wonder what will happen next." Some 
 blacks in the employment of a Dr. Kerr found this prize, their 
 master appropriated it, and gave the tinders two flocks of sheep, 
 besides some bullocks and horses. Possibly this was the basis of 
 Charles Reade's great nugget incident in his " Never Too Late to 
 Mend." It may be noted here that last November the discovery 
 of a similar mass took place at Braidwood, in New South Wales. 
 The weight of the sj^ecimen was given at 350 lbs., of which two- 
 thirds were estimated to be pure gold. We may conclude this 
 notice of the discovery of gold in New South Wales by quoting 
 the tirst assay of gold as given in the Crovernment despatches 
 from Sydney, under date 24tli May, 1851. This assay was as 
 follows : — 
 
 HUMID PROCESS. 
 
 
 DRY 
 
 PROCESS. 
 
 
 Gold 
 
 
 .. 91-150 
 
 Gold 
 
 
 
 .. 1)1-100 
 
 
 
 
 
 8-33;) 
 
 Iron .... 
 
 Base metal . 
 
 
 
 O-.WT , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 luu-uuu 
 
 100 000 
 
 Or 22 carats, £3 17s. lO^d. per oz., plus 1 dwt. 16 gr. silver, value Sjd. 
 
 Victoria was not long behind New Soutli Wakss in iinding a 
 gold-tield, and it soon caused the elder colony to pale its 
 ineHectual tires in the greater brilliance of the Victorian dis- 
 coveries. James William Esmond was to Victoria what 
 Hargreaves was to New South Wales. Esmond, like Hargreaves, 
 had been at the Californian gold-tields, and had an impression 
 that the Australian soil was also aui-if(;i-oiis. He left Port Pliillip 
 for California in June, 1841), observed that there were similarities 
 in soil and general featur(;s between Clun(!S and California, and 
 decided to rcdirn and cxplnrc his Australian home for gold. It 
 chanced that I'jsniond and Hargreaves were fellow pass<'ngers on 
 their return from Califoinia to Sydney. Esmond found gold on 
 the nortliern side of the hill opposite to Cameron's, subsequently
 
 Esmond's discovkry, 1851, 21 
 
 M'Donald's pre-emptive ri^lit, at Clunes, on Tuesday, the 1st of 
 July, 1851, and (fold was found about the same time at 
 Andei-son's Cfeek, neai* Melbourne. 
 
 According to a letter written by Esmond to the Ballarat 
 Courier on the 4th November, 1884, it appears that the above 
 dates may be shifted a little. Esmoiid says in his Courier 
 letter :— 
 
 On tlie 2flth of June, 18")], I discovered gold in quartz and alhivial at 
 Clunes, and brouglit it to Geelong. I showed the same to William 
 Patterson, then watclimaker, afterwards assayer for the Bank of Australia, 
 who tested the samples in the presence of Mr. Alfred Clarke, of the Geelong 
 Advertiser, who reported my discovery on the following Monday, the 8th 
 July, 1851. During that week I never heard of any gold discovery having 
 been made or spoken of, except the discovery at Clunes. Previous to the 
 discovery of gold in California, it was reported that a shepherd on McNeil 
 and Hall's station at the Pyrenees discovered a lump of gold, and that he 
 sold it to a person name>:l Brentani, a jeweller in Melbourne. Captain 
 Dana and his black troopers were sent iip to ascertain if there was any 
 truth in the reported discovery. A few people assembled on the ground to 
 seek for the precious metal, but they all failed. I was living in the locality 
 at the time, but did not go to the rush, believing it to be a hoax ; but I 
 thought differently after returning from the Californian diggings, wliich 
 I visited in 1849. Anderson's Creek was the first diggings I heard of after 
 Clunes was opened, Mr. Mitchell being the discoverer, and Buninyong was 
 the next, by Mr. Hiscocks. * * * In a few weeks afterwards I returned 
 to Clunes, and collected a sample of gold, some 8 oz. or 9 oz., which I sent 
 to Mr. Patterson, of Cleelong. This was the first sample of gold sold or 
 produced in the Victorian market. My object in writing this letter, sir, is 
 to inform the public where the first payable gold-field in the colony of 
 Victoria was opened, and what I state I don't think any person will 
 dispute. 
 
 Esmond published his discovery in Geelong on tlie 6th of 
 July, Hargreaves having preceded him in the sister colony by 
 some two months. But we have seen that before Hargreaves 
 there was a Smith, who would not accept the terms of the Sydney 
 Government, and so disappeared. There was yet another dis- 
 coverer earlier than the man of the Berrima ironworks. Mr. John 
 Phillips, late Government mineralogical surveyor, and then mining 
 surveyor for the Victorian Government at St. Arnaud, discovered 
 gold in South Australia before any of the explorers previously 
 mentioned. He announced his discoveries to the authoritiesin South
 
 Tl HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 Australia and Port Phillip, and to Sir Roderick Murehison, but 
 neither of the local Govei'nments acted upon his discovery. The 
 discovery by Mr. Phillips was about synchronous with discovei'ies 
 made by the Rev. W. B. Clarke, and had been foreshadowed in 
 the geological predictions of Sir Roderick Murehison and Count 
 Strzelecki. Mr. Phillips got nothing for liis pains, and Esmond 
 was less fortunate than Hargreaves in the matter of public 
 recognition and reward. To Hargreaves were voted £10,000 by 
 the Government of New Soutli Wales, and subsequently .£2381 
 by the Victorian Parliament, Esmond, after a hard light, receiving 
 a vote of £1000 from the Parliament of Victoria, and some small 
 public, quasi-public, and private rewards besides. But he did not 
 receive the amount all at once, though early proposed. On the 
 5th October, 1854, Dr. Gi'eeves proposed, in the Legislative 
 Council, a vote of £5000 to Hargreaves, and in his speech lie 
 admitted that Esmond was " the tii'st actual producer of allu^"ial 
 gold for the market." The motion was carried. Mr. Straehan 
 moved, supported Ijy the late Mr. Haines, and only seven others, 
 an amendment for giving £1000 each to Hargreaves, Esmond, 
 Hiscock, Mitchell, and Clarke, and £500 to a Dr. Bruhn, who 
 was said by Dr. (xreeves to have advised Esmond as to the 
 existence of gold in Victoria. There was an earlier discovery 
 than Esmond's in Victoria, asserted ])y Mr. J. Wood Beilby, as 
 the repository of a secret from the person wlio was said to have 
 l)eon the actual discoverer. But Beilby does not claim for pul)lic 
 revelation, but only 'i-s the revealer to tlie Govei'nment of the 
 day. In a pampldet published by Dwight, of Melbourne, in 
 Bcilby's interests as a claimant for State reward, tlie following 
 statement is found : — 
 
 Mr. J. Wood Beilby establishes, Ity the production (from the Chief 
 Secretary's office) of his correspondence with Mr. LaTrobc, and concurring 
 documentary evidence, the fact that, so early as 7tli June, 1851, or some 
 weeks earlier than Mr. Wm. (/anipbell, he informed the (Jovernment of the 
 existence of gold in workable deposits at the locality now known as Navarre, 
 and in the ranges of tlie Amherst di.strict. Mr. IJ. does not claim to have 
 been the original discoverer, but to have placed the information before 
 Government, for the benefit of the public, at the critical period when its 
 value in arresting th(! threatened exodus of our population to Bathurst was 
 immense. Mr. l^a Trobe was at hrst very incredulous, eviilently not hav-
 
 GOLD AT NAVAREE, 1848. 23 
 
 ing been made aware previously, of the existence of gold as one of the 
 mineral ijroducts of Victoria, as his reply, by letter of lltli June, 1851, 
 demonstrates. Mr. B., however, supplied further details of infoimation, 
 and, waiting upon him personally, so urged investigation, offering to share 
 expenses, that Mr. La Trobe organised a prospecting party, including Mi'. 
 David Armstrong, then a returned Californian digger, afterwards gold 
 commissioner, and the late Capt. If. E. P. Dana, attended by a party of 
 native police ; Mr. Connnissioner Wright, resident at the Pyrenees, bein^ 
 nominated to act with the gentlemen of the party as a board of enquiry. 
 Fi'om variolas causes the expedition was delayed starting from the Aborigi- 
 nal Police Depot, Narree Worran, until a few days before the publication of 
 Mr. Campbell's letter. But the news was made public. Although Mr. 
 La Trobe had requested Mr. Beilby to abstain from further publication of 
 the fact until the result of his investigations, the officials named to 
 accompany the expedition, and their subordinates and outfitters, were not 
 tongue-tied or bound to secrecy. It is, therefore, no matter of surprise 
 that their intended prospecting trip to the Pyrenees was bruited far and 
 wide ; and, as a sequence, their investigations forestalled by the discoveries 
 at Chines. 
 
 In or about 1847-8, ^Mlliam Riclifould, the author of the discovery 
 piiblished by Mr. Beilby, Avas a shepherd in the employment of Mr. W. J. 
 T. Clarke, at his upper outstation on the Heifer Station Creek, Navarre. 
 He was an intelligent and observant man, and always looking for and pre- 
 serving natural curiosities. He discovered water-worn gold in the crevices 
 of a brownish slate rock, in the bed and sides of the creek close to the 
 ranges, and also found a few specimens of gold in quartz upon the surround- 
 ing ranges. These specimens he from time to time disposed of. In 1848, 
 finding himself followed and watched by his fellow servants too closely, 
 and being at the time desirous of selling some valuable specimens, he 
 journeyed westward, and meeting Mr. Armstrong, an employe of S. G. 
 Henty, Esq., at the Grange, he was induced to visit Portland, and dis- 
 posed of his gold to merchants there, by whom it was sent to Tasmania 
 as Californian gold ; being probably represented to them as such, the then 
 current popular belief being that all gold deposits belong to the Queen, and 
 that its appropriation by an unauthorised person was 2Junishable. Rich- 
 fould then engaged as shepherd with Mr. Beilby at Mount Gambler, and 
 shortly after showed Mr. B. some small .specimens of gold he had retained, 
 refusing, however, at that period, to give any information as to the locality 
 of his discovery. Subsequently, in July, 1849, he divulged his secret to 
 Mr. B. on his pledge to keep it, unless its publication was required by 
 public emergency, or the discoverer died. Richfould after this left Mr. 
 B.'s service, professedely to return to the scene of his discoveries. Noth- 
 ing certain is now known of his subsequent history, but his death was 
 shortly afterwards reported in the Mount Gambler district.
 
 24 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Some two yenrs before either Esmond's or Beilby's dates 
 there was a discovery of gold at the Pyi'enees asserted by one 
 Chapman, who sold gold to a jeweller in Melbourne, named 
 Brentani. Chapman was at that time shepherd at Mr. Hall's 
 station near the Pyrenees, the locality of the subsequently opened 
 Daisy Hill diggings. Brentani and his ti'ade hands made up a 
 secret party witli Chapman to go to the Pyrenees and get " a 
 dray-load of gold." They went, but did not get the dray-load of 
 gold, and Chapman mysteriously disappeared and was not heard 
 much of again. Brentani and his men do not seem to have 
 pushed their search or disclosed what they had heard, or seen, or 
 done. M'Combie also mentions the finding of gold in quartz by 
 W. Campbell, of Strathlodden (M.L.C.), in March, 1849, at 
 Burnbank, and also at Clunes, near where Esmond subsequently 
 made his more fertile discovery. Clunes was named by Mr. 
 Donald Cameron after a farm at Inverness in Scotland. 
 
 Mr. Bacchus, of Perewur, in wliose service Chapman had 
 once been, chanced to meet Chapman in Sydney. Mr. Bacchus 
 wrote a letter on the 1st July, 1851, which was published in the 
 Argus, and copied into the Sydney Morning Herald of the 23rd 
 July, 1851, and in that letter he says : — 
 
 Chapman is an old servant of mine, and I have every reason to believe 
 his story. He says he left Melbourne for Sydney because he felt himself 
 watched, and was regularly hunted for information as to where he had found 
 the gold. He says he never took Brentani and Duchesne within miles' of 
 the place, and gives an excellent reason for not doing so. His story is 
 plain and straiglitforward, and from his description of the place I think he 
 might be able to put any one in the way of claiming the reward. He offers 
 to show the exact place at which he picked up the piece of gold, for the 
 sum of £50 and his passage from Sydney. 
 
 Mr. Bacchus, writing to us with tlie alcove enclosure, 
 states :— 
 
 About the same time I wrote to another person in Victoria : — " From 
 what I have lieard and seen of the description of country where gold is 
 found in this Colony (N.S.VV.) I have no douljt that it can be obtained in 
 Lerderdcrg aiul other creeks running from Mount Blackwood and Bullon- 
 crook towards Bacchus Marsli." And so it was a few weeks after. I give 
 another extract of a letter to me from a friend in Victoria, dated in July, 
 ]851 ; — " Coming from one so wcll-Unown as youiaelf your letter in th(!
 
 
 
 < 
 a: 
 < 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 f- 
 
 Q 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 cc 
 
 > 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 UJ 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 CO
 
 KKWARDS TO DISCOVERERS. 25 
 
 Araiis attracted great attention, and has been the means of preventing 
 numbers from leaving here for Sydney. No end of 2>eople have set out in 
 the direction indicated by you." 
 
 The rewai'cl referred to by Mr. Bacchus was advertised by 
 the Port Phillip Government, the disclosure of Hargreaves' dis- 
 covery having compelled the Government here to abandon its 
 previous policy of fear as to the possible consequences of such a 
 discovery, as it vv^as expected there would be a wholesale exodus 
 to New Houth Wales. The Lerderderg locality has been proved, 
 as Mr. Bacchus states, to be auriferous, but the country there has 
 not been very rich in the precious metal. 
 
 The recommendation of the Committee of Parliament, prior 
 to the year 1857, was that £10,000 be divided amongst certain 
 claimants, and that Hargreaves should have £5000 and Esmond 
 £1000, but the Parliament reduced Hargreaves' vote to £2500 
 and Esmond's to £500; tlie £10,000 recommended to the batch 
 of claimants selected being reduced one-half. There appears to have 
 been a motion carried by Dr. Greeves for a vote of £5000 to Har- 
 greaves, but that must have been a conditional vote or elseareversal 
 took place, as the final award was only half the sum recommended by 
 the Committee. Humffray, in July, 1857, enquired in the 
 Assembly why Esmond had not had the £1000 ; and subsequently 
 the Parliament did the tardy justice to the Clunes discoverer of 
 voting him the balance of the £1000 originally recommended. 
 Ten years after Humffray's question as to Esmond, namely — in 
 July, 1857, Frazer moved in Hargreaves' interest and asked the 
 Assembly to vote him £2619, the balance of the sum recommended 
 by the Committee of Parliament. The motion was refused by 
 the House, but by a narrow majority, nineteen voting for and 
 twenty-one against the motion. Most people, probably, will be 
 of opinion that Hargreaves was amply rewarded, whatever may 
 be thought of the official recognition of Victorian discoverers. To 
 them the Governments and Parliaments appear to have shown a 
 rather wayward disposition, and to have distributed votes upon 
 principles not always very obvious. The persistent refusal of 
 recognition of Beilby's claim seems to be an instance in point, for 
 though he could not claim as a producer of gold he gives evidence
 
 26 HISTORY OP BALLAUAT 
 
 of priority as a revealer of its existence, and it is reasonable to 
 presume that his revehition was one of the impulses that led to 
 explorations whose results are now before the world. The rewai'd 
 paid to Hiscock for the discovery of a locality which scarcely paid 
 the miner as a gold-Held, contrasts also with the non-recognition 
 of Connor's and Merrick's parties who discovered Ballarat itself. 
 If any principle should be held to have guided the Govern- 
 ments of the day, it may be assumed that valuable disco^■ery, not 
 barren discovery, lirst claimed attention. Yet Hargreaves, who 
 discovered nothing in Victoria, got more than Esmond, and 
 Beilby, who lirst announced discovery, and Connor's and Merrick's 
 parties, who actually discovered Ballarat, have received nothing. 
 It must be felt that if Hargreaves merited what he received some 
 of the Victorian discoverers and revealers met with scant 
 acknowledgment, and that amongst these last the unfortunate 
 J. Wood Beilby, and the Golden Point discovei-ers, may be in- 
 cluded. 
 
 As soon as Esmond's discovery was known prospecting 
 parties set out from the seaboard, and early in August the late 
 Mr. Hiscock found gold in the gully near Buninyong which now 
 Ixjars his name. The ground was poor and was al)andoned as 
 riclier liekls were soon disco\ered. The Ballarat gold-held was 
 disco\eied by other prospectors, two only of whom were in 
 Ballarat in 1870, namely — Wm. Woodward, a French polisher, 
 living in Chancery lane (late Eureka street), Ballarat West ; and 
 Rd. Turner, a house decorator, living in Raglan street soutli, 
 Ballarat West. Of these two, Turner only survives, and is still 
 here. Woodward was in Connor's party of six persons, namely — 
 Connor, Woodward, Brown, Jeanes, 8mith, and Tliornton. 
 Turner was with four otiiers, namely— Dunn, Merrick, Wilson, 
 and a man iiaiued Charlie, tlie party having, from Alfred Clarke, tlie 
 name of the Geelong Mutual Mining Association. Merrick, some 
 years since, was mining at Dolly's Creek, Connor and Brown are 
 d(!ad, Thornton was lately at Miners' Rest, and Dunn, Jeanes, 
 and Smith in Geelong. Both parties left Geelong for Clunes, but 
 on the way met Alfred Clarke, who informed tliem of Hiscock's 
 discovery, anrl tlicy tiicrcforu began digging at Hiscock's, Gully,
 
 GOLDEN POINT DISCOVEliEKS. 27 
 
 but the gi'ound did not pay. Preserving the tenses of the tirst 
 edition, when the author Iiad personal interviews with the 
 discoverers, we must say that Woodward and Turner ditier a 
 little in some of their dates and facts, and appear in some sort to 
 be rival claimants for the honor of tlie discovery of Golden Point. 
 Woodward asserts for his party the exclusive right to whatever 
 honor belongs to the discovery, while Turner claims for his 
 party equal credit as being discoverers simultaneously with 
 Connor's party. Woodward says the discovery was made by 
 Brown on Monday, the 25th of August ; Turner says it was 
 made by himself and Merrick on Sunday, the 24th, and that 
 Brown made his discovery on the same day. Woodward says 
 that on the 25th Brown was sent out to prospect and returned 
 the same day, saying he had found gold in eveiy dishful of dirt, 
 and wanted men and tlie cradle to go with him. 0]i the 26th 
 three others of the party went with Brown and the cradle, and 
 got 4| oz. of gold for the tirst two hours' work. That day they 
 first used the cradle, and for the lirst day's full work obtained 30 
 oz. of gold. Woodward also says that Turner and Merrick's 
 party reached the Point on the Tuesday, but not earlier. Turner 
 avers, on the contrary, tliat on the Sunday he and Merrick went 
 out to look — as ad^dsed by some diggers in Geelong returned 
 from California — for hills with quartz gravel and boulders. They 
 went by Wciy of Winter's Flat, ascended the ranges, found a ^ 
 oz. of gold in a tin dishful of dirt, carefully concealed the traces 
 of their prospecting, returned to Buninyong, and told the news 
 to their partners. He states that on the Monday both his party 
 and Connor's party left Buninyong for the Point, his own party 
 being bogged in Winter's Plat by the way, and part only reach- 
 ing the Point that night, the remainder arriving next day. 
 Merrick, as Turner avers, commenced cradling on the Tuesday 
 morning, for the purpose of being able to say they were the lirst 
 to do so. They obtained 9 oz. or 10 oz. of gold during the tirst 
 week, being less fortunate in that respect than Connor's party. 
 Tui'ner admits that Connor's party were the lirst to arrive at the 
 Point, but he says it was on Monday, and that a few hours later 
 on the same day some of Turner and Meri'ick's party were also
 
 28 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 there. Both parties agree that they were there together on the 
 Tuesday, and that all the men on the field then were only about 
 half a score. Dunn, writing from memory at Chilwell, Geelong, 
 on the 9th of February, 1870, sent the following letter to 
 Turner : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the Sth inst. , I shall give you a full 
 and true account of our gold prospecting, and the first discovery of Golden 
 Point, as follows : — 1st. Richard Turner, James Merrick, Thomas Dunn, 
 George ^^ilson, Charles Gerrard, James Batty. 2nd. Started from town 
 on Tuesday, Sth August, 1851 ; met with an accident on Batesford Hill, the 
 loaded dray passing over the driver's stomach, left him at Mrs. Primrose's 
 with the Chinese Doctor, proceeding on jouniey (for the Clunes) but stopped 
 at Buninyong near a fortnight. The party getting dissatisfied, Wilson and 
 I agreed to go in search of better diggings, so we started from Buninyong 
 on the Sunda}' morning 24th August, 1S51, between 10 and 11 o'clock, with 
 tin dish and shovel to find the Black Hill ; reached there about 2 o'clock, 
 saw Greenwood's party with a few specks of the color, left the Black Hill 
 about half-past three. In coming over Winter's Flat, I says to George — 
 " There is a likely little quartz hill, let us try it before we go home." It 
 was pouring of rain at the time. So with that I cut a square tui"f, then 
 partly filled the dish and went to the creek to wash it. Oh, wliat joy ! there 
 was about ten or twelve grains of fine gold. So we left off, covered up with 
 turf, and made for home as fast as possible through the rain ; reached home 
 like two drowned rats ; started next morning early for our new discovery ; 
 reached there in the afternoon ; had the cradle at work next morning. I 
 firmly believe that I, Tliomas Dunn, and (ieorge Wilson were tlie first 
 men, and got the first gold, on the little quartz hill now known as Golden 
 Pomt. If there is any one that can dispute this letter let them come for- 
 ward publicly like men. I remain, yours, &c., 
 
 THOMAS DUNN. 
 From memory in Ballarat, since giving us an oral statement, 
 Woodward writes the following as to the discovery : — 
 
 Connor, Woodward, Jeanes, Thornton, and Brown left Geelong, Wed- 
 nesday, 20th August, 1851. Smith arrived on Sunday, 24th August. 
 Brown started (for new ground) Monday morning, 25th. Meeting on 
 Monday evening to petition against paying license-fee for the month of 
 September on account of gold not being sufiicient to pay expenses. On the 
 2Gth Brown came back for tliree more men, iiorse and curt and cradle, and 
 tiictwo first Iiours' work gave 44 oz. Commissioners arrived on Friday, I'Jth 
 September, asking for Connor's party ; taking tiic pannikin up with the 
 gold remarking — " This is a proof it will pay the license-fee." On the 20th 
 Commissioner sends for Connor to pay the license-fee for the remainder of 
 the month. After Connor had paid the liccnae he was pelted with clay aud
 
 FIRST LICENSES. 29 
 
 bonnetted. A public meeting was iield outside tlie bark liut in the hearing 
 of the Commissioners, Herbert Swindells on the stump. Resolutions passed 
 tliat no one pay the license for September, as we had petitioned against it. 
 The meeting no sooner over than the (Commissioners') hut was rushed to 
 pay the license, as them that did not pay would loose their ground — ■ 
 Conner's party receiving IG feet square each, double the ground to what 
 others had. Herbert Swindells was refused a license to dig on account of 
 taking the stump at the meeting. A collection was made for him of 12 oz. 
 of gold which he lost the same night. This is a correct list of facts. 
 
 W. WOODWARD. 
 Merrick, writing from Morrison's Diggings, on the 24t]i 
 February, 1870, to Mr. James Oddie, says : — 
 
 As to the time or date of our arrival on Golden Point I do not re- 
 member, but as to the day and circumstances they are simply as follows : — I 
 formed the party at first with the intention of proceeding to Esmond's 
 Diggings, and on the road we tried Hiscock's Hill, found it would not pay, so 
 we agreed at the end of the week to send George Wilson, one of our party, to 
 the Brown Hill to see if Lindsay and party had found gold. H they had not 
 we were to start for the Clunes on the Monday morning. (Jeorge went up on 
 Saturday or Sunday returning over Golden Point, the flat being flooded. He 
 tried a dishful of gravel and got a nice prospect — some of the bits like small 
 shots flattened. When we had seen the prospect we determined to start for 
 the place next morning early, so that we should not be noticed leaving. On 
 our arrival at Yuille's Flat our cart got bogged, so three of our party, 
 the carter, and horse, started for the Point, taking with them as many 
 things as they could, leaving two of the party to mind the cart. When 
 they got to the Point to their surprise they found Connor's party just ar- 
 rived. The cart was soon got up and tlie tents commenced putting up. 
 Most of our party were for finishing tent and other odd jobs, and commence 
 washing the next week, but I said, "No for I intend to be the first that 
 ever worked a cradle in this ijlace." It was agreed I should, and I cradled 
 the remainder of the week, but no other party began till next Monday or 
 Tuesday following, except they tin-dished it. My party consisted of six 
 men, but Mr. Batty did not come up with us. Their names are as follows : — 
 T. Batty, R. Turner, Dunn, G. Wilson, C. Fitzgerald, J. F. C. Merrick. 
 
 Tlius was opened the gold-field of Ballarat, and the honor of 
 discovery seems to be tolerably evenly balanced between the two 
 claiming parties. Turner does not, though Dunn does, assert 
 priority of discovery for his party, and he admits that Connor's 
 party were first on the Point on the first working day, Woodward 
 making Tuesday and Turner making Monday to be that day. 
 Merx'ick does npt assert priority either, save as to the use of , the
 
 30 HISTORY OP GALLARAT. 
 
 cradle. It may, perliaps, l>e held that the balance of prioi'ity 
 inclines to the side of Connor's party, and it is said in support of 
 Connor's claim that he was always regarded as leader of the 
 diggers at tlie meetings held in those tii'st days when the 
 authorities made their first demand of license fees. Then it is 
 seen from Woodwai-d's statement tliat the Commissioner recog- 
 nised Coniior's claim to piiority, and gave the party a double 
 area. Swindells fcired worse tlian our modern men of tlie 
 stump, and appears to have been less mindful of No. 1 tlian 
 his less scrupulous descendants. It is worthy remark, as ali-eady 
 shown, that none of these actual discoverers and openers of the 
 Ballarat gold-field evei" received any reward from the Government, 
 though Hiscock had, and Esmond also, Hargreaves, however, as 
 already stated, having the lion's share. So far, it must be said, 
 Victoria lias acted with less liberality to lier own cliildren tlian 
 to the stranger's. As to Hiscock's gold cup, lately (1870) 
 exliibited here as the product of gold got in Hiscock's Crully, 
 Woodwai'd affirms that the cup was not made of gold discovered 
 there. 
 
 Writing to Mr. James Oddie, fiom Tarnagulla, under date 
 29th May, 1884, William Brownbill, the discoverer of gold at 
 wliat is now known as Brown Hill, on tlie road to tlie (Jong Gong, 
 says : — 
 
 In the early portion of IS.ll, having doiiiied tlie blue sliirt, I resolved 
 to .swim witii the tide and take the first job that presented itself. * * 
 Took a job rebuilding Mr. Cray's station, whieh had suffered by the fire on 
 lilaek Thursday, and while there very exciting stories were told of the 
 Sydney gold-fields, and several hands left the station for that new enterprise. 
 Not long after the Sydney fields had been noised abroad it was stated that 
 there had been gold found at Buninyong by a blacksmith named Hiscoek. 
 Jf caring that a great many people had gone there in search of gold I decided 
 to goto liuninyong and see for myself what could be done. Judge, then, 
 my disappointment to find that this diggings of Hiscock's was just about 
 being deserted, parties chopfallen and discoui'aged selling their outfit, con- 
 sisting of a tarjiaulin, spade, pick, tin ilish, for the merest trifle. During 
 the evening, however, at the iiotel I fraternised with a gentleman, a reporter 
 for one of the Geclong papers, who had come up to take stock, and from 
 him I learned that some new place had been discovered some miles out in 
 the bush. He and I made our way to the place and found Dunlop and 
 Regan, tiie discoverers, with about six or seven other parties on a small hill
 
 WILLIAM I3H0WXRILL. 31 
 
 (Golden Point) scratching up dirt and washing it in a tin dish, where specks 
 of gold became visible. Upon my attempting to follow their example I 
 was informed that that side of the hill belonged to them and that I had 
 better look for a place for myself. Under these circumstances I was con- 
 strained to take my stand on the other side which was afterwards called 
 Poverty Point. Not many days elapsed before feeling discouraged, and I 
 struck out across the bush in search of fresh fields, trying bits of dirt here 
 and there as I went along. In this way, then, I came to the place which 
 in honor of my discovery the diggers called " Brownbill's Diggings" and 
 which afterwards degenerated into " The Brown Hill." We commenced 
 work and must have been some considerable time there when Governor 
 LaTrobe, accompanied by Captain Dana and some black police, came up to 
 see the place, Brownbill's diggings being the first visited. Upon my show- 
 ing the (iovernor the manner in which gold was obtained he remarked to me 
 — " Your mother did not think when you came to Australia that you were 
 going to dig gold out of the ground in that manner." "•■ " I have never 
 received so much as a shilling in theshapeof reward from the Government, my 
 repeated applications being rejected on the plea that my discovery was too 
 near another diggings. 
 
 Other parties from the seaboard were quickly on the trail of 
 the Golden Point prospectors, and Hiscock's Gully-workers soon 
 i;epaired to the richer locality. Hannington, whom we left revisit- 
 ing pre-auriferous Ballarat, so to speak, in 1845, turns up again 
 as we pursue his story. He goes on thus : — 
 
 After tiiat I went exploring, and did not visit Ballarat again till 185], 
 where I arrived •2Sth August, and sunk several shallow holes about Poveity 
 Point. There Avas not much gold getting then on Golden Point. Found a few 
 specks in the grass, and put down a hole five feet deep. The gold was a\\ 
 over the bottom like a jeweller's shop. There were some rows commencing 
 over the claims then. I was about the fourth claim on the Point, and 
 people coming every hour. We carried the dirt down to the creek in bags 
 and washed it in dishes, and after that we got cradles. Some of the men 
 that came washed with gloves on their hands. There was doctors and 
 lawyers. Mr. Ocock, from Geelong, was one. Then the flat below the 
 Point started, and I got another hole there about 10 feet deep, and could 
 see gold all over the bottom. Worked it out, and went off in the night, 
 as there was sticking up beginning then. Made for William Ritchie's 
 hotel, on the Geelong road, and got there by daylight, and came back 
 after placing our gold safe. This time we pitched our tent on the very 
 spot where the School of Mines is now, to be in sight of our claim. 
 Cleared off a large heap of earth, and sunk 12 feet, and it seemed to be a 
 little gutter. It was like looking into a ginger bread basket, it looked so 
 yellow with gold. We were doing well, but was near being stuck up
 
 32 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 one night, only I happened to be about, as I lieard steps, and sang out to 
 them to retreat or I should fire. They stuck up two others that night. 
 We soon worked out that hole, for we were surrounded by claims, the 
 next to us being James Pugh, mate of Esmond's. We sold the claim for 
 two ounces of gold, and went up to Mount Alexander. Came back again 
 in 1852, six months after, and found one man only on Golden Point, and 
 that was the same man we sold our claim to, as the others all left. He 
 said to me that he had averaged six ounces a day since we left. I did not 
 do well at Mount Alexander, and went to Big Bendigo. Did well at 
 Eaglehawk, but speculated in property at Melbourne, and got into the 
 money-lenders' hands, and lost all, so came back to Ballai-at again after 
 trying other diggings unsuccessfully, and remained up to the present time 
 (September, 1886.) 
 
 Teddy Shannahan, wliose .story about the Eureka Stockade 
 will be found further on, gives some touclies of the times when 
 the first rushes had set tlie colony ablaze. From notes furnislied 
 by gentlemen on the stafi' of the Ballarat Courier, after an 
 interview with Shannahan, the author culls the following : — 
 
 My party arrived at Buninyong in 1851, just after Esmond and 
 Dunlop, and we went on Golden Point a few days afterwards, where we 
 got 8 oz from a bucketful of stufiF. I saw one poor fellow killed by the 
 fall of a ti'ee which he had undermined recklessly, so anxious was he to 
 get the gold. One day a commissioner and a trooper demanded my 
 license, and, as I had not one, they took me, with a lot of others, to the 
 camp, where we were guarded by eight or nine blackfellows, and they, 
 with their polished boots, were looking as proud as possible. I got my 
 license, after telling them my mind, and had to pay £10 ini all. We went 
 to Mount Alexander and Fryers' Creek and on to Bondigo, where we had 
 our pick of a squatter's flock of sheep for 9s. a head. We were tlie first 
 to smk in Long Gully. At Eaglehawk you could see the gold shining in 
 the heap of dirt, and every man sat on his heap all night with pistol or 
 some weapon in his hand ; I thouglit they would be making picks and 
 shovels of the gold, it was so plentiful. It was there the first nugget was 
 found, one 9 lbs. in weight. We only got £.3 an ounce for our gold. In a 
 week or two we started for Geelong, where my family was, and "home, 
 home," was the cry. Each of our party took al)Out 8 lbs. weight of gold 
 to Geelong. We spent Christmas of 1851 there, and soon after tliat 
 decided to go again to Hallarat, taking our wives — Glenn and I — ^and 
 families with us— seventeen in all. Tlu"ee inches of snow fell in Ballarat 
 on our arrival, and we were hardly landed on the Eureka when up came a 
 connnissioner and a trooper and demanded our grog ; we liad ten gallons 
 of brandy, and liad to give it up, and we had got it at the post office 
 below, but we did not tell wlierc we got it, though the commissioner
 
 
 
 il
 
 FIRST EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 33 
 
 knew, for the bullock driver, we believed, had told him. The trooper 
 wanted a digger to assist him with the grog ; "if you do," said I, "I'll 
 smash your head," so the digger gave no assistance. Next day tlie 
 commissioner came back to my mate, and got him to take the keg to the 
 camp. We paid the post office man £1 a gallon for the grog, and he gave 
 us back the £10. We started digging on tiie Eureka, near where the 
 stockade was afterwards. One day, when the troopers were license hunting, 
 I saw Thomas Maher get into a hollow log to escape the troopers ; when 
 he got in he found a snake there four feet long ; it went to one end of the 
 log, and Maher remained till the troopers went awaj'. The diggers were 
 wearied out of their lives by the troopers. They were tormented every- 
 where. Our party from first to last on the diggings must have paid about 
 £500 in license fees. 
 
 Shannahan, who is now 86 years of age, may be pardoned if 
 his memory is not exact as to the number of pounds. His notion 
 of the "tormenting" troopers is honestly Hibernian, and was 
 thoroughly characteristic in one who began his narration to the 
 Courier interviewer with the words : — 
 
 No, it was not the gold discovery tliat brought me out. In Corrigeen, 
 Barony of Kilmarney, where I lived, seventeen houses were burnt in one 
 day by way of eviction. I at once made up my mind to be under Parker, 
 our landlord, no longer, and I came out here. 
 
 The ever recurring wail of the Saxon-hating Irish Celt was 
 thus most naturally echoed by Shannahan as soon as he found 
 the inconvenient officers of the law crossing his path in this new 
 land. Shannahan had a store within the Stockade, and there the 
 declaration of independence, mentioned in a subsequent chapter, 
 was drawn up. 
 
 On the 28th of August, among others who arrived at Bunin- 
 yong, were Messrs. James Oddie, Thomas Bath, Francis Herring, 
 and George Howe, and they reached Golden Point on Monday, the 
 1st September. The news quickly got to Geelong, and on tlie 9th a 
 good many people, including ministers of religion, doctors, mer- 
 chants, and others, arrived. On the day following, the Clunes 
 prospectors having heard of the richer discoveries, Esmond, 
 Cavenagh, and others arrived from Clunes, and Esmond and 
 Cavenagh found fifty pounds weight of gold in two days, that being 
 the first sent down by escort, and Cavenagh being the fii'st to send 
 goid to England, where it realised £4 per oz. The sketch map of
 
 34 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Golden Point, by A. C. M'Donalcl, as tlie place was when the 
 first rush was just reaching there, gives us a fairly accurate 
 picture of the ground as it was then occupied. M 'Donald was 
 one of the diggers there, and Mr. Oddie vouches for the validity 
 of the plan. He informs us that his tent was close to Cavanagh's 
 claim, and his claim was down the slope towards the creek. Seeing 
 how rich Cavanagh's claim was, and that Oddie's tent was not on 
 the claim held by Oddie's party, Howe and Herring — probably 
 the first practitioners in a line of business that in after years 
 became an art — jumped Oddie's tent ground, a space twelve feet 
 by fourteen, or thereabout, and took 37 lbs. weight of gold out of 
 the ground. The following extracts from Mr. JNI'Donald's diary 
 of the time throw additional light upon the aspect of affairs 
 then, and prove that snow in summer was near being a fact in 
 this elevated region that year. 
 
 6/IO/0I. Left Geelong in company with A. V. Suter (now residing at 
 Yambuck Station, near Portland, Victoria), William Fisher, (then of 
 Barrabool Hills, farmer) ; Percy E. Champion (of Geelong, now deceased). 
 9/10/51. Arrived at Golden Point, Ballarat. 11/10/51. A considerable fall 
 of snow to-day. Snow-balling freely indulged in. Population estimated 
 at about 1000 to 1200. Sly grog-selling carried on openly, several prominent 
 Melbourne and Geelong storekeepers subse(|ucntly fined. Meetings were 
 held and two orderly and respectable diggers did their best to put down 
 Bly grog-selling and jjartially succeeded in doing so. 26/10/51. The jiostal 
 arrangements at this time were very insufficient; a bi-weekly mail from 
 Melbourne and Geelong served for a population of about 10,000 diggers. I 
 f retiuently walked to Buninyong and received letters there that should have 
 been sent on to Ballarat. 2/11/51. About this time a stamfiedc set in for 
 Mount Alexander and in less than a week Golden Point was almost deserted; 
 many diggers returned to Geelong and reported that the field was worked 
 out. Weather bitterly cold and wet, hail and sleet and a little snow fell 
 to-day. The Yarrowee and Gnarr Creek were, when I arrived on the field, 
 clear running streams, the former 3 to 4 yards wide, with wide grassy black 
 alluvial flats. Black Hill heavily timbered to its summit and not a pick 
 had been put in anywhere on the western side of the Yarrowee stream. 
 The diggers worked their claims very carelessly and accidents resulted by 
 the caving in of the sides ; a few deaths also resulted. One party took up 
 a claim at the foot of a large tree, and found a considerable quantity of 
 gold amongst its roots; the tree was under-mined and fell, killing one of the 
 party and injuring another. The police hunted the diggers, and any miner 
 found aoarching for gold without a license was taken to the coipniiasioucra'
 
 FIRST DKiGlNG LICENSE tSSUKB. 35 
 
 •, 
 camp. I have secnrthree'men chained to a treeall niglit because they could 
 not, or would not, pay the SOs. per month. AI)out the end of October, 
 two men were shot at for stealing gold, or rather washdirt. They were 
 not mortally wounded, however, and were allowed to escape. 
 
 On tlie 19tli of September Mr. Commissioner Doveton, and 
 Assistant-Commissioner Armstrong arrived witli troopers, and on 
 tlic 20th the first license was issued, Connor's party being the first 
 licensees, and paying 15s. eacli for the remainder of tlie month. 
 The diggers did not relisli tlie demand of license fees, and at a 
 meeting held — Connor on the stump — the division was against 
 paying the fees. But the decision was not adhered to in practice, 
 for the licenses were taken out immediately. Turner, for his party, 
 followed Connor's example quickly, for by that time jealousies 
 of each other had arisen, the Clunes contingent being regarded 
 with especial disfavor. Swindells, one of the Geelong diggers, 
 mounted the stump in tliose early days and on one occasion 
 he got the diggers to divide — Clunes v. Geelong — and the 
 balance of power being seen to be on the side of the latter, and 
 the presence of the authorities aiding also, peace was kept. For 
 the attitude of the Commissionei's was firm. When Swindells 
 and Oddie, as the chosen delegates of the diggers, waited on the 
 Commissioners to oppose the issue of the licenses. Commissioner 
 Doveton said to them : — " I am not come to make the law, but to 
 administer it, and if you don't pay the license fee I'll damned soon 
 make you pay it." This was nervously epigrammatic, and being 
 fortified by a very contiguous group of black troopers, was 
 practically irresistible. No wonder, then, that tlie peace, in that 
 direction also, was kept. But that little drama in the tent of the 
 Commissioners was a kind of prophetic rehearsal. The dialogue 
 had in it pent-up elements which, not many years after, exploded 
 in tragical fashion. But we must not here forestall the evolution 
 of events. 
 
 The diggings were shallow and very productive, the rains 
 were heavy, and two rude bridges erected, tlie first probably, over 
 the Yarrowee by Connor's party, were washed away. By the time 
 the first week was over there had gathered near 100 diggers at the 
 Point, the riches unearthed there quickly attracting not only all
 
 36 .HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 the otlier prospectors, but setting the coloi\y on fire with ex- 
 citement from end to end. The cjuiet Balhirat sheep run, with 
 its grassy slopes and shadowy ghides, and its green -galley where 
 the Yarrowee poured its limpid waters, became suddenly 
 transformed as by the wand of an enchanter. The Black 
 Hill then looked upon the valley with a densely tindjered head 
 and face, whence its name was taken. The valley was thinly 
 sprinkled with trees, and the ranges, with the spurs subsequently 
 known as Golden Point, Bakery, Specimen, and Sinclair's Hills, 
 were well timbered, while the western basaltic table land, where 
 Western Ballarat is now, was moderately sprinkled with the 
 usual variety of forest growth. In a brief time all this was 
 changed. Soon the solitary blue columns of smoke that rose fi'om 
 the first prospecting parties' camping places were but undis- 
 tinguishable items amidst a host. The one or two white tents of 
 the prospectors were soon lost in crowded irregular lines and 
 groups of tents that dotted the slopes and flats, or spread out along 
 tlie tortuous tracks made by the bullock teams of the squatter. 
 The ajce of the digger quickly made inroads upon the forest all 
 round ; the green banks of the Yarrowee were lined with tubs 
 and cradles, its clear waters were changed to liquid, yellow as the 
 yellowest Tiber flood, and its banks grew to be long shoals of 
 Wlings. Everywhere little hillocks of red, yellow, and wdiite 
 earth were visible as the diggers got to work, and in a few weeks 
 the green slopes, where the prospectors found the gold of Golden 
 Point, changed from their aboriginal condition to the appearance 
 of a fresh and rudely made burial ground. At first the upturned 
 colored earth-heaps were but as isolated pustules upon the fair 
 face of the primeval hills and valley, but they rapidly multiplied 
 until they ran together, so to speak, and made the forest swards 
 but so many l)lotchcd reaches of industrious disorder, the very 
 feculence of golden fever everywhere in colored splotches with 
 shadowed pits between. 
 
 Mr. LatrolK', in a despatch at this date to I'Lirl (!rey, says : — 
 
 It is <iuite iinpus.sihle for iiio to (lcscril)u to ymir lonlslii)) tlie ulFcot 
 which these Uiscyveries liave had upon the whole coimmuiity. Witliin the 
 laat three weeks the towns of Melbourne and (jeelong and their large
 
 MR. LATROBE's DIPFICULTIEi?. 37 
 
 suburbs have been in appearance almost emptied of many classes of their 
 male inhabitants. Not only have the idlers to be found in every commun- 
 ity, and day laborers in town and the adjacent country, shopmen, artisans, 
 and mechanics of every description thrown up their employments — in most 
 cases leaving their employers and their wives and families to take care of 
 themselves— and run off to the workings, but responsible tradesmen, 
 farmers, clerks of every grade, and not a few of the superior classes have 
 followed ; some, unable to withstand the mania and force of the streaiin, 
 but others because they were, as employers of labor, left in tlie lurch, and 
 had no other alternative. Cottages are deserted, houses to let, business 
 is at a. standstill, and even schools are closed. In some of the suburbs not a 
 man is left, and the women are known, for self-protection, to forget neighbors' 
 jars, and to group together to keep house. The ships in the harbor are in 
 a great measure deserted, and masters of vessels, like farmers, have made 
 up parties with their men to go shares at the diggings. Both here and at 
 Geelong all buildings and contract works, public and private, are at a 
 stand-still. 
 
 Mr. Westgarth, in his "Victoria in 1857,". tlius refers to 
 what he saw of change in Melljourne wlien he returned from a 
 visit to Europe : — 
 
 All had been changed into a wild and tumultuous development. The 
 waters of Hobson's Bay were scarcely visible beneath a forest of five or six 
 hundred vessels. The grassy glades of North Melbourne were now a hard 
 and dusty surface, cut up everywhere with roads, and disturbed with the 
 incessant noise of the traffic to the interior. 
 
 To extricate the deserted ships it was proposed to get Lascars 
 from India. Communication with the mother country was only 
 possi])le liaphazard in those days. Tlie Victorian Governor's 
 despatches took six, and, in one instance, seven months to reach 
 London. His ExceUency and all his following were perplexed 
 by the whirlwind of auriferous excitement. As his despatches 
 stated, all classes felt the burning thirst for gold. Sir J. Pahuer, 
 at that time President of the Legislative Council, was one of the 
 first diggers at Golden Point, and used to quarter at Lai Lai. 
 Among the first visitors were Lady A'Beckett, wife of the Chief 
 Justice, with other ladies and gentlemen, who made a pilgrimage 
 from Melbourne in a waggonette to see the new wonders. The 
 Governor, too, came upon the scene. Clunes and Anderson's 
 Creek had mildly aroused the authorities in Melbourne, and 
 regulations to be enforced by the 1st of .September were dis-
 
 38 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 cussed for those places ; "but (writes the Governor to Earl Grey) 
 before this could be done, they also were deserted, not from any 
 real unproductiveness, but from the discovery of the new 
 gold-field within a mile of the township of Buninyong." This 
 was tlie Hiscock's Gully ground, but tliat electric flash was 
 speedily followed by the more brilliant discharges from Golden 
 Point, "another locality (to cite the Governor's despatches again) 
 producing the precious metal in far greater abundance in the 
 valley of the River Leigh, about seven miles to the northward, 
 into which a very large conflux of adventurers is pouring." 
 Under these circumstances tlie Government bestirred itself, sent 
 up police, promulgated the right of the Crown in the gold, issued 
 licenses, and so took the first feeble steps in the portentous and 
 sometimes wayward path of gold-fields government. The Golden 
 Point diggers did not like the licenses at first, but they soon 
 took kindly to them, and 400 wei-e issued within a few days. 
 His Excellency, writing on 10th October, stated that 1300 liad 
 been issued, and by the 30tli October, 224G. He saw the lucky 
 diggers digging up the gold on the Point, and told Earl Grey 
 there were 500 cradles at work, not fewer than 2500 persons on 
 the ground, and 500 arriving daily. He saw 8 lbs. of gold 
 washed from two tin dislies of dirt, licard of a party that raised 
 16 lbs. at an early hour, and 31 lbs. in all that day, many parties 
 of four sharing day after day 10 oz. per man. "There can be 
 no doubt (continues his Excellency) but that gold must rank as 
 one of the most important, if not the most important, products 
 of tlie colony, and tliat from this time forward a very considerable 
 and valuable section of the pojiulatiou will ))('. eiiiployed in 
 realising it." 
 
 Tlie Victorian Governor's foresight was tru(>, for ho was 
 sagacious and the ti)nes were ([uickening. He and his Ministers 
 had only just begun to draw breath again after the Ballarat 
 rush, had begun to discuss the pi-opriety of raising the salai'ies of 
 civil servants to iiicct llu- new state; of allairs, had noted 
 "business Ix'giniiiiig to r<!\ive as juany, physically and moi'ally 
 untit iov the austerities of the gold-fields I'cturiicd to their homes," 
 when a se<;ond ' shock came to fright them from their re-assuring
 
 BALLARAT HALF DESERTED. 39 
 
 propriety. The Mount Alexander diggings " broke out," as tlie 
 expressive phrase had it, and the Governor once more took to 
 horse and went to see tlie newer Eldorado, writing on 30th 
 October to Earl Grey, and telling him " On my return to 
 Melbourne the whole population was again excited." 
 
 The Mount Alexander rush was caused by a shepherd 
 picking up a bit of golden quartz. That led to prospecting, and 
 a party haying got .£300 worth of gold in a seam of quartz, 
 more prospectors arrived, and then the rich alluvial grounds were 
 opened, and Ballarat itself was half deserted by rushers to the 
 later held, and everything was turned topsy-turvy once more. 
 Poor Mr. Latrobe at last got excited in his syntax. Writing on 
 3rd December to Earl Grey, his Excellency said : — 
 
 I must now apprise you that the progress and results of the successful 
 search for gold in this (Mount Alexander) quarter, in the short interval 
 which lias since elapsed, has been such as completely to disorganise the 
 whole structure of society, and it really becomes a question how the more 
 sober operations of society, and even the functions of government, may be 
 carried on, 
 
 Mr. Hastie, writing recently to the author, says : — 
 
 At the beginning of the diggings little attention was paid to Sabbath 
 religious worship, the feelings of many resembling those of the digger 
 who, when asked for a subscription, sent for a bottle of brandy to treat his 
 visitor with. For the brandy the digger paiil nine shillings, and as the 
 subscription sought was only five shillings, his refusal cost more than his 
 consent would have cost. After a while, however, open shops on the 
 Sabbath were shut, the diggings became dotted with places of worship, 
 and the Sabbath was observed with nearly as much respect as at the present 
 time. At the first, all sorts of people came to the diggings, government 
 officers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, and others. Two friends spent a 
 night with me on their way to Ballarat ; one was in the civil service with 
 a salary of £600 a year, the other a merchant in good business. I ex- 
 postulated with them, but they seemed determined to carry out their 
 purpose of throwing up office and business for gold digging. Second 
 thoughts must have induced them to change their design, for the civil 
 servant rose afterwards to the very highest office in his department, and 
 the merchant, after some years, retired, and, as far as I know, is still 
 (1886) living at home on the estaite he purchased. Among those who 
 rushed to Ballarat were several clergymen, and one asked that his horse 
 might graze in my paddock. I said a Church of England minister had 
 been staying with me for a fortnight, and if he came, like him, to preach
 
 40 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 to and visit the diggers, I would be quite willing to keep his horse, but if he 
 came as a digger, I must charge him, as I had not sufficient grass for my 
 own stock, and was continually pestered with similar applications. One 
 day a digger asked me if I would sell my vehicle, as he was going to 
 Bendigo, and the trap would suit him ; I said I could not spare it, and he 
 then offered to take me as a mate. Humoring his whim for the moment, I 
 pointed out how little I could do; "Oh," says he, " we M'ill make you 
 cook, and you will share alike in the gold." I declined, and perhaps lost 
 the chance of becoming one of the Sandhurst magnates, but I do not 
 regret the decision. Society, for a time, seemed to lose its ordinary con- 
 ditions ; those at the bottom rose to the top, and those at the top fell to 
 the bottom ; but it says much for the intelligence and character of the 
 diggers and others that this state of things was so speedily righted, and 
 that authority and law so soon resumed their place. This was certainly 
 not due to the conduct or character of some of those in authority, young 
 men whose only title to office was their having the ear of the Government, 
 or of some one connected with the Government, for there could not be one 
 more just, upright, and arucious to promote the interests of the colony 
 than Mr. Latrobe. Many of his inferior officers were indeed inferior. 
 Many had come out with recommendations from the home Government 
 which Mr. Latrobe was constrained to regard. Had he been left to act on 
 his own authority the disturbances which took place would never have 
 occurred. 
 
 Mr. Hastie's observations anticipate here tlie march of 
 events in this history, but they go to vindicate the reputation of 
 an honest officer, upon the heads of whose subordinates, 
 appointed, doubtless, in the manner stated, much of tlie trouble 
 hereafter to be recorded must be hiid. 
 
 The Hon. David Ham, wlio was elected to tlic Legislative 
 Council on the 30th June, 188G, as one of tlie representatives 
 for the Wellington Province, tells the following story of his ad- 
 ventures as a pioneer in the early days, from which it will be seen 
 that lie Avas a wonderful man for being at the start of things : — 
 
 I landed in Melbourne on tlic 24th July, 1849, when the wages paid 
 for general servants was from £'20 to ,L''25 a year. Having had contracts 
 for the supply of stores to wool ships ofl' J'oint Henry, I became a farmer 
 in 18r)0 at Ijcllarine, Indented Heads, and was potato digging on the 
 6th .July, wlicM tiie fires of lilack Thursday were about us. We all left 
 work and ran down into the sea. Left (Icelong on tlic ioth July, 1851, 
 for the diggings at Buninyong, no Ballarat being then discovered. Saw 
 Hiscock and party wa.shing off dirt in a tin disli, swilling it through tho
 
 
 Q 
 < 
 
 CD 
 
 LLl 
 
 r 
 
 < 
 
 CQ
 
 PROPOSAL TO DOUBLE THE LICENSE FEE. 41 
 
 water, and then letting clear water on the dirt and fishing with a knife for 
 anj' specks of gold that could be seen through the water in the dirt. 
 Returned to CJeelong and left there with stores when Ballarat was 
 discovered. T. C. Riddell, Robert Fawcett, myself, and four others, 
 reached Ballarat in September, as the first license had just been issued. 
 Pistols and powder were the order of the day when work was over. We 
 had a good claim on Golden Point, and soon worked it out, and then on 
 the 3rd November, Alfred Douglass (senr.), W. Harper (Government 
 Officer), H. Butchers, and I, left for Fryer's Creek. Got there on the 9th, 
 our party being the fourth on the ground. We opened up Golden Point 
 and the Golden Gully, taking a loaded gun to protect ourselves with, as 
 old hands were prowling about for chances to rob holes. Many a life was 
 taken in those days and never accounted for. The diggings were rich. 
 I have seen 130 lbs. weight of gold taken out of a crevice in the rock 
 there. In Mai'ch, 1852, we had come to Ballarat again, and had a claim on 
 the creek below Golden Point, about 32 feet square, 10 feet deep, and we 
 took out £1200 worth of gold in two months. Then I, with four others, 
 sank the first hole in Canadian Gully, and found the first nugget just 
 below Hill and party, who were surfacing on the top of the range. We 
 were about the first to open the first gully at Little Bendigo on the old 
 Eureka. In May there came a flood and ruined all the workings on the 
 flats. From 1853 to 1854 I had a butchery store on the Eureka, where the 
 Orphan Asylum is now. Sold out, went to Geelong, invested in house 
 property there, but people left for the gold-fields, propei'ty fell and I lost 
 everything but my reputation. Paid 20s. in the pound, and in 1857 went 
 to Ararat diggings. In 1859 1 and others put up a sawmill in Monkey Gully, 
 and opened up the Victoria Reef at Browns ; and up to 18G3 was engaged 
 opening up Smythesdale, Happy Valley, Cape Clear, Bull Dog, and 
 Linton. In 1868 I returned to Ballarat, where I have remained ever since. 
 The Ballarat excitement was exceeded by that of the Mount 
 Alexander rush, and the Governor informed Earl Grey that while 
 there were about 6000 persons at the Ballarat rush, there were 
 double that number in an area of 15 square miles at Mount 
 Alexander. His Excellency forthwith proposed to put a pecuniary 
 drag upon the wheels of this auriferous machine that was 
 running away with the bodies and wits of the population. He 
 proposed to double the license fee, as the Legislative Council 
 would not sanction a special vote to meet the new exigencies of 
 the Executive. A further ground for the proposal was, "the 
 notorious disproportion of the advantages derivable under the 
 license system to the public revenue, compared with the amount 
 of private gain." His Excellency also hoped by this means to
 
 42 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 deter unfit men from going to tlie diggings— fond but delusive 
 hope. The superintendent of police and the slieriff furnished 
 their contril)utions to tlie bitter cup of the unhappy Governoi', 
 informing him that most of tlie police and Avarders and turnkeys 
 of gaols had sent in their resignations. Nor Avas tliis all, for 
 " many clerks in the public service are bent on the same course." 
 Then the Governor applied to the Governor-General at Sydney 
 for " an increase to the small military force stationed hei^e, 
 sufficient, I trust, happen what may, to place the gaols, stockades, 
 and banks for the present in safety." Mr. Latrobe Avisely 
 reminded Earl Grey that the preservation of order Avas more 
 important than raising a great revenue, as thousands Avould flock 
 to the colony, but good colonists AV'ould stay aAvay if hiAV became 
 impotent to preserA'e peace and order. So he felt that he must 
 have soldiers, not fearing that they Avould desei-t like the sailors 
 to folloAv tlie seductive pursuit of gold. " Melbourne ought 
 (wrote his Excellency) to be made the head-quarters of one 
 regiment at least." In time this came about, and tlien, in less 
 than tAvo decades, Ave had talked of getting rid of both soldiers 
 and the Home Government, and setting up absolutely for our- 
 selves. The soldiers are already gone, and all the British empire 
 is discussing tlie relations to be maintained l)etAveen the parent 
 State and her world-encircling colonies. 
 
 This modern outcome, hoAvever, had not appeared to the 
 Government of 1851 as a probability. The Governor and his 
 subordinates Avere busy regulating and licensing and escorting the 
 diggers and their gold. " Boninyong," as the name Avas spelt in 
 the despatches, Avas the head-quarters of the local authorities 
 then. They issued a notice in October, having found tliat gold 
 Avas accumulating, that " the escort will leave Boninyong every 
 Tuesday morning at six o'clock ; persons desirous of sending gold 
 under tlie security ailbrded l>y this conveyance are to take care 
 tliat it is forwarded to Boninyong not later than four o'clock p.m. 
 of tlie Monday. Escort charge of 1 per cent, on washed gold, 
 to lie estimated at the rate of £'-^ per ounce, and on gold mixed 
 with a larger portion of stone at the rate of £2 lOs. the ounce." 
 The Governiiient authorities undei'took no I'esponsibility. Like
 
 PRICES CURREXT, 1852. 
 
 43 
 
 the squatters, or small settlers, they advertised a sort of accom- 
 modation paddock on wheels, but took no responsil)ility. They 
 had to take gold-dust in payment for licenses, for coin was scai'ce, 
 and in tlie same month we find the Treasurer in jVIelbourne 
 advertising for tenders for the purcliase of 1500 oz. of gold. 
 
 In December the Government doubled the license fee, 
 making it £3 per month, or £1 10s. if the license was taken out 
 after tlie 15th of the month. And this for a claim eight feet 
 square for one man, or eight feet by sixteen for a party, and with 
 a prohibition against digging witliin half-a-mile of every side of 
 a homestead. Even these i-egulations were luxuries to be denied 
 to civil servants unless they could show that their resignation of 
 office had " not only been authorised, but was unattended with 
 embarrassment to the Government." To work this machinery on 
 the Ballarat, or " Boninyong," diggings there were gazetted in 
 October : — William Mair, commissioner, salary £300 a-year ; D. 
 Armstrong, assistant-commissioner, salary £250 ; John Bell, 
 clerk, salary £100 ; Henry Smith, ins2:)ector of jjolice, salary 
 £150 ; mounted and foot constables at 3s. and 2s. 9d. per diem 
 respectively ; and native police at the magnificent pay of lid. 
 per diem. For the Mount Alexander diggings tliere were Messrs. 
 Doveton, Lydiard, Dana, and Eyre as commissio]iers, or police 
 officers ; and, as clerk, Mr. AV. Hogarth, afterwards for sometime 
 clerk of petty sessions in Ballarat. 
 
 The following table, showing the prices current at Ballarat, 
 has been compiled from official returns, and will sliow the 
 influence of the gold discovery on the value of the necessaries of 
 life :— 
 
 ARTICLKS. 
 
 QUANTITY. 
 
 DATES. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Jan. 1852. 
 
 May, 
 
 1852. 
 
 June, 1852. 
 
 Oct., 1852. 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. 
 
 (1. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Flour 
 
 pound 
 
 G 
 
 
 
 (i 
 
 10 
 
 1 3 
 
 Tea 
 
 
 
 
 jj 
 
 2 U 
 
 2 
 
 G 
 
 2 G 
 
 3 G 
 
 Sugar 
 
 
 
 
 J, 
 
 G 
 
 
 
 G 
 
 S 
 
 1 
 
 Meat 
 
 
 
 
 ,, 
 
 3i 
 
 U 
 
 :! 
 
 a 
 
 5 
 
 Milk 
 
 
 
 
 quart 
 
 2 (1 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 Bread 
 
 
 
 
 pound 
 
 4'. 
 
 
 
 G 
 
 9 
 
 1(1.'. 
 
 Bacon 
 
 
 
 
 ,j 
 
 V, 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 3 d" 
 
 Butter 
 
 
 
 
 jj 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 G 
 
 3 G 
 
 3 G 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 . 
 
 
 ,, 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 S 
 
 Washing 
 
 
 dozen 
 
 7 u 
 
 G 
 
 
 
 G G 
 
 8
 
 44 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 The returns for the Mount Alexander diggings were more 
 elaborate, as at the dates given that locality was the more im- 
 portant. It is, however, presumable that similar rates ruled in 
 Ballarat for goods not included in the Ballarat table. The prices 
 at Mount Alexander in October, 1852, were similar where both 
 tables recite the same articles. We find that at Mount Alexander 
 some handicraftsmen got as much as 25s. per diem, oats were £3 
 per bushel, tobacco 10s. per lb. ; while in Melbourne Wellington 
 boots were quoted at from 50s. to 60s. per pair for imported, and 
 from 75s. to 90s. for those made to order. The price of cartage 
 from Melbourne to the diggings was from £100 to £120 per ton ; 
 hotel charges were from 50s. to 140s. per week, and a horse at 
 livery cost 15s. a day, or 105s. a week. And it must be re- 
 membered that these prices were paid for the roughest and rudest 
 accommodation and service, while the qualities of goods could 
 never in those days be very closely or, at least, profitably 
 scrutinised. 
 
 From some accounts and papers placed by Mr. Thomas Bath 
 in the author's hands, the proofs are given that up to the end of 
 1854 and the beginning of 1855, there had not been any great 
 reduction in prices. The coach fare from Geelong was still £3 ; 
 " Mrs. Lynn and nine children" paying £20. At that time Mr. 
 Bath had some men sawing for him the native timber then grow- 
 ing contiguous to a sawpit in the Gnarr Creek gully, between 
 Doveton and Armstrong streets, where the railway reserve and 
 wood merchants now are. For flooring boards, the price was 38s. 
 per 100 feet; and quartering, or 4 inches by 3 inclies, 33s. per 
 100 feet. Flour was £6 10s. per bag ; potatoes, 4|d. per lb. ; 
 eggs, 6s. per dozen; milk, 3s. per quart; peas, in husk. Is. 3d. 
 per quart ; ginger beer, 4s. per dozen ; lemonade and soda water, 
 5s. per dozen; oats, 16s. 3d. per bushel ; hay, £25 per ton. A 
 blacksmith's bill charges 24s. for shoeing a horse, a single shoe 
 being paid for at the same rate. For a crowbar weigliing 26 lbs., 
 the price was 32s., and 30s. for tireing Avheels, Ijut how many is 
 not stated, tliough 2s. is tlie price for one linch pin, 3s. for a 
 maul ring, and 5s. for " one new axe ; " not very exorbitant 
 charges these last, surely, for the times. From the same heap of
 
 THE FIRST WEIGHBRIDGE. 45 
 
 old papers it is found^that £1 was the rent for two sittings from 
 1st January to 31st March, 1856, in the little wooden building 
 in Armstrong street, which served then for Anglican church 
 purposes. Some weighbridge notes for August, 1856, also are 
 evidence of Mr. Bath's priority in that way ; the first bridge in 
 Ballarat having been erected by him in what is now Bath street, 
 and about midway between Lydiard and Armstrong streets. 
 One of the best-kept documents in the series now before the 
 author carries us back to the days immediately after the Eureka 
 Stockade affair, — mentioned further on — and to the days 
 preceding the foundation of the District Hospital. It is as 
 follows : — 
 
 Government Ccamp, Ballaarat, 16th December, 1854. 
 
 Mr. T. Bath will please to send the undermentioned Wine, &c., to the 
 Camp Hospital, with the least possible delay. Application for the pay- 
 ment of the above to be made to my office. 
 
 Twelve (12) bottles Porter. 
 
 Six (6) bottles Sherry Wine. 
 
 ROBT. REDE, 
 
 Resident Commissioner,
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM THE GOLD DISCOVEKY TO THE YEAR OF THE EUREKA STOCKADE. 
 
 Gruat Aygrejjatioiisof Population.— Opening- up of Golden Grounds.— A Digger's Adven- 
 tures. — Character of the Population. — Dates of Local Discoveries. — Ballarat Township 
 Proclaimed.— First Sales of Land.- Bath's Hotel.— First Public Clock. — Tathani's and 
 Brookshank's recollections — Primitive Stores, Offices and Convejances. — Woman a 
 Phenomenon. — First Women at Ballarat. — Curious Monetary Devices. — First Religious 
 Services. — Churches. — Newspapers. — Theatres.— Lawyers. — First Courts. — Capture of 
 Roberts the Nelson Robber.— Nuggets.— Golden Gutters.— Thirty or Forty Thousand 
 Persons Located. 
 
 U R I N G the three years which passed be- 
 tween the December, 1851, — when the license 
 fee was raised from thirty shillings to sixty 
 shillings a month, — and the December, 1854, 
 when a rebel flag was hoisted at the Stockade, 
 tlie changes here had been A-ast and various. 
 There had been ebbings and flowings of 
 population between Ballarat and Mount 
 Alexander and other more newly opened 
 goldtields, and the golden note which Hargreaves had struck in 
 New South Wales and Esmond in Victoria had been heard all 
 over the world. Eroni e\ei'y country under hea^•en there flocked 
 to these shores men — young and wifeless men for tin; most part — 
 eager to engjige in tlie hunt for gold and fortune. Thousands 
 upon thousands cmiiic fi'om Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, 
 a mingled motley host that s'warmed upon the greater centres of 
 gold-digging enterprise, prospected for new grounds, or lingered 
 upon the seaside to swell the urban populations. These gathering 
 hosts rapidly pushed forward the work of exploration. Slope and
 
 THE FIliST SLAliliED SHAFT. 47 
 
 flat and gully and hill-top were successively invested by the army 
 of old-comers and new-comers, before whose I'esistless march the 
 forest gradually fell, streets of canvas and shingles sprang into 
 being, and thus, where but a little time before the forest was 
 thick, and bird and Ijeast were undisturbed, gold-seeking became 
 a Avide-spread and permanent industry. In Februaiy, 1853, the 
 White Flat was rushed, and before that time the upper part of 
 Canadian Gully was opened. iSailors' Gully was opened early in 
 1853, and Mr. James Vallins, one of the oldest of the Ballarat 
 diggers, writes to us as follows, on the part of John Sawyer, who 
 prospected Sailors' Gully : — 
 
 About the middle of 1853 myself and seven others commenced pros- 
 pecting. We were six sailors out of eight, and were called " the sailors.'' 
 The gully was called Sailors' Gully after us. Swift and party, Americans, 
 commenced prospecting Prince Regent's Gully about the same time. We 
 obtained a double claim, 48 ft. by 24 ft., as a prospecting claim. We were 
 the first I could discover to slab the shaft from surface to the bottom, the 
 practice being to sink a round shaft as far as the ground would stand, then 
 square and slab the rest. Our first shaft was lost in the drift at about 
 70 feet from the surface. This was the first drift with heavy water touched 
 on Ballarat. The second sliaft was lost in the drift at 90 feet from tlie 
 surface. This caused the whole ground to be rushed both above and below 
 our ground. Our third shaft we succeeded in bottoming at 107 feet — then 
 the deepest hole on Ballarat — dead on the gutter. The water was very 
 heavy, and we were obliged to use two buckets, one up and the other 
 down, for the first time on Ballarat. We had to send to Geelong and get 
 made to order two water-buckets. The first gold got was a nugget weigh- 
 ing 2h oz. weight, sent up in the water-bucket. The largest piece of gold 
 got from the claim w as 100 oz. Hundreds of people came to see us every 
 day, and as we were very hard worked we had to post a notice for them to 
 read, instead of asking questions : — " Notice. — Bottomed at 107 feet. 
 Large quantity of water. Got a nugget." 
 
 The Black Hill was, early in 1853, busily occupied, and the 
 ground between that and Rotten Gully — the head of the Eureka 
 Lead — was being taken wp, the Eureka, so named by a medical man, 
 being opened in August, 1852. During the next year or two the 
 shallow grounds declined in importance, occasional discoveries of 
 new reaches of such ground not sufhcing to keep back the gradually 
 growing importance of the deeper sinking on the Canadian, Gravel 
 Pits, Eureka, and other ^oideu gutters. Creswick was rushed in
 
 48 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 December, 1852, and ground down the Leigh and at Smythesdale 
 was gradually opened thereafter. In Ballarat the population was 
 located principally, indeed almost entirely, on the ground now 
 traversed by the present streets of the eastern borough and along 
 the lines of leads now built over, covered with gardens and yards, 
 crossed by streets, or still lying outside the clustering houses and 
 on the edges of the mingling boundaries of borough aud bush. 
 
 The new chum digger of 1852 writes to the author of 1886 
 as follows : — 
 
 I and my mate, whose very name I have forgotten, pitched oiu' tent 
 on the slope near the Black Hill, where Humffray street is now. Tlv-t was 
 in November, 1S52. We had come up from Melbourne with near a score 
 of shipmates just landed from South Africa. One of them, a Londoner, 
 had an umbrella-shaped tent, the rigging of which was a work of dexterity, 
 and was watched with interest. Close by, a party of four or five Scotch- 
 men settled down with more resolute intent, for they built sod walls for 
 their tent cover to sprawl over, and a sod lum, as they called their chimney. 
 Some of our shipmates had no money nor any inclination to hard work, so 
 they accepted billets as policemen at the Camp. They and others of the 
 force then were a ragged ununiformed FalstafRan sort of crowd, with 
 arms to match. I well remember climbing the green moimd to the group 
 of tents called the Camp, where I paid for my license, and whei'e Camp 
 street and its close packed neighbourhood is now. There were not many 
 diggers at Golden Point. The Canadian we did not visit, but on a Sunday 
 we explored Rotten Gully, at the head of what became the Eureka, and 
 found the gully well occupied and well deserving its name, for it was very 
 rotten sinking. We dug shallow holes in the Black Hill flat, but got " the 
 color " only, and early in December the rush to Creswick broke out and 
 we went there. Pitched our tent on the sward among the trees not far 
 from a creek, but what creek it was or is I do not now know and could 
 not find again if my life depended upon it. We were again luilucky, fell 
 out, separated, and I returned to Ballarat on my way to Melbourne, 
 disgusted with gold-hunting and bush-life, and determined to rush back to 
 civilisation, as fur as the thing was reachable then in Melbourne. I 
 found and left " Creswicks," as it was called then, a mere collection of 
 tents in the bush, and never saw it again till it had grown into a little 
 town, had been nearly all burnt down and I'cbuilt. Ballarat was also a 
 mere collection of tents, and a few slightly more substantial dwellings, 
 and all was on the eastern side of the Yarrowee, save a few diggers' tents 
 to the west and the Camp group on the edge of the table land. I found 
 Bomo of our shipmates employed making a dam across tlic Guarr Creek, 
 near where the buried culvert now winds round beneath the hill on which
 
 1^' 
 
 ; — 
 
 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 00 
 
 5 
 < 
 
 03 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 < 
 —I 
 —I 
 < 
 03 
 
 5 
 
 o 
 
 )-
 
 A NEW chum's experiences. 49 
 
 the locomotive engine-sheds are. On the slope from what is now Hill 
 street to what is now the artificially raised Mair street, our old ship's 
 *' Doctor " luid his shed and stoves and what not, where, as Camp coolv, he 
 prepared the liberal meals required by the healthy digestions of the people 
 of all grades at the Camp. It was a torrid day towards the end of Decem- 
 ber when I humped my swag from " Creswicks " to Ballarat, and it was 
 absolute luxury to have a bunk allotted to me in the police quarters 
 amongst my old South African schooner mates. Next morning early I rose 
 to start for Melbourne, the old "doctor" (long since laid in the old 
 cemetery in Ballarat) was making a damper about four feet in circumference, 
 and he had coffee bubbling in a big boiler, and mutton chops sputtering in an 
 enormous fryingpan with a handle some three or four feet long. He hos- 
 pitably commended to my lips the chalice of boiling coffee and heaps of 
 chops and damper at pleasure. I ate, as a fool eats, who has an appetite 
 and does not know how the midsummer heats of the day before and the 
 day then dawning were to affect him in conjunction with hot coffee, hot 
 chops, hot damper, and the tax of unwonted exertion upon the energies 
 and endurance of the body. Another Melbourne-bound swagsman passed 
 as I bade the Camp cook farewell, and we marched on together. There was 
 a rapid kind of freemasonry extant in those days between some chance 
 acquaintances, and so this passing swagman and I trudged on in company, 
 but I had not reached Warrenheip before I found the pains and prostration 
 of incipient dysentery were upon me. I could only drag along slowly, and 
 never having been ill in my life before — nor since for that matter — I was 
 frightened. Seeing an empty woolshed, or something, before we reached 
 Ballan I said to my companion : ' ' Go on, and leave me here, for I can't go 
 any further now." In sooth I thought I was going to die. Perhaps he did 
 too, and thought also that he had better not be hindered, so, prudent man 
 as he was, he vanished for ever. I never knew his name, nor whence he 
 came, nor whither he went. Crawled on by nightfall to Ballan and got a 
 bed at the hotel there, but the landlord was also a prudent man. I lay in 
 agony all night, and in the morning he came to me and said : " Get out o' 
 this — we don't want any sick men here." There was no answer to so 
 masterful and, indeed, irresistible a command as that, and I got out. Just 
 able to walk, and my light swag a burden, I was glad to see a dray 
 with some diggers, apparently returning to Melbourne, and I asked for a 
 lift. This they refused, but offered to carry my swag for me and leave it at 
 the hotel at Bacchus Marsh. I confidingly, and gladly, and gratefully gave 
 them the swag, and they were soon out of sight round a bend in the road. 
 By the time I had reached round the bend they were invisible, but on the 
 road I found the bag in which I had carried my belongings, a change of 
 clothes, some papers and other trifles. Evei-ything of the least usable value 
 had been stolen, and I sadly gathered up the poor remainder and went on to
 
 50 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Bacchus Marsh. But I had by this time got out of the golclfields region 
 by a good distance, and what after that befell me does not belong to this 
 motley history. 
 
 Mr. Latrobe, writing to Earl Grey on the 2ncl March, 1852, 
 said the population at Golden Point and " the outworks at Brown 
 Hill" had "dwindled rapidly down to 200 steady licensed workers," 
 averaging not more " than eight or ten ounces per man monthly." 
 In the same despatch, however, his Excellency is pleased to 
 express a belief — strengthened by the fact that the population 
 had just then begun to increase and reached " 500 and upwards" 
 — that when rain should come moi'e people also would come, 
 " and that it will be found that the ' Ballarat Goldtield ' is far 
 from being exhausted." His Excellency was, as we know, a 
 good px'ophet. He was not always as accurate in his geography, 
 for in a despatch dated 8th July, 1852, he informs Earl Grey 
 that " a new working, called the ' Eureka,' nine miles from 
 Ballarat proper, as well as two or three others, were discovered 
 in the month of May." In the Governor's view of the gold- 
 field population there seems to have been not only a spirit of 
 faith in the people, but, as l^ecame the son of the old Moravian 
 missioner, of devotion towards God. In the despatch last cited, 
 his Excellency says : — 
 
 On all hands it must be considered that the population at the workings, 
 taken as a whole, are as orderly and well disposed as can be met with in 
 any part of the colony. The comparative rarity of instances of grave 
 outrage or of capital crime is a subject of great gratitude to God. 
 
 On the same day, in another despatch, the Governor adverts 
 to the state of the Go^'ernment and the exigencies of the new 
 order of things, and again says his feeling is " that of thankful- 
 ness to God that so much has been achieved " in the way of 
 preserving order. His Excellency over and over again bears 
 testimony to the general good order maintained by the mining 
 population, and that, too, " notwithstanding the extraordinary 
 circumstances under whicli the multitude finds itself brought 
 together, the passions and temptations of the lioui-, and the 
 acknowledged insufficiency of tlie police to op])ose physical force 
 to any really serious outbreak or general disturbance." And 
 when that which the Governor hinted at as possible had really
 
 CHARACTER OP THE DIGGERS. 51 
 
 become a fact, the Argus correspondent, writing from Ballarat 
 on the 13th November, 1854, bears tlie following testimony to 
 the good manners of the diggers on Sundays even in those 
 exciting times : — 
 
 These Ballarat diggers are most extraordinary rebels. It struck nie 
 to remark particularly, and to enquire as to their conduct and observance 
 of the Sabbath. Truly they have few advantages, precious little of the 
 gospel oflered to them, little either of education given ; no wonder, indeed, 
 if they were vagabonds. But, as far as I could hear or see, the greatest 
 possible order and sobriety, the utmost observance possible, I may say, of 
 the Sabbath, has characterised their proceedings. Clean and neat in their 
 diggers' best costume, they promenade over these vast gold-helds, their 
 wives and children in their best frocks too ; but anything more calm or 
 becoming or regardful of tlie day could hardly be witnessed m the best 
 towns of even Christian Britain. How delightful would it not be to rule 
 such men well ? 
 
 True, most truly, indeed ! But the writer need not have 
 wondered if he had known that the great bulk of the population 
 were of the best men of *' the best towns of Christian Britain," 
 men of invincible spirit, as well as of moral and law-abiding 
 principles. 
 
 His Excellency's next despatch, dated the 31st July, 1852, 
 enclosed a petition from the Legislative Council to the Queen, 
 praying the establishment of a mint in Victoria, as "one of the 
 richest gold-helds in the world." We have now, but when this 
 history first appeared, had not yet got a mint any more than a 
 law to legalise mining on private property, also petitioned for a 
 year or two after the date last given. The Corporation of 
 Melbourne backed up the Legislative Council's petition for a 
 mint, but the Ballarat petition of 1855, for a private property 
 law, fell then, as through many succeeding years, upon an 
 unsympathising Parliament and a careless metropolis. It is a 
 coincidence worth noting, that the Melbourne corporation's 
 petition for a mint was signed by Mr. J. T. Smith, who had 
 about that time begun his long series of mayorships of Melbourne, 
 and who subsequently became Minister of Mines. 
 
 The following table, compiled from various sources, including 
 the compiler's own knowledge of several items, will give, as it
 
 52 
 
 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 were, a bird's-eye view of the opening of the several portions of 
 the Ballarat field during the period ending December, 1854 : — 
 
 LOCALITY. 
 
 DATK. 
 
 LOCALITY. 
 
 DATE. 
 
 Clunes 
 
 1st July - 1S51 
 
 Dead Horse Gullies 
 
 Early in - 
 
 - 1853 
 
 Hiseock's Gully - 
 
 August - 1851 
 
 Prince Regent - 
 
 February - 
 
 - 1853 
 
 Golden Point ' - 
 
 August - 1851 
 
 Sailors' Gully - 
 
 Early in - 
 
 - 1853 
 
 Canadian Gully - 
 
 September 1851 
 
 White Flat 
 
 Ea)ly in - 
 
 - 1853 
 
 Brown Hill 
 
 September 1851 
 
 Scotchman's Gully 
 
 Early in - 
 
 - 1853 
 
 Black Hill 
 
 October - Ibol 
 
 New Chum Gully 
 
 End of - 
 
 - Iti53 
 
 Little Bendigo Gullies - 
 
 End of - 1851 
 
 Black Hill Lead 
 
 Early in - 
 
 - 1854 
 
 Eureka Lead 
 
 August - 1852 
 
 Gravel Pits Lead 
 
 Early in - 
 
 - 1854 
 
 Red Hill Lead - 
 
 November 1852 
 
 Bakery Hill Lead 
 
 Early in - 
 
 - 1854 
 
 Black Hill Flat - 
 
 November 1852 
 
 Gum Tree Flat 
 
 End of 
 
 - 1854 
 
 Creswlck 
 
 End of - 1852 
 
 
 
 
 Excepting the Dead Horse Gullies all the Ballarat proper 
 leads mentioned in the table above came from the eastern side of 
 the ranges into the Ballarat basin. In the year 1855 the western 
 side gave out the Golden Point, Nightingale, Malakoff, Redan, 
 Whitehorse, Frenchman's, and Cobbler's leads, all of which 
 flowed under the basaltic plateau of western Ballarat and 
 Sebastopol. The Golden Point was the name given to the 
 earlier confluent streams as they issued from Eastern Ballarat in 
 one lead and passed under the plateau, and into that lead all the 
 others flowed that had come down from the western side of the 
 range. 
 
 The Ballarat township, now the City of Ballarat, was 
 proclaimed towards the middle of the year 1852, the first sales of 
 land being held in Geelong, Thomas Bath, now of Ceres Farm, 
 Learmonth, being the first purchaser for business occupation. 
 This was in November, 1852. The land obtained by Mr. Bath 
 was bought at the second sale, and consisted of portions of 
 sections 1 and 2. Cobb's corner and the present town-hall site 
 were sold at the same time, and were bouglit by Robt. Reeves, 
 on which, subsequently, he forfeited his deposit. In the following 
 year the land was put up again, and the corner was bought by 
 Mr. Bath for £250. The next lot, that now occupied by the 
 Town-liall and District Court, was bought on the same day by 
 P. W. Welsh, for £202, and the deposit on that lot was again 
 forfeited. In the Appendix A will be found reports of the first 
 land sales in Ballarat West and East.
 
 FIRST HOTEL IN BALLARAT. 53 
 
 Mr. Bath built the first hotel in Ballarat, when all the 
 Government dwellings were of canvas, or of slabs with bark 
 roofs. It was erected in May, 1853, and licensed in the following 
 month. At that time there was no other hotel between Bunin- 
 yong and Lexton. But near the corner of Dana and Lydiard 
 streets, now occupied by Holmes and Salter's law offices, a tent 
 or hut was kept by one Meek, who wrote pen-and-ink sketches of 
 "Victoria. Meek, as became his name, did not make his business 
 very prominent from a licensing point of view, and his establish- 
 ment, by way of irony upon it or the police, used to be called 
 " The Trooper's Arms." The hotel built by Mr. Bath in May, 
 1853, was of wood, in one storey, and is now a private dwelling 
 on Soldiers' Hill, the site of the original hotel being now occupied 
 by the permanent portion of the hotel now known as Craig's 
 Royal hotel. The wood for the first hotel was all brought from 
 Geelong. The two-storey portion yet remaining was begun at the 
 end of 1853, and finished in 1854. The clock now (1870) in the 
 wooden tower was then placed there, and was the first public 
 clock in Ballarat. Mr. Biddle, of Biddle's Saw-mills, supplied 
 the hardwood for the building, the longer timbers having been 
 cut in the hollow called the Crater on the western slope of Mount 
 Buninyong. He says he also suggested the placing of the public 
 clock in the tower. Mr Bath tells us that the cost of both 
 buildings was enormous, for prices alike of material and transit 
 were then excessive. He paid £80 per ton carriage from Geelong, 
 40s. to 45s. per hundred feet at the pit for hardwood, as the 
 indigenous forest timber is called, and £1 per hundred feet cartage 
 from the saw-pits to Ballarat. Mr. Bath, in a letter to us, gives 
 the following additional recollections : — 
 
 The roads in those days were frightful. I have had goods on the road 
 from Geelong above five weeks. Mrs. Bath came from Geelong by, I 
 suppose, the first coach, and was three days and two nights on the road. 
 Watt ran a conveyance from Ballarat to Melbourne via Bacchus Marsh, 
 stopping there one night, fare £7. When I built in Ballarat there were 
 not many hotels between Geelong and this — two at Batesford, then the 
 Separation Inn, then Watson's, at Meredith, and Jamieson's and Sellick's, 
 at Buninyong. I have often ridden from Ballarat to Geelong without 
 seeing a fence or meeting any person, but at those times I kept off the
 
 54 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 track. I purchased a stack of hay in 1853 from Mr. Darlot at the station 
 at Sebastopol at £60 per ton, and I liad to truss and cart it in the bargain, 
 and this was hay of a self-sown crop and about half of it silver grass 
 [While we copy this, (1870) oaten hay in truss is sold in the Ballarat market 
 at £2 10s. per ton.] I purchased oats in Geelong in 1850 at 2s. per bushel, 
 and at Bendigo in 1852 at £3 per bushel. Some of the farming land in 
 this district was sold in June, 1854, and I then commenced farming, 
 cropping about fifty aci-es the first season. 
 
 On the 8th December, 1856, the first sale of frontages in 
 Ballarat East commenced. The sale had been preceded by much 
 excitement relative to an absurd proclamation prohibiting the 
 issue of licenses, or the carrying on of business within one mile 
 of sold lands. After some agitation that ukase was withdrawn 
 by the Government. The sales of the Main road frontages were 
 continued for four consecutive days, and land now of little value 
 then realised enormous prices. To return to 1852, we note that 
 Mr. Adams, late of Buninyong, had a store at the head of Golden 
 Point, and he used to act as postmaster and convey letters from 
 the diggings to the township of Buninyong, his store giving the 
 name to the hill now known as Old Post-office Hill, where also 
 the first Government Camp was situated, whence it was removed 
 to the pre.sent locality. Mr. Alfred Clarke, late of the Geelong 
 Advertiser, acted as letter-carrier between Geelong and Buninyong 
 in 1851. The first supply of stores to tlie early diggers was 
 afforded by one Stirling's hawking dray, in October, 1851, and 
 the first regular store was shortly after that opened by Mr. Robin- 
 son, subsequently a member of the first town council of Geelong. 
 Stirling and Sons' drays were the only conveyances at that time 
 for either passengers or goods between Ballarat and Geelong. 
 Stoi-es, like dwellings, were rude, and often the storekeeper, like 
 the digger, was surly. From his tent of calico or canvas, with 
 its furniture of blankets, frying-pan, cradle, puddling-tub, pick and 
 shovel, tlie digger went to the store where mutton, floui', boots, 
 serge-shirts, moleskin trousers, tobacco, sardines, sugar, picks, 
 shovels, billies, and other things were all found in one grand 
 miscellany. Coin was rare, and the digger generally bartered liis 
 gold-dust for goods. Change there was none, and reckonings 
 partook of the largeness of view whicli ignored minute calcula-
 
 WOMEN' SCARCE, GROG PLE^rTI^UL. 55 
 
 tions. Paper was scarce, and often the digger had to carry liis 
 groceries to his tent in box, billy, handkerchief, or shirt. The 
 life was rough but eventful, not to say jolly, and as long as gold 
 was got the digger was generally happy. If his pocket grew 
 liglit and the authorities demanded license fees, he had to wash 
 dirt enough to supply the required gold ; but if he failed in his 
 search, or, worst of all, if health failed, he was of all men most 
 miserable. There were no hospitals or asylums in that early day, 
 and a woman was an absolute phenomenon ; so the sick man often 
 died with nothing civilised about him but the awkward, if gentle, 
 tending of his digging partners in the gold-hunting wilderness. 
 And some fell in utter loneliness, their bones when found being 
 buried beneath some drooping spray of peppermint about the 
 slopes or gullies of the gold-tield. 
 
 In those first days of digging life, when womanless crowds 
 wrestled with the earth and the forest amid much weariness and 
 solitude of heart, the arrival of a woman was the signal for a cry 
 and a gathering. The shout, " There's a woman ! " emptied many 
 a tent of besoiled and hardy diggers, for the strange sight e^'oked 
 instant memories of far-aAvay homes : of motliers, wives, and 
 sweethearts, and all the sweet affections and courtesies they 
 I'epresented, and never with such eloquent emphasis as then. 
 There was no man, having the heart of a man, who did not bless 
 the vision, while many an eye was moistened with the sudden 
 tear as love, hope, disappointment, fear, struggled all at once in 
 the homeless digger's bosom. But recklessness often marked the 
 life of the time, and the brandy bottle of the grog-shanty killed 
 some victims then as it does in this later day. Unlicensed at 
 first, the grog-sellers got licensed afterwards, and did heavy trade 
 with the heavy drinkei', the more moderate drinkers helping to 
 swell tlie business to a large and highly profitable aggregate. 
 Pi'ices of all kinds of goods and all kinds of labor were 
 enormously high. One publican in 1853, when cartage from 
 Geelong was £80 per ton, paid £1500 a week for cartage for 
 seven months running. This one man had at one time no fewer 
 than 122 public-houses or slianties either mortgaged to him or in 
 his own actual possession.
 
 56 HISTORY OF BALLARAT » 
 
 Mr. F. W. Tatham, manager of the Prince of Wales Company 
 from 1862 to its winding up in 1875, gives an episode or two 
 illustrative of the times and the men of the fifties. He says, 
 referring to the mad, early, womanless days, that 
 
 Brandy was the great panacea for too many. But civilisation 
 gradually dawned, and some congenial spirits now and then met to discuss 
 politics, theology, or other serious matters in the tent on Sundays or 
 evenings. There was one party consisting of three doctors, a captain in 
 the army, some sea captains, and some American colonels and majors. 
 Some of them are dead, others scattered over the world, but some of them 
 
 became victims of alcohol. Joe N , our next tent neighbour, a merry, 
 
 bibulous sawmaker from Sheffield, had a young \vife. About a year after 
 marriage she had to prepare for a serious emergency, but had no means, 
 for Joe swallowed everything. My wife and other women promised to 
 help her, and I tried to get hold of Joe, but there was no getting him then 
 into a serious mood. At last, one Sunday morning, as the wife's time uas 
 drawing near, and things were dear and scarce, I got Joe to look at the 
 position. As soon as he realised it, he said he knew where he could get 
 some gold, and would soon set things right. Next day he brought home 
 a few pennyweights — enough to make a start with. The next day he got 
 several ounces, too late for the intended service, as the young stranger had 
 made an appearance ; but the ladies had cut up some of their own clothes, 
 and so the exigency was met. That was a year before the Eureka affair. 
 At another time Joe came to my tent one Sunday morning, and we went 
 exploring up by Black Hill, Dead Horse, and Rotten Oully, afterwards 
 called Little Bendigo. He was hard up. as usual, and I had no money, for I 
 did not expect to want any. After an hour's travelling, Joe wanted to 
 drink ; I said we could get a drink of tea at some tent. "Tea be blowed," 
 said Joe. "Butwehaveno money, and the shanties don't give grog on credit. " 
 "Oh, if you'll help," i-eplied Joe, "that's all right." We looked round 
 among the shallow holes for some likely looking headings, found a tin dish 
 planted among some rubbish, scooped up half a dish of dirt, and washed 
 it off, getting a few grains. After repeating the experiment three or four 
 times, he succeeded in getting nearly a pennyweight of gold, and, tying 
 it up in a bit of rag, he persuaded a German grog seller to let him have 
 about a quarter pint of brandy. That was in the mad times when men 
 would not wash dirt for less than an ounce to tiie tub, and nobody took 
 much notice of a man washing a bit of headings, even on a Sunday. Poor 
 Joe is long since dead. Some of the other and better educated mob of 
 professionals and naval and military men tliought of little else than where 
 they could got brandy. They knew something of chemistry, and I have 
 heard them boast how, when all tlieir money and credit was gone, nml, 
 living far into the night in a drug store, they, witli the help of some pain-
 
 tatiiam's and brooksbank's stories. 57 
 
 killer, manufactui-ecl a palatable drink. One of the ladies who hel^ied 
 Joe's wife was Mrs. Pincott, whose husband subsequently gave his name 
 to Pincott's dam. They lived close by our tent, and Mrs. Pincott gave 
 birth to a son, the first born on these diggings. This was close to Brown 
 Hill, and Pincott's mates were so pleased that they took the hat round, 
 and collected bits of gold from some of the wash-dirt paddocks ; some 
 gave them small nuggets, some gave wash-dirt, some money, altogether 
 amounting to about £80, and the lad was named Eureka. He lived and 
 throve three or four years, and then fell into a water hole. His mother 
 found him before he was dead, but, though she made frantic eflbrts to get 
 him out of the shallow hole, she could not reach him. Digging her toes 
 into the sides of the shaft, she kept the boy for a time out of the water, 
 but could not make her cries for help heard until too late to save her 
 child's life. 
 
 Mr. John Brooksbank, a hardworking Yorkshireman from 
 Bradford, who landed in Melbourne on the 20th June, 1848, and 
 came to Ballai-at in September, 18-51, favors the author with some 
 autobiographical notes — simple, graphic, almost reminiscent of old 
 Pepys in quaintness. He says : — 
 
 After a long and severe passage, and my money being a little scarce, I 
 had to be pretty smart and get work as soon as possible. Got work in 
 (Government employ, and soon after was taking contracts, and during this 
 time I bought a farm of the Hon. John Pascoe Fawkner, near Melbourne. 
 Went to Geelong in right good times, everything going on first rate until 
 the news of the discovery of the gold. Then everything was upside down, 
 men would not work at any price, contracts broke, men and masters going 
 to the diggings. Jack was as good as his master. Never got a penny for 
 my work in Geelong, so I had to make my way to BaJlarat, which was in 
 the month of September. Pitched my tent on the Brown Hill road, now 
 called Humffray street, and started to sink ; got a little, and at the end of 
 November we left for Mount Alexander, and was not long before we got 
 gold. So I was there on Xmas day and had a jolly fine plum pudding. 
 My mate's wife used to cook for us and rock the cradle, and got half share, 
 and the two seemed to keep their own purses separate * * * Qn our 
 way to Melbourne I was gathering sticks to boil the billy and picked up a 
 roll of notes tied with a string. Not near our dray at all, so I put them 
 in my pocket and said nothing about them, thinking they would say " we 
 Avill divide them"; as I intended to advertise them in Melbourne. But 
 when wc were on our way the woman, to my surprise, said she had lost a 
 roll of notes, so I asked what the parcel was like. She said it was rolled 
 up tight and tied with a string so I knew at once it was the one I had 
 found, so 1 took it out of my pocket and showed it to her. The husband 
 said she ought to give me half. She got the notes and we went on our
 
 58 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 way rejoiciDg. Got to Melbourne on Sunday, next day started for Geelong, 
 and at night was in the bosom of my family. So I soon looked out and 
 bought a horse and dray and took my family to Ballarat, where we arrived 
 after seven days with a good horse, and we fixed our tent about the same 
 place where I first fixed when first I came up. Built one of the first 
 restaurants on Ballarat near where the Red Bull now stands. Meals were 
 4s. and Sunday dinners 5s. and regular boarders £2 2s. per week. Was 
 obliged to keep a little grog, and soon after that a man came up from 
 Geelong, a friend of one of the boarders, so he asked him to have a feed at 
 his expense. So after having this feed he asked my wife to let him have 
 drink, as he was a friend of his it was all right. So accordingly he got the 
 drink, but to my horror and surprise this noble Geelong friend of our 
 boarder went straight to the police camp and joined the force and came 
 down and stuck me up for grog selling, and I was fined £50. He was 
 soon hooted from pillow to post, and his effigy was burnt, and he was soon 
 banished from Ballarat * * * The little gingerbeer man shot at the 
 stockade was a boarder of mine. He was supposed to have shot Captain 
 Wise on that memorable occasion. * * * About 7 o'clock on next 
 evening a boy came running to tell me the bushrangers were in their store, 
 and were tieing the master and mistress down. So myself and Mr. Smith 
 and one or two others were fully prepared with our shooting irons in good 
 order, so over we went and divided ourselves, some to the back and some 
 to the front. I took the back, and Cane, an old man-o'-war's man, was with 
 me, a wild sort of a man. So we got to the door pretty quietly, and could 
 see over the door how all things stood inside ; the pistols and the carving 
 knives and cash box on the table, and the ringleader was putting the money 
 in his pockets while the others were helping liim. I had my horse jjistol 
 in my hand, and my mate came with his revolver keeping them covered, 
 and by this time there was a double-barrelled gun there. So I dragged open 
 the door and took charge of the fire arms, and the other men coming in 
 at the front the bushrangers were secured without the slightest show of 
 escape. So we released the missus and master and tied the would-be 
 robbers in their place. When they were tried they pleaded guilty and had 
 14 years on the roads, the first tliree in irons. They were escapees froni 
 Pentridge. I had a great trouble at this time, as one of my cliildren 
 died very suddenly, and these trials were trials in those times. No one to 
 make a colIin, as one man volunteered to make one but when I looked for 
 tlie cofiin lie said he had clean forgot it ; and two men went to dig the 
 grave and got buslied, so I had to go and dig it myself. 'J"his is not very 
 pleasant jobs lo do for your own children. Tlie ground was not fenced in 
 at this time, as this was amongst the first that was buried in the old bury- 
 ing ground (cemetery by the Creswick road). 
 
 Mr. Brooksb;iiik t(!lls otlier of liis experiences, such ;is 
 building tins old JJ.uik of Victoria — referred to further on,
 
 THE FIRST WOMEN ON THE DIGGINGS. 59 
 
 diddling a party wlio had obtained a " wrongful" order for restitu- 
 tion of wash dirt, erecting a pump on Yuille's Creek between 
 Webster street and Creswick road at which to sell water, going 
 two or three times to New Zealand, building a public house at 
 the corner of Lyons and Urquhart streets, then going mining 
 again with no luck and "the results of foul air and old age 
 creeping on I have determined as far as possible to leave the 
 mining on one side." 
 
 From Mr. Irwin's contributions to the Ballurat Star, more 
 expressly referred to in a subsequent chapter, we take the 
 following as confirmatory of some foregoing remarks : — 
 
 Durmg the earlier days of the rush to Golden Point a monetary 
 arrangement existed which would scarcely be long tolerated now-a-days. 
 It was this, when the purchaser went to a store for supplies he got as 
 change either a Burnbank, Colac or other " note." Tliese notes were 
 simply rudely lithogi'aphed promises "to pay one day after sight," in Mel- 
 bourne or Geelong, where the principal store of issuer was, the amounts 
 specified in the "notes," which were of various amounts, from 5s. upwards. 
 Suppose a purcliaser of goods had got some of the notes from the Burnbank 
 store and on tlie next occasion for purchasing went to the Cohic or Robin- 
 son's store, the persons in charge of the latter would not accept of the notes 
 of the rival establishment, to which the holder of them must go unless he 
 was willing to lose their value. The system was an intolei'able nuisance 
 while it lasted, but it had soon to be abolished, change for purchases being 
 I'educed to a minimum by the sale of so many ounces or pennyweights of 
 gold to the storekeeper, the balance, if any, being made good by boxes of 
 matches and the like, to the satisfaction generally of both parties to the 
 transaction. It is on record that very small potatoes, reckoned at the rate 
 of threepence each, served as small change to a storekeeper who is now 
 one of the wealthiest of Victorian colonists. 
 
 The first woman who arrived among the diggers was a 
 bullock-driver's wife, whose husband had left his bullocks and 
 turned to gold seeking. Next came Mrs. Thomas Bath, who was 
 in fact, either the first woman, or among the first half dozen or 
 so of women, who settled on the gold-field. After her others 
 came at wide and dreary intervals in angelic similitude ; but 
 when the first two years had passed, and the gold-field had 
 acquired some elements of permanency women joined their 
 husbands, sons, and brothers already here, or came with new-
 
 60 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 comers, and thus gradually the diggers' social life assumed a 
 greater similarity to that of older settlements. 
 
 The tirst meetings for the celebration of divine worship in 
 public were held by a few Wesleyans, who assembled in a mia-mia, 
 or tent of boughs, as for a Christian feast of Tabernacles, in the 
 AYhite Flat, where the smithie belonging to Mr. John James, late 
 3I.L.A., then stood, near the intersection of Grant street and the 
 Yarrowee. For greater privacy these Wesleyans used to go from 
 the tent of boughs to the denser bush then adjacent, and, seated 
 on fallen logs, hold there the "class-meeting," — that private service 
 which is peculiar to tlie "Wesleyan family of Christians. T-liey 
 were after that held in a hut on "Winter's Flat, and in a tent at 
 the White Flat, when the Golden Point rush was at its height. 
 One of those early "Wesleyan worshippers "writes as follows : — 
 
 The lirst service was held on Sunday morning, the 2Sth Sept., 1851, on 
 the flat, preacher (local) Mr. J. Sanderson, about one hundi-ed present, 
 text Cormthians II, " Ye are bought with a price." Class meeting at two 
 o'clock in Sanderson's tent on Golden Point. Mr. Hastie came, attracted 
 by the singing, and requested the aid of the singers, and waited half-an- 
 hour, and took them to his serWce at the Commissioners' Camp. Sunday 
 following, 5th October, Rev. Mr. Lewis, Wesleyan minister, from Geelong, 
 preached on the flat at eleven o'clock and at the Black Hill in the evening. 
 Subscriptions for a chapel rolled in and on the r2th November, in the after- 
 noon, Mr. Sanderson opened the new chapel ; text 12th Chap. Isaiah, 
 "Behold, God is my salvation." The chapel was of saplins and boughs 
 with tarpaidin over it, no pulpit. James Oddie was at the opening service. 
 The day was a very stormy one. Mr. William Howell was the treasurer. 
 A Mr. Jones of Tasmania, gave the first pound, and nuggets rolled in fast 
 and furious. No other service was held in the building. The rush to 
 Forest Creek took away the population tlic next week. 
 
 The social, if not aggressive, missionary spirit of Wesleyanism 
 had earlier proof in Victoria than even in tliose services at Golden 
 Point. M'Combie, in his "History of Victoria," lias tlie follow- 
 ing passage : — 
 
 In April, 1836, before the city of Melbourne existed, the Rev. Mr. 
 Orton, a ^Vesleyan minister of Van Diemcn's Land, wlio had accompanied 
 Mr. IJatinan when that gentleman brought his family across Bass' Straits, 
 celebrated divine service beneath tlic beautiful cusuariua trees which 
 adored the crest of Batman's Hill. Tliose who assembled to worsliip upon 
 this interesting occasion belonged to many races and countries ; tliey were 
 a pretty fair average from the adjoining colonies and tlie islands of Great
 
 DIVINK WOUSIIIP, 61 
 
 Britain. Mr. Batman's Sydney Ijlacks also attended, while not a few of 
 the aborigines, who had been attracted by tlie preparations, had crowded 
 in. The Church of England service was read, and an excellent discourse 
 preached from the text, " Except a man be born again he cannot see the 
 kingdom of God ;" and we have lieard from one who was present that the 
 first sermon delivered by a regularly ordained clergyman on the site of the 
 great metropolis was striking and orthodox. 
 
 The Wesleyans discovered similar activity when, in 1852, the 
 crowding hosts of gold-seeking immigrants could not tind houses 
 to enter in Melbourne, not even at the enormous rents then 
 demanded. The Government was at its wits' end and did its 
 slow and cumbrous best to procure shelter for the crowd, but 
 Mr. Latrobe thus refers to the Wesleyans in a despatch on 28th 
 October, 1852, to Earl Grey : — ■ 
 
 The Wesleyan body have the credit of taking the lead, by a very large 
 collection, amounting, as I am informed, to near £2000, and the immediate 
 commencement of a " Refuge for the Houseless," primarily for those in 
 connection with their particular community, but in effect as far as their 
 means will allow, for any who might be found to require it. 
 
 Some who joined in those tent oi' hut services, in the midst 
 of the hot fever of the lirst rush to the marvellous riches of 
 Golden Point, became active honorable men in our public life, and 
 some are at this day filling positions more or less prominent in 
 both ecclesiastical and secular life. The Rev. Thomas Hastie, 
 of Buninyong, and the Roman Catholic Father Dunne, of Geelong, 
 used to visit the diggings also and minister to their several flocks 
 at irregular intervals. Father Dunne's first church was a tent 
 near Brown Hill wliere the worshippers, or some of them, had to 
 kneel upon quartz gravel as the mysteries of the mass were 
 celebrated. The Wesleyans built the first place of worship, the 
 site being on a knoll near Sinclair's Hill, and named l)y them 
 Wesley Hill. They then built a weatherboard church where the 
 Eastern Town-hall now stands. The Roman Catholics, Anglicans, 
 and Presbyterians, were close upon the heels of the Wesleyans, 
 and other denominations followed, the first church building in 
 permanent materials being erected by the Wesleyans where their 
 present school-house now (1870) stands at the corner of Lydiard 
 and Dana streets. The first church there was built towards the 
 end of the year 1855, some stray bullets from the insurgent
 
 62 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 diggers on the flat falling among tlie workmen wliile the building 
 was being built. The Rev. Theophilus Taylor was then superin- 
 tendent minister of the Wesleyan Church here. After holding 
 services in what was then the police-court, in Ballarat West, the 
 Church of England people built a small wooden church in Arm- 
 strong street, where worship was held till Christ Church was built 
 in Lydiard street. The wooden church was afterwards a billiard 
 saloon, and then it became Pinkerton and Co.'s printing office. 
 The first Anglican Church in Eastern Ballarat was a tent on 
 the site of St. Paul's reserve. It was improved into a weather- 
 board building and after that came the brick edifice of to-day. 
 When the diggings first commenced, Mr. Hastie, of Buninyong, 
 was accustomed to go to Ballarat and hold service in the afternoon, 
 when the greatest number of hearers could be obtained. The 
 service for some time was held in the open air, and at different 
 localities. Other ministers subsequently came, and each chose 
 the situation which seemed most suitable. When tlie Eureka 
 rush took place, a tent for worship was erected by the Presby- 
 terians on the Eureka Flat, and then a wooden church was 
 erected on Specimen Hill. The congregation became settled, Mr. 
 Hastie urged them to call a minister, and in 1855 the Rev. James 
 Baird was called and ordained. A service in Gaelic was Iftld 
 every Sunday afternoon for some time there. During tlie time 
 Mr. Baird was minister Ballarat AVest was gradually rising into 
 importance, and for a time, service was held between both places, 
 but ultimately, it was entirely removed to the West and held in 
 the council chamber, near the corner of Sturt and Lydiard 
 streets. During this period tlic SoldicT's' Hill site was obtained, 
 and a church built ; the union, how(^ver, now took place, and as 
 the Sturt street site, was reckoned most convenient, a church was 
 erected there and the Soldiers' Hill church was converted into a 
 school. In 1858 Mr. Baii-d resigned and returned to Britain, 
 wlien tlie Rev. Wm. Henderson was calh'd and inducted. 
 
 Schools and newspapers sprang up, too, during tliese first 
 three yeai's, and tlie j)Opulation iiicreas(!d from CJovenior Latrobe's 
 hypothetical cen.sus of GOOO to over four times that number. 
 The bills of newspaper mortality showed a strong tendency in
 
 CHURCHES, SCHOOLS, AXD NEWSPAPERS. 63 
 
 tlie early papers to early cleatli. Mr. Alfred Clarke, as the 
 representative of Mr. Harrison (then proprietor of the Geelong 
 Advertiser), attempted to bring a printing press here in October, 
 1851, for the purpose of bringing out a paper to be called the 
 Boninyong Gazette and Mining Journal — for it must be remembered 
 that Buninyong was then the only recognised settlement. It was 
 a township of some antiquity, and Ballarat was but an aboriginal 
 name in the aboriginal bush, or in the hardly less barbarous 
 diggings. Clarke's dray with the pi^ess got bogged on the way 
 up from Geelong, and in the meantime Clarke had a little feud 
 with the commissioner of the day about the site selected on Old 
 Post-office Hill, the press was packed off to Geelong again, and 
 thus ended tlie tirst essay in the direction of newspaper literature 
 here. The Ballarat Tiines and Southern Cross was the first paper 
 actually published in Ballarat, the first number being published 
 on the 4th March, 18.54, at an office in Mair street, opposite the 
 Market Square. Subsequently the Times office was removed to 
 Bakery Hill, near the intersection of the present Victoria and 
 Humfi'ray streets, by the proprietor and editor, Henry Seekamp, 
 The paper lived for several years, and died on the 5th of October, 
 1861. The Leader was the next adventui'e. It was a joint-stock 
 affiiir, and only made six appearances. The Cresivick Chronicle 
 was next brought out by Mr. J. J. Ham, an old colonist and 
 experienced journalist. It died in the bloom of early youth, 
 after two or three issues only. In July, 1855, appeared the 
 Ballarat Trumpeter, a gratuitous sheet, which in 1856 was pub- 
 lished as a tri-weekly, under the joint ownership of Messrs. 
 Wheeler, Fletcher, and Evans. It lived about twelve months, 
 and was the nucleus of the Ballarat Standard. Then came the 
 Star. It appeared as a tri-weekly journal on the 22nd Septeniber, 
 1855, under a joint-stock proprietary, with Messrs. Samuel Irwin 
 and J. J. Ham as editors. After some four months it was 
 discontinued for a week, and then it re-appeared, having passed 
 into pi'ivate hands in the interval, and in December, 1856, 
 appeared daily as at p.resent. On the 10th November, 1856, the 
 Ballarat Standard appeared, and some time previously the Nation. 
 The Standard, owned by Messrs. D. D. Wheeler and W. Cooper,
 
 61 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 was a tri-weekly, edited by Mr. "VV. Cooper (subsequently of the 
 Portland Guardian). It made its last aj^pearance on the 26th of 
 the month in Avhich it was born. JNIr. Denovan, afterwards 
 M.L.A. for Sandhurst, edited the Nation, which peacefully 
 expired after less than a dozen issues. In 1857 an attempt at 
 the facetious was made, and a BaUarat Punch appeared, and 
 laughed at some of our follies, and chided some of our sins. Mr, 
 Hasleham, then correspondent of the Melbourne Herald, conducted 
 the new comer through a portion of its short and merry career, 
 and Mr. C. E. Moore designed a capital title page for it that 
 never appeared for want of the necessary wood or stone gravers. 
 The comic little paper had several owners and editors, but none 
 of them could make it live. In August, 1857, appeared the 
 Cojn Stalk, a monthly quarto of 4 pages, "printed and published 
 for the proprietors, J. and T. Oddie." It was edited by Mr. J. 
 N. Wilson, now the chairman of the Ballarat Water Commission; 
 and it is noticeable that the ninth number now before us (April, 
 1858) has for its leading article an essay declaring that "a 
 plentiful supply of good water for domestic and commercial 
 purposes is, above all things, what Ballarat wants." The article 
 is backed up by extracts from letters from Messrs. J. Learmonth 
 and T. Waldie, showing that not only Burrunibeet and Yuille's, 
 but even the rivers Moorabool, Leigh, and Barwon had, within 
 their memory, been dry. Newspaper enterprise then flagged for 
 a while, until, on the 24tli March, 1859, a little company of 
 adventurers brought out the North Gr'envitle iMercuri/, Mr. M. G. 
 Byrne, afterwards a Ijan-ister, being editor. It was 2)luckily 
 maintained, first as a tri-weekly and then as a daily, in all for 
 some twenty weeks, when, after a hundred ;i])i)earances, it was 
 also welcomed l)y the journalistic Capulets to their tomb. The 
 Tribune came next, aj)])earing on the 21st of ]S'o\ember, 1861, 
 and ending on the 11th July, 186."3, Mr. Harrison, ])r('viously of 
 the Uallarat 2'iincs, l)cing tlio manager and edito)-, and at last 
 sole propri(!tor. The Ballarat Sun arose on tin; 2(ilh Se])tember 
 1864, and appeared daily under the aus})iL'es of a joint-stock 
 proprietary. After a troublous lift; and eliang(( of ownershi}), it 
 sank below the Jiorizon during the following year. Advertising
 
 [iw i i--^ — """* S p
 
 NEWSPAPER VICISSITUDES. 65 
 
 sheets, distributed gratuitously, appeared and disappeared at 
 intervals all the years after 1854, and on some Saturday in 
 August, 1856 — the date missing from tlie copy before us — • 
 appeared The Chinese Advertiser, a medley of Chinese and English, 
 but mostly Chinese, which was to be a "pioneer of Christianity 
 and Christian civilisation among the Chinese in Australia," and 
 was printed from stone, by Eobert Bell, Main Road, Ballarat. 
 Mr. Bell remains, and so do a good many of the Chinese, but the 
 Advertiser has long since disappeared. On the 25th of May, 1863, 
 appeared the Evening Post, at once our first evening and first 
 penny paper. It has liad several changes of ownership. The 
 Ballai'at Courier, Messrs. Bateman and Clark, proprietors, first 
 appeared on the 10th of June, 1867, and the Evening Mail, the 
 last-born of the newspapers, on the 6th of April, 1869. It was 
 started by a band of printers, then, in the hands of the same 
 company, was registered with an increased capital under tlie 
 Trading Companies Statute, and, eventually, was incorporated 
 with the Evening Post. Ballarat Punch revived also, and 
 struggled against fate till February, 1870, when it disappeared. 
 It was started by the late C. A. Abbot, who was both artist and 
 editor, as well as proprietor. Buninyong, Creswick, Clunes, and 
 Smythesdale all had papers of their own; and e^•en Sebastopol, 
 the most juvenile of boroughs, has had its local newspaper. In 
 recording this list of publications, we have travelled beyond the 
 period set down at the head of the chapter, but have done so as 
 being more convenient than otherwise. The physical difficulties 
 in the way of printing were great in the early days of the gold- 
 fields, as in the beginning of all new settlements. Some of these 
 difficulties have been referred to in the text. Mr. D. D. "Wheeler, 
 who was one of the founders of the Standard and Trvnipeter and 
 a shareholder in the first Star co-partnership, writes of the latter 
 journal : — " Its first number was printed and published in the 
 middle of a hurricane and inundation, with the printers nearly up 
 to their middle in water." This was in what is now Bridge 
 street before tlie levels were raised there. Mr. Wheeler hazards 
 the opinion that the Nation appeared more times than is stated 
 in the text. He may be literally correct, but the facts are not
 
 66 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 materially different. As to the Tivmpeter, Mr. "Wheeler says : — 
 " It was revived by its original proprietor early in January, 1856, 
 and continued for about twelve months, when it lost its ground 
 in competition with the Star and Times." The competitive fates 
 fell afterwards iipon the Times, which succumbed to the Star ; 
 and the Star, though still alive and holding a high position, has 
 had to see the Courier outstrip it in the race and take the place 
 of local journalistic leadership. The Star had many owners. From 
 the original proprietary it passed to Messrs. "VVanliss and Belford ; 
 then to Wanliss alone ; then to J. Noble "Wilson ; then to H. I\. 
 Nicholls and Co. ; then to a joint stock proprietary ; then to the 
 Courier proprietors ; then to the present owners, Messrs. Martin 
 and Gi'ose, who are also proprietors of the Crrstvick Advertiser. 
 The Commonwealth, a monthly publication, appeared for the 
 first time in March, 1870. It was edited by Mr. W, Clarke, 
 Grand Master of the Orange Lodges in Victoria, but it has long 
 since vanished. 
 
 The caterers for the amusement of the early diggers had 
 ample patronage in those days. The first theatrical venture was 
 in December, 1853, when a canvas house was set up in the 
 Gravel Pits, the leading actress afterwards becoming tlie 
 wife of the editor and proprietor of the BaJlai at Times. A 
 person named Clarke opened a similar theatre on the Eureka in 
 February, 1854, and soon after that Mrs. Hanmer opened a 
 weatherboard theatre called the Adelj)!)], where the Tontine, and 
 more recently calk-d the Windsor hotel, afterwards stood in 
 Esmond, now Durliani, street east. Tlie Charlie Napier, 
 Montezuma, and Victoria theatres in Main street, all long since 
 l)urnt down, speedily followed with larger accommodations and 
 better performances. There cnme afterwards, drawn by the fame 
 of tlie golden colony, some of the most accomj)]ished histrionic 
 artistes of the time. Catherine ]Iayes, Anna Bishop, Lola 
 Montes, Brooke, Kean, Ellen Tree, Sir Willi.ini and Lady Don, 
 Jefferson, Celeste, Montgomery, were among the brighter stars 
 that have risen upon our auiiferous horizon. Lucy Chambers, an 
 Australian by l)iitli and a singer of I>ur(>])can fame, appeared in 
 opera ; Charles Mathews, the comedian, ]\radanic Bistori, and
 
 THE FIRST LAWYER. 67 
 
 nearly every artist of high rank who came to Victoria also 
 appeared in this city. Fui'ther details of dramatic business will 
 be found in a future chapter. 
 
 The first magistrate sat of course at Buninyong. Mr. Eyre 
 was the officer, and he used to visit the diggings at intervals. 
 The finding of the first monster nugget at Canadian Gully in 
 February, 1853, caused a new rush thither, and in that rush came 
 Mr. Adam Loftus Lynn, Avho was the first attorney that practised 
 here. After spending the months of February, March, and April 
 in digging, he began to practise his profession on tlie 1st of May, 
 his office being then opposite to the BctUarat Times office of that 
 day. About six months after Mr. Lynn had commenced practice, 
 he was joined by Mr. Ocock. After them came, in time, a 
 forensic deluge. The first local County Court and Court of 
 General Sessions were opened by the late Judge Wrixon, with 
 Mr. Francis Greene as clerk of the peace, in January, 185.3, at 
 Buninyong, the original style of the County Coui't being " The 
 County Court of Buninyong and Ballarat." It retained this 
 style till the sixties. The court style, the judge, the clerk, all 
 are dead and buried, but Mr. W. Tweedie, the first bailift' is still 
 (1887)bailiff'; and as County Courts in Victoria may soon bemerged 
 in some other court, the first bailifi' may also be the last of 
 the old order. The courts presided over by Judge Wrixon 
 first sat at Ballarat near the end of the year 1853. Mr. Justice 
 Williams opened the first Circuit Coui^t in Ballarat on the 12th 
 December, 1856, in what was then the police court-house, the 
 county court-house, and the place Avhere the English Church 
 service was performed. The building stood in what is now Camp 
 street, on the western side, where the street bends round near 
 the Freemasons Hall. In respect of the courts of law we have 
 gone beyond the period set down at the head of this chapter, but 
 we have done so by way of convenience to the reader. 
 
 One of the Victorian sensations of 1852 was the robbery 
 of several thousand ounces of gold from the ship Nelson in 
 Hobson's Bay, on 2nd April, by a band, of whom one Roberts was 
 a conspicuous confederate. He was sentenced with others but 
 proved an alihi and was released. • He then fell into the hands
 
 68 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 of the police in the Ballarat district and early in 1853 was in 
 custody for horse stealing. He and others were at the Separation 
 inn, at Leigh Road, on the way to the seaboard for trial, examina- 
 tion, or sentence. Handcuffed as he was, Roberts managed to slip 
 them off, and he tlien jumped clean through one of the hotel 
 windows, and bolted. He was at large for some time, but still 
 in the first half of the same year he was known to be hiding some- 
 where near Beaufort. Mr. G. G. Morton, of Labona, who had 
 landed in the colony in October, 1852, and obtained from Mr. 
 Latrobe a cadetship in the police force, was sent with the cadets 
 to Ballarat, wliere they arrived on the 29th September of that 
 year, Morton being subsequently appointed to the charge of the 
 "Wimmera district. When Roberts was known to be lurking about 
 Beaufort, Morton, accompanied by a stalwart trooper named 
 Worsley, and an aboriginal who was supposed to know where 
 Roberts was, set forth to attempt the capture of the horse 
 stealer. The aboriginal pointed out as the robber's lair a bark 
 hut in the ranges, known on the run as the Waterloo hut, the 
 site being that afterwards opened up as the Waterloo diggings. 
 Morton arranged with Worsley the modus belli whereby Morton 
 was to burst in the hut door and fall down in the hut, Worsley 
 to be close at his heels and cover the robber witli firearms. 
 This was done to the letter, Roberts being there with another 
 man, a vagrant unconnected with the horse stealing. The 
 police had only to do with Roberts, the other man being harm- 
 less, and being told to take no part if he valued his own life or 
 liberty. Roberts, being covered by Worsley, began to show 
 fight ; Morton sprang to his feet and felled the robber with the 
 butt end of a pistol as the ruftian was exclaiming : " Yes, I'm 
 
 Roberts, you , and you shan't take me alive." The oflicers 
 
 soon had tlie handcuUs upon liim, and strapped liini to Worsley's 
 stirrup, Morton being ready to prod him w ith a sal)re if he did 
 not marcli peaceably to his fate. Roberts used much emphatic 
 but unrecordable language, and still made show of resistance at 
 first, but soon submitted to the march, and was safely lodged in 
 gaol, and eventually sentenced.
 
 SOME RICH GROUND. 69 
 
 This Roberts was an old convict who had come out in 1844, 
 and when lie obtained his freedom he took to the roads and was 
 for a time associated with the notorious Captain Melville, who 
 strangled himself in the Melbourne gaol. He was only 37 when 
 arrested at "Waterloo, and by the time he was sentenced thereafter 
 he had a total of 32 yeai's imprisonment imposed for three charges 
 of highway robbery and assault, including five years in irons. 
 The ruffian began a life of crime very early, and his frequent 
 imprisonments liad afforded leisure, as does the sequestered life of 
 the sailor, for the indulgence of that strange fancy for tattooing 
 which seems to fascinate convict and sailor alike. Here is the 
 gaol record of " particular marks" : — 
 
 Sun, heart, and dart; foul anchor, soldier and woman R.D.A.B. ; 
 launch, cross flags and crown on left arm. Crucifix, maltose cross, flags, 
 skull and bones, sword and pistol on right arm. 
 
 By the end of the year 1852 the diggers on the gutters had 
 begun to reach what was then called deep ground, and their 
 vocation soon after that began, though rudely and tentatively, to 
 assume more of the character of regular mining. The year 1853 
 was rich in new discoveries, and a large number of gullies were 
 then opened. The Canadian, opened early in 1851, was named 
 from a man called Canadian Swift. The gully and issuing gutter 
 were very rich, the first large nugget ever found being unearthed 
 there about February, 1853. It weighed 1620 oz., and has never 
 been surpassed in weight by any discoveries since, except by the 
 Welcome nugget, found on the reef in some old ground on Bakery 
 Hill on the 9th of June, 1858 (weight, 2217 oz.), and the Wel- 
 come Stranger, found at Mount Moliagul on the 5th of February, 
 1869 (weight, 2280 oz). A rich bend in the gutter known as the 
 Jewellers' Shops, was about two hundred yards from where the 
 nugget was found. The ground there was prodigiously rich in 
 gold, heavy, lumpy, bright gold in profusion, and hence the name 
 given to the spot. The gutter ran down the valley, and mingled 
 with the other golden streams that met in the area formerly 
 known as the Gum Tree Flat, into which also the Red Hill, Red 
 Streak, Eureka, Bakery Hill, Gravel Pits, and their tributaries 
 poured their golden wealth. Dr. Gibson, Muir, and others of the
 
 70 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 Gravel Pits gutter near the Prince Albert hotel (afterwards St. 
 John's Presbyterian Church), opposite to the present Hebrew 
 Synagogue, and Rowland and Party in Sailor's Gully, appear to 
 have been among the earlier miners who slabbed their shafts 
 throughout. Gibson's first essay was with frame and piles ; but 
 before that, in 1852, Mr. Beilby and others used saplings to secure 
 unsafe shafts, and others lined the shafts with slabs of bark 
 placed vertically and fastened with sapling frames. The claims 
 known as the Italians', where the Gravel Pits entered the Gum 
 Tree Flat, were famous for their heavy deposits of gold. The 
 Eureka, the Canadian, and the Gravel Pits leads, all opened just 
 after the first rush to Golden Point, were the famous golden 
 trinity that made Ballarat world-renowned. The Eureka ran 
 from Little Bendigo southwards beneath the Yarrowee and the 
 present Railway, Humfiray, Victoria and Eureka streets, into 
 Pennyweight Flat, where it was joined, near the old Charlie 
 Napier, or a hundred yards or so south-east from the intersection 
 of Main and Eureka streets, by the Canadian, both flowing with 
 other leads into the Gum Tree Flat, where they were joined by 
 the Gravel Pits and Bakery Hill, which ran from the foot of 
 Black Hill accross the present Humfi"ray street and Victoria 
 street to the general place of confluence in the Gum Tree Flat — 
 that area of ground the eastern edge of which Main street now 
 traverses. The combined lead, whicli was in fact the main ancient 
 stream flowing o\"er the primeval bed rocks, ran westward, and 
 entered beneath the basaltic plateau of Ballarat West, just below 
 the intersection of Sturt and Lydiard streets, where it took a 
 soutliern bend, and received a tributary from Golden Point. 
 This tributai'y, being the first registered gutter, gave the name to 
 the main stream wliich flowed on westward and southward, 
 receiving many tributaries in its course. This is, however, 
 anticipatory in point of time. The year 1853 was marked by a 
 vigorous prospecting. In that year, the whole range north and 
 south of tlie Ballarat Flat was opened uj). Prince Regent's, 
 Sailor's, Scotchman's, and New Ciium Gullies on the eastern 
 slope of the Golden Point range, and Terrible, White Horse, 
 Frenchman's, Chinamen's, and Cubbler's Gullies on the western
 
 FIRST QUARTZ MIXING, 71 
 
 slope, were in that year entered upon in their shallower portions. 
 On the Black Hill side, besides that hill and the adjacent gullies 
 and Little Bendigo, Dead Horse, Sulky, and other gullies on the 
 way to Creswick were opened. Apropos of Frenchman's Gully, 
 it may here be noted that Esmond, the Clunes gold discoverer, 
 found a 70-oz. nugget in the shallow ground in 1853. In the 
 following year, while Sir Charles and Lady Hotham were on a 
 visit here, a nugget weighing 98|^ lbs. was found in Dalton's Flat, 
 and called the Lady Hotham after the wife of the Governor. By 
 that time the quartz lodes at the Black Hill had been tested. Dr. 
 Otway, with whom was Mr. Osborne, was the first adventurer 
 there, and he erected a windmill as a motive power for reducing 
 the stone. After that he procured Chilian mills, but neither 
 process Avas successful. Mr. George Milner Stephen followed 
 Dr. Otway, and with similar results. The Port Phillip Company 
 then came upon the scene, operating both at Black Hill and on 
 the ranges at Dead Horse, but with small success. That company 
 soon found better fortune at the Clunes reefs, from which it drew 
 for many years a large annual revenue. 
 
 Thus the three first years after the gold discovery saw some 
 of the richest of the Ballarat gutters, opened up, most of the rich 
 shallow grounds once or twice dug over, a population of from 
 30,000 to 40,000 assembled, lines of streets thickly inhabited by 
 dwellers in canvas or wood, churches, theatres, hotels, bowling 
 alleys, dancing saloons, stores in plenty and all the elements 
 present of a rough, prosperous, young gold-fields settlement ; 
 while enterprising prospectors were still pushing out on every 
 side, and adding fresh discoveries to those that had already made 
 Ballarat famous in every part of the civilised world.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DIGGER HUNTING. 
 
 The Gold License. — Taxation Without Representation. — Unequal Incidence of the Tax. — 
 r.pisodes of Digger Hunting. — Irritating Method of Enforcing; the Tax.— Suspicions of 
 Corruption among the Magistrates and Police. — Visit of Sir Charles and Lady Hotham. 
 — Big Larry. — Roff's Recollections. — Reform League. — Murder of Scobie. — Acquittal of 
 Bentley. — Dewes Suspected. — Mass Meetings. — Burning of Bentley's Hotel. — Irwin's 
 Narrative. — Arrest of Fletcher, M'Intyre, and Westerljy. — Re-arrest of Bentley. — Con- 
 viction of Bentley. — Rich's Experiences.— Conviction of Fletcher, M'Intyre, and 
 Westerby. — Demand for their Liberation. — Increased Excitement. — Fete to the 
 American Consul. — Foster.^Sir Charles Hotham.— Arrival of Troops. — Troops Assaulted. 
 — Bakery Hill Meeting. — Southern Cross Flag. — Burning the Licenses. 
 
 OWN the swift stream of the brief years 
 we now come to troublous times. At the 
 root of all the troubles that led to the 
 Eureka Stockade, lay the old tyranny of 
 taxation without representation. When 
 the gold discovery occurred, Victoria 
 had not long been created an in- 
 dependent colony. It liad become in- 
 dependent then only in the sense of 
 separation from New South Wales, and in having a Lieutenant- 
 Governor and a Parliament of its own. But that Parliament 
 was not representative in more than a small degree. It was a 
 single IIouBe, and largely composed of nominees of the Crown, 
 the balance of members representing constituencies in wliich the 
 masses, gathered and increasing on the gold-fields, had, not 
 simply not a voice potential, but absolutely no voice at all. This 
 was an injustice that was attended with more than tlie usual 
 dangers that accompany wrong. TIk; gold-fields inhabitants 
 being outside the mystic circle of governing power were placed,
 
 i1 
 
 00 
 
 h 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 -I 
 
 < 
 
 CQ 
 
 o 
 < 
 
 -J 
 
 a: 
 O 
 
 N 
 
 I- 
 X 
 < 
 
 I-
 
 THE GOLD LICENSE. 73 
 
 ah initio, in an attitude of hostility to tlie constituted authorities. 
 An unnatural sepaivition was, so to speak, created by the law 
 between the majority of the people and the Crown ; and to give 
 intensity to the danger, the people here were for the most part 
 superior in mental and bodily capacities to tlie average capacities 
 of their fellow countrymen whom they had left in their father- 
 lands. The courage and adventure which had made them 
 emigrants, and the physical strength which had enabled them 
 to weather the rude elements of early gold-fields life, were qualities 
 which made them valuable as freemen, but dangerous as slaves. 
 They were not the men tamely to brook the voiceless poverty of 
 political power which marked the ante-Eureka Stockade era; 
 and when to the absence of representation were added the 
 insolence of gold-fields olficials, the indignities of quasi-martial 
 regulations, and dark suspicions of corruption, the elements of 
 disorder rapidly grew more and more menacing to the public 
 peace, until, at last, it needed only the proverbial want of tact 
 in official routine to permit the recurrence of irritations that fell 
 like sparks upon prepared combustibles. Then a flame burst out 
 that was partially quenched in blood, the black disorder of the 
 conflagration being cleared away only by that reform of grievances 
 which has given to us what we now possess. 
 
 "When the Eui'opean gold hunter arrived in Victoria, just 
 after the gold discovery, he no sooner found himself upon the 
 gold-fields than he was, as we have seen, brought into contact with 
 a Government in the construction of which, and in the direction of 
 whose policy, he had no more voice than the naked aborigine he 
 saw prowling about the bush. Before he could legally put pick 
 or shovel into the ground, the digger had to pay a heavy monthly 
 tax, levied upon liim by a Government and Parliament in which 
 he was not represented. At first for thirty shillings, then for 
 sixty shillings, and then again for thirty shillings per month, the 
 digger obtained a license in this or some nearly identical form : — 
 
 GOLD LICENSE. 
 No. 185 
 
 The bearer , having paid to me the sum of 
 
 on account of the territorial revenue, I hereby license him to dig, search 
 for, and remove gold on and from any such Crown lands within ths
 
 74 HISTORY OF UALLARAT 
 
 as I shall assign to him for that purpose during the month of 185 , 
 
 not within half-a-mile of any head station. 
 
 This license is not transferable and must be produced whenever 
 demanded by me or any other person acting under tlie authority of tlie 
 Government. 
 
 (Signed) A. B., Commissioner. 
 
 In this we have the symbol of the grievances that roused 
 the gold-lields population. There was a heavy tax levied monthly 
 by a non-representative executive ; that tax was often oppressive 
 in itself and unequal in its incidence, and it was often collected 
 in so insolent a manner, that its unpopularity became a thousand- 
 fold greater. 
 
 Here, illustrative of the sport of license or digger-hunting, 
 is an episode from a lecture by the late Mr. William Benson, 
 once an escort-trooper in South Australia, then a rejjorter on the 
 BaUarat limes, and subsequently a mining surveyor. The lecture 
 was delivered at a Working INIen's Temperance Meeting, in the 
 Alfred Hall, on Saturday, the 19th February, 1870 : — 
 
 I had been for some short time in 1853 occupied at the store of Messrs. 
 Hilfiing and Greig, on the township, where the drapery establishment of 
 David Jones and Co. now is. Not very well liking my employment, I was 
 on my way to tlie labor oliice on Bakery Hill to oii'or for a stoek-ridor's 
 billet. Being dressed in somewhat digger costume, and talking near where 
 the Yarro\\ce bridge now is, I heard bcliind me a stentorian voice — "Hallo 1 
 you fellow." I turned round. Speechless liorror 1 There, at full galop, at 
 the head of fifteen or twenty mounted troopers, with scabbards clattering 
 and stirrups jingling, rode a stalwart black-looking chief of tlie digger 
 hunters. "Hallo! I say, you, sir," thundered forth he, with a mighty 
 flourish of his sword glittering in the beautiful sunlight, " have you got a 
 license." Worse luck to me 1 never was a digger, even when gold could be 
 got by pounds weight. Well, there flourished the sword of a mighty hunter, 
 and there stammered I forth " No." At that moment up came the mounted 
 and foot police. " Take this man into custody," shouts out the leader of 
 the troop and oil' he gallops. I, in my simplicity, said the mighty hunter 
 did not recognise me, he was a sergeant in the foot police at Adelaide when 
 I was a government escort trooper there. " Well," says my custodian, 
 " all I know is that I am going to take you to quod." This was the "logs," 
 but all this time 1 was being taken away from the " logs" (or Camp lock- 
 up), and near where tlie cDrncr of Barkly street now is wc there found 
 another guardian of the spoil of the hunters, holding in terror of his 
 foiuiidablo weapon a real digger whoac cloLhca bespoke him to be a
 
 DIGGEU IIUXTIXG. 75 
 
 sojourner amongst the holes on the Red Hill. We were marched up the 
 slope of Golden Point, the troopers and foot police far in advance ; but I 
 refused to go further and sat down. One of the diggers near, espying my 
 bespattered comrade in distress, calls out "Hallo! mate, what's the row?" 
 "Got no license," grumbles out the Red Hill digger. "Can't you give 
 bail ?" sings out the charitable-minded questioner. "Not I," returns the 
 other, " or I should'nt be without a license." No more ado, but into his 
 tent walks he of the charitable mind, and out he shortly comes and 
 walking straight up to my fellow captive, thrusts into his brawny hands five 
 £1 notes, saying " There's thy bail money," and ofi'he walked. " Know you 
 that man ?" said I to my astonished mate in misfortune. " Never saw him 
 before in my life," he replied, " but he is a good fellow and one of the 
 right sort." 
 
 Benson and his companion were both bailed, and, after the 
 examination before the bench, the digger was lined in the amount 
 of his bail. Benson escaped fine, and after some delay recovered 
 his bail. Such episodes abounded, wdth variations in detail. 
 From an unpublished manuscript by Mr, R. M. Serjeant, 
 descriptive of the times under discussion, the following comic 
 picture is taken : — 
 
 We marked out a couj^le of claims on the Eureka, and one or two 
 more at Prince Regent's Gully. On I'eturning home one afternoon we 
 found our gully (Specimen Gully) surrounded by the force on the hunt for 
 licenses. I noticed our sod chimney smoking, and the hut door — an old 
 flour sack stretched on a frame of wattle saplins— wide open, so I concluded 
 Joe, our cooking mate, was about, and could not very well escape two of 
 the police who were inarching straight into the doorway. I had approached 
 to within a few yards of the scene, license paper in hand, when the traps 
 stepped back, as I thought, rather hastily, and, to my surprise, were con- 
 fronted on the threshhold by a smart, genteel-looking female, who politely 
 enquired their business, and the next moment esjiying me close in the rear, 
 said — " Perhaps my brother can answer your enquiries, gentlemen!" The 
 gentlemen, however, were not among the rudest of their class, begged par- 
 , don, and turned on their heels in search of more easy prey, while I 
 proceeded to introduce myself to my newly-found sister, whom I then saw 
 throwing up her heels and cutting most unladylike capers round the dining 
 table. In the course of the evening Joe intimated that as he had resolved 
 never to take out a license, he should, if we had no objection, continue 
 to wear his new style of attire, and that in future his name was to be 
 Josephine. 
 
 Mr. Serjeant gives us another lively view of the digger 
 hunting process : —
 
 76 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 " Traps ! Traps ! ! Joe ! Joe ! !" were the well-known signals which 
 annoiinced that the police were out on a license raid, now becoming almost of 
 daily occurrence. The liasty abandonment of tubs and cradles by 
 fossickers and outsiders, and the great rush of shepherds to the deep holes 
 on the flat as the police hove in view, readily told that there were not a 
 few among them who believed in the doctrine that " base is the slave who 
 pays." Hunting the digger was evidently regarded by Mr. Commissioner 
 Sleuth and his hounds as a source of delightful recreation, and one of such 
 paramount importance to the State that the sport was reduced to an exact 
 science. Thus, given a couple of dirty constables, in diggers' guise, 
 jumping a claim, gentle shepherd approaches with delapidated shovel on 
 shoulder and proceeds to dispossess intruders in summary manner. A great 
 barney ensues : Constable Derwent and his mate talk big, a crowd gathers 
 round, and " a ring ! a ring ! ! " is the cry. The combatants have just 
 commenced to shape, when the signal referred to at the head of this 
 paragraph rings through the flat. On come the traps in skirmishing order, 
 driving in the stragglers as they advance, and supported by mounted 
 troopers in the rear, who occupy commanding positions on the ranges. A 
 great haul is made, and some sixty prisoners are marched off in triumph to 
 the Camp, hand-cuffed together like a gang of felons, there to be dealt 
 with according to the caprice or cupidity of their oppressors. 
 
 Irwin, in liis letters to the Geelong Advertiser, corroborates 
 Benson's account of the hunting mode, and gives, under date 23rd 
 October, 1854, the following statement in explanation of resolu- 
 tions adopted at a meeting in the Roman Catholic Chapel on 
 Bakery Hill, expressive of sympathy with Father Smyth, and of 
 indignation against Commissioner Johnstone : — 
 
 Some time since Mr. Johnstone was in command of a lioense-hunting 
 perty, one of whom, named Lord, came up to a tent in which was John 
 Gregory, a foreigner, on a visit of charity to some other foreigners whose 
 
 language he knew. The trooper Lord ordered the " wretches" to 
 
 come out of the tent that he might sec their licenses. Gregory, the servant 
 of the Rev. Mr. Smyth, had no such document ; on seeing which the 
 trooper, damning him and the priest, ordered him to come along. As 
 Gregory is not very strong-limbed, he requested to be allowed to go to the 
 Camp himself, as he was not able to follow the force while visiting the 
 various diggings looking for unlicensed miners. So far right ; but on 
 Gregory's appearing unwilling or unable to follow, the trooper ill-used 
 him, and only let him ofT on Mr. Smytli depositing £5 bail for his appear- 
 ance. At the Police-office, after being fined £5 for not having a license, 
 Gregory was going away, but was recalled. On re-appearing, the charge 
 of wanting a license was withdrawn by Mr, Johnstone, and one of assault'
 
 SIR CHARLES AND LADY HOTHAM. 77 
 
 ing a trooper put instead. For this he, the cripple, was fined the original 
 £5 bail. In the whole affair the Rev. Mr. Smyth was certainly treated 
 with but little courtesy ; and the trumpery story of a cripple assaulting 
 an able-bodied mounted trooper is too ridiculous to warrant serious 
 attention. 
 
 Englishmen, free from crime, were at the mercy in those 
 days of many demoralised and ruffianly policemen, w^ho treated 
 the diggei's like felons, and were too often abetted by their 
 superiors in this treatment of men thus practically deprived of 
 two centuries of political progress. To these causes of irritation 
 were added suspicions of corruption in the administration of the 
 common law on the Ballarat gold-field, and this it was, as will 
 presently appear, that precipitated the events which ended in the 
 collision between the Queen's troops and the armed insurgents. 
 Begun at Bendigo in 1853, the agitation against the gold-fields 
 license tax, and for representation in Parliament, was quickly 
 taken up in Ballarat, and was there pushed forward witli more 
 eventful incident to a more tragic conclusion. The outbreak was 
 not that of a stupid, stolid, ignorant peasantry in arms against 
 hay stacks and threshing machines, but of free-spirited, intelligent, 
 people, goaded to resistance by intolerable wrong, and guided — 
 at all events during a portion of the period — by men of education 
 and character among themselves, aided by a provincial Press created 
 and sustained for the most part by men also from among their 
 own ranks. When commissioners, magistrates, and troopers, 
 had got used to treating the diggers as people to be taxed and 
 harried at pleasure, the offensive method of carrying out the 
 obnoxious license law had grown so irksome that a reform of the 
 whole system was irresistibly pressed upon the population. A 
 Reform League was formed for the redress of grievances, and 
 all the gold-fields supported the organisation. Towards the 
 middle of 1854, Mr. Latrobe's successor. Sir Charles Hotham, 
 and Lady Ilotham, visited Ballarat, and, in sj^ite of the existing 
 gi'ievances, they were loyally i-eceived. In connection with the 
 visit there was some pi-ominence acquired by a gigantic Irish 
 digger, called Big Lany, who, with a rougher Raleigh-like 
 politeness, not only assiduously planked over muddy spots for the 
 dainty feet of the Governor's wife, but sometimes carried that
 
 78 HISTORY OP BALLARAT, 
 
 representative lady bodily over portions of the ground, and 
 generally cleared a way for the ^^sitors through the crowd of 
 spectators. It may be that his Excellency and his Melbourne 
 advisers were led, by the welcome given by the diggers, to 
 misconstrue the mind of the gold-fields population, and to think 
 that all the Camp officials, instead of a very small minority only, 
 were proper men properly enforcing the law. Be tliat as it may, 
 the Government not onl}^ maintained the law, but sought to 
 enforce it with greater rigor. In October, 1854, the Government 
 sent up an order that the police should go out two days a week 
 Jiunting for unlicensed diggers. At that time there were four 
 commissioners at Ballarat, between whom the field was parcelled 
 out in four divisions ; but the boundaries being ill-defined, the 
 police often hunted over the same ground twice, and thus the 
 rudeness which too often marked the process of license-fee 
 collection was often repeated over and over again upon the same 
 man in the same day. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Roff, clothier, at present a memlier of the 
 Town Council, writing to the author respecting the early days, 
 says : — 
 
 The storekeepers were cmhittcrcd against the Government, not only 
 from a natural sympathy witli their customers, the diggers, but also from a 
 want of protection from laMlcss vagabonds let loose from the various 
 colonies, and who were ever ready to rob or murder law-abiding citizens. 
 To remedj' this a meeting was called, asking the authorities for a night 
 patrol, and the citizens meanwhile formed themselves into a body for the 
 protection of life and property. As the .stores were mostly of canvas at 
 that time, a knife was all that was needed, for the most part, to enter a 
 store, the only protection being a revolver kept close at hand for instant 
 use. I well remember the early morning drills in the ranges for revolver 
 practice, with a sheet of paper pinned to a tree for a target, and fired at 
 from a distance of ten or twenty paces. One Minter morning, between 
 one and two o'clock— the night being divided into watclics — my watch had 
 come. An adjoining store had been stuck up the night before, and, stung 
 by the recollection of sleepless nights and constant anxiety, I had sworn to 
 shoot the first thief who dared to attack my place. At that very moment 
 of my watch I heard footsteps coming nearer and nearer, and, as it seemed 
 to mo, with stealthy tread. A stop was made just where I had been sleep- 
 ing. Immediate and silent as a cat I sprang from my blankets to the floor, 
 placing the muzzle of my shooter in a line wilh the foe, wlio, in tlie coolest
 
 nOPF's RECOLLECTIONS 79 
 
 manner possible, struck a matth, lit a candle, placed it in a bottle, and 
 was apparently searching for the weakest part of the canvas before cutting 
 a hole. "Villain," I ninttered to mj'self in my thoughts, "I'll make an 
 example of you ; if you dare to enter, I'll fire, let the consequences be 
 what they may." Minutes, which seemed like hours, passed ; the damp 
 earth chilled my bare feet ; not a sign was made ; what is the burglar up 
 to? Peeping through an opening at the doorway, I saw a digger holding 
 up a light to the side of the tent, and quietly and intently staring at it- 
 " What the deuce are you up to there at this hour of the night ? " I roared 
 out. "Me?" said the digger : "why, I've jnst come off my night shift, 
 and wanted to read the latest news from the Roosian war." My heai't 
 sank within me, and I thanked God I did not fire ; but this man was 
 certainly nigh being murdered. Going outside, I found that Alfred Black, 
 brother of the editor of the Digger^s Advocate, who lodged with me and 
 slept on the counter, had pasted up the latest number of the Advocate on 
 the tent side, headed " Latest news from the Russian war." So ended that 
 little episode. Shortly after that I had the satisfaction of winging a 
 burglar who had cut the canvas from floor to ceiling, and was in the act of 
 walking off with a bundle labelled with neither his name or address. 
 
 The tragical was intimately associated with the comical in 
 those days ; the latter was sometimes born of tlie former. If 
 the woes of the diggers and the insults and injuries of the 
 troopers were tragical, they produced Thatcher's comical metrical 
 gibes at tlie authorities, and occasional theatrical farces with a 
 similai'ly caustic anti-police humour in them. Thatcher sang 
 nightly at the Charlie Napier, and amongst the farces of tlie 
 day was one produced at the Red Hill theati'e, partly to suit the 
 requirements of a popular actor, and partly to have a fling at the 
 officials of the camp. It contained a scene laid at the Black 
 Hill, in which the authorities were pilloried as oppressors of the 
 diggers, and license hunting was ridiculed and denounced. The 
 audiences were not nicely critical, and every joke and every hit 
 were applauded with all the force of exceptionally sound lungs. 
 The more furious the fun, the better the diggers, as a rule, liked 
 the entertainment. Sometimes there were episodes of exciting 
 mirth not included in the bill of fare, and Mr. Rolf, whose 
 recollections of the old days seem to be very graphic, tells of one 
 or two of those extra programme performances : — 
 
 I had the honor, he writes, of being costumier to the first theatre in 
 Ballarat. I Avas staying at the Criterion Hotel. Red Hill, at that time the
 
 80 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 best on the Flat ; it was of canvas, and resembled a circus ; beds were 
 fitted up round the sides like bunks in a ship, but hidden from view by 
 calico hangings. The tables and seats were permanent fixtures made of 
 boards. The theatre was made of wood and canvas, and was nearly 
 opposite to the hotel, A large and magnificent company were specially 
 engaged, with a complete and splendid orchestra. The pieces for the 
 opening night were, I think, Maritana, as a play, and the Irish Tutor. The 
 night was fine and warm, and the place was crowded with diggers in every 
 variety of costume. There were the blue and red serge shirt, the tall 
 Yankee hat, Hessian knee boots, the long scarlet sashes, and all the audience 
 ruddy with health, and as jolly as sand boys. Tlie curtain had descended 
 on the first piece, brandied peaches, sherry cobblers and spiders, cocktails, 
 and what not, had been consumed between the acts, and the leading star 
 had been encored, recalled, and shouted for in champagne at least a dozen 
 times. The curtain rose for the after-piece, and the re-appearance of the 
 star was greeted with enthusiasm, although it was apparent that stellar 
 demoralisation had set in. As the piece proceeded, something was seen to 
 have gone wrong, and the face of the star reddened with rage. Turning 
 upon a subordinate actor who was leaving tlie stage, lie severely kicked 
 the super., who turned round upon his leader and said : *' You may get as 
 drunk as you like, but you don't kick me again, if you do, I'm dashed." 
 The star, approaching tlie footlights as tlie curtain fell, said : "Ladies and 
 gentlemen, the fellow says I'm drunk. (Shouts from the audience.) If I 
 did kick him he knows he deserved it. (Go it old man.) Am I drunk, 
 ladies and gentlemen ? (No, yes, pitch into him. ) I'd rather be drunk 
 any time than a fool. Isn't it enough to make anybody drunk to have to 
 play with sucli idiots ? Haven't I played before the Governor of New 
 South Wales — but am I drunk, gentlemen?" At this moment some person 
 from behind the curtain pitchforkeil the star forward riglit over the foot- 
 lights into the orchestra, and as he lay astride the double bass, clutcliing 
 the neck of it as for very life, tlie wliolc audience rt)se and roared witli 
 laughter, the rapid fun of the affair tickling them more than a dozen 
 screaming farces of the best low comedians, 
 
 Mr. Roff, after telling how a gold buyer secreted £1000 
 worth of bank notes in his stove chimney overnight, and in the 
 morning, hearing his boy lighting a tire, rushed to the rescue of 
 tlie notes, but only in time to save a half-charred heap of paper 
 that, luckily, still showed most of the numbers, goes on to detail 
 the pains of a tailor with a cork leg. This tailor lived in the 
 first brick house built in Ballarat East, and had for next room 
 neighbours a band of Bohemians who made night hideous with 
 what they called harmony. The tailor lived like a martyr for a
 
 oo 
 
 I- 
 < 
 
 cc 
 < 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 a: 
 
 < 
 5 
 
 o 
 z 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 < 
 > 
 
 a: 
 <
 
 MORE OF ROFf's REMINISCENCES. 81 
 
 wliile, thougli lie had to rise early in those ante-eight-hours-of- 
 lal)or clays ; but his camel back was broken one night by the 
 harmonists striking up " The Cork Leg." As this seemed to be 
 adding brutal insult to much provoking injury, the tailor resolved 
 on revenge. Rising from bed, he pulled a big zinc case into his 
 room, and belabored it lustily with cork leg and a stick. The 
 Bohemians were vanquished. In fierce response to their shouts 
 of remonstrance, the tailor roared : " I've stood this little game 
 long enough. You'll have enough 'cork leg' before you're done, 
 so here goes for another hour, to see how you like my harmony." 
 Away banged the tailor with leg and arm upon the sonorous 
 metal, until the enemy, tired and beaten, retreated from the 
 field, and left the aiigry tailor to sleep thenceforth in peace. 
 
 Another of Mr. Rofi^'s illustrations of the early times in 
 Ballarat refers to the period when that part of the city about 
 Drummond street was bush : — 
 
 Adventuring beyond as far as what is now Pleasant street one day 
 with a companion sportsman, Mr. Rolf lost his friend, and then himself ; 
 The native "cooey" failed to bring any answering sound. I moved 
 onwards, he sa3's, and at last thought — "Where am I?" Looking upwards 
 and on all sides, I replied — "Lost in the bush." Everywhere trees, 
 openings, bits of sky, but everywhere the same bush. I walked till I was 
 tired and bewildered. I sat down to rest, thirsty and perplexed ; then 
 looking up again at the sun, I saw he was sinking in the sky ; westward, 
 of course. Eureka ! I have it ; I will turn my back to the sun, go forward, 
 and that will take me eastward towards my home. I rose and ran, often 
 looking back to see how the sun lay, and in less than two hours I saw a 
 house ; soon after that I reached Winter's paddock, but it was getting 
 dark. Before me, right away on the hills and down in the valleys, shone 
 the illuminated stores and tents of the diggings, and I soon reached my 
 home. I had been for hours lost in the bush, and had travelled some 
 thirty miles or so ; but I had not, probably, been at any time more than 
 three or four miles from the Ballarat post office. 
 
 While reform leagues and committees were organising during 
 the years 1853 and 1854, the population educated itself to a certain 
 degree in the discussion of grievances, and men came to the front 
 as popular leaders, some of whom remain to this day in public life, 
 as Mr. Lalor, at pi^esent (January, 1887) speaker of the Legis- 
 lative Assembly. Others there were who, more gifted in com- 
 mittee tlian upon the public platform, quietly and effectively
 
 82 HISIORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 aided the reform movement, but never rose or sought to rise to 
 the more prominent elevation of public celebrity. Many of these, 
 also, remain -with us to this day. " Digger hunting," as the col- 
 lection of the license fee was called by tlie men on the gold-fields, 
 continued incessantly, accompanied with frequent instances of 
 official tyranny. Informers were employed by the authorities, 
 and some of those men were mere creatures of the higher officials, 
 and had histories that helped from the first to forbid confidence. 
 The tide of irritation and discontent I'ose higher and higher, and 
 tlie more excited of the population began to collect arms, to form 
 leagues of their different nationalities, and to discuss the 
 probabilities of open insurrection and a declaration of revolt from 
 British rule. At length, in the latter half of the year 1854, a 
 digger named James Scobie was killed in a scuffle at the Eureka 
 hotel, on Specimen Hill (now Eureka street), kept by one Bentley, 
 who was considered by the diggers to be a participator in Scobie's 
 murdei'. Tlie house was one of very Ijad fame, and Bentley was 
 arrested and brought before a bench presided over by Mr. Dewes, 
 the police magistrate, who acquitted him. There were a few 
 thouglitful men sitting in tlie court at tlie time, who saw the 
 gravity of what they felt to be a glaring miscarriage of justice. 
 One of them — Mr. J. Bussell Thomson — narrowly escaped com- 
 mittal for daring to urge that ]>entley's was a case which should 
 be sent to a jury. This acquittal aroused the population more 
 than any single official act since tlie gold discovery, for the general 
 belief was that Bentley was guilty, and that the police magistrate 
 corruptly ui-god th(> ac(iuittal because he was under pecuniary 
 obligations to the prisoner. This opinion as to Dewes' embarrass- 
 ments with lientley is still held. Dewes fell before the popular 
 Ktonii, went to British Colunibi;i, where he justified Victori.an 
 condemnation by committing embezzlement, and he ended his life 
 by suicide in Paris. The exasperation causrd by Bentley's 
 acquittal gave a vigorous impetus to the agitations for reform. 
 At an indignation meeting held on, or close to, the spot where 
 Scobie was killed, Messrs. J. B. Tlionison, T. D. Wanliss, Peter 
 Lalor, J. "NV. Cray, W. Corkliiil, vMcx. INI 'P. Orant, and Arcliibald 
 Carmichael were appointed a committee to take steps for the col
 
 IXDIGNATION MUETING. 
 
 83 
 
 lection of money to defray the cost of a further prosecution of 
 Bentley, and so warmly did the public respond that £200 were 
 gathered in a very short time in Ballarat alone, when the collec- 
 tions were stopped, as the Government, in the meantime, moved 
 in the business and offered rewards for the apprehension of Scobie's 
 murderers. The collector of the moneys, Mr. John W. Gray, 
 i-eturned the subscriptions, after payment of some charges, and 
 thus that expression of indignation at wrong done was ended 
 The other gold-fields ardently joined in the feeling prevalent here 
 In Ballarat meetings were held on Sundays as well as on other 
 days, and on Saturday, 11th November, 1854, thousands of men 
 gathered, and flags and bands of music lent ominous life to the 
 assemblage. The leaders were in favor of moral force and a 
 pui-ely constitutional agitation ; but tliere were more fiery spirits 
 than they. One of these — a compatriot of Scobie — on another 
 occasion harangued the crowd, and said the spirit of the murdered 
 Scobie was hovering over them and yearning for revenge. The 
 occasion referred to was a meeting held near Bentley's hotel on the 
 17th of October, when the arrival of the police and military, and 
 some injudicious acts by a few bystanders, led to a collision with 
 the police, the reading of the Riot Act, and the burning of the 
 hotel. Some of the diggers were arrested, and one was rescued 
 on the way to the Camp. Milne, Sergeant-Major of police, a 
 man held in general execration as an unprincipled informer, was 
 regarded as the right hand of the ofiicials in that business. 
 
 The subjoined extracts are from contributions to the Ballarat 
 Star, by Mr Samuel Irwin, a gentleman who was an eye-witness 
 of the time and a daily recorder for the Press of what transpired. 
 His letters to the Geelong Advertiser of those days gave very full 
 and, in the main, very accurate descriptions of the occurrences of 
 the time. So far may their reliableness be assumed that not only 
 have no material contradictions been made, but, as the English 
 Blue Books demonstrate, Sir Charles Hotham adopted some of 
 Irwin's letters as portions of his despatches to the English 
 Secretary for the Colonies : — 
 
 As a matter of course, those Avho take an mterest in the past of 
 Ballarat have in a great measure to fall back on personal reminisccuceg, as
 
 84 HISTORY OF BALLAKAT. 
 
 l)ut fuw of them Iiave easy access to Jocumcntarj' evidence, so tliat most of 
 -what can be said or written under the circumstances partakes of the 
 egotistical. 
 
 A good deal has been said of the means and persons by and througli 
 whomBentley got into the good graces of some of the leading officials at 
 the Camp. Little is positively known of the matter beyond those 
 immediately concerned, but any one who had heard the tone in which 
 Bentley asked a person standing one cold early winter's day in the verandah 
 of the Pohce-court, after the court had closed, "Where is Mr. Dewes?" 
 could hardly have failed to note a more than usually free and easy manner 
 on the part of the equestrian questioner. The reply was civil — " In the 
 magistrate's room " — to Avhich Bentlej', dismounting, lietook himself with 
 all the coniidcnce of one who knew the locality well. In a few minutes 
 jMr. Dewes and his visitor, then an applicant for a publican's license, 
 appeared, and went into the large tent, just opposite the Police-court 
 where the former resided. 
 
 The license was in due time granted, the hotel was usually crowded, 
 the bowling-alley and the free use of cards contributing among other 
 inducements to attract a large number of customers, almost in a continuous 
 stream by night as well as by day. Knowing the fact that the hotel was 
 nearly always open, Scobie made for it, found it closed, created a disturb- 
 ance to gain admission, was assaulted in consequence and died. The 
 coroner's incpiest which followed was far from partaking of that strict 
 scrutiny and judicial aspect which on tlic whole are so characteristic of 
 such proceedings, and so the suspicion already existent as to the purity of 
 some of the camp officials became stronger. At length the supposed 
 participators in the death of Scobie were brought befoi'c the Police-court, 
 composed of Messrs. Dewes, P.M., Retle, resident commissioner, and 
 Jolmston, commissioner. The prisoners, in the opinion of the majority of 
 the Ijcnch, were free from blame, and were discharged, though Mr, Johnston, 
 the junior, dissented from the opinion of his seniors. lie even was so 
 decided in opinion as to the guilt of the prisoners that he took a copy of 
 the depositions, forwarding them to Melbourne for the consideration of the 
 Attorney-General. 
 
 It was decided to hold a public indignation meeting on the spot where 
 Scobie had met his dcatli, to protest against the miscarriage of justice, and 
 to devise the ways and means for l)ringing the delinquents to a fair trial. 
 Tlie meeting was licld and passed ofl' quietly, thougli pretty strong language 
 had Ijcen used. Tlic camp autliorities, drea<ling an attack they said on 
 IJentley's liotel, but to i)rovokc one asserted the discontented, sent the 
 police to .act as a guard over tlie building. 1'he usual " cliaH" was indulged 
 in, and nothing serious was supposed to l)e imminent on the part of the 
 leaderH among tlie discontented. But it fell out otlicrwise. A youngster, 
 one of the hida who used to wasli " licadings" fryni rich claims, in the reck-
 
 TITR ARCTTS CORRKSPONDEXT. 85 
 
 less unthinking spirit of untamed boyliood, threw a stone at the lamp in 
 front of the hoteh The stone struck the lamp and broke the glass. This 
 was the spark which lighted the train. The long suppressed indignation 
 broke forth in one long terrific yell of irrepressible indignation "down 
 with tlie house, burn it." The demolition of the windows was eifected in 
 a moment, and the sound of the crashing glass added still more to the 
 excitement of all present, even of those who either from disinclination for 
 such work, or by reason of the intervening crowd, could not join in it. 
 The house was soon occupied, the people swarming into it by door or 
 window as came most conveniently to hand. Some of the camp officials 
 who had still managed to keep some faith in their honesty in the popular 
 breast — notably Mr. Commissioner Amos, who was drowned in the London, 
 aided by Mr. M'Intyre, who subsequently was rewarded for having done 
 this, by being arrested for having been an aider and abettor in the riot — 
 tried all their persuasive powers to calm the excited and now well-nigh 
 frantic assemblage. It was labor in vain. The long gathering hurricane 
 had burst, and must career until its fury had been spent. In a few 
 minutes the cry was that the rear or side of the premises towards the 
 bowling alley was in flames. And so it was, but who caused the fire is 
 among the secrets of that day. 
 
 How it should liave been a secret seems remarkable if the 
 description given by the Argus correspondent be considered. His 
 narrative may, in the absence of a statement to the contrary, be 
 taken as given by an eye-witness, He says : — ■ 
 
 About half-past two or three o'clock in tlie afternoon, and when the 
 crowd had increased to about 8,000 or 10,000, a man carried an armful of 
 paper and rags to the windward end of the bowling-alley, and placing them 
 under the calico covering, deliberately struck a match and fircil the build- 
 ing in the presence of the nulitary. Tlie cool, resolute manner in which 
 everything was carried on resembled more the proceedings of the " Porteous 
 mob" than of anything of the kind that has occurred since. 
 
 Contrasting with j)resent rapidity of communication, the 
 tardy publication of the Bentley hotel burning in the towns on 
 the seaboard is notable. The disturbance and burning happened 
 on thel2tli October, but it was not mentioned in tlie Argus till 
 the 19th, and then only in a letter from Geelong dated the ISth, 
 and saying the news had been "just received." The Ballarat 
 correspondent of the Argus seems to have acted witli considerable 
 deliberation, for lie did not write till the 18th, his letter appear- 
 ing on the 23rd. To make the deliberation more judicial by 
 contrast with facts, the letter began with the words, "the exciting 
 events, Ac."
 
 86 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Irwin's narrative continues : — 
 
 During the earlier stage of the proceedings it was evident that the 
 owner of the hotel might not expect much mercy at the hands of those 
 present, and he was therefore easily persuaded to mount a fleet horse 
 provided for him, and make his way to the Camp, where he ensured his 
 personal safety, and gave word that more assistance was needed by the 
 authorities at the hotel. The hurried progress of the refugee messenger, 
 as he sped along the main road coatless, if not hatless, spread the excite 
 ment among those at work on the (i ravel Pits Lead, and they also soon 
 added their numbers to the already large and vast increasing multitude. 
 The quick march of soldiers from the Camp soon after Beutley's arrival 
 showed the urgency of the case, and ere they had gained the foot of Bakery 
 Hill, scarcely a man was on the Gravel Pits, save some miner whose 
 excited fellows had forgotton that he was "below," or some storekeeper 
 who could not procure a temporary caretaker for his goods. 
 
 It may be superstitious or otherwise to mention it, but it is neverthe- 
 less the fact that, just as the military entered Specimen Gully, while the 
 force of the breeze had fashioned the flames from the ridge-board of the yet 
 standing but wholly ignited roof into a fiery coombe or crest, a small black 
 cloud rested over the Black Hill, and a few scattered heavy drops of rain 
 fell. Possibly the excitement was so intense that but few noticed the 
 occurrence. The rain-drops ceased, tlie cloud disappeared— the breeze 
 lulled, and with a crash down fell the only yet standing portion of 
 Bentley's hotel. 
 
 With the now well ascertained opinions of Sir Charles Hotham on 
 subordination, it may be readily imagined that he was furious at tliis open 
 revolt against the law and fully bent on avenging the outrage. He had 
 plenty of willing tools ready to his hands, men who, to use the words of 
 one of his class, "would swear a hole through an iron pot" to oblige a 
 friend. They at lust picked out three scape-goats. One was M'Intyre, 
 now in comfortable circumstances in Glasgow, who had used liis liest 
 endeavours to restrain the crowd at Beutley's from overt acts. Another 
 was Fletcher, a jjrintcr, whose ofhce was on the Main road, not far on the 
 Eastern Market side of Twentyman and Stamper's. FletclK^, from all 
 that can be learned, was not of!" the Main road the day of the fire, and 
 certainly was not farther than the Prince Albert hotel in that direction. 
 Westerby, the third man, has been asserted to be equally innocent with 
 Fletcher in the transaction. 
 
 A meeting was lield, and a committee was suggested to bail tlic 
 prisoners. J. F. Coleman (now mining registrar at Stan'ordshire Reef,) 
 volunteered to act, and his example being «peedily followed tiie number 
 that had been named — nine— was soon got togetlier. Some had advised 
 that the meeting proceed to tlie Camp and relcjise tlie prisoners by force. 
 A milder course, however, was adopted, and tiie committee went to the
 
 DEVELOPING EPISODKS. 87 
 
 Camp and offered bail. After enquiry bail was accepted. All this took 
 time, and the crowd, which had promised not to come nearer the Camp 
 than already stated, had crept up, first to the Yarrowee Creek, and finally 
 to the brow of the hill in front of the present Mining Board-room. The 
 police had been drawn up on the higher ground to meet this body of men 
 as they came towards the Camp. Experience had taught the Camp to be 
 on the alert, and the whole force there was well in hand to prevent a 
 second riot. While the bailbonds were being prepared, the angry hum of 
 the crowd outside was distinctly heard inside the Police-court, and at one 
 time the magistrates seemed to think the giving bail was but a ruse to 
 temporarily distract the Camp, and, during a riot, release the prisoners by 
 force. Fortunately the bail was concluded, and the committee with 
 M'Intyre appeared. But a new difficulty was in store. In the anxiety to 
 reach M'Intyre the crowd pressed forward, and, being kept back by the 
 police, a collision \\ould have been inevitable but tliat IM'Intyre was 
 hurried forward while the membei's of the committee spread their arms and 
 good naturedly pressed their friends backwards. Retarning down the 
 Main I'oad, revolvers were drawn and fired in defiance of the authorities. 
 One of the revolvers went off in the excitement before its owner hud 
 raised the barrel over the heads of the crowd ; in going off it somewhat 
 seriously injured a man walking on the left hand of the person carrying it. 
 Among the things advised was, now that M'Intyre was liberated, he should 
 take to hiding. The adviser of this step was Keiinedy, and the objector 
 was one of the bondsmen, who happened to be present. To M 'In tyre's 
 credit be it said he refused, apart from the responsibilities of his bail, to 
 hide for an hour. The trial and conviction of the three prisoners followed, 
 which brings us to the celebrated demand for the release of the prisoners, 
 made by a deputation to Sir Charles Hotham. 
 
 A meeting on Bakery Hill had adopted resolutions demand- 
 ing the release of the prisoners, the dismissal of Milne, and 
 affirming the right of the people to full representation, manhood 
 suffrage, no property qualification of members, payment of 
 members, short Parliaments, abolition of the gold fields com- 
 mission and the diggers' and storekeepers' license fees. Messrs. 
 Hayes, Humftray, Holyoake, Black, Vern, Burke, Kennedy, and 
 others were the speakers, and Hayes was in the chair. There 
 had been a commission of enquiry into the Bentley hotel affair. 
 Tlie commissioners were Captain Sturt, Dr. M'Crea, and the 
 magistrate Dewes, and they had closed their sittings on the day 
 before the Bakery Hill meeting. That commission was looked on 
 with mistrust by the diggers Ijecause of Dewes, Avhoni, moreo-\"er,
 
 88 HISTORY OP BALLARAT 
 
 the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Foster, had dismissed, or suspended, 
 as a sop to the enraged population. 
 
 The commissioners went to Melbourne witli tlieir report. 
 In December the trial of Westerby, M'Intyre, and Fletcher, the 
 prisoners arrested for the burning of Bentloy's hotel, was to take 
 place in Melbourne, to whicli place the vcniic had been changed. 
 Mr. Ilumffray prepared the briefs for their advocate. Bentley 
 had also, in the interim, been re-arrested for the murder of Scobie, 
 and liad, witli some associates in the affray that ended in Scobie's 
 death, been convicted. They were sentenced to three years on 
 the roads. The original acquittal was attributed mainly to the 
 medical evidence of Dr. A. Carr, who was regarded as a colluding 
 associate of both Dewes and Bentley. Solemn official con- 
 demnation of the Police Magistrate confirmed the popular 
 denunciations of Dewes and some of his associates. Messrs. E. 
 P. Sturt, W. M'Crae, and F. A. Powlett, who had been appointed 
 to enquire into the matters connected with the hotel, and to 
 report on claims for compensation therewith connected, made the 
 following statement : — 
 
 Influenced by the fact that to the Police Magistrate, and the misconduct 
 of that pubh'c officer, may be attributed, in a great measure, the riotous 
 assembly which led to such unfortunate results, your board are willing to 
 recommend certain of the sufferers by the Ijurning of Bentley 's hotel to a 
 consideration of their claims. 
 
 ]ientley liad a bad record. The PcUca' Gazette of the 23rd 
 March, 185G, announces that a ticket of leave was granted to 
 "James Francis Bentley, a native of Surrey, born 1818, 5 f(H't 7 
 inches high, fair complexion, brown hair, grey eyes, medinm 
 nioutli, nose, and chin. Marks : -Mole on l)ack of neck and light 
 arm, right foot iiiutilated. Ship Ijluudcll to Norfolk Island, 1844, 
 sentence ten years. Tried at IMelboui'iie Supicme Court 18t]i 
 Nov(;ml)er, 1854, and sentenced to thi'ee years liard hil)or for 
 inanslaugliter. Ticket of leave granted 18th March, 1850, for the 
 district of Heidelberg." 
 
 To liave done with Dewes and Bentley, we may say hen; tliat 
 Dewes was not sih-nt under the strokes of dismissal from the ser- 
 vice. In tlie- Bullmiit TIiiks, pul)lisli('(l on tin; Sunday of the 
 Eureka action, on the .^rd Dc;ceiiil)cr, 1851, tlicrc! was a hitter
 
 ^ i 
 
 ft 
 
 o 
 
 
 a 
 
 s 
 
 .g -5 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 to 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 'S 
 
 
 t; 
 
 
 !>i 
 
 ,o 
 
 !-l 
 
 C 
 
 . ^' 
 
 I 
 
 
 « ■<♦< 10 W '-- 
 
 ^ ^ O -« o3
 
 EXEtrXT DEWES AND BEXTLEY. 89 
 
 addressed by him to the editor, in which he denied the allegations 
 of corrupt connection with any of the diggers, though he pleaded 
 guilty of " having mixed more with the intelligent classes on the 
 diggings than my predecessoi's, or many of my contemporaries, 
 were in the habit of doing. * * * As on most occasions, 
 affability of manner is a good substitute for unmeaning hauteur, 
 and were it not for the unfortunate allair of ' Bentley, etc.', no 
 outcry would have been raised against myself in my official 
 capacity." Dewes also shot Parthian arrows at his late colleagues 
 in office. 
 
 I cannot say, he writes, how far land speculations, which often involve 
 a complexity of interests, are compatible with the purity of the bench 
 (which, indeed, comprises the greater part of the Camp oflBcials, from the 
 boy Gold Commissioner to the more mature Police Magistrate), and most of 
 whom are land speculators. I can only assert that two out of the three 
 geaitlemen -who formed the board of investigation were such, and that one 
 of them had contracted a short time previously at Ballarat precisely the 
 same description of obligation as that so severely commented on in my own 
 case in the report of the Board. 
 
 " Read this, ye diggers," wrote the editor in a foot note, " and 
 judge for yourselves what justice you may expect." The " boy 
 commissioner" referred to was W. H. Foster, a young officer who 
 afterwards became a warden and police magistrate. Both he and 
 C Forster, governor of the gaol here for a time, claimed to be re- 
 lated to the Latrobe family, both forms of the name coming 
 presumably, from the original vocational name Forrester. 
 
 On the 10th April, 1873, Bentley ended his career by 
 laudanum in Ballarat street, Carlton, the poor wretch even in 
 death having, as it would seem, chosen a place that had about it 
 a reminder of his goldtield's exploits. Ife was about 54 years old, 
 and left a wife and five children. The coroner's jury found that 
 he poisoned himself whilst of unsound mind, and the Argus report 
 of the inquest says he had bouts of drinking, poisoned himself six 
 months before, and had " never been quite right since he lost his 
 property at the Ballarat riots, and for the last two years had 
 never ceased to talk about it." Let us hope that Scobie's ghost, 
 so romantically referred to by one of the Eureka orators one day, 
 is at rest with his revenge now.
 
 90 niSTORY OP RALLARAT. 
 
 Mr. Charles Rich, an old digger of the fifties, gives some re- 
 collections of those days. He emerged some years ago from canvas 
 tents, shingled cottages, and the res angusicv dvfftroriim — ah mercy ! 
 ye double firsts — and took a voyage to his native cocaigne, return- 
 ing thence with some goodly thousands sterling and what is, 
 perhaps, the best private library of miscellaneous literature extant 
 to-day in Ballurat. He built one of the handsomest mansions in 
 Drummond street nortli, as became a descendant of a branch of 
 the Cardinal Rich family of the Tudor times, and one entitled to 
 exhibit that interesting specimen of heraldic ornithology — a 
 wyvern. jNIr. Rich was educated partly in France, partly in 
 England, and has read a little law without being able, the author 
 fears, to say whether a beast — or a wyvern — "taken in withernam 
 can be replevied," but he is a quiet, shrewd observer. He v/rites: — 
 Mr. Scobie, the prima causa uf the burning of Bentley's hotel, arriveil 
 in this colony with a brother from Scotland, via London, in a barque called 
 the "Moselle," at Melbourne, towards the end of 1852 (Mr. EUery, A.R. 
 came by the same ship). Jle took up liis residence at Ballarat soon after, and 
 opened up the gully in the Buninyong road, now called .Scotchman's after 
 them. The brother was afterwards a contractor at Ararat, where he died. 
 On the day of his nuirder he had met an old friend. In the course of their 
 peregrinations they called at Mr. Watkin's " Victoria"' hotel, Armstrong 
 street, and was there recognised by Mrs. R., housekeeper to Mrs. Watkins, 
 as her shipmate. He was usually a very steady man, but carried away by 
 the excitement of "auld lang syne," he went beyond his usual abstemiousness, 
 and returning home to his tent, just beyoiul Bentley's on the " Eureka," 
 called there for "just ane wee drappie mair." The house was closed. The 
 landlord, being annoyed l^y his persistent knocking, came out and dealt 
 him an unlucky blow with some weapon too ready to his hand, which was 
 said to have quietened him for ever, but was to be the cause afterwards of 
 such evil results to Mr. Bentley. In consc(iuencc of the apathy and parti- 
 ality of the authorities the Scotch residents of Ballarat, considering there 
 had been a miscarriage of justice, resolved to avenge the foul murder of 
 their countryman. Notices were placarded about the diggings calling a 
 meeting of Scotchmen on the site of Bentley's hotel, which resulted in its 
 destruction and preluded the catastrophe of the Stockade. One afternoon, 
 as I returned from work at White Horse, when I arrived at the township, 
 now Ballarat West, seeing a fresh notice posted on a tree, I naturally 
 stopped to read it, (it was a caution to the public against carrying firearms 
 anil concealed wcajKjns) when one of the troopers parading the township 
 jumped off his horse, and without speaking a word thrust his hands into 
 my pockets, down tlie waist-ltand of my trousers, and inside the breast of
 
 rich's reminiscences. 91 
 
 my shirt, tearing off the buttons and totally disarranging my dress. I 
 attempted to remonstrate, but all in vain. I was peremptorily ordered to 
 move on. So, discomfited and upset, I had to yield to tlie Jori-.e majeure ; 
 and with curses not loud but deep got within doors as quick as I could, 
 pondering on this treatment of a free-born Briton. One day, whilst crossing 
 the diggings at (Jolden Point to get to the Township to renew my license, 
 which had only just expired, I was stuck up by the troopers who were 
 then scouring the diggings for unlicensed miners. Being quite taken by 
 surprise I pretended to search my pockets for the license and produced the 
 old one, but luckily for me I was accompanied by two mates who had 
 licenses which were en rtrjle. They represented to the trooper that through 
 an oversight I had omitted to renew, but that I was then going to the 
 Camp to get a fresh one. He let me pass, but we had not gone above one 
 hundred yards when we encountered ^Yarden Webster. " Hillo, my men, 
 show your licenses ! " I endeavoured to gain time as before, by pretending 
 to search for my license and showed the old one but folded, and had just 
 been called on to show it when the trooper who had stopped me first rode 
 up and called out " I have seen his license, sir ! " and thereby saved me 
 from the fine and the logs. 1 afterwards heard that if it had been dis- 
 covered he had passed me he would have been fined himself. 'W'e had 
 invited him to meet us down the road in the evening, but never saw him 
 more. While sitting at dinner one lovely Sunday afternoon I received 
 notice from Mr Watkiiis, the Government contractor, to join another young 
 Welshman in sinking an excavation to make a grave for the diggers slain 
 at the Stockade in the morning. We commenced digging the grave and 
 had been at it some three or four hours. As it was a very large one we 
 worked very hard, but before we had nearly finished the mournful cavalcade 
 arrived. In consequence of the coffins being placed in two tiers, one above 
 the other, they reached to within a foot of the surface, four at bottom and 
 three at top, but we managed to cover them up by well banking the earth 
 above them. Whether they were afterwards displaced I never heard. The 
 coffins were very rudely m;i,de of \ inch weatherboards, the covers roughly 
 nailed on, so that the bodies were plainly discernible through the joints in 
 the lids, and the limbs appeared contracted and quite discolored by smoke 
 and fire, for the tents were burnt by the military who, when they captured 
 the Stockade, fired the encampments with hand grenades. Whilst 
 interring these unfortunates another pi'ocession entered the cemetery con- 
 veying the body of a digger, a Welshman named Rowlands, who had been 
 shot by a trooper whilst entering his tent after returning from work. The 
 trooper called on him to stand, and as he paid no attention shot him dead 
 in his tracks. The body was buried at no great distance from those of the 
 insurgents. 
 
 The trial of the alleged incendiaries ended in a conviction, 
 and M'Intyre was senteiiced to three, Fletclier to foui-, and
 
 92 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 Westerby to six months' imprisonment. The jury had recom- 
 mended them to mercy, and, amid the appLiuse of the bystanders 
 in the crowded court, declared their belief that the outrage had 
 been provoked by the improper conduct of the Ballarat officials. 
 As to those officials, however, it must be remembered that, besides 
 Dewes, there were Messrs. Johnston and Rede on the bench when 
 Bentley was examined, but Johnston not only voted for the 
 committal of the prisoner, but forwarded copies of the depositions 
 to the Attorney-General. 
 
 As soon as the conviction of Fletcher, M'Intyre, and 
 "Westerby was known in Ballarat, tlie Reform League sent 
 Messrs. Kennedy and George Black to Melbourne to " demand"' 
 tlie release of the prisoners. Black was then editor of tlio 
 Diggers Advocate, and wrote vigorously for the popvdar cause. 
 Kennedy was a man of rough, but moving eloquence. It was he 
 who, at the meeting that ended iu the burning of Bentley's hotel, 
 declared that the murdered man's ghost was there yearning for 
 revenge. As Saint Buonaparte, with pious fervor, proclaimed 
 an alliance between Divine Providence and heavy battalions, so 
 Kennedy, at one of the meetings of diggers, declared his prefer- 
 ence of jjliysical over moral force ])y reciting the rugged but 
 vigorous couplet — 
 
 " Moral persuasion is all a luniibug, 
 Nothing convinces like a lick in the lug I" 
 They reached Melbourne on tlie 25th November, HumfFray, the 
 secretary of the League, having on the 23rd, been introduced by 
 Mr. Fawkner, M.L.C., to the Governor, w lio liad intimated that if a 
 proper memorial were sent to the Government, the prisoners miglit 
 be released. The League secretary disapproved of the intemperate 
 " demand" brought down by the delegates. The Sunday was at 
 hand and tlie secretary and the delegates, and Mr. Ebenezer 
 Syme, tlien of tlie Argus, uiid afterwards of the Age, spent part 
 of tlie day discussing tlie position. Meanwhih', rumors of an 
 ari-est of the delegates got current, tlie diggers at Ballarat resolved 
 on a iiionst(!r meeting, and tlie camp oHicials sent desj)atclies for 
 more troops. On Monday, the 27tli Novcnihci', (lie dch-gatcs and 
 IfumllVay waited on Sir ('liarlcs Jlotliam, to i>resent the re-
 
 SULDIEUS FIliHD LTOX. 93 
 
 inonstvant petition. His Excellency "\v;is attcMuled l)y the 
 Attorney-General, INIr. (now Sir "\Mlliarn) Stawell, and tlic 
 Colonial Secretary, Mr. Foster. Tlie " demand" was refused, but 
 reforms were promised, and were said to be already begun. It is 
 worthy of record that in the course of the interview the delegates 
 spoke of the mode of alienating the Crown lands as being inimical 
 to the interests of the poor man. Thus early had begun our not 
 yet ended troubles in land administration. The excitement in 
 Ballarat now grew intenser, and the towns on the seaboard were 
 alarmed with rumors of insurrection. On the eve of the 28th, 
 Mr. Tarleton, the American consul, was feted at a banquet in 
 Ballarat, and while the dinner was going on soldiers were arriving 
 from Melbourne, and a collision had taken place between the 
 soldiers, troopers, and diggers. All that night the diggers were 
 busy preparing arms and ammunition, the committee of the 
 League sat night and day, the Camp bristled Avith sentries, and 
 an eventful morrow was looked for. 
 
 In the Legislative Council, the Colonial Secretary, Mr. 
 Foster, in reply to a question from j\Ir. FaAvkner, did not appear 
 to have realised the gravity of the crisis, and the Argvs of that 
 day compared the Secretary to ISTero fiddling wjiile Rome was 
 burning. Yet, while the Argus was hounding Foster down as 
 the one " black-sheep," the diggers were hooting and groaning at 
 the Argus as a "turncoat," because that journal had condemned 
 some of the wild doings of the outraged population. Foster was 
 about the best abused man of the day, and he had eventually to 
 leave office before the storm of popular indignation. 
 
 Reinforcements of horse and foot police were concentrated 
 about this time at the Camp from the neighbouring diggings, 
 together with detachments of the 12th and 40th Regiments of the 
 Line. On the 28th November the police were pelted, and the 
 military, enteringfromMelbourneby the Eureka, were attacked by 
 the diggers. The party in charge of the baggage was for a time cut 
 off, and some of the waggons were overturned and rifled by the 
 diggers in hope of finding fire-arms. In this, however, they were 
 disappointed. Several soldiers were wounded and a drummey
 
 di HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 boy was shot in the thigh. The diggers followed the troops to 
 the vicinity of the Camp, when the mounted police made a sortie, 
 wounded several men, and drove back the crowd, the troops 
 entering quarters in a panic-stricken and exhausted state at 
 eleven o'clock at night. All night long the diggers kept fires 
 burning, and made the night hideous with discharges of fire-arms 
 and other noises. The military encampment was on the slope 
 afterwards known as Soldiers' Hill, now forming part of the north 
 ward of the City of Ballarat. The attack upon the troops took 
 place in the "NVarrenheip gully, within a few hundred yards of the 
 spot where, a day or two later, the insurgent diggers erected their 
 Stockade. The onslaught ujDon the troops appears to have been 
 unpro\oked and savage, and it excited general disgust in the 
 minds of the colonists everywhere out of Ballarat. At Ballarat, 
 also, the larger portion of the inhabitants regarded the aft'air as 
 alike inopportune and disgraceful. Indeed, the recognised leaders 
 of the reform movement up to that time appear to have known 
 nothing of the collision until it was actually over. Rafiaello, a 
 writer whom we shall refer to again, calls it a " cowardly attack." 
 In illustration of the fact that the general body of the diggers 
 sought only the rights of freemen, and were not marauders or 
 revolutionists, it may be stated that when the Government Camp 
 at Creswick was almost emptied of both oflficers and men for the 
 support of the authorities at Ballarat, hundreds of the diggers 
 offered their services to Mr. Commissioner Taylor for the pro- 
 tection of the gold deposited at the Camp. 
 
 A monster meeting was called by the League for the 29th 
 of November, on Bakery Hill, at which some thousands were 
 expected from Creswick, besides delegates from all the other 
 gold-fields. For the movement had now become general, and 
 emissaries had been sent all over the colony to enlist sympathy, 
 procure lielp, and, in fact, make the rising national if not 
 revolutioiiaiy. Jleiiry Holyoake, brother of the notable English 
 Secularist, had been sent to Bendigo to raise the diggers there, 
 but lie learned at Creswick of the discomfiture of Lalor's force 
 at the Stockade, and liis martial occupation being thereby gone, 
 ho retired till moiu ti-antiuil times arrived. At the meeting of
 
 MONSTER MEETIXG BAKERY HILL. 95 
 
 the 29tl), Humffniy and the delegates Bhick and Keinicdy gave 
 ill their report of the conference with the Governor. Kati'aello 
 says Lalor never addressed a meeting before that held on Bakery 
 Hill on tlie 29th November, when he made his first speech in 
 moving the calling of a meeting of the League for the next 
 Sunday to choose a central committee, — the Sunday when the 
 attack on the Stockade caused the collapse of all the physical 
 force schemes then afloat. Some 12,000 men, it is said, were 
 present at the meeting on Bakery Hill. A platform was erected, 
 and on a flagstaff' was hung the insurgent flag — the Southern 
 Cross. The flag had a blue ground, on which, in silver, the four 
 principal stars of the constellation of the Southern Cross were 
 shown. Hayes was again the chairman, and the site of the 
 meeting was on and adjoining the area now occupied by Victoria 
 street, between East and Humffray streets. Besides the Com- 
 mittee of the League and the delegates, there were reporters on 
 the platform, and two Roman Catholic priests — the Rev. Fathers 
 Downing and Smyth. The Catholic Bishop of Melbourne, 
 Dr. Goold, had also come to Ballarat to help to maintain 
 peace. The delegates spoke, and Humflray, who still counselled 
 moral force only, was denounced as a trimmer. He was also 
 denounced for having waited upon the Government without 
 authority from the League. A person named Fraser, among 
 the crowd, also advised constitutional action, " and," says 
 the Ballarat Times, "were it not for the influence of the 
 chairman and his numerous supporters, the man would 
 have been torn limb from limb by the infuriated people." 
 How the people felt, and what they did and resolved to do, will 
 best be gathered from the following resolutions, which were 
 adopted unanimously, although the Rev. Mr. Downing proposed 
 an amendment against the burning of the licenses : — 
 
 Proposed by Mr. Reynolds, seconded by Mr. Weekes— 1. "That this 
 meeting views with the hottest indignation the daring calumny of his 
 honor the Acting Chief Justice, wliile on the bench, of the brave and 
 struggling sufferers of Clare, Tipperary, Bristol, and other districts, on 
 their endeavors to assert their legitimate rights ; and do hereby give the 
 most unmitigated and the most emphatic denial to the assertions of his 
 honor in stigmatising as riots the persevering and indomitable struggles
 
 96 HISTORY OF IJALLAHAT. 
 
 for freedom of the brave people of England and Ireland for the last eighty 
 years." 
 
 Proposed by Mr. Lalor, seconded by Mr. Brady— 2. "That a meeting 
 of the members of the Reform League be called at the Adelphi Theatre 
 next Sunday, at 2 p.m., to elect a central committee, and that each fifty 
 members of the League have power to elect one niendjer for the central 
 committee." 
 
 Proposed by Mr. Frederick Vern, seconded Ijy Mr. Quinn — 3. "That 
 this meeting, being convinced that the obnoxious license-fee is an imposition 
 and an unjustifiable tax on free labor, pledges itself to take immediate 
 steps to abolish tlie same, by at once burning all their licenses. That in 
 the event of any party being arrested for having no licenses, the united 
 people will, under all circumstances, defend and protect them." 
 
 Proposed by Mr. G. Black, seconded by Mr. Wliatley — -i. "That as 
 the diggers have determined to pay no more licenses, it is necessary for 
 them to be prepared for the contingency ; as it would be utterly in- 
 consistent, after refusing to pay a license, to call in a Commissioner for 
 the adjustment of such disputes, and this meeting resolves whenever any 
 party or parties have a dispute, the parties so disputing shall each appoint 
 one man. The two men thus appointed to call in a third, and these three 
 to decide the case finally." 
 
 Proposed by Mr. Murnane, seconded ]>y Mr. Ross — 5. "That this 
 meeting will not feel bound to protect any man after the lotli December 
 who shall not be a member of the League by that day. " 
 
 Proposed by Mr. Humffray, seconded by Mr. Kennedy — G. "That 
 this meeting protests against the common pi-actice of bodies of military 
 marching into a peaceable district with fixed bayonets, and also any force, 
 police or otherwise, firing on the people, under any circumstances, without 
 the previous reading of the Riot Act, and that if Government officials 
 continue to act thus unconstitutionally, we cannot l)e responsible for 
 similar or worse deeds from the people." 
 
 Bonfires were made of licenses, guns and revolvers were dis- 
 charged, and League-tickets of mcm])crship were issued to the 
 crowd. Troops were under arms in the gully beneath the Camp 
 all the time in readiness for an outbreak.
 
 0500 ft>Bau.l ;a»ijia»i06 am i« iwjjej nqof iq pwiuud
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE E i: U E K A STOCKADE. 
 
 The Last Digger Hunt. — Collision between the Diggers and Militar}- and Police. — Southern 
 Cross Flag again. — Lalor and his Companions Armed, kneel, and swear Mutual Defence. 
 — Irwin's Account. — Carboni Raffaello. — His Pictures of the Times and the Men. — More 
 Troops Arrive. — The Diggers Extend their Organisation Under Arms. — Lalor " Com- 
 mander-in-Chief." — Forage and Impressment Parties. — Original Documents. — Shots Fired 
 from the Camp.— The Stockade Formed. — Narrative of a Government Officer in the 
 Camp. — Attack by the Military and Taking of the Stockade. — Various Accounts of the 
 Time.— Raffaello's Description.— Other Tragic Pictures.— First Stone House.— Bank of 
 Victoria Fortified.— A Soldier's Story.— List of the Killed.— Burials.— Rewards Offered for 
 the Insurgent Leaders. — Their Hiding and Escape. — Charge Against A. P. Akehurst. — 
 Proclamation of Martial Law. — Feeling in Melbourne.^ -Foster's Resignation. - Deputation 
 of Diggers. — Humflfray Arrested. — ^'ote of Thanks to the Troops. — Legislative Council's 
 Address to the Governor. — His Reply. — Prisoners at the Ballarat Police Court. — Royal 
 Commission of Enquiry. — Trial and Acquittal of the State Prisoners. — Humfliray. — 
 Lalor and his Captain's Hiding Place and Peculiarities. — Cost of the Struggle. — Compensa- 
 tion Meeting at the Stockade. — Raffaello there Selling his Book. — Subsequent Celebra- 
 tions. — Soldiers' and Diggers' Moiuuiients. — The Burial Places. — The Insurgent Flag. — 
 Death of Sir Charles Hotham. — Hothani and Foster ^'indicated. 
 
 A L L A R A T has not been famous alone for 
 its golden wealtli. It has historical fame 
 also, as tlie site of the collision, in the year 
 1854, between the Queen's troops and armed 
 diggers at the Eureka Stockade. All the 
 gold-fields of Victoria were moved by dis- 
 content under grievances, both legislative 
 and administrative, during the period anterior 
 to the affair at the Eureka ; but the resist- 
 ance to the authorities culminated at Ballarat. The general 
 grievances were heightened there by some particular^incidents. 
 These were, in effect, but the occasion under the impulse of which
 
 98 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 a section of the mining popvilation sought violently to enforce 
 complaints which derived their gravity from other causes. All 
 the grievances afterwards redressed would have been redressed 
 without the bloodshed at the Eureka Stockade ; but that tragical 
 event intensified the momentum of the crisis. It exemplified the 
 rashness of a few diggers, and the greater blunders of the 
 Government, but it also expedited the reforms which were eagerly 
 desired by the wliole population. If the armed insurgents who 
 were attacked by the soldiers on the memorable Sunday morning 
 in December, 1854, were wanting in the calm sagacity which has 
 always won reform under British rule, they were for the most 
 part not Avanting in personal courage, and the result of their 
 policy, as we have intimated, did certainly hasten the coming of 
 those reforms whose fruits the whole colony now enjoys. For all 
 this, then, let the gold-fields men who fell at the Stockade be 
 honored. They stood up, with their lives in their hands, for 
 freedom ; and in that we may well forgive the mistakes they com- 
 mitted, and tlie follies they purposed. Of the soldiers who fell, 
 their record is in the roll of the army whose traditions are a 
 history of which the race is proud. 
 
 With incredible want of prudence the authorities chose the 
 juncture, marked by the meeting of tlie 29th November, for 
 a more irritating display than usual of the so-long condemned 
 practice of " digger hunting." On the 30th November the last 
 raid of this kind in Victoria occurred, under the direction of 
 Commissioners Rede and Johnston, and the authorities by that 
 act destroyed the remaining infiuence of the friends of moral 
 force action among the diggers. The police, supported by the 
 wliole military force available, witli skiiinisliers in advance and 
 cavalry on the Hanks, formed on tlie Hat south of the Camp and 
 advanced upon the Gravel Pits, as the Bakery Hill diggings were 
 called. This cleared the swarming crowd of diggers collected 
 there, the diggers retiring as the troops advanced. At certain 
 parts of the Main road, however, the diggers made a stand, and 
 received the troops with a running fire of stones and occasional 
 gun-shots. The troops took acmw j)rison('rs and I'ctunied to C;inip, 
 and soon after that the S(jutlieni Cross Hag was again hoisted on
 
 I.AT.OR SWKARS IX IllS MEN. 
 
 99 
 
 Bakery Hill ; the diggers knelt around the flag, swore mutual 
 defence, implored the help of God, and then began to drill. New 
 leaders came to the front, as the advocates of moral force were 
 discomfited by the authorities and the more turbulent insurgents. 
 Peter Lalor, a native of Queen's County, Ireland, a son of the 
 one time member of the House of Commons for the same county, 
 was chosen " commander-in-chief " of the insurgents, and issued 
 warrants and manifestos. A fiery-spirited Italian, named Carboni 
 Raffaello, was another who then acquired prominence. He after- 
 wards wrote a quaint polyglottic book, entitled " The Eureka 
 Stockade : The Consequence of some Pirates Wanting on Quarter- 
 deck a Rebellion." We shall meet with him presently. Irwin, 
 in his communications to the BuUarat Star, says with respect to 
 this last digger-hunt, — and he speaks nearly always as an eye- 
 witness and often as an actor in the business : — 
 
 By the time that the camp authorities had retired, the men from the 
 Eureka arrived, a good many of them. Lalor among the rest, being armed. 
 A short consultation took place, all woik was suspended, and the Southern 
 Cross flag was hoisted on Bakery Hill. The popular indignation was 
 intense. A mass meeting Mas held on Bakery Hill, where Lalor, gun in 
 hand, mounted the stump and swore in his followers. The method of 
 swearing-in was by uplifting the right hand, and was very impressive as 
 taken by the hundreds who encircled their leader. Immediately after the 
 swearing-in the names were taken down, and the men formed into squads 
 for drill. The drilling was kept up with but little intermission to a late 
 hour, and was now and then renewed up to the capture of tlie Stockade. 
 As might naturally be anticipated, the Government had its emissaries 
 among the insurgents, and but little was said or done which was not soon 
 reported to the authorities. Inmiediately after the soldiers, &c. , had 
 retired to the Camp on 30th November, two or three members of the com- 
 mittee met in the committee-room at the Star hotel, and wrote a letter to 
 the delegates who had gone that day to Creswick. The letter detailed the 
 occurrences of the day, and solicited the aid of the miners of Creswick, 
 and was directed to the delegates by name " or any man on Creswick." 
 When the messenger arrived at Creswick he gave the letter to Black, and 
 he read it to a large meeting he was addressing. It was immediately 
 determined to render the required assistance, and a large body of men, 
 headed by Kennedy, started for Ballarat, taking the direct way through 
 the ranges. Kennedy was armed with a sword, and some of those who 
 accompanied him from Creswick give an extraordinary account of hoM' he 
 flourished the sword about his head and speechified to his followers during
 
 100 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 a violent thunderstorri? that happened that night. The Creswick con- 
 tingent gradually dwindled away as they had but iudiflfereut accommodation, 
 and the majority of those who still remained left for home on the evening 
 before the capture of the Stockade. 
 
 The Melbourne Herald correspondent states that the Creswick 
 men marched out with a band, or singing the song " The 
 Marseillaise." It was but a straw, but it showed how tlie current 
 of men's thoughts and feelings was flowing. 
 
 Carboni Raffaello, in his book, shows that he had had a 
 liberal education, and was gifted with a warm poetic tem- 
 perament, with considerable shrewdness of observation and 
 faculty for description. But he lacked discretion sometimes, and 
 he seemed to be always perplexed with svTspicions and mysteries, 
 besides being oddly egotistical. He is sometimes a mystery 
 himself, and, in his style, often amusingly incoherent, but his 
 narrative has color and tire and incisiveness, and will make itself 
 read. He hits off a man with a few sharp touches tliat live in 
 the mind's eye. Here is one, a portrait of Kennedy : — 
 
 Thomas Kennedy was, naturally enough, the lion of the day. A 
 thick head, bold, but l)ald, the consequence perhaps not of his dissipation, 
 but of his worry in bygone days. His merit consists in the possession of 
 the chartist slang ; hence bis cleverness in spinning a yarn, never to the 
 purpose, but blathered with long phrases and bubbling with cant. He took 
 up the cause of the diggers, not so much for the evaporation of his gaseous 
 heroism, as eternally to hammer on the unfortunate death of his countryman 
 Scobie, for the sake of " auld lang .syne." 
 
 RafTaello calls Irwin "a rattling correspondent, who helped 
 to hasten the movement fast enough."' He gives the following 
 picture of the Catholic priest : — 
 
 Father Patricius Smytli, a native of Mayo, looks some thirty-five 
 years old, and belongs to the unadulterated Irish caste, half-curled hair, not 
 abundant, atixious Bemicircular forehead, keen and fiery eyes, altogether a 
 lively interesting head. 
 
 T\iO'_B(ill(ir<it Tiiius of tlie day he calls "a- plant of cayenne 
 pepper," and gives the following extract from that joui-nal of 
 18th November, 1854, interlarded in In's pccidiar stylo with 
 remarks of liis own : — 
 
 We salute the League [but not the trio, Vern, Kenne(lj% HunifTray] 
 and tender our hopes and prayers for its prosperity [in the shape of a 
 goodly pile of luilf-crownsj. The League li.is undertaken a mighty tatk
 
 SOME OP RAPFAELLO'S PICTURES. 101 
 
 [the trio '11 shirk it though], fit only for a great people — that of changing 
 the dynastj' of the country [Great works]. The League does not exactly 
 propose, nor adopt, such a scheme, but we know what it means, the 
 principles it would inculcate, and that eventually it will resolve itself into 
 an Australian Congress [Great works ! !]. 
 
 Here is Raffaello's account of tlie Leaguers' preparation for 
 the digger-hunt of the 30th November : — 
 
 Quos Vult Perdere Dens Demenlat. — What's up? a license hunt ; old 
 game. What's to he done? Peter Lalor was on the stump, his rifle in his 
 hand, calling on volunteers to " fall in " into ranks as fast as they rushed 
 to Bakery Hill, from all quarters, with arms in their hands, just fetched 
 from their tents. Alfred, George Black's brother, was taking down in a 
 book the names of divisions in course of formation, and of their captains. 
 I went up to Lalor, and the moment he saw me, he took me by the hand 
 saying, "I want you, Signore ; tell these gentlemen (pointing to old 
 acquaintances of ours, %vho were foreigners ) that if they cannot provide 
 themselves with fire-arms, let each of them procure a piece of steel, five or 
 six inches long, atttached to a pole, and that will pierce the tyrants' 
 hearts." Peter of course spoke thus in his friendly way as usual towards 
 me. He was in earnest though. The few words of French he knows, he 
 can pronounce them tolerably well, but Peter is no scholar in modern 
 languages ; therefore he then appointed me his aide-de-camp, or better to 
 say his interpreter, and now I am proud to be his historian. Very soon 
 after this, all the diggers "fell in" in file of two abreast, and marched to 
 the Eureka. Captain Ross, of Toronto, was our standard-bearer. He 
 hoisted down the Southern Cross from the flagstaft', and headed the march. 
 Patrick Curtain, the chosen captain of the pikemen, gave me his iron pike, 
 and took my sword to head his division ; I "fell in" with John Manning, 
 who also had a pike, and all of us marched in order to the Eureka. I 
 assert as an eye-witness, that we were within one thousand in the rank 
 with all sort of arms, down to the pick and shovel. We turned by the 
 Catholic church, and went across the gully. Of this I have perfect 
 recollection : when the " Southern Cross " reached the road, leading to the 
 Eureka on the opposite hill, the file of two abreast crossing the gully, 
 extended backwards up to the hill where the Catholic church stands. I 
 took notice of the circumstance at the time. We reached the hill where 
 was my tent. How little did we know that some of the best among us 
 had reached the place of their grave ! Lalor gave the proper orders to 
 defend ourselves among the holes in case the hunt should be attempted in 
 our quarters. The red-tape was by far too cunning this time ; red-coats, 
 traps, and troopers had retired to the Ballarat Camp, and wanted a "spell." 
 We determined, however, to put an end to their accursed license-hunting, 
 mock riot-act chopping, Vandemonian shooting down our mates in Gravel- 
 pits.
 
 102 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 Yern is always ridiculed as a vain, boasting, " long-legged, 
 sky-blathering Yern." Lalor he loves as "he is the earnest, well- 
 meaning, no two-ways, nonJohn-Bullised Irishman," wherefore 
 "more power to you, Peter, old cliummy ! Smother the knaves ! 
 they breed too fast in this colony." Of the meeting on the 30th 
 November, he says Lalor administered the oath to some 500 
 armed diggers, as follows : — " We swear by the Southern Cross 
 to stand truly by each other, and fight to defend our rights and 
 liberties." Dr. Kenworthy, RafFaello seems to regard, as did 
 many more, as a go-between with the Camp authorities and the 
 diggers. He was, in fact, regarded as a spy. 
 
 As soon as the news of these doings reached Melbourne, the 
 Government sent up all the remaining available troops, with 
 men-of-warsmen, horse and foot police, four field-pieces, and a 
 number of baggage and ammunition waggons. Lieut.-Colonel 
 Yaliant, and subsequently Sir Robert Nickle, Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Forces, and Colonel Macarthur, Deputy Adjutant- 
 General, proceeded to Ballarat in command of the troops. The 
 diggei's who drilled under their commander-in-chief, meant, many 
 of them at least, nothing less than revolution and a republic. 
 Lalor had a "minister of war," named Alfred Black, who, or his 
 brother, had drawn up a Declaration of Independence. This 
 was drawn up in a store kept l)y one Shannahan ; Black, Yern, 
 M'Gill, Rafiaello, Curtin, Lessmann (a German), Kenworthy (an 
 American medical man), and othei's being present. J>lack was 
 subsequently killed while working as a quartz miner. Lalor 
 having been, to Ycrn's disgust, elected Commander-in-Chief, 
 " ordei'S of war " were issued hy liim for arms, amnnmition, and 
 impressment, and he sent out pi(juets to enforce them, and 
 prevent their being made a cover for robbery. It appears, 
 however, tliat ammunition was not abundant in tlic Stockade, 
 the foraging parties of the insurgents to tlie contraiy not- 
 withstanding. A pistol w;is jiickcd iiji in 1 lie Stockade loaded 
 with powder and quart/, jx'bbles, in lieu of hall or smaller shot, 
 showing, as may be assumed, that the diggfi's were not rich in the 
 usual m.itcrials of destruction. One of the; foragers' receipts for 
 H military levy read as follows : —
 
 INSURGENT FORAGERS AROUT. 103 
 
 Received from the Eallarat Store 1 Pistol, for the Comtee X. Hugh 
 M'Carty — Hurra for the people. Another : — 1"he Reform Lege Gamete — 4 
 Drenks, fouer chillings ; 4 Pies for fower of thee Height watch patriots. — 
 X. P. 
 
 The night watch patriots were some of the insurgents told 
 off to patrol the diggings, for now there was, de facto, civil 
 war. The Government authorities were in a fortified camp on 
 the western plateau, and the insurgents were organising and 
 fortifying on the eastern grounds. Before us lies the tattered 
 remnant of a triple receipt given by the subscribers to the firm of 
 Bradshaw and Salmon, then carrying on business in the Main 
 road, Ballarat East. It will be seen that Esmond, the gold 
 discoverer, was one of the foragers for ammunition, the time 
 being imminent when a deadly use was to be made of the 
 materials collected. Mr. Leake, from whom we receive the 
 document, and who, later, had joined Bradshaw's firm, writes : — 
 " I cannot call to mind much about the matter, only I have a 
 distinct recollection of Mr. Moran threatening to shoot me if I 
 did not 'hand over quick,' and I have very little doubt my life 
 would have been taken that night only for Esmond." The 
 " patriots" were getting stern and peremptory as the times got 
 bracing. But Esmond was not one of the most fiery of the 
 insurgent officers, and he appears to have had a memory for 
 friends as well as a sense of what was judicious. He once rescued 
 Irwin, the correspondent of the Geehmg Adveitiser, who, writing 
 of Esmond and himself in the following passage says : — • 
 
 One night, that of Friday, 1st of December, a gentleman who had 
 occasion to go down the Main road, when he came in front of the old Charlie 
 Napier hotel, found some hundred men drawn up two deep there. Passing 
 down the one side of the men, he sought to discover if he had any 
 acquaintance among them. Not having found one he passed up the other 
 side, until he arrived where the person, a lieutenant, who was in charge 
 stood. The gentleman being unknown to any of the party, was asked his 
 business there, and his account of himself not being deemed satisfactory 
 he was arrested, to be subsequently conveyed to head quarters to be dealt 
 with. It soon transpired that the captain of the detachment, with a few 
 men, was in the hotel searching for arms, and that he was momentarily 
 expected to come out. When he did come out he spoke to the prisoner, 
 who was an old and intimate friend, and, not knowing that he was under 
 arrest, asked him to go into the hotel and have a drink. The lieutenant 
 began to fidget. The explanation was soon made, the misunderstanding
 
 lot HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 being got over by the lieutenant, under a threat from the captain of having 
 him arrested, going into the hotel when he, the captain, the late prisoner, 
 and one or two more came to a l)etter understanding while drinking a few 
 glasses of champagne. 
 
 Hei'e is the triple receipt : — 
 
 SO Novr. 1854. 
 cved from Bradshaw, 
 n 12 lbs Powder, @ 0/ lb. 
 
 £3 12 to pay. 
 
 1 ri.stol flask, 7/6. 
 
 J. W. Esmond. 
 
 John C. Murnane. 
 1 Box Revolver Caps, 6/ 
 
 JNIORAN. 
 
 Comitte. 
 Murnane fell down dead one day while working at a shaft 
 on Esmond's Lead, and Moran either fell or threw himself over- 
 board when on his w^ay hence to India. 
 
 On the 1st December — says, in 1870, a Government officer who was in 
 the Camp at the time of the Stockade affair — the Government took final 
 measures to meet assault. Every Government employ^ was armed and 
 told off to liis post, and sentinels and videttcs were placed at several points. 
 The principal Iniildings of the Camp, including the present Mining Board- 
 room, in Camp street, were fortified with breastworks of fircM'ood, trusses 
 of hay, and bags of corn from the commissariat stores, and the women 
 and children were sent for security into the store, which was walled with 
 thick slabs, and accounted bullet-proof. A violent storm of rain, with 
 thunder, commenced as these arrangements were completed, and the 
 mounted police, soaked through with the rain, spent the night standing or 
 lying by their horses, armed, and liorses saddled ready for instant action. 
 At 4 a.m. on Saturday, 2nd December, the whole garrison was under 
 arms, and soon after daylight a demonstration in force was made towards 
 Bukcry Hill without ojjposition. We heard to-day that the insurgents 
 were visiting the outlying storcR and demamling uvms. Bodies of men are 
 seen drilling near the Bed Jiill. No work is now carried on throughout 
 the entire digging.s, and every phvcc of business is closed. [Taken, evidently, 
 from a diary.] A mounted trooper from Melbourne with despatches was 
 fired at near the ICureka line, where, through IJie information of spies, it is 
 known that a stockade is Ijeing erected. 
 
 To this pass had tlie gold discovery, ** digger hunting," and 
 irresponsible government brought tlie place where less than four 
 years Vjcfore tliero was nothing but pastoral silence and solitude.
 
 INSIDE TIIK STOCKADE. 105 
 
 The Eureka stockade was at first intended more as a screen 
 behind which the diggers might drill than as a fortification. It 
 was an area of about an acre, rudely enclosed witli slabs, and 
 situated at the point where the Eureka Lead took its bend by the 
 old Melbourne road, now called Eureka street. In the picture 
 published at the Ballarat Star office, near twenty years ago, the 
 middle of a line drawn from Mount Warrenheip, in the centre 
 back ground, to the chimney from which smoke is issuing on the 
 right of Sturt street, would indicate very nearly the site of the 
 Stockade. The site, as is shown on the map herewith, lay about 
 midway between what are now Stawell and Queen streets on the 
 east and west, and close to Eureka street on the south. At the 
 time of the fight the lead had not then been traced so far, but 
 the "shepherds" were there with their shallow pits, and one or 
 two claims were sinking. The Stockade included some of those 
 heles, as well as some diggers' tents, where the staflf and other 
 officers and men of the insurgent force had their quarters. 
 Pikes were forged in the Stockade, and arms and ammunition 
 had been largely collected. Several companies of riflemen and 
 pikemen were formed, and a military insurgency established. 
 The mass of the diggers did not support this armed resistance, 
 but friends, and, it is said, enemies also, dropped into the 
 Stockade at all hours of the day and night of Saturday the 2nd 
 of December. Friendly butchers brought cart-loads of beef to 
 the rendezvous, and Lalor's men lay about the fires cooking, 
 burnishing arms, or engaged in other warlike business. Lalor, 
 it is said, gave "Vinegar Hill" as the night's pass-word, but 
 neither he nor his adherents expected that the fatal action of 
 Sunday was coming, and some of his followers, incited by the 
 sinister omen of the pass-word, abandoned that night what they 
 saw was a badly organised and not very hopeful movement. 
 Fatlier Smyth and Messrs. Kennedy and George Black were in 
 the Stockade during the Saturday, and heard a project made to 
 assault the Camp, it being declared that 2000 diggers could be 
 got for the pui^pose, and the Camp easily taken. The three 
 persons just mentioned did what they could to dissuade from the 
 proposed attack on the Camp, and so left the Stockade. Mr,
 
 106 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 Budden, J.P., a Canadian, and a school-fellow of Ross, heard of 
 the approach of the troops and jDolice on the Sunday morning, 
 and hastened from his tent near tlie Stockade to advise Ross to 
 withdraw from the hopeless struggle. Challenged by the 
 insurgent sentries, Budden succeeded at length in getting within 
 the Stockade and endeavored to prevail on Ross to leave the 
 place, warning him that the Government force was approaching 
 and that resistance would be useless and fatal. Ross, however, 
 refused to desert his comrades. The firing soon began, Budden 
 escaped by precipitate flight to his tent, and Ross was fatally 
 injured. All the day, on Saturday, Lessmann was out, by 
 Lalor's orders, in quest of a liorde of vagabonds who were using 
 the name of Lalor's "minister of war" as a cover to thievish 
 raids upon storekeepers and others. Lessmann's and other 
 outposts of night videttes were off duty just before daybreak on 
 the 3rd, no attack being anticipated, but Lalor, Ross, Yern, M'Gill, 
 and other leaders were there. 
 
 We will now let the Government oflicer speak again from 
 the Government Camp. 
 
 Before daylight on the 3nl December a force, consisting of 27G men of all 
 arms, including a strong body of cavalry, mustered quietly and left camp 
 with the purpose of attacking the Stockade. At early dawn they reached 
 the neighborhood of the position sought, and the advanced files were fired 
 at by a sentinel posted within the Stockade. The order of attack was now 
 given, and the detachment of the 40th Regiment, led by Captain 'JMiomas, 
 the chief oilicer in command, niiide a (piick advance upon tlie double breast- 
 work which formed tiie stronghold of the insurgents. After several vollies 
 had been iired on both sides, the barrier of ropes, slabs, and overturned 
 carts was crossed, and the defenders driven out, or into the shallow holes 
 with which the place was spotted, and in wiiicli many were put to death 
 in the first heat of the conflict, either by bullets or liy bayonet tlnnists. 
 The foot police were first over the bai-ricade, and one, clindiing tlie flag- 
 staff under a heavy fire, secured the rebel flag. After burning all the tents 
 within the enclosure, and in the immediate vicinity, the troops returned to 
 camp, and carts were sent out for tlic dead and wounded. 'I'lie latter tluis 
 obtained immoiliate metlical aid. 'J'hey were covered witli blood, and were 
 mostly sliot in tiie Ijreast. 'J'he number of insurgents killed is estimated 
 ttt from thirty-five to forty, and many of those brouglit in wovuided after- 
 wards died. Of the troops, three privates were killed, and several 
 wounded, one of wliom died. Two oliiccrs were wounded, and one,
 
 liUKIAL OF THE DEAD. 107 
 
 Captain Wise, died. Among the arms taken in the fight were pikes of a 
 rude construction, made on the spot, and furnished with a sort of hooked 
 knife to cut tlae bridles of the cavahy. The dead were buried the same 
 day in the cemetery. The bodies of the insurgents, placed in rough coliins 
 made hui'riedly, were laid in a separate grave, the burial service being 
 perfoi'med by the clergyman to whose congregation they 1)elonged. At 
 night we were again under arms, as constant I'umours of an intended 
 attack kept us on the alert. This is exhausting work, and a severe trial, 
 especially for the military, as the men have had no rest for several nights. 
 Indeed, no one within the lines has undressed for the last four nights at 
 the very least. 
 
 4th December. — The funerals of several of those who fell at the 
 iStockade and were removed by their fi'iends, took place to-day. They 
 Avere attended by several hundred men, who marched three abreast up the 
 Main road and past the Camp, during which the garrison was under arms. 
 7 p.m. — A number of insurgents, favored by a clouded moon, crept up 
 under cover of the nearest tents beyond the palisade, and fired fiom several 
 points upon the sentinels. This caused a sudden alarm, everyone flew to 
 his post, and a general discharge took place, resulting, as was believed, 
 though erroneously as to the deaths, in the death of a woman and a child 
 in one of the tents, and in the wounding of three men on the road adjoin- 
 ing, who unfortunately happened to be passing at the time. One of these 
 was brought in from the road in front of the mess-house (now jNIining 
 Board-room), and died a few days after. 
 
 5th December. — This afternoon, to our great joy, the advance guard of 
 the relief from Melljourne, commanded by Major-General Sir Robert 
 Nickle was seen defiling from the ranges, and soon after, the whole body, 
 escorted by squadrons of cavalry, and accompanied by a seemingly endless 
 string of baggage -waggons traversed the diggings, and piled arms within 
 the lines. This force consists of 800 men, together with a large party of 
 sailors from H. M S. Electra, and four field pieces. 
 
 6th December. — Tlie district is placed under martial law, and in 
 obedience to a General Order, the inhabitants have brought in a large 
 quantity of fire-arms. 
 
 9tli December. — The General attended to-day at a tent specially 
 erected on the fiat below the Camp, to swear in special constables ; but 
 with, as I believe, one solitary exception, no one came forward to support 
 the Government, and the object failed. Nevertheless, the handful of 
 persons assembled heartily cheered for the British army. This was the 
 period of the siege of Sebastopol, the false rumor of the capture of which 
 had just arrived. 
 
 22nd December.— Captain Wise was buried tins day with military 
 honors. Since the time when his death became known, many flags 
 throughout the diggings were lowered half-mast out of respect to this
 
 108 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 officer, who had been stationed here previously, in command of the enrolled 
 pensioners, and was a general favorite with the people. 
 
 2nd January. — A soldier, who was shot in the face, died this morning. 
 All further apprehension of an outbreak having ceased, the Major-General 
 and staff, with a portion of the field train and the navy, have returned to 
 ^Melbourne, leaving about 800 men in garrison to await eventualities. Con- 
 fidence is being now generally restored. The gold-field again presents its 
 usual thronged and lively aspect, and the streets of the township are no 
 longer deserted, or traversed by grim patrols of mounted troopers. 
 
 1st April. — The prisoners taken at the Stockade, and tried in Mel- 
 bourne, were acquitted on the charge of high treason, which is considered 
 a triumpli to tlie popular cause. And thus terminated the agitation which 
 caused such loss of life and property to those prosecuting mining and 
 commercial operations on the Ballarat gold-workings. 
 
 Thus far goes tlie narrative of an intelligent eye-witness 
 within the Government Camp. He is evidently in error as to 
 the liour when shots were fired into the Camp on the night after 
 the affair at the Stockade. At 7 p.m. it w^ould be daylight. 
 The statement as to the firing upon the Government Camp on 
 the evening of the 4th is traversed altogether by one who was 
 here then and long afterwards. He says : — • 
 
 The soldiers were not fired upon, though they miglit report so to save 
 themselves. The soldiers on guard on Soldiers' Hill, being eitlier in drink 
 or strongly excited, wantonly and savagely, witliout orders and without 
 provocation, fired into the Flat. Ihcy came rushing out of tlie large tent 
 like madmen, firing and re-loading, and firing again irregularly at the 
 tents, not even a corj^oral commanding tliem. Tlicy turned round and 
 fired at me two or three shots tliough tliey saw me in a dilfcrcnt direction 
 from that wlience the insurgents are said to liave fired. 
 
 Some allowance must be made for the opinions foinied by 
 men in sudden (nncrgoncics like this when general alarm prevailed. 
 That shots were exchanged between the Flat and the Government 
 Camp appears unquestionable. 
 
 As has been seen, Uw. attack by the authorities was un- 
 expected, and tlius ])otli men of war and men of peace were 
 found witliin the Stockade, while insurgents were absent who 
 would otherwise have Ijoen present. There were over a hundred 
 armed men in the Stockade, including Lalor, the chief, and a 
 company of pikemen, and a company of musketeers, under lloss, 
 Vern, Lynch, and Esmond. James H. M'Gill, another loader,
 
 AX INSURGENT CAPTAIN's STORY. 109 
 
 liad been previously aLsent on tlie ranges with some riflemen, 
 ostensibly for the purpose of opposing tlie troops expected from 
 Melbourne. There were diggers working at tlieir claims also 
 witliin the Stockade. One of the captains under Lalor thus 
 describes the affair : — 
 
 I was on giiai'd and saw the military at the same time that the alarm 
 was given by a digger woiking on a brace hard by. They were then at 
 the point where the gully, running down from the Stockade, joins the head 
 of Specimen Gully. I called out to Vern, and Vern called Lalor. We got 
 under arms immediately, some 200 about. The first shot was fired from 
 our party, and the military answered by a volley at 100 paces distance. 
 Then tliere was a volley from the Stockade. The military sent out scouts 
 on foot, and the troopers surrounded the Stockade, the party on foot being 
 covered by tlie fire from the force posted on the high ground in the rear of 
 tlie Free Trade Iiotel. Captain Wise led the scouts on foot, wlio broke 
 into the Stockade where Lalor was, on the side fronting to Specimen Gully. 
 They got in, and the firing, and piking, and bayonetting went on, and the 
 " rebels" got into disorder and rushed into some tents and a blacksmith's 
 shop on one side of the Stockade. The troopers fired the tents, and the 
 rest of the military now came up. The sun had now risen, and about 
 twenty minutes had passed since the first shot was fired. Then two 
 soldiers appeared on the other, side with bayonets fixed. Warden Amos' 
 horse, which we had taken with the warden before, was between me and 
 them, and I fired my revolver. One fell, and tlie other drew back. I 
 then fired a second shot at the soldiers, my men in the tent cheering at the 
 time. I tlien said, " I'm off," and wheeled roimd to go out of tlie Stockade, 
 but met some troopers and retreated, and lan into a butclier's shop close 
 by. The military had now taken the Stockade, and they took away tlie 
 prisoners they had. I was in the chimney, and so escaped, as they did not 
 search. Most of our men were Irishmen . The soldiers now went off with 
 their prisoners, and the Stockade, slabs, tents, and all were on fire. 
 
 The correspondent of tlie Melbonrne Herald saw the retreat 
 of the military with their dead, wounded, and prisoners. He 
 says further : — 
 
 I was attracted by the smoke of the tents burnt by the soldiers, and there 
 a most appalling sight presented itself. Many more are said to have been 
 killed and wounded, but I myself saw eleven dead bodies of diggers lying 
 within a very small space of ground, and the earth was bespiinkled with 
 blood, and covered with the smtking mass of tents recently occupied. 
 Could the Government but have seen the awful sight presented at Ballarat 
 on this Sabbath moi'ning — the women in tears, moui'ning over their dead 
 relations, and the blood-bespattered countenances of many men in tlie
 
 110 HISTORY OF nALLARAT. 
 
 diggers' camp— it might have occurred to His Excellency that '^prevention 
 is better than cure." 
 
 M'Combie, in his "History of Victoria," gives the following 
 account of the attack on the Stockade. 
 
 On the night of the 1st December lights were observed in the tents of 
 the diggers ; and signals were repeatedly exchanged, and &hots fired at the 
 sentries, who were driven in. The officer in command found a large 
 number of insurgents oi-ganising, drilling, and equipping themselves. The 
 spies had seen their leaders telling them off in companies, and heard one of 
 the conimanders say to tlie people that those who had no other arms should 
 get an iron spike placed on a pole, as "that would find the tyrants' 
 hearts I" The officer in charge issued a public notice that no light would 
 be allowed after eight o'clock ; that no discharge of fire-arms would be 
 tolerated upon any pretence ; and that persons disobeying these orders 
 would be fired at. On the same day Mr. Commissioner Amos arrived at 
 the Camp at Ballarat, with information that the diggers were occupying 
 an entrenched camp at the Eureka, in considerable force, with the avowed 
 intention of intercepting the troops under the Major-General, then hourly 
 expected to arrive from ^lelbourne. During the whole of that day the 
 insurgents had possession of the diggings, and were busy levying contribu- 
 tions on all classes, giving the ordcis of their " miwister of war" in payment. 
 The officer in command prudently refrained from molesting any of their 
 detached parties. He was unable to attack the insurgents during the day, 
 as he could not leave a force behind to protect the Camp, and resolved upon 
 a night surprise. Circumstances favored this bold attempt. The insur- 
 gents had not contemplated any active measures on the side of the authori- 
 ties until the main body of troops and the commanding-officer had arrived. 
 It was Sunday morning, and a very great portion of them were away, and 
 those who remained had dined late, and some, no doubt, had drank deep. 
 They were surprised by the gallant commander of the Queen's troops, 
 Captain Tliomas, who resolved to seize the favorable opportmiity of 
 delivering a most effective blow against them. The insurgents were posted 
 in a very advantageous position, in a fortified camp, or rather stockade, at 
 the Eureka. It rested on a gentle eminence, and was of considerable 
 strength. The leaders were, liowever, not very deeply skilled in military 
 engineering, for it was much too large, and was not protected by proper 
 liastiona or outworks to aid tlie defenders in a general assault. Under all 
 disadvantagcH, the diggers would have repulsed the military had the attack 
 not l;een made at a time wlien it was totally unexpected, and when the 
 great body were a1>sent. 'J'lie olliccr upon wlioni the responsibility of this 
 enterprise r<!stc(l was Captain 'J'homa.s, and he planned and carried out tiie 
 wliole affair with crcdilaljlo ability and vigor. He was assisted l)y Captain 
 I'asley, R. E., who bravely advanced with the skirmishers and directed tiio 
 assault. The military were fortunate in having Mr. Commissioner Amos to
 
 m'comrie's account. Ill 
 
 act as their guide; being well acquainted with the locality, he led the 
 troops to the exact spot where the operations were to commence. The force 
 under Captain Thomas reached the ground just as the morning begun to 
 dawn. There were present 30 men of Her Majesty's force [40th], under 
 Lieiitenants Hall and Gardyne ; 70 mounted police, under Sub-Inspectors 
 Furnell, Langley, Choudey, and Lieutenant Cossack ; C5 men of the 12th 
 Regiment, under Captain Quendo [Queadc] and Lieutenant Paul ; 87 men 
 of the 40th Regiment, under Captain Wise and Lieutenants Bowder 
 [Bowdlct] and Richards ; 24 foot police, under Sub-Inspector Carter ; 
 making a total of 100 mounted and 176 foot. 
 
 When the body arrived at about 300 yards fi'om the entrenchments the 
 detachmeuts of the 12tli and 40th Regiments extended in skirmishing order; 
 the mounted force moved to the left of the position and threatened the flank 
 and rear of the insurgents. The main body now advanced boldly to the 
 attack. We have no means of ascertaining the exact number of men in 
 the Stockade, but they could not have out-numbered the Queen's force. 
 They stood to their arms manfully as soon as the alarm was sounded, and 
 when the military were at a distance of 150 yards they poured in a tolerably 
 effective fire upon them. The commanding-officer now directed the oixler 
 to fire to be sounded, and throM'ing in a steady fire on the camp in front, 
 the military advanced in unbroken order, undaunted by the continuous 
 discliarge with which the insurgents received them. As the troops were 
 likely to be severely handled, the reserves and foot police were now. brought 
 up for the struggle ; a sharp fight was kept up for some time, but, in con- 
 sequence of the ammunition becoming scarce amongst the insurgents, 
 their fire slackened, and in a few minutes the military carried the entrench- 
 ment at the point of the bayonet. The engagement lasted about twenty- 
 five minutes ; the rebel leaders fought well, Mr. Peter Lalor having been 
 wounded in the breach and left for dead in the Stockade, and several others 
 cut down at their posts. The loss to the Queen's force was considerable, 
 including Captain Wise, who, in leading his men to tlie attack, was 
 severely wounded and died in a few days afterwards ; Lieutenant Paul was 
 also severely wounded. The loss among the insurgents was variously esti- 
 mated, but there could not have been fewer than thirty killed on the 
 spot, and a great many wounded. There were 125 prisoners taken in the 
 Stockade. The commander-in-chief of the " forces of the Republic of Vic- 
 toria,"as they were styled, named Vern, a Hanoverian by birth, escaped, and 
 a reward of £500 was offered for his apprehension. Mr. Lalor, the other 
 leader, who fell within the Stockade, lost his right arm in the engagement. 
 On the Tuesday the troops under the command of the Major-General 
 arrived on Ballarat ; and they were not there a minute too soon, for a large 
 body of insurgents were in arms at Creswick. There can be no doubt, 
 however, that the victory at the Eureka had very mucli raised the spirits 
 of those Avho supported the Government, and in a corresponding degree
 
 112 HISTORY OF BALLARAt. 
 
 dispirited all connected with the insurgents, and the officer in eommaBd 
 unquestionably deserved credit. He exercised a wise discretion in attack- 
 ing them, instead of waiting until they became the aggressors. Indeed, 
 most of the colonists who were unfavorable to the authorities, and th&ir 
 system of administering the law on tlie diggings, were compelled to 
 condemn this open attempt to overthrow the Government. The Legislatire 
 Coimcil, then in session, presented an address of sympathy to his 
 Excellency, m hicli was of the following tenor : that, having been placed in 
 a painfully embarrassing position since his arrival in the colony, he was 
 entitled to tlie sympathy and support of the Legislature. Sir Charles 
 Hotham was very far from inexperienced in affairs of State importance. 
 He was particularly liappy in his reply. The firm resolve to suppress the 
 incipient revolution was softened by the readiness with which lie offered to 
 redress those grievances which the diggers had complained of. He said it 
 would be his constant endeavour to conduct the government with the 
 utmost possible temper ; he said the time for military rule had passed ; 
 but when there was an outbreak, and that caused by foreigners — men who 
 had not been suffered to remain in their own country in consequence of the 
 violence of their character — then Englishmen must sink all minor differ- 
 ences and unite to support the authorities. The Government, however, 
 fared rather differently when a direct appeal was made to tlie people. A 
 public meeting had been called by requisition, to consider the best means 
 for protecting the city during tlie crisis at the diggings. Tlie principal 
 agitators in this matter seemed to be the members of the Legislature, wJio 
 took a lai-ge share in the proceedings of this public meeting. Tlie resolu- 
 tions proposed were received with such ill-ccmcealed dissatisfaction, that, 
 after tlie Mayor had declared two of tliem to be carried, the opponents of 
 the Government interfered, and such confusion prevailed that the gentle- 
 man who piesi<led vacated the cliair, wliich was occupied by l,1r. Embling, 
 and a series of resolutions diametrically opposed to the iiroceedings of tlie 
 Executive, and demanding an immediate settlement of the differences 
 l^etween the Goveniment and the diggers, were carried with the utmost 
 enthusiasm. Mr. Frencliam, who has been already alluded to as one of 
 tlie discoverers of gold in Victoria, spoke on behalf of the diggers, and told 
 tlie people they " must go fortli with their brother diggers to conquer or 
 die." The Government demonstration having terminated in so very unsatis- 
 factoiy a manner, another meeting was convened on the ff)llo\ving day " for 
 the assertion of order and the protection of constitutional lilx'ity." It 
 took place on a large open .space of ground near St. I'aul's C'lmicli, at 
 tlie corner •)f Flinders laiu;. l-'roni 4000 to 7000 people were present, tlie 
 chair being iillod by Henry Laiiglands, Esq., one of tlie largest employers 
 of labor in Melbourne. 'J'lin speakers were Messrs. Blair, Owens, 
 Fawkner, Fulton, Frencliam, (irant, Cathie, and Embling. The resolu- 
 tions condemned the whole policy of the Goveniment, and declared that,
 
 f^libt<icM^s/ii!.^fGatSSsB>^ 
 
 
 LO 
 
 o 
 u 
 o 
 
 ?i 
 
 »- 
 < 
 
 < 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 CD
 
 m'combie's mistakes. 113 
 
 while disapproving of tlic pliysical resistance offered by the diggers, the 
 meeting could not, without betraying the interests of liberty, lend its aid 
 to the Executive until the coercive measures they were attempting to 
 introduce should be abandoned. The result of this meeting had very con- 
 siderable weight with the Executive, and the same afternoon a Government 
 Oazette extraordinary appeared, in which was a proclamation revoking 
 martial law on Ballarat. 
 
 The repulse at the Stockade did not depress the diggers, and a body 
 of about 1000 armed men was, at this time, collected together on the Cres- 
 wick road. It was very fortunate that Sir Robert Nickle, who had now 
 assumed the command, was an old and experienced officer. He imme- 
 diately restrained the violence of the police and military, and held several 
 . parleys with the disaffected diggers, in which he strongly urged them to 
 return to their duty. 
 
 Some literal errors in M'Conibie's narrative we have corrected 
 in brackets. His phrase " 30 men of Her Majesty's force " 
 should be 30 men of the mounted 40th. They were picked men 
 of that regiment. Raffiiello, a little further on, calls them " Indian 
 dragoons." M'Combie is wrong also as to the diggers not being 
 depressed by the affair at the Stockade. The action of Sunday 
 entirely demolished the schemes of the insurgents. There was 
 no such gathering either on the Creswick road as that mentioned 
 by M'Combie. Archdeacon Stretch, of the English Church, bore 
 witness to the peaceable aspect of affairs at Creswick. The 
 Geelong Advertiser, of the 11th December, states that the Arch- 
 deacon had l)een on "a conciliatory tour in the district, and 
 reports the 25,000 diggers of Creswick Creek to be under tlie 
 physical charge of tliree policemen." The three constables were 
 enough, and no clearer evidence seems necessary to show how 
 little disposed the general population there was to armed 
 resistance to the authorities. 
 
 Here is Raflaello's description of the attack on the 
 Stockade : — 
 
 Remember this Sabbath Day (3rd December) to Keep it Hohj.—l 
 awoke. Sunday morning. It was full dawn, not daylight. A discharge 
 of musketi-y — then a round from the bugle — the command " forward " — 
 and another discharge of musketry was sharply kept on by the red-coats 
 (some 300 strong) advancing on the gully west of the Stockade, for a 
 couple of minutes. The shots wliizzed by my tent. I jumped out 
 off the stretcher and rushed to my chimney facing the Stockade. The
 
 114 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 forces within could not muster above 150 diggers. The shepherd's 
 holes inside the lower part of the Stockade had been turned into rifle- 
 pits, and wei-e now occupied by Californians of the I.C. Rangers' Brigade, 
 some twenty or thirty in all, who had kept watch at the " outposts" 
 during the night. Ross and his division northward, Thonen and his 
 division southward, and both in front of the gully, under cover of the slabs, 
 answered with such a smart fire, that the military who were now fully 
 within range, did unmistakably appear to me to swerve from their ground ; 
 anyhow the command " forward" from Sergeant Harris was put a stop to. 
 Here a lad was really courageous with his bugle. He took up boldly his 
 stand to the left of the gully and in front : the red-coats "fell in" in their 
 ranks to the right of this lad. The wounded on the groixnd behind must 
 have numbered a dozen. Another scene was going on east of the Stockade. 
 Vem floundered across the Stockade eastward, and 1 lost sight of him. 
 Curtahi whilst making coolly for the holes, appeared to me to give direc- 
 tions to shoot at Vern ; but a rush was instantly made in the same direction 
 (Vern's) and a whole pack cut for Warrenheip. There was, liowever, a 
 brave American officer, who had the conunand of the rifle-pit men ; he 
 fought like a tiger ; was shot in his thigh at the very onset, and yet, though 
 hopping all the while, stuck to Captain Ross like a man. Should this 
 notice be the means to ascertain liis name, it should be written down in 
 the margin at once. The dragoons from south, the troopers from north, 
 were trotting in full speed towards tlie Stockade. Peter Lalor was now 
 on the top of the first logged-up hole within the Stockade, and by his 
 decided gestures pointed to the men to retire among the holes. He was 
 shot down in his left shoulder at this identical moment ; it was a chance 
 shot, I recollect it well. A full discharge of musketry from the military 
 now mowed down all who had their heads above the barricades. Ross was 
 shot in the groin. Another shot struck "J'honen exactly in the mouth, and 
 felled him on the spot. Those who suffered the most were the score of 
 pikemen, who stood their ground from the time the whole division had 
 been posted at the top, facing tlie Moll)()urnc road from Ballai'at, in double 
 file under tlie slabs, to stick the cavalry with their pikes. The old com- 
 mand, "Cliargcl" was distinctly heard, and the red-coats rushed with 
 fixed bayonets to storm tlie Stockade. A few cuts, kicks, and pulling 
 down, and the job was done too quickly for their wonted ardor, for they 
 actually thrust their Ijayonets on the body of the dead and wounded 
 strewed about on tlie ground. A wild " htniali !" ))uist out, mid the 
 " Soutliern CjVohh" was torn down, I siiould say, among theii- hmgiiter, 
 Hucli as if it liad l»eena prize from a May-pole. Of the armed diggers, some 
 made off the best way tliey couhl, others surrcndeied themselves prisoners 
 and were collected in groiijjs and marched down tlic gully. The Indian 
 dragoons, sword in haml, rille-pistols cocked, took cliarge of them all, and 
 brought tliciii in chains to the loi:k-up. 'I'lic red-coats were now (ird( nil 
 to " falljii ;" lln'ir bloody wuik was over, and were marched off', dragging
 
 TRAGIC SCENES. 115 
 
 with them the " Soutlieni Cross." Their dead, as far as I did see, were 
 four, and a dozen wounded, inchiding Captain Wise, the identical one, I 
 think whom I speak of in relating the events of Tuesday evening, Novem- 
 ber 28. Dead and wounded had been fetched up in carts, waiting on the 
 road, and all red-things hastened to Ballarat. I hastened, and what a 
 horrible sight ! Old acquaintances crippled with shots, the gore protruding 
 from the bayonet wounds, thair clothes and ilesh ])unung all the while. 
 Poor Thonen had his mouth literally choked with l)ullets ; my neighbor 
 and mate Teddy More, stretched on the ground, both his tliighs sliot, 
 asked me for a drop of water. Peter Lalor, who had been concealed under 
 a heap of slabs, was in the agony of death, a stream of blood from under 
 tlie slabs heavily forcing its way down liill. 
 
 Raffaello piles up too much agony here. He is riglitin wounding 
 liis hero in tlie left arm, M'Combie Ijeing in error in saying Lalor 
 lost the right arm. A correspondent of the Gcelong Advertiser, 
 not Irwin, gives the following tragic picture of what he saw^ : — 
 
 The first thing that I saw was a number of diggers enclosed in a sort 
 of hollow square, many of them were wounded, the blood dripping from 
 them as they walked ; some were walking lame, pricked on by tlie bayonets 
 of the soldiers bringing up the rear. 'Jlie soldiers were much excited, and 
 the troopers madly so, flourishing their sM'ords, and shouting out — " We 
 have waked up Joe 1" and others replied, " And sent Joe to sleep again !" 
 The diggers' Standard was carried by in tiiiimpli to the Camp, waved 
 about in the air, then pitched from one to another, thrown down and 
 trampled on. The scene was awful — twos and tlu'ees carried together, 
 
 and all felt stupefied. I went with R to the barricade, the tents all 
 
 around Avere in a blaze ; I was about to go inside, when a cry was raised 
 that the troopers weie coming again. 1'hey did come witli carts to take 
 
 away the bodies. I counted fifteen dead, one G , a fine well-educated 
 
 man, and a great favorite. I recognised two others, but the spectacle was 
 so ghastly tliat I feel a loathing at the remembrance. They all lay in a 
 small space, with their faces upwards, looking like lead ; sexcral of them 
 were still heaving, and at every rise of their breasts, the ))lood spouted out 
 of their woimds, or just bubbled out and trickled away. One man, a 
 stout-chested fine fellow, apparently about forty years old, lay with a pike 
 beside him ; he had three contusions in the head, three strokes across the 
 brow, a bayonet wound in the throat under the ear, and other wounds in 
 the body — I counted fifteen wounds in that single carcase. Some were 
 bringing handkerchiefs, others bed furniture, and matting to cover up the 
 faces of the dead. God ! sir, it was a sight for a Sa,bbath morn that, I 
 humbly implore Heaven, may never be seen again. Poor women crying 
 for absent husbands, and children frightened into qiiietness. I, sir, write 
 disinterestedly, and I hope my feelings arose from a true principle ; but 
 when I looked at that scene, my soul revolted at sucli means being so
 
 116 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 cruelly used by a Government to sustain the law. A little terrier sat on 
 the breast of the man I spoke of, and kept up a continuous howl ; it was 
 removed, but always returned to the same spot ; and when his master's 
 body was huddled with the other corpses, into the cart, the little dog 
 jumped in after him, and lying again on his dead master's breast, began 
 
 howling again. ■ was dead there also, and , who escaped, had 
 
 said, that when he offered his sword, he was shot in the side by a trooper, 
 as he was lying on the ground wounded. He expired almost immediately. 
 Another was lying dead just inside the barricade, where he seemed to have 
 crawled. Some of the bodies might have been removed — I counted fifteen. 
 A poor woman and her cliildren were standing outside a tent ; she said 
 that the troopers had surrounded tlie tent, and pierced it with their 
 swords. She, her husband, and her children, were ordered out by the 
 troopers, and were inspected in "their night-clothes outside, whilst the 
 troopers searched the tent. Mr. Hasleham was roused from sleep by a 
 volley of bullets fired througli his tent ; he rushed out, and was shot down 
 l)y a trooper, and handcufl'ed. Ho lay there bleeding fi'om a wound in his 
 breast, until his friends sent for a blacksmith, who forced off the handcuffs 
 with a hammer and cold chisel. When I last heard of Mr. Hasleham, a 
 surgeon was attending him, and probing for the ball. 
 
 Shanahan, in whose store the dream of anti-British freedom 
 ■was sketched out by tlie red-hot insurgents of the tiery period 
 between the burning of Bentley's hotel and the military attack of 
 the 3rd December, tells the following story : — 
 
 The diggers were granted no redress, and tlieir complaints gradually 
 grew louder until a climax was reached in October, when the murder was 
 committed (Scobie's) near Bentley's hotel. I was at ]>entley's just 
 before it was burnt, lientlcy I'an out and got off, or the diggers would 
 have lynched liim. I know who set fire to the hotel. The poor 
 fellow is dead now, and I am not going to mention his name. On the 
 Saturday afternoon before the attack on the Stockade a deputation, 
 consisting of Captain Ross, Black, Manning, Hayes, Curtain, and myself, 
 and about five others, went up to the Camp to see if any redress would be 
 given to the diggers. Tliose in charge at the Camp promised everything 
 to tlie deputation, who then left. On the way back to the ]*iUreka we met 
 the Creswick contingent of diggers, several hundred strong, and when they 
 were told that a fair settlement had been promised, they laughed at it, and 
 aaid the promises were only given to catch the diggers in a trap. Their 
 words came true. On Saturday night there was a large number of diggers 
 in the Stockade. I kept a store within the Stockade. Lalor was m 
 charge, but largo iiumbcra of the men were constantly going out of the 
 Stockade, and as the majority got drujik, they never came back. Esmond, 
 like a gentleman as he was, got powder and shot from a shop down the 
 Main Road, and paid for it out of iiis own pocket. The 500 or UOO from
 
 TEDDY SIIANAHAN's STORY. 117 
 
 Creswick had nothing to eat, and they, too, went down the Main Road that 
 night. The men constantly going out — it was dry work in the Stockade — 
 [now some long thirsty months away from the days of ten gallon grog kegs 
 at £1 a gallon] — and Lalor seeing that none would be left if tilings went on, 
 he gave orders to shoot any man who left. Vern cleared out immediately, 
 and order was given to shoot him, but he got away. It was about two or 
 three o'clock on Sunday morning when Vern went away. Those in the 
 Stockade had anything but a pleasant time of it, as the accommodation 
 was not sufficient even for the small number of men that remained. Any- 
 way, after the promises received in the afternoon from the Commissioners, 
 it was thought that there was no danger, and the diggers did not know 
 whether to go on with the armed resistance or stop. About three o'clock 
 in the morning thei'e wei'e about 150 pikemen inside the Stockade, and 
 some others. M'Cullagh and Glenn, two diggers, were seen prowling about 
 the Stockade, and they were taken jirisoners as spies. They roared for 
 their liberty, and were let go, it being too much trouble to keep tliem. 
 My wife and one or two other women were in the Stockade, and I was in 
 bed, when I heard shots, crack, ci'ack, in quick succession. Got up and 
 seized my gun, and went to the door. The soldiers were about a hundred 
 yards away, and I could see some of our poor fellows lying dead, nine 
 being killed by the first volley. The diggers were up, and a lot of them 
 had evidently made up their minds to figlit to the death. When Captain 
 Wise and his regiment saw that the diggers were awake and meant resis- 
 tance, he sang out, " Fortieth ! are you going to retreat?" I am sure he 
 said that. Orders had been given to pick otf the leaders of the soldiers, 
 and Captain Wise was shortly afterwards shot. The shooting on both 
 sides then went on, and it was only the bags of flour that kept my wife 
 and me from being shot. A lot of the diggers commenced to run away, 
 and after the shooting was done I saw Ned Flynn run into an old chimnej', 
 and a soldier ran up to him and stuck him in the neck with a bayonet. 
 Everyone they caught they slaughtered. It was not in the Stockade that 
 they killed the majority of the diggers, but in the running away. I took 
 refuge in an outhouse, and the troopers and soldiers did not see me. They 
 commenced setting fire to every tent on the ground, using a pot of burning 
 tar. Our tent was set on fire, but my wife put it out before it m as all 
 burnt. 
 
 Mrs. Shanahan was much interested at this part of her 
 husband's narrative, and took up the story herself, saying : — 
 
 I heard the firing first. ]\Iy husband was not long gone to bed, 
 and I pulled him out and told him the firing was on. He got up, and, 
 said I to liim, take out your gun. Tlicre is the little gun (pointing to an 
 ancient fire arm against the wall). He went out, and must have hid him- 
 self in a small outhouse. There was a knock at our tent door, and a 
 trooper and a soldier came in. " Shoot that woman," said the trooper,
 
 118 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Tlic foot solilicr saiil, " .Spare the woman," and the trooper Kiiil, "Well, 
 get out of this, the place is going to be burnt down." They set fire to the 
 place, but before it M'as much burnt I managed to put it out. 
 
 " The soldiers did not staj' long," continued Shanahan, " and galloped 
 away at once. I went out and had a look i-ound. [The cautiously valiant 
 man of big words yonder at the non- military camp in the far off Golden 
 Point days !] There were dead bodies here and there. I would never like 
 to see such a sight again. The poor fellows who had fought for their 
 liberty I If all the people saw what I saw, there would soon be a grand 
 monument up to those poor fellows. [The old man, say the interviewers, 
 was here much moved.] We found Peter Lalor down a hole with his arm 
 broken. We got him out, and he was taken away on Father Smyth's horse. 
 I counted twenty-two dead. The pikemen suffered most." 
 
 Mr. R. Lorimer, who was boarding at Skarrett's Victoria 
 Restaurant, near the Stockade, in a paper he gives to us, tells 
 how Mrs. Skarrett, by drawing a revolver from her bosom and 
 threatening to shoot, saved her horse from being carried off on 
 the Satui'day morning by three men who claimed to be sent by 
 the " commander in chief." He then narrates what he saw and 
 heard on the Sunday morning : — 
 
 On the morning of the 3rd of December, immediately before daybreak, 
 I was awoke by the sound of a bugle. My mate, Tom Green, a rifleman, 
 who had been in active service in India, under Lord Gough, was sleeping on 
 the table beside me. He said, "Ah ! that sound is only too well known 
 to me ; the military are there, the bugle call means ' extend into skirmish- 
 ing order.'" Immediately afterwards a solitary shot was fired. Another 
 bugle call was given, and rapid firing was heard. We were all soon out of 
 bed, or rather off tiic tables — we all slept on the tables. 'J'om (4rcen, with 
 rifle in hand, guarded the back door, and I, with rifle in hand, mounted on 
 the frame work of the canvas structure, looked out of the opening over the 
 door and guarded the front. The M'omcn and children were all out of their 
 beds, and were lying flat on the floor. By this time the firing was rapid 
 and general, 'i'lic bullets were wliizzing about like mosquitoes, and at 
 times were ratlicr near to be pleasant. Still, only two struck the tent. 
 When the fight was going on, I s;iw Mr. Gaynor and two others hurrying 
 down the luircka lead v ith ret«r Lalor. They lifted iiim up and phiced 
 him inside of a i)i!e of slabs, which was stacked immediately opposite to my 
 " look-out opening. " Sliortiy after l''ather Smytlic, mounted on his grey 
 horse, rode up to the pile and spoke to Mr. Lalor. I conjectured that ho 
 was wounded. The stores and tents in tlic Stockade were then burning. 
 The bugle had sounded the " general assembly," and tiic soldiers were pre- 
 paring to niiirch back to the Camp, taking with them in the ambulance 
 carta their dead and wounded, \\ hen I f^w thorn clear away, I went out
 
 LORIMEU'S NAURATIVE. 119 
 
 with my companions and made for the pile of shi1)s. One of tlie boarders 
 came with us in his drawers and night shirt, and had a pair of slippers on 
 his feet. A trooper came galloping down towards us. We retired again 
 to the tent, but our half dressed friend stood. The trooper stopped in 
 front of him, raised his sword over his head, and called out, "Oh ! you 
 
 b b , you was one of tliem. C'ome along with me, and if 
 
 you look back I will cut you down." In this state, half di'cssed as he was, 
 he was driven before the trooper to tlie logs in the Camp reserve. We 
 then made again for the pile of slaljs. We climbed up and spoke to Lalor, 
 who said, "For God's sake, boys, go and leave me." I replied, " If you 
 wish to escape, now is your time ; the soldiers are gone, and the troopers 
 have cleared away also." "Down with the pile of slabs, boys." The 
 woi'k was done in a few seconds. Taking Lalor's coloured handkerchief, 
 we bound it tightly over the top wound, making it a very good ligature, 
 and giving him in charge of Billy Smythe, or Smith, to take to some place 
 of safety, we bid him good-bye. Our half-naked friend was liberated in 
 about a week after. Mrs. Skarrat, and one or two others, proved that he 
 was in bed at the time of the riot ; but the trooper persisted that he was 
 "one of them — he knew him too well." "New Zealand Jamie," or 
 James Powell, occupied the same cell with him. Powell was very badly 
 wounded, and his wounds got no attention from the authorities. Hundreds 
 of maggots were crawling in and out of the festering sores, which were 
 disgusting to behold ; but the puppets of the Camp had no pity. Death 
 put an end to his misery and sufTering, and his body now rests in the Old 
 Cemetery with the other victims of the misgovernment of that day. All 
 honour to the brave fellows who fell, however misguided they may have 
 been. Gaynor, who placed Lalor in the pile of slabs, is now a respectable 
 farmer at Ross's Creek ; but of the others who removed him from the slab 
 pile I know nothing, save and except myself. 
 
 Mr. James M'Dowall writes : — 
 This muster obstructed business of every description. Plunder and 
 daylight robberies were very prevalent for a time. Stores robbed, and the 
 contents carted into the Stockade, surrounded by guns and old rusty 
 bayonets, the storekeepers not daring to say — what doest thou. A short 
 time prior to this date I had gone into business in the timber trade. 
 Finding that one of my valuable horses had been taken from one of my 
 men when on his way home with a load of timber, I marched straight to 
 the Stockade, and had an interview with the Commander in Chief, Frederick 
 Vern. I endeavoured to regain possession of my horse, but without 
 success. The Commander informed me that his men should require horses ; 
 but pressing my claim still further, I secured a written guarantee that 
 should any damage be done to the horse, it should be made good. This 
 document described the horse correctly, and was signed — A. A. Black, 
 Secretary of W^r. By order of the Commauj^or in Chief, Frederick
 
 120 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 Vern, On the following daj-, after the battle was over, the horse was 
 found with a very severe wound on his stern, thereby proving that he and 
 his rider (if any) were clearing out while the battle was raging. Soon after 
 that date the government sent up a Commission of Enquiry, and advertise- 
 ments appeared, inviting anyone who had suffered any loss to present their 
 claims. I, amongst others, attended, gave evidence, and presented my 
 written guarantee, which was looked on as a great curiosity. The Com- 
 mission impounded the document, but never paid one penny, whilst some 
 others were paid handsomely for their losses, or supposed losses. On my 
 return from the Stockade I paid a visit to the Commissioners' Camp, and 
 demanded protection from the authorities, but was told that the proper 
 time had not arrived. When looking over this Camp, according to the 
 description given by me before the Commission, a ring being formed round 
 the Camp and guarded by the police, the authorities were concealed behind 
 a fortification made of bales of hay and other horse feed in bags, and I 
 was only allowed to speak to the said authorities through a small space near 
 to the roof of a verandah of the house wherein they were fortified. The 
 following day presented a sad spectacle on the same spot, where the wounded 
 and dying were congregated, and were under the hands of the medical men. 
 
 Mr. Arthur Croft, an old digger, who arrived in Ballarat 
 early in No^■enlbcr, 18.52, as one of a party of seven, writes as 
 follows : — " AVe paid £84 to bring us up, a dray with only one 
 horse in the shafts." An incredibly higli price to pay for the 
 luxury of " liolding on to a rope going down hill to keep the dray 
 from going too f;ust," and then having to submit to being bogged 
 and capsized, witli accompanying smashes of " nearly all our 
 cooking materials," etc. The old digger's next experience was 
 witli liis mates sinking a shallow hole at Little Bendigo, where 
 they got no gold, for the diggers in tlie adjoining hole advised 
 them to drive away from the gold, whilst the advisers " were 
 taking out the gold all the time — artful old dogs." Other failures 
 caused the party to break up, and our friend says his brother 
 took tlie TJalligiioy liotcl in the lilack ]iill flat, "where a 
 J'Vccmasons' lodge was hrld." Tlie lodge was at the Bal- 
 laguj hotel. !RIeanwhil(^ Croft was in a claim on the Gravel 
 Pits, and while at tlie windlass one day " a lady stranger came 
 up to me and asked how it was looking ; so I told lier. We 
 talked together for some time, and she explained the mode of 
 digging in California. Wc;!!, the mi'iTs time below was up, and 
 she gave me a hand at th(; windlass, and when the men came up
 
 ■ OTICE ?? 
 
 Recent eventis at the Mines at 
 Ballaarat render it iieeeiisapy for 
 all trui'^ HuhJ^eetH of the Qneen, and 
 all iiitning:eri$ wh€> have reeelved 
 hoj^pitality and protection under 
 Her ttatin to assist in preserving 
 
 Social Order 
 
 Al^tt 
 
 Maintaiiiiiig the Snpromacy of the Law. 
 
 The question new agitated by the disaffeeted i» not v^hcther sm enact> 
 ment cao be amended or oni^t to be repealed, but whether the Law is, or 
 Is uot, to be administered in tlie name of Heb Majestt. Anarehy and 
 iMfufaoion must ensue unless those who eling to the Institutions and the soil of 
 their adopted Cauntrj step prominentlj forward. 
 
 His Excellency relies upoa the loyalty nnd sound feeling of the Colooicto. 
 
 411 faithAil subjects, and all strangers who have had equal rights extended te them. 
 »»« therefore callea «pon to 
 
 EXROL. THElII§ii:L.TEIi 
 
 places as maj be appointed b>' the Civic At 
 le Magistrates in the several Towns of the < 
 
 CHAii. HOTHAM. 
 
 and be prepared to assemble at sdch places as maj be appointed b>' the Civic Anthoriti M 
 In Melbourne and Geelong, and hy the Magistrates in the several Tovrns of the Coloay. 
 
 LTHctjTi oas miitBi. oovnmniT raanK. »iCito>:!u.?-
 
 nfoncE! 
 
 (iut».R!%HS9iT Camp. B/iLL«itAT, liiK(, Sao, 1864. 
 
 n»r Mi^Mt/V Forcrs wcrv Ibia Morning flred upon bj « large body «r r>il-diip<Me<l 
 penooB of varioufl nnticns, «rbo bad eiitrrnrhvd thrDi«eivre in a Ntorkad* «n the 
 Burrka. and some Officer* and Mm killed or waundrd. 
 
 Srveraf of the rioter* have ]>iiid the pt'naitjr of Ibt^r crime, and a large number are 
 io Custody. 
 
 All weUHli8;>08«d persons are earuectly requeoted to return t» thtir ttrdinary tiertu. 
 psitt«)Ki, and to abstatitj^om nfrmbiing in lm-g» gr0upt, and e^ery protection will be 
 i*fk*v4*^ to thcni bv the Autboritie*. 
 
 Re«iDEIVT i'OUMIK^IONEM 
 
 COD SAVE THE QUEEN 
 
 Iff 
 
 ■ * • 
 
 PRIHTO* »^i irHK"TIMt:S' OlfnCE, B«KF.HY IIIH, B«LL«iiiAT.
 
 ARTHUR croft's FORTUNES. 121 
 
 sho Avcnt away, Ijut left a pound to spend amongst us. She was 
 tlie renowned Lola IMontes, the splendid dancer and man-killer — ■ 
 I mean for her beauty. So we named the claim the Lola Montes, 
 and wrote it in charcoal on the canvas of the tent. The very day 
 after that she horsewhipped Seekamp, the editor of the paper at 
 that time." After this adventure, our hero turns up " in the 
 Township," where he sold his share for £10, and "the very next 
 day they shared about £10 a man, and upwards for several 
 months afterwards — in all about £200 a man," The narrative is 
 incoherent as to dates and other things, but the consummation 
 in the shape of " £200 a man" is intelligible. After that, this not 
 very lucky digger opened the "Blue and White Flag" store, 
 close to where the diggers subsequently built their Stockade. On 
 the fatal Sunday morning he ventured into the Stockade, when 
 the little battle was all over, having first hoisted the blue and 
 white flag half-mast high. " The poor fellows lay covered with 
 bullet wounds. There was a little dog close to one of them, and 
 he would not allow anyone to touch him." Whether the " him" 
 refers to the dog " or one of them," we do not know, so we will 
 say, in the words of the old digger, "no more on that miserable 
 aftair — it was all brought about regarding the 30s. license." The 
 narrator, after passing through a very hazy thereafter, emerges 
 in a few years upon the Corner. " Another spec," he senten- 
 tiously proceeds. " Tried sharebroking. Went as clerk to one 
 of them. Regarding the inse of shares, the greatest took place in 
 a claim called Waterloo. They were worth £70 in the morning, 
 and went up to £500 or more before the day was out. I was 
 making sale notes out all the time for Mr. Croyle, the broker." 
 Fortune never smiled benignly upon this Protean adventurer, and 
 his modesty sums up all the subsequent course, so far, of his 
 pilgrimage here in the words — " I am still li\'ing in Ballarat." 
 He is one of the " Old Identities," or " Old Colonists," mentioned 
 elsewhere, and we may well take our leave of him in wishing him 
 a happy issue out of all his troubles. 
 
 The fortunes of the Ballarat branch of the Bank of Victoria 
 during the troubles between the diggers and the authorities, that 
 is just as the troubles were aljout to culminate at the Stockade,
 
 122 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 tlirow some light on tlie state of things at that time. In tlie 
 October of 1 854, just before the collision at the Stockade, the 
 bank was an " iron pot," that is, a frame of wood lined and 
 covered with galvanised iron. It was on the south side of Sturt 
 street, just east of the Survey office of that time, and about 150 
 feet west of the corner of Doveton street. One Saturday, about 
 noon, tliree or four armed bushrangers walked into the bank, tied 
 and gagged John Buckley, the manager, and the accountant, one 
 Marshall, took notes and cash to the amount of =£18,000, and 
 vanished. In the following November a new manager was sent 
 up, Mr. "William Robertson, who has been here ever since. He 
 has lately surrendered his charge, but till then (close of 1886) 
 was the oldest banker in Ballarat. The iron pot Avas abandoned 
 after the rol >bery, and a stone building, set up where the present 
 bank is in Lydiard street, was purchased by the bank proprietary. 
 It was a poor ailair, though the first stone liouse erected in Bal- 
 larat, and may, in part, now be seen doing service as a shabby 
 little one-story cottage in Holmes street, two doors from Grenville 
 College. Still it was, for 1854, a great architectural achieve- 
 ment, and at one time attracted military notice. This was tlie 
 week preceding the attack upon the insurgent diggers at the 
 Stockade. At that time patrols of troopers and mounted infantry 
 of the 40th Begimcnt were told ofl" to draw a cordon round the 
 Camp, and so great was the apprehension that masses of diggers 
 would come into Ballarat from Creswick, Mount Alexander, and 
 other places, that the military patrols prohibited any persons 
 not resident within the streets adjacent to the Camp from passing 
 along those thoroughfares. Fear had fallen upon all sides, and 
 one day a >)anker seriously suggested to Mr. Robertson the pro- 
 priety of their concealing their treasures somewhere in the bush. 
 He rejected this advice, and though the banks took their treasure 
 chests to the Camp every evening, he also rejected advice from the 
 Camp authorities to abandon the bank and come into Camp till 
 tin- trouble was over. Now, as (he Imnk was f)f stone, and the 
 Camp of canvas or wood, Mr. J{obertson waited upon Cajitain 
 Thomas, the olliix'r in command, and rej)resented to him the possi- 
 bility of the diggers seizing an empty stone building thus facing the
 
 BANK OF VICTORIA FORTIFIED. 123 
 
 Camp, and making it a point (Vappin for attack. Tlie captain saw 
 the danger, and instead of getting the banker to desei't his bank, 
 sent men to fortify it. Tliis was a few days before tlie Stockade 
 affair, and until the fatal Sunday was over, all business at the 
 bank was suspended. The doors and windows were boarded over 
 thickly, and bags of chaff, bran, hay, sand, or what not, were 
 heaped up behind the boards to make the place bullet proof. 
 Thirty-six civilians from the Camp, armed with muskets, were 
 sent over to the bank every night. They were divided into three 
 squads, officered by Commissioners Webster, Johnstone, and 
 another, and anxious watch was kept up at a sky light at the 
 rear, and commanding the then near bush, so that the approach 
 of the expected insurgent reinforcements that way might be 
 detected in time. At dawn of Sunday, the 3rd December, a 
 trooper came from the Camp to the bank garrison to put them on 
 their guard, as something was going to happen. Soon after that 
 the discharge of fire arms in the distance was heard, and in a 
 short time another trooper came to the bank to say all the trouble 
 was over, and the garrison could sally forth in safety or stand at 
 ease within the fort. Mr. Robertson says he and others went 
 out, and he saw the military and troopers returning into Camp 
 with from a hundred to a hundred and fifty prisoners, and dying 
 Captain Wise borne by soldiers on a litter into Camp. 
 
 With regard to the attack on the Stockade, the author has a 
 letter signed " John Neill, late of the 40th Regiment," and dated 
 from Devil's Gully on the 7th of February, 1870. Neill thus 
 describes the approach of the troops and what followed, his 
 grammar only being amended and redundant matter omitted : — 
 As a military man, and one who took a most prominent part in all the 
 military movements of that day, I beg leave to offer a remark upon the 
 statement made by the Government officer of the Camp. The small force 
 consisted of detachments of the 12th and -lOth Regiments, and a few 
 troopers and foot police, the whole under the command of Captains Thomas 
 and Wise, and a Lieutenant of the ]2th — I forget his name. The order to 
 fall-in and be silent was given, and when Captain Thomas had spoken a few 
 words we were put in motion, led by Captain Wise. The party had not 
 advanced three hundred yards before we were seen by the rebel sentry, who 
 fired, not at our party, but to warn his party in the Stockade. He was on 
 Black Hill. Captain Thomas turned his head in the direction of the shot,
 
 124 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 and said — " We are seen. Forward, and steady men ! Don't fire ; let the 
 insu-gents fire first. You wait for the sound of the bugle." [More 
 credible this than Teddy Shanahan's version.] When M'ithin a short dis- 
 tance of the Stockade, the insurgents fired. Captain Wise fell, wounded 
 mortally. The same volley wounded the lieutenant of the l'2th, already 
 spoken of, and three of his men ; two killed, one wounded of the 
 40th— Privates Michael Roony, Joseph Wall, killed ; William Juniper, 
 badly wounded. The Camp officer says the police were the first to enter 
 the Stockade. He is wrong. There was not one j)oliceman killed or 
 wounded during the whole affair. When Captain Wise fell the men 
 cheered, and were over in the Stockade in a second, and then bayonet and 
 pike went to work. The diggers fought well and fierce, not a word spoken 
 on either side until all was over. The blacksmith who made the pikes was 
 killed by Lieut. Richards, 40th R,egiment. Honor to his name : he fought 
 well and died gloriously. It was rumored that at that time the police were 
 cruel to the Mounded and prisoners. No such thing. The police did 
 nothing but their duty, and they did it well for men that were not accus- 
 tomed to scenes of blood or violence. To my knowledge there was only 
 one wounded man despatched, and he kept swinging his pike about his 
 head as he sat on the ground. His two legs were broken, and he had a 
 musket ball in his body. He could not live, and it was best to despatch 
 him. His name was O'Neill, a native of Kilkenny, Ireland. I heard this 
 statement from a sergeant of police, and I know it was correct. 
 
 It is but just that it should be stated that, in reply to 
 RafFaello's statement tliat Kennedy took up the cause of the 
 diggers out of mere regard for Scobie, Kennedy avers, in a letter 
 in the Dallarat Star of the 22nd December, 1856, addressed to 
 llaffaello : — 
 
 If sulTering and loss be a proof that I have something jnorc than talking 
 heroism, or a prejudicial love for my country or countrymen, lam the man 
 that can give that proof. Last year the same Thomas Kennedy sacrificed 
 £1800 for the cause of tlic diggers alone ; but that is not all. I have some- 
 times wrought ten hours a day for three days running on bread and water 
 on account of these rows. 
 
 Kennedy generally defends himself in liis letters against 
 RafFaello's criticisms, and says, as to the license-burning meeting, 
 tliat he refused to join that movement unless 4000 came forward 
 to join th(! League. He tlien .says : — 
 
 Hut, R.ipliacllo, I well remember on that day tliat wlicn you came for- 
 ward and addressed the public (to use your own phraseology towards other 
 people in liagn fifl), " such suicidal rant" was used l)y you that day that I 
 was compelled to take you by the arm and conduct you from the front of
 
 KENNEDY AND RAFFAELLO, 125 
 
 the platform to nearly the middle of it, and I believe from that moment your 
 Italian blood was aroused, and in some measure interprets some part of 
 your work. 
 
 Most people who knew Raffaello will be ready to say tliat 
 Kennedy's story is not very improbable. 
 
 Raffaello speaks in fierce language of his treatment in the 
 " lousy logs." He was taken with the other State prisoners to 
 Melbourne : — 
 
 On passing through tlie Eureka I got a glance of my snug little tent, 
 where I had passed so many happy hours, and was sacred to me on a 
 Sunday. There it lay deserted, uncared for. My eyes were choked with 
 tears, and at forty years of age a man does not cry for little. 
 
 In his 77th chapter he gives the following account of tlie 
 killed and wounded at the Stockade : — 
 
 Requiescat in Pace. — Lalor's Report of the Killed and Wounded at the 
 Eureka Massacre, on the morning of the memorable Third of December, 
 1854 : — The following lists are as complete as I can make them. The 
 numbers are well known, but there is a want of names. I trust that the 
 friends or acquaintances of these parties may forward particulars to The 
 Times office, Ballaarat, to be made available in a more lengthened narra- 
 tive. Killed : — 1, John Hynes, County Clare, Ireland ; 2, Patrick 
 Gittins, Kilkenny, Ireland ; 3, — MuUins, Kilkenny, Limerick, Ireland ; 
 4, Samuel Green, England ; 5, John Robertson, Scotland ; G, Edward 
 Thonen (lemonade man), Elbertfeldt, Prussia ; 7, John Hafele, Wurtem- 
 berg ; 8, John Diamond, County Clare, Ireland ; 9, Thomas O'Neil, Kil- 
 kenny, Ireland ; 10, George Donaghey, Muff, County Donegal, Ireland ; 
 11, Edward Quin, County Cavan, Ireland ; 12, William Quinlan, Goulbourn, 
 N.S. W. ; 13 and 14, names unknown, one was usually known on Eureka as 
 "Happy Jack." Wodnded and Sikce Dead: — 1, Lieutenant Ross, 
 Canada ; 2, Thaddeus Moore, County Clare, Ireland ; 3, James Brown, 
 Newry, Ireland ; 4, Robert Julien, Nova Scotia ; 5, — Crowe, unknown ; 
 6, — Fenton, unknown ; 7, Edward M'Glyn, Ireland ; 8, no particulars. 
 Wounded and Since Recovered : — 1, Peter Lalor, Queen's County, Ire- 
 land ; 2, name unknown, England ; 3, Patrick Hanafin, County Kerry, 
 Ireland ; 4, Michael Hanly, County Tipperary, Ireland ; 5, Michael O'Xeil, 
 County Clare, Ireland ; 6, Thomas Callanan, County Clare, Ireland ; 7, 
 Patrick Callanan, County Clare, Ireland ; 8, Frank Symmons, England ; 
 9, James Warner, County Cork, Ireland ; 10, Luke Sheehan, County 
 Galway, Ireland; 11, Miclmel Morrison, County Galway, Ireland; 12, 
 Dennis Dynan, County Clare, Ireland. 
 
 (Signed) Peter Lalor, Commander-in-Chief.
 
 126 HISTORY OF BALLARAT 
 
 How many others owed their death to the Stockade attack 
 can hardly be stated. Some lingered long, and died of wounds 
 received there. The jNIelbourne Herald of the 12th May, 1856, 
 reported : — 
 
 Amongst the deaths of recent occurrence at the Benevolent Asj'lum is 
 that of Frederick Coxhead, native of London, lawyer's clerk, and 24 years 
 of age. He sided with the insurgents at the memorable battle of the 
 Eureka Stockade at Ballarat, and received a gun-shot wound. Compression 
 of the brain ensued, and an abscess then set in, which terminated fatally 
 on Sunday. 
 
 The authorities were under the impression that Yern was the 
 insurgent leader, and as Yern, and Lalor, and Black, the 
 " minister of war," escaped the grip of the assaulting force, re- 
 wards were oftered for their apprehension. For Yern, as the 
 presumed chief, £500 were offered, and for Lalor and Black £200 
 each None of them were ever arrested. Black was not present 
 at the affair of the 3rd. Lalor had been severely wounded, and 
 was supposed at first to be dead. He was covered up by a pike- 
 man with slabs, till the soldiers retreated with their prisoners, 
 when he left his hiding place, weary and faint with pain and loss 
 of blood. Having made good his escape, he was, after divers 
 troubles, secreted at a friendly hut on the ranges, where friends 
 ministered to his necessities. On the night of the 4th he was 
 conveyed to Father Smyth's house, where his arm was amputated 
 by Dr. Doyle. Women may live nojirer to the invisible than men, 
 and be more rich in gifts of K})iiitual vision. Dreams and pre- 
 sentiments ai-e sometimes theirs when the strongf^r sex see and 
 hear nothing. It was said tliat Laloi's betrothed in (Sieelong — 
 whom lie aftciwai'ds married — saw liim "in a vision of the night" 
 or early morning of the 3rd J)eceml)er, wounded and bleeding 
 before lu-r. Tt was further said that her vision was a tolerably 
 arcnrate picture of his actual condition. In an age of vote by 
 ballot and much hard iron machinery Puck's declaration has been 
 realised in the electric tclcgi-aph, and, still, " there are more things 
 in heaven and eaitli than arc dreamt of in our philosophy." To 
 leave the sp(!culative for the known, it will suffice here to record 
 that searcli for the fugitive chiefs was made, and Lalor, who had 
 many narrow escapes, was hiddni in various places l)y liis fi'iends
 
 now m'cill escaped. 127 
 
 till the storm liad blown over, when he was removed to Geelong, 
 and underwent further surgical operations, the authorities appear- 
 ing to have given over the pursuit. Ross had died from wounds 
 received on the Sunday morning, and Vern escaped, and hid in 
 various phices till danger passed away with tlie subsequent 
 acquittal of the State prisoners. M 'Gill's story is that he and 
 some others, not tliinking all was over when they fled, repaired to 
 Creswick with a view to get out of harm's immediate way, and 
 to secure two field-pieces that were said to be on Captain Hep- 
 burn's property at Smeaton. Tliat project was soon abandoned, 
 and M'Gill had to disguise himself and fly. He was met at the 
 Springs by Mrs. Hanmer and anothoi', who furnished him witli 
 woman's attire, in which he travelled Ijy coach to INIelbourne on 
 the 5th, passing Sir Robert Nickle and his troops on their way up 
 near the Moorabool. By advice of the since notorious G. F. 
 Train, then Melbourne agent for the White Star Company's line 
 of ships, IVI'Gill, disguised afresh in man's attire, went on board 
 the " Arabian" as an oflicer of the ship. In tlie meantime Train 
 and other Ameiican citizens interposed on behalf of their com- 
 patriot, whose youth — he was then about twenty-one years old — 
 they pleaded in bar of grave punishment. Train sent to M'Gill 
 one day, got him ashore, took liim to Sir Charles Hotham's at 
 Toorak, and after a brief interview the Governor, who expressed 
 surprise at M'Gill's youth, bow^ed them out hopefully. Train 
 next informed bis client that the Government would not interfere 
 to prevent his escape if he left the colony forthwith. M'Gill, 
 however, still by the ever-vigilant Train's agency, was passed on 
 as an invalid to the health oflficer's quarters at Port Phillip 
 Heads, where he remained until the acquittal of the State priso- 
 ners practically proclaimed liberty to all the compromised. It 
 was rumored at one time that M'Gill shot Captain Wise, then 
 that he was pardoned because he saved Captain Wise's life in the 
 Stockade, then that he was let off because he was an American. 
 What happened to him because of his nationality cannot be pre. 
 cisely known. He avers that he neither shot Captain Wise nor 
 saved him from any threatened harm. As to his Americanism, 
 it is certain that a strong feeling existed at the time airainst what
 
 128 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 was considered a fear of American influence on the part of the 
 Government. It is equally certain that the Government attri- 
 buted the outbreak in a great measure to the treasonable schemes 
 of concerting foreigners then in Ballarat and active in the agita- 
 tions of the time. 
 
 That intelligent witness of most of the incidents during the 
 whole agitation, upon Avhose papers in the Ballarat Star we have 
 so freely drawn, makes the following statement relative to the 
 later scenes in tlie drama : — 
 
 After the captiu-c of the Stockade, it may well be imagined that there 
 was a good deal of flight and hiding indulged in, and some singuhir mcidents 
 could be narrated in reference thereto. Lalor, Esmond, and others, some of 
 them immediately, and others from time to time, found their way to 
 (leelong, where they were secreted by various friends. The local police 
 knew where most of the Geelong fugitives were, but as most of tliem had 
 influential friends they were not molested, the more so as the Government 
 said they had quite enough of the insurgents in their clutches. Messrs. 
 Black and Kennedy started in company to make for Geelong. The latter, 
 in his usual self-opinionated way, assured his companion that he knew all 
 about tlie road to Geelong by way of the Mount Misery Ranges. How 
 the fugitives took a pair of scissors and " barberised" each other, exchang- 
 ing clothes, and generally disguising themselves, need not be minutely 
 detailed. At last, towards evening, Kennedy acknowledged he was lost, 
 tliough after a time a smoke was seen, and was soon found to be from an 
 encampment, a sort of out-station depot or rural retreat for some of the rowdy 
 boys of IJallarat. Kennedy was for being very mysterious, but Black frankly 
 told the men that lie and his companion were in some trouble — what he did 
 not say — with the Government. He also let tlicm see that he had plenty 
 of money, and gave them i'o to get some stores. The messengers who went 
 for the stores returned on the Monday evening, 1)ringing a bottle of wine. 
 How a decent fellow of the party took Black's side when some of his mates 
 would have ill-treated him— how IMack and Kennedy separated, the latter 
 going bullock-driving — and how Black, meeting with other fugitives, at 
 last got up to Melbourne, where liis friends secreted him — would fill 
 columns ; but these things are more of a private or personal than a public 
 interest. Mr. Scekamp was arrested on the Monday after tiie capture of 
 the Stockade, he luiving .€105 on liim, and about to go to Bendigo. An 
 extraordinary issue of tlic Ballarat Times was in course of publication 
 wlien Mr. Seekamp was arrested. Hearing of his arrest, a friend called at 
 the Timi'H office and found a quiet cnougli account of tlie capture of tho 
 Stockade, wound up l)y about a " stickful" commencing thus, " This foul 
 uud Idoody murder calls to liigli Heaven for vengeance, terrible and im- 
 mediate," &c., &c. The copies that had been already printed were taken
 
 
 li-illlll*!'. lit 
 
 I 
 
 IHlli Mil aii^i 
 II M U Hl^ 1^^ 
 
 1 I hi ^li!ifUi 
 
 ^l|l?s|t=-tll!||^| 
 
 •W " 'e 2 £) 1 'jr 
 
 •29— c>J»-=5 
 
 a Mi -. o 4" S dj 
 
 V ? 
 
 a as 
 
 S 5 • 1 - 
 - -^I| 
 
 si** 
 
 c so « 
 
 = 7 .a • 
 
 lil 
 
 « 5 J £.2,5 i = 
 
 1. ?e * - 5 r- = 
 
 -CBS SA » * - 
 
 3 e S > £ 
 
 »■ a 3 * . J 
 
 ~ o -S as "C 
 
 2 •< s S 2 5 
 
 < «; « . b s 
 
 « ■- 2 * = "2 tS 
 
 > *^ ^ y. ^ b S ^ "^ 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 (ID 
 
 € S 
 
 Sin 
 
 8 * s J' 
 
 ^ B W ^ ^■ 
 
 S a > a, 
 
 ^ S 
 
 4 » 
 
 3 H 
 
 ! ^ 
 
 § ^ 
 
 & 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 £ © i 
 
 ^ 9
 
 Wher«as Two Persons of the Namejs of 
 
 LATE OF BAt.I>.4ARAT 
 
 Did on or about the 13th day of November last, at that place, use certain 
 
 TREASONABLE AND SEDITIOUS LANGUAGE, 
 
 And incite Men to take up Arms, with a Tiew to make war against 
 Our Sovereign Lady the CtUEEN : 
 
 NOTICi: Il§ HEREBY OITEIN 
 
 That-a Reward of £2f00 will be paid to any person or persons giving such 
 information as may lead to the Apprehension of either of the abovenamed 
 parties. 
 
 DESCRIPTIONS. 
 
 lAVfJJiii. — Hel|i,''<>t S ft. i> in., a^^e 36, bair dark broviu, nbkkcrs dark brown and shared under the • iln, do 
 
 - <nansiiMitx;, lonif fltoe, rather gv»d looking, and i3 a well mad*- man. 
 BIAC'K.- itotgbt oT«r Uset, atrttlKht figure, allf^bt build, bright red hair worn In general rather loag and 
 
 bvushnd b4ckwayds, r«dl aiid larye wbifikera, meeting; under the chin, blae ejea, larpe thin oose, raddy 
 
 cainplexi»% juMi rather umU owutii. 
 
 JBp Sis JExcelleney's Comtnand, 
 
 MTH-I-IAM C. MASlf EIS. 
 
 ■^ .unmuir loai >£aua oovtamiuir i-wiihb. meisoi'ms
 
 REHTARD 
 
 FOR THi: APPREHEIMNIOBf 
 
 OF 
 
 Pr eder ick ITem 
 
 WSEREAS 
 
 A Man known by the name of TERN, han nnla>vfullly. reboilinusly, and 
 traitorously Jevied and arrayed Armed Ulen at BaUaarat, in the Colony of 
 Victoria, with the view of ntakinj^ war against Our Sovereign Lady 
 the dCEEN : 
 
 J^OTICJE IS HEREBY' GIVEN- 
 
 That whoever will give sueh information as may lead to the Apprehension 
 of the said VERK, nball receive 
 
 A REWiIRD OF £S00 
 
 being the Reward ottered by SiH RoBEnx I^ickle. 
 
 By His E.tceU«'ttcy''» Command, 
 
 JfOHW F OSTER. 
 
 DrscnrpTroN or vern. 
 TnIK about 6 f^ct lOJ mv\\e>., lone light hair falling heavily on th< side or hi« b(«<i, 
 lif«l<> whisSiPr. a lar<:« flat face. e,Yr8 light grev or green and very wis?^' asunder. Speah- 
 with a stroug rorci<;ii ac4>eni. A 'Hanoverian "by birth, about 26 year^ of age.
 
 filS 
 
 
 > 
 
 M 
 
 s s 9 a i 
 ■_ a2 9 ti s 
 
 nss 9 
 
 -p4 
 
 i4 
 
 
 ^ 9C 
 

 
 'B> 
 
 % SS B ^ 
 
 B S« 
 
 2Fr 
 
 2.* 
 
 «^B ^ 
 
 
 
 •? ^-^ SB t, ,« f r" 
 
 
 ;s 
 
 ■ B'S-S^S 
 
 4^ s 
 
 • .« 
 
 "3 f^ S 'S S ^ ^ 
 
 ^ r © "S 2 1^^ 
 
 * S £ ssa ^-sj 
 
 S « g je S 
 
 S>9 M A « (ii 
 
 5r ^ s 
 
 w ^ 
 
 =! "i 5fc $ ±
 
 A WOUNDED PRESSMAN. 129 
 
 away and burned, all save one, which probably by this time has shared the 
 same fate. After the acquittal of some of the State prisoners and the 
 release of the remainder of them, those who had not been apprehended, 
 and for whom large rewards had been offered, were in a somewhat 
 anomalous position. Virtually they were as free from blame and as little 
 hindered as others from going about, but actually they had the reward 
 hanging over them, and some of them, at least, might tempt a needy man 
 to assassinate them, as the reward was for them " dead or alive." Well, 
 a land sale was advertised to be held in the old Police-court on the Camp. 
 Some of the allotments were at Glendaruel, and Lalor had decided to pur- 
 chase some of them. Of course, he could do so by an agent, but he pre- 
 ferred a bolder course, for, to the astonishment of his friends, all of whom 
 by this time knew where he was, he appeared publicly on the day of the 
 land sale, went to the Police-court to bid for the allotments, and when 
 asked who's the purchaser, gave his name in the usual way. There was no 
 more secrecy after this ; the matter was reported to head-quarbers, and the 
 rewards were withdrawn in an early number of the Government Gazette. 
 
 Very barbarous excesses were charged against some of the 
 troopers and other members of the civil arm, and one Powell was 
 declared to have been murdered in cold blood, by Arthur Purcell 
 Akehurst, a Government officer, but the oliicer was acquitted by 
 the jury at the trial. Raffaello and the journals of the day give 
 particulars of this very ugly episode. Akehurst is now a magis- 
 trate, and chairman of the Central Board of Health. Wanton 
 wounding of mere spectators or unresisting insurgents was al- 
 leged to have been perpetrated, and it was gravely suspected that 
 some wounded men were burned alive when the troopers fired the 
 tents. One of the wounded spectators was Frank Arthur Ilasle- 
 liani, tlien acting for the coi'respondent of the Geelong Advertiser. 
 Hasleham, in a memorial for compensation, describes himself as 
 " a native of the good town of Bedford, and son of a military 
 officer, to wit, William Gale Hasleham, who bore His Majesty's 
 commission in the 48th Foot at Talavera." He was compensated 
 by the Government subsequently, and after some years' sojourn 
 here he went home to England. Some twenty-three who fell 
 were buried by their friends, and the anniversary of the day was 
 kept up with gradually decreasing demonstration. It may be 
 stated here that the news of the attack on the Stockade reached 
 Melbourne on the same day, and while Governor Hotham aud 
 Secretary Foster were attending divine service at St. James'
 
 130 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 Church, ill Melbourne. Attorney-General Stawell and others 
 Avere seen earnestly talking near tlie church, waiting for the 
 Governor, and when his Excellency came out Foster went his way 
 home, the Attorney-General and other of the Ministers accom- 
 panied the Governor to the Government printer, Mr. John 
 Ferres, and urged him at once to issue a placard. This placard 
 was printed and posted about the city on the Sunday, although 
 dated as on the previous day. This placard was the one in which 
 the Governor calls on " all British subjects to abstain, not only 
 from identifying themselves" with " evil disposed persons," but 
 " to render support and assistance to the authorities." The 
 placard by the French consul was printed also on the Sunday. 
 At the Governor's special and personal request also, on the 6th of 
 December, a placard was issued with tlie words in large letters 
 " Sevastopol is taken." This was declared to be a stratagem to 
 divert public attention from the meeting to be held on that day 
 in Melbourne for expression of sympathy with the Ballarat 
 diggers. ]\Iany of those who were officially close to Sir Charles 
 Hotham in those days were warm in liis praise. They spoke of 
 him as " a splendid fellow," and asserted boldly that he was misled 
 by bad advisers. 
 
 On Monday, the 4tli December, 1854, the Government issued 
 a procL-uiiation placing the "district of l^uninyoiig" — for the old 
 name with slightly chaiig(;d s])elliiig still prevailed over that of 
 Ballarat — under martial law. On the same day, in the after- 
 noon, an extraordinaiy Gazette was issued, calling on " all true 
 subjects of the Qu(!en, and all strangers who have received hospi- 
 tality and prot(!ction under her Hag to enrol themselves, and be 
 pi(^pared to assemble at such places as may be appointed by the 
 civic authorities in Melbourne and G(!clong, and by the magis- 
 trates in the several towns of the colony." Simultaneously a re- 
 ward of £500 for Vern's appreliension, was oU'ered, as the 
 authorities not only thought he was tli(^ coniinand(U' of the insur- 
 gents, but were haunted by another delusion, l)()in of rumor, that 
 Vern and some associates v/{\n\ (M-ecting anotlxu- stockade; in tiie 
 Warrenheip forest. The metropolis was frightened from its 
 propriety liy the aspect of aHairs at liallarat. Tlie Herald re-
 
 ALARM IN MELBOURNE. 131 
 
 ported on the 4th that " One time it was said that an invading 
 army of diggers was marching upon Melbourne, intending a 
 general sack and pillage ; next, that portions of the road were 
 beset with guerilla parties anxious to have a shy at any detached 
 troops and police who might happen to pass. * * * Through- 
 out the day there was almost a constant swearing-in of special 
 constables at the police-office." Deputations waited upon the 
 Governor, declaring their loyalty. Meetings were convened in 
 the metropolis, some to sympathise with the diggers, others to 
 rally round the law and the authorities. Thus were the distant 
 places shaken by the collision of that early Sunday morning at 
 Ballarat. The poor diggers, in truth, wanted neither " sack nor 
 pillage," but only to be treated as freemen, and to be governed by 
 laws made by parliaments in which they had free representation, 
 and not by laws enacted by a nominee legislature, and insolently, 
 and sometimes corruptly, administered by men irresponsible to the 
 people. Yet, as has been said before, there were rash and foolish 
 and disloyal men among the insurgents. To them, and them 
 alone, may be fairly applied the words of Sir C. Hotham in reply 
 to one of the deputations to whom he spoke of " designing men 
 who had ulterior views, and who hoped to profit by anarchy and 
 confusion." But such men are found in all uprisings, and their 
 presence in this one neither justified the wrongs of the times nor 
 deprived the resistance of freemen of its inherent virtue. The 
 Melbourne alarm, however, was not without fruit. The sympathy 
 meetings were attended by large masses, ajid men of all classes 
 united in condemning tlie misrule wliicli had caused the outl)reak. 
 It chanced that just about this time the members of the Mel- 
 bourne bar were roused by an attack by the Geelong Advertiser 
 upon one of their brotherhood, who was accused of conduct un- 
 becoming a prudent lawyer and a true gentleman. Then the 
 barristers rushed to arms and fought on platforms in their 
 brother's behalf, and while their weapons were yet keen-edged 
 and bright the lawyers gathered also to the larger battle then 
 waging between the gold-fields population and the Government. 
 At a mass meeting held on the 13th January, 1855, in Swanston 
 street — where the Anglican Cathedral is now slowly rising in its
 
 132 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 fair proportions — the State prisoners being yet untried, a petition 
 for a general amnesty was adopted. In that petition the true 
 cause of the rising, in so far as its moral force phases had gone, 
 Avas set forth as follows : — 
 
 Tlie recent uuhappy outbreak at Ballarat was induced by no feeling of 
 disaffection to the person of her Majesty, and by no traitorous designs 
 against the institutions of the monarchy, but purely by a sense of political 
 ■Nsi'ong, a loss of confidence in the local administration of law, and an ir- 
 ritation engendered by the injudicious and offensive enforcement of an 
 obnoxious and invidious tax, which, though legal, has since been con- 
 demned by the Goldlields Commission. 
 
 Thousands of people in Ballarat subscribed a similar petition, 
 but the Government refused the amnesty. The whole colony felt 
 the rising to be serious. The Executive was certainly alarmed, 
 and on the 7th December Mr. Foster, the Chief Secretary, gave 
 way before the popular storm and resigned office. Foster was a 
 member of the Vesey family in the Irish peerage. To him, as 
 the prime spirit in the Legislative Council and Cabinet, great 
 odium attached, for he was regarded as the mainstay of the system 
 of misrule and nomineeism, and his resignation was, therefore, 
 judicious if not necessary. It is probable that Sir Charles 
 Hothani, however, was more directly responsible for the policy of 
 tlie time tlian, to judge from the general feeling against Foster, 
 was supposed by the population generally. Mr. Samuel Irwin 
 furnishes some evidence, or liints of evidence, in suppoi't of tliis 
 probability. He says, in his contri1)utions to tlie BaUarat Star 
 on the ]^jUi'oka Stockade afVair : — 
 
 Those who take an interest in tliese matters and have the reiiuisite 
 leisure might, among other documents, refer to the evidence given before a 
 select committee of Parliament in the case of Mr. Foster when lie sought 
 to gain his pension. From the evidence in this case they will find that a 
 very unwilling witness .says Sir Charles llotham had made up his mind 
 before he left lM)gland what course he would pursue, and that he had even 
 in sight of the English coast, said that the unruly gold-finders wanted 
 " IJood letting." 'J'he expression may not be literally correct, but at all 
 events it signified that lie would adojit repressive measures on Ills arrival. 
 The same evidence— dragged from an unwilling witneas— also went to show 
 that Sir Charles Jlotham used to corrcspoiul with the Resident Com- 
 nuHfiioiier on the gold-fields in cypher and without the advice or even the 
 knowledge of Mr. Fobter. This much in justice to the reputation of one of
 
 FOSTER SUCCRKDED BY HAINES. 133 
 
 the best abused men of the time referred to, who, whatever other sins he 
 was guilty of, was not so of one-half of those then laid to his charge. The 
 burning of Bentley's hotel, as may be imagined, created no small consterna- 
 tion in the official mind. With the now well ascertained opinions of Sir 
 Charles Hotham on subordination, it may be readily imagined that he was 
 furious at this open revolt against the law and fully bent on avenging the 
 outrage, 
 
 Mr. Haines succeeded Foster, and the Legislative Council a 
 day or two afterwards passed an Act of Indemnity for the 
 declaration of martial law. The Act of Indemnity was passed 
 on the 15th December, and on the 11th and 18th the Government 
 offered rewards for the apprehension of Vern, Lalor, and Black, 
 
 Judge Wrixon and some barristers were at Bath's hotel on 
 the 4th December, in readiness to open the General Sessions, but 
 though the gaol was full of prisoners the sessions could not be 
 held, because the Court-house had been turned into a guard- 
 room, and jurymen could hardly be got together in that time of 
 disturbance. The Melbourne Herald had sent up a special cor- 
 respondent, and on the 4th December he described his view of 
 the position of affairs. He discovers a solemn sense of the im- 
 portance of his office, asserts anxiety to preserve a just neutrality, 
 but feels bound to declare " it would appear that the Government 
 officials here are determined to lose no opportunity of prolonging 
 that animosity which it should be their duty to obliterate for 
 ever." That it was their duty is certain, and it would have been 
 well had they quickened duty with honest endeavor. The 
 HeralcVs ordinary, or "own," correspondent also, on the 8th 
 December, while the martial law recently proclaimed was still in 
 force, takes occasion to denounce the civil officers of the Govern- 
 ment Camp by contrasting their rule with that of the military 
 regime. He says : — 
 
 The martial law administered by Sir R, Nickle is about as far superior 
 to the Commissioners' law, under which we have been so long laboring, as 
 it is possible for anything human to be. Had Sir R. Nickle arrived here a 
 few days before, the bloodshed of last Sunday would have been avoided. 
 
 There is ample reason for adopting this writer's view of the 
 situation. If the military rule was strong and odious because of 
 its nature, and the reflection of wrong which it tlirew upon the
 
 134 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 diggers, it was also free from the still more odious and exasperat- 
 ing insults of the rule of civilians enforcing an irksome law with 
 cruel impertinence and harassing personal injuries. The procla- 
 mation of martial law was objected to at the time as unconstitu- 
 tional, and some protests were made. Whether the proclamation 
 was right or wrong, it is a notable fact that it did not cover the 
 attack of the military upon the diggers in the Stockade That 
 tragedy was enacted without the reading of the Riot Act or the 
 sanction of the existence of martial law, the proclamation being 
 made on the day after the Stockade action. Another anomaly 
 was the Iiolding a coroner's inquest on one body only. The time 
 was, it seems, out of joint in many particulars. 
 
 On the 6th December a large meeting of diggers was held on 
 Bakery Hill, Mr. Thomas Williams in the chair. Humfiray was 
 there and Dr. Wills, father of the brave explorer who perished 
 with Burke. Coleman and Mosterd were there, who afterwards 
 were elected members of the Local Court. Resolutions were 
 adopted whose tone showed the influence of the fiery blast of 
 Sunday morning, and the rigor of maitial law. They were 
 mildly drawn, but with a double meaning, apparently, being ap- 
 plicaljle to either the authorities or the insurgents according to 
 the mind of the interpreter. Here are the resolutions : — 
 
 Moved by Mr. Donald, seconded by Mr. W. Levy — "That this 
 meeting views with regret the proceedings of the last week, rendering it 
 necessary to assert the sovereignty of law and order by the sacrifice of so 
 many lives and the proclamation of martial law." 
 
 Moved by Mr. Mosterd, seconded by Dr. Wills^" That this meeting 
 considers the late appeal to arms to have been uncalled for, and pledges 
 itself to use every constitiitional means to restore tranquility and good 
 feeling on the Ballarat gold-fields." 
 
 Moved by Mr. .J. F. Coleman, seconded by Mr. Ingram — "That this 
 meeting liopes that the officer in command of lier Majesty's forces at Ral- 
 larat will act witli as much forbearance and humanity as the circumstances 
 may admit of : otherwise the lives of many innocent persons may be sacri- 
 ficed." 
 
 Moved by Mr. Harris, seconded by Mr. Douglass — " That when the 
 presciat excitement shall have ceased, we will pledge ourselves in a consti- 
 tutional manner to have our acknowledged grievances brought before the 
 Legislative Council of the colony."
 
 HUMFFRAY ARRESTED. 135 
 
 Moved by Mr. J. B. HumflFray, seconded by Mr. W. B. Robinson — 
 " That a copy of the resolutions passed at this meeting, signed by the 
 chairman, be forwarded to his Excellency Sir Charles Hotham immediately. 
 That a deputation be appointed to wait on his representative at Ballarat, 
 and present him with a copy of the same." 
 
 Moved by Mr. Dyte, seconded by Mr. Willern — " That the following 
 gentlemen be the deputation to the Camp : Mr. Thos. Williams, chairman ; 
 Rev. P. Smyth ; Messrs. Homffrays (Humffray), Donald, Mosterd." 
 
 The deputies were not very flatteringly received, for the 
 Herald correspondent says HumfTray was arrested, and the others 
 were told by Mr. Commissioner Rede and Captain Pasley " that 
 they could not receive such resolutions as they were not suf- 
 ficiently eulogistic of the Government." This is probably rather 
 a comment by the correspondent than a statement in terms of a 
 naked fact. It is not probable that the Camp officials were so 
 far demented as to make so very silly a speech ; but the resolu- 
 tions appear at any rate to have been rejpcted. As to Humffray, 
 though he thus fell among the Camp Phillistines, peace-advocate 
 though he was, he had been received at the meeting " with loud 
 and protracted cheering." He conjured the diggers to refrain 
 from further violence, and declared that he had put his life in 
 jeopardy during his moral-force campaign against the insurgents 
 and the authorities. He was liberated on the following day. It 
 is worth noting that on the same day as this Bakery Hill meeting 
 was held, a " monster meeting" was held on St. Paul's Church 
 Reserve, Melbourne, Mr. Langlands in the chair, when the follow- 
 ing motion, moved by Mr. David Blair, was seconded by Mr. 
 Fawkner and adopted : — 
 
 "That the constitutional agitation at Ballarat has assumed its present 
 unconstitutional form in consequence of the coercion of military force, and 
 that matters would not have been precipitated to their present issue but for 
 the harsh and imprudent re-commencement of digger-hunting during the 
 period of excitement." 
 
 It is impossible to avoid concurrence in the latter portion of 
 the resolution. The later digger-hunts were ordered by Sir 
 Charles Hotham, and were his cardinal blunder. His excellent 
 intentions, and his lucid and unanswerable expositions of the 
 duties of a Government in relation to the maintenance of law and 
 order, are all as idle judgments of sagacity after the event, Ho
 
 136 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 was not a great politician nor politic, and his military instincts 
 knew nothing of concession or compromise with a people clamor- 
 ing against both law and administration. This must be re- 
 membered, as well as the equally obvious fact that his Excellency 
 had difficulties of many kinds to overcome, when we come pre- 
 sently to one of the Governor's special deliverances upon the 
 Eureka collision. 
 
 Reverting to the meeting in Melbourne, it may be stated that 
 one resolution by Mr. J. M. Grant, once Minister of Lands, pro- 
 posed that Messrs. Fawkner, Strachan, O'Shanassy, Cooke, 
 Fulton, Dr. Owens, and Westgarth, be a body of delegates to act 
 as a commission of arbitration and adjustment between the 
 authorities and the diggers. The meeting objected for awhile to 
 Mr. Fawkner. Possibly this was because on the previous day, in 
 the Legislative Council, that vigorous old " conscript father" had 
 carried tlie following resolution, so entirely true in its eulogies 
 and censures, if a little loose in construction : — 
 
 That the thanks of this House are due to the oflfieers and men of her 
 Majesty's 12th and 40th Regiments, sent last week on duty to Ballarat, for 
 their truly soldierlike and highly commendable forbearance in receiving 
 the hootings and violent assaults of a mob of worthless idlers, whom no 
 man can class as true diggers : the merits of the forbearance and the steady 
 patience of men bearing arm.s in their hands wherewith to repel assaults, 
 stamps those troops and their commanders as truly British troops. 
 
 After some discussion the meeting consented to Mr. Fawkner 
 being one of the delegates, but added to the list the name of Mr. 
 Cathie, who afterwards became member for Ballarat East in the 
 Legislative Assembly. The Government declined to entertain the 
 proposition, but the Commission of Enquiry appointed by the 
 Government to report on gold-fields' grievances comprised several 
 of the gentlfMiien nominated at the meeting. 
 
 On the Gth December the following resolution was carried in 
 the Legislative Council, on the motion of Mr. Miller, seconded by 
 the Colonial Secretary (Foster), who had resigned, but still held 
 office : — 
 
 ' ' That the Lieut. ■('• ovemor, having been placed in a painfully embarrass- 
 ing position since his arrival in Victoria, is entitled to the sympathy and 
 support of this Council, and it pledges itself by (jvery means in its power 
 to aid him in icstoring and maintaining law and order."
 
 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ADDRESS. 137 
 
 Mr. Miller, in moving the resolution, regretted the injuries 
 suffered by innocent men in the trouble, but said it was " patent 
 that all this disaster had been Ijrought about mainly by the off- 
 scourings of the foreigners collected on the gold-fields from every 
 nation." The Colonial Secretary agreed with this, but Mr. 
 Myles, a member for Grant, opposed the motion, and, says the re- 
 porter of the Herald, " attacked the policy of the Government in 
 a speech in which he had not the sympathy of a single member of 
 the House." Mr. Haines said " the time selected for the out- 
 break was exceedingly bad — a time when the Government pro- 
 posed to look into all grievances." Unhappily for the reputation 
 of the Government, there will always stand out in bold relief the 
 steady pursuit of a policy of irritation and non-compromise until 
 the latest moment. The authorities were too late in their " pro- 
 posals to look into all grievances." They over-estimated the force 
 of the insurgents, and under-estimated the weight of the moral- 
 force movement, failing to see the expediency of a frank and 
 earnest entertainment of the complaints made so long and so 
 constitutionally. Small at the best, ill-organised, and ill-pro- 
 vided, the armed diggers' party would have never had heart to 
 take the position it did take had not the authorities disarmed 
 the larger body of peaceful agitators, and provoked liostilities by 
 the peculiarly despotic action taken in the last license-collecting 
 I'aid. 
 
 The Legislative Council, on the 6th December, presented an 
 address to his Excellency embodying the motion submitted by 
 Mr. Miller, and adopted almost unanimously by the House. Sir 
 Cliarles received the Council at Government House, himself and 
 the chief officers of State attired in the Windsor uniform. To 
 the address of the Council his Excellency read the following 
 reply :— 
 
 Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen, — It is with no small pride and satisfac- 
 tion that at a moment of unusual difficulty the Legislative Council of 
 Victoria have assembled themselves around the Governor, and enabled liim 
 to proclaim to the world that with one voice, and one mind, and one 
 heart, we are resolved to maintain the law. I assure you, gentlemen, that 
 my utmost endeavors have been used to stave off and prevent tlie difficulty 
 which has arisen, but is now, I am thankful to say, rapidly disappearing.
 
 138 V HISTORY OP BALLARAT 
 
 I am desirous, if you will grant me time, to touch upon these points 
 lightly, in order to show to you that my words are not lightly uttered, not 
 spoken without some consideration. Before the deputation came from the 
 gold-fields, the Eureka riots broke out, and the burning of Bentley's hotel 
 ensued. Immediately the discharge of Bentley and the other men was sent 
 to the Attorney -General [now ex Chief Justice Stawell], he saw that the 
 authorities had taken the wrong course, and he came out post haste to 
 Toorak, and recommended most strongly that the men who had been prisoners 
 should be again brought to trial. We had then received no representative 
 of any sort or kind from the diggers of Ballarat. Immediately instruc- 
 tions were sent down to bring Bentley and his associates to trial, and shortly 
 after that we heard that the fire had taken place at the Eureka hotel. 
 
 Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen, — I wish to establish the fact, that the 
 Government had given orders to enquire into the manner in which the 
 former trial had been conducted before any representative from the diggers 
 of Ballarat had been received, and before any violence had ensued. 
 
 Of the trial of the men engaged in the burning of the hotel I shall say 
 but little, excepting to observe that th,e sentence was most lenient. 
 
 There were reasons which indiiced us to imagine that the conduct of 
 the authorities at Ballarat had not been entirely what it ought to have 
 been, and a commission was sent down with very stringent instructions to 
 enquire into the whole case, and bring the offenders, of whatever degree 
 they might be, prominently to notice. The result of that enquiry was, 
 the magistrate [Dewes] was dismissed, the sergeant-major [Milne] was also 
 dismissed (or rather will be placed under punishment and then dismissed), 
 and that the coroner was most severely reprimanded for some injudicious 
 expressions which he made use of. Now, Mr. Speaker and gentlemen, I do 
 not think that that shows there was a Government in power which was un- 
 willing to listen to the voice of the people. 
 
 The commission returned, the military were withdrawn, and there was 
 every probable appearance of order and tranquility at those diggings, when 
 suddenly we found it necessary to send down an overwhelming force in 
 consequence of the reports we received from Ballarat. The Camp was 
 threatened, and reports reached us that the Camp was not safe an hour, 
 and then the time arrived when it became absolutely necessary that some 
 vigorous steps should be taken and a decisive lilow be struck. With regard 
 to the opinion which I formed of the manner in which the authorities 
 acted, I shall allow my own despatches to speak for themselves. 
 
 His Excellency then read copies of his dispatches to the 
 Resident-Commissioner at Ballarat, in which ho approved the 
 action taken on the morning of the 3rd December, ordered secure 
 holding of the prisoners, announced the proclamation of martial 
 law, directed the apprehension of all the speakers at the license-
 
 THE governor's REPLY. 139 
 
 burning meeting, and enjoined "the propriety of forbearance, 
 caution, and temper towards the mining population," He con- 
 tinued : — 
 
 I was anxious to have those dispatches read, to show that whilst we 
 have on the one hand endeavored to the utmost of our power to uphohl law 
 and order, yet, the very moment it was feasible, we revert to the original 
 state of things ; and martial law, which is repugnant to every Englishman, 
 and especially so to every colonist, will cease as soon as possible, and I 
 most anxiously hope that there may not be again occasion to revert to it. 
 * * * I am satisfied that the time for military law and rule by violence 
 has gone, never more to be recovered, and it ought not to be re- 
 covered. But, gentlemen, the moment there is an outbreak, and 
 that caused, not by Englishmen, but by foreigners — men who are 
 not suffered to remain in their own countries in consequence of the 
 violence of their characters and the deeds they have done — I, for 
 one, say that whenever that happens, the Englishmen of Victoria must 
 rally round the Government, and must to a man sink their private differ- 
 ences, and forget the causes of difference which to Englishmen are inherent, 
 and which, to a certain extent, are the l)lessings of our Constitution, and 
 must rally round the authorities, liking or disliking them, and put that 
 outbreak down. As long as I am at tlie head of the Government I will 
 endeavoi' to prevent these foreigners agitating to disturb the good order 
 which genei'ally exists in Victoria, and preventing the honest and indus- 
 trious portion of the population from continuing at their work. * * * We 
 will redress all grievances, if possible, maintain order, and keep prominently 
 before us the fact that our endeavors will meet with their reward in the 
 way that the Legislative Council and the Speaker at their head have 
 shown. 
 
 Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen, — I most cordially thank you for your 
 expressions of feeling, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that what- 
 ever circumstances may arise, I may not be found wanting. 
 
 Good Yorkshire pluck at the bottom of the Yorkshire 
 sailor's heart, no doubt, but a terrible buzzing bee in his bonnet 
 as to " these foreigners." A seeming slip of the pen, too, about 
 the time for rule by violence being gone " never to be recovered," 
 and the slip is instantly corrected, for the time " ought not to be 
 recovered." Excellent sentiment ! Had it been practised as well 
 as preached there had been no need of slaughtering men in the 
 early Sunday morning light, nor of the " overwhelming force," 
 the martial law, and all the abortive show of arrests, examina- 
 tions, and tibials for high treason and sedition.
 
 140 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Sir Charles was energetic in the business of the time. Some 
 of the Government proclamations were written from end to end 
 by his own hand. He was also brave and honest, but it would 
 seem there never entered the head of that naval officer the con- 
 ception that he was dealing with a different body of men from 
 those that formed the laboring or even yeoman class upon his 
 native wolds. It is likely that he had been, like many English 
 gentlemen of rank and estates, accustomed to regard the masses 
 as so much rent-producing material. But he had to learn that 
 Victorian diggers were of quite different mettle. They were well 
 described in a letter of the Bendigo correspondent of the Herald 
 on the 30th November, who wrote of the Government officials and 
 diggers : — 
 
 They have to meet hardy men, whose open-air occupations, thorough 
 independence, and well-trained sinews give them a noble daring and a 
 generous impetuosity. Free of all masters, with a knowledge that they 
 can obtain gold whenever they choose to work, they possess all the self- 
 reliance of the mountaineers. 
 
 Governor Hotham had learned nothing of the spirit of larger 
 freedom which was abroad here, and was soon to be begotten 
 afresh in the fatherland as we have seen it there since tliose days. 
 He appeared not to have divined the presence here of the germs 
 of a bold democracy, germs even then fast approaching the burst- 
 ing point under the united influence of a fertile soil and a 
 freedom-inspiring atmosphere, bursting into fruit, to be garnered 
 here and shared, through the sympathy of race and the quicken- 
 ing of constant inter-communication, by the still struggling and 
 ever enfranchising p(!ople of the mother country. One open 
 declaration of a willingness to hear and enquire through the 
 medium of men in the confidence of the gold-fields population, 
 would have sufficed to prevent all the bloodshed and all the heart- 
 burnings that outlived the Eureka tragedy itself. But the Go- 
 vernment would not stoop to such a method of conquering its few 
 enemies and of assisting its multitudinous friends. Old country 
 liauteur, with new exasperations, were persevered in, blood was 
 shed, and then the Government gave all tlie diggers wanted, and 
 Sir Charles Hotham died, a victim to the anxieties caused by the 
 troubU's tliat might have l)een avoided but for official blindness,
 
 INSURGENTS IN COURT. 141 
 
 blindness that was fatal to life and peace for a time, but power- 
 less to hold back those rights which greater wisdom would have 
 earlier conceded. 
 
 The newspaper's of the day present to us a sorry procession 
 to the Ballarat Police-court on the 8th December and following 
 days, before Messrs. 8turt and Webster. The prisoners taken in 
 and about the Stockade were brought up, while their wounded 
 comrades still lay bleeding hard by in the rude Camp-hospital. 
 There came Timothy Hayes, large, portly, jovial, humorous, way- 
 ward, egoiste, the Irish chairman of the Bakery Hill meetings, 
 whom the military arrested on their march back from the 
 Stockade. He was not much of a fighter, but he had a wife of 
 spirit. Lieutenant Richards, who ordered liis arrest, deposed : — 
 " After the arrest, the prisoner's wife came up and saidif slie had 
 been a man she would not have allowed herself to have been 
 taken. Then, addressing witness, she said, ' why did you not 
 come yesterday when the men were ready for you.' " There came 
 the little red-haired, fire-eyed Italian, Rattaello to confi-ont the 
 " spy" Goodenough, his accuser. Defeated, but not cowed, 
 Raffaello shot lightnings of indignation at the Crown witness, 
 and afterwards wept tears of manly agony as he was taken past 
 his little tent on his way to trial at Melbourne. No saintly 
 shape, " robed in white samite," or radiant with heavenly glory, 
 ever appeared more pure than did the diggers' cause to Rafiaello's 
 vision. Whatever else may be said of him he was true to it, as " 
 he saw it, and to the last, even wlion a tragical and inglorious end 
 seemed a not. improbable fate. Tliere came; also Manning, the 
 Ballarat 'Times repoi'ter, who had tliought the sword could better 
 serve than the pen to right the wrongs of the time. There came, 
 too, another, the little editor of big words, Seekamp. " (7'e 
 un'uonio ardito senza prudenza" Raffaello would have said. He 
 was accused of sedition. Editorial lunacy might have been as 
 appropriate an accusation. At least so it seems to the calmer 
 reason of later days. Some of Seekamp's wonderful deliverances 
 were read in court from the Ballarat Tiincs of tlie IStli and 25th 
 November. Here is one — ex pede Herculein. 
 
 It is not for us to say how much we have been instrumental in rousing 
 up the people to a sense of their wrongs ; we leave that to the pubhc and
 
 142 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 the world. * * * The coming Christmas is pregnant of change, for on 
 
 next Wednesday will be held such a meeting for a fixed determinate pur 
 
 pose as was never before held in Australia. The Australian flag shall 
 
 triumphantly wave in the sunshine of its own blue and peerless sky over 
 
 thousands of Australia's adopted sons. * * * And when the loud 
 
 poean of 
 
 Now's the day and now's the hour, 
 
 See the front of battle lour, 
 
 shall have pierced the blue vaults of Australia's matchless sky, from the 
 
 brave men of Ballarat on next Wednesday at Bakery Hill, there will not 
 
 be one discordant voice in the sublime and heroic chorus. * * * Go 
 
 forth indomitable people ! gain your rights, and may the God of creation 
 
 smile down propitiously upon your glorious cause ! Forward People, 
 
 Forward 1 
 
 Though such appeals as these serve now to provoke a smile, 
 they did not seem so ludicrous to the men whose blood was up in 
 those hot days of agitation. A wild feeling of poetry as well as 
 of anger fired the breasts of many then, and that which now 
 reads like fustian was at that time perused with tierce delight and 
 accelerated emotion. To judge from the Herald report the deal- 
 inf' with Seekamp's exalted language lifted reporter and printers 
 above the common prose of^ business. The reporter calls the pre- 
 siding magistrate " his Lordship," and the printers mixed up with 
 the report two or three dreary paragraphs from the painfully dry 
 details of debate in the Legislative Council of the previous day. 
 llumliray, too, the cautious peace-advocate, may have been in- 
 spired by the ardent plirases of the " seditious" editor, for we 
 shall see by-and-bye tliat even he infused some of the music of 
 soundinf phr.isos into his lirst political .address to the Ballarat 
 electors of the coming days. Lalor, the real chief, and Vern, the 
 supposed chief, of the insurgents, were still lying under cover, 
 with the Government rewards over their heads. Of these some- 
 thin'^ mor(! auoii. The magistrates committed the prisoners for 
 trial on tlie cliargcs of treason and sedition. 
 
 Four days after tlie liistoric Sunday, a Royal Commission of 
 Encjuiry, consisting of William Westgarth, chairman ; John 
 Pascoe Fawkner, Jolm Jlodgsoii, John O'Shanassy, and James 
 Ford Strachan, members of tlie Legislative Council ; and William 
 11. Wright, Chief Commi.ssioner of Gold-liclds, was appointed to 
 investigate the whole grounds of the agitation which had been
 
 ACQUITTAL OP THE PRISONERS. 143 
 
 thus tragical in its results. On the 14th December the com- 
 missioners met at the Imprest OHice in Melbourne, and four days 
 afterwards they opened their commission at Bath's (now Craig's) 
 hotel, Ballarat. The evidence taken by the commissioners com- 
 prised a vast mass of important information touching the wrongs 
 and the requirements of the diggers ; and the report of the com- 
 missioners, while it demonstrated the brutality of some of the 
 subordinates, and the folly of the authorities generally, and chid 
 the excesses of the insurgents, led to a speedy amelioration of the 
 social and political condition of the gold-fields population. 
 
 On All-Fool's Day, 1855 — so grim, sometimes, is the irony of 
 the fates — the men arrested by the authorities and indicted for 
 high treason were acquitted, a fitting day on which to record such 
 a verdict upon the bloody business which had all along been 
 marked by much folly on both sides. There were thirteen men 
 arraigned by the Attorney-General's indictment of treason. First 
 named was Timothy Hayes, the bland chairman of the Bakery 
 Hill meetings. To him succeeded Carboni Raffaello, John 
 Manning, John Josephs, Jan Vennik, James Beattie, Henry 
 Reed, Michael Tuohy, James Macfie Campbell, William Molloy, 
 Jacob Soranson, Thomas Dignam, and John Phelan. Sixty-four 
 witnesses were set down in the Crown brief, and three panels of 
 jurymen numbering 178 men in all were summoned for the trial. 
 Henry Beekamp, the editor and proprietor of the Ballarat Times, 
 had been previously tried for sedition, and being found guilty, 
 " with a very strong recommendation to mercy," he was released 
 on his own recognisances. Seekamp was a little man, but a pug- 
 nacious writer, and was often in trouble. He was said to write 
 occasionally under inspiration from the source whence tradition 
 tells us Dutchmen have drawn courage. He had some more 
 judicious editorial coadjutors later in his journalistic career, but at 
 the time of Westgarth's visit as chairman of the Royal Com- 
 mission, it was no wonder he could find cause to write after- 
 wards — " We found here a local newspaper — of course at war 
 with the authorities, local and general — and we amused ourselves 
 with the violent style of the ' leaders.' " We shall have some 
 further glimpses of Seekamp by-and-bye.
 
 144 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 The State prisoners were defended gratuitously by Mr. B. C. 
 Aspinall, who thus earned an honorable celebrity. With him in 
 the defence were several of our foremost barristers. A general 
 amnesty, in efi'ect, followed the acquittal, and the Government 
 even compensated both friends and foes who had sufl'ered. Lalor, 
 the chief man of wai', and Humtlray, the leading man of peace, 
 on the popular side, were returned to the first Parliament held 
 under the new Constitution which, with all their follies and ex- 
 cesses, the lighting men of the insurgents had done so much to 
 obtain, and which the men of peace have done so much more to 
 consolidate and improve. Humtfray was the tirst Minister of 
 Mines, a new department of the State for the control of the chief 
 industrial industry of the colony. The department has not proved 
 so useful as was expected, and public opinion, which had seen the 
 actual power to lie mainly in the hands of Mr. Brough Smyth, 
 at that time the Secretary for Mines, has here and there, grown 
 in favor of an abolition of the department, and its inclusion in 
 the lands department, Mr. Dow, the present Minister of Lands, 
 advocating that policy when in Ballarat last March. Lalor has 
 held a seat in Parliament from the date of his lirst election until 
 the present day, and for a long period held salaried office as 
 Chairman of Committees in the Legislative Assembly, lie lilled 
 that office with credit to himself and the House, as he has since 
 tlien the higher office of Speaker, and whatever may be said 
 against him it will be admitted that he has shown practical and 
 suggestive, if not coustiuctivc, faculty as a legislator. He became, 
 with occasional vacillations, one of tlui most consci'vative, that 
 is, constitutional, members of Parliament ; as if, so to speak, 
 justifying his resolute rebellion under arms by his general steady 
 maintenance in peace of that constitutional freedom which he 
 and his colleagues of the Stockade fought to obtain. The next 
 chapter, liowever, will refer more in detail to political affiiirs. 
 
 The insurgent commander at the time of the Stockade 
 collision was in the priiiii! of early manhood, and his brown hair, 
 blu(!-gr(!y eyes, broad fact;, and rather heavy brows wei'e those of 
 a handsome prestjnce. Not more than about twenty-iivc years 
 old, full six feet in stature, broad-chested, and generally well-pro-
 
 RAFFAELLO, LALOR, HDMFFRAY, VERN. 145 
 
 portioned, and possessing a rather impulsive temperament, he 
 was just the man to embody the pliysical-force-spirit of the move- 
 ment. Raffaello was a shrewd restless little man, nearly forty 
 years old, under the middle height, with reddish hair and red 
 beard cut short, and small hazel eyes that had ever a fiery 
 twinkle beneath a broad forehead and rather shaggy eyebrows. 
 An Italian, a Catholic, possessing others besides his mother 
 tongue, his sanguine temperament pushed him into the thickest 
 of the struggle, and his political sympathies being democratic and 
 unmixed with English leanings, he was one of the readiest to 
 carry the rising to the extreme limit of revolution. Humffray 
 was then a young man, too, possessing the patriotism and more 
 than usual of the caution of Welshmen. Darker in complexion 
 than either Lalor or Raffaello, he also differed from them in 
 stature. He was about the middle height, moderately stout in 
 frame, and had a well poised head and a comely face. His voice 
 was musical, and he possessed a readiness of utterance which 
 made him one of the foremost of the advocates of peaceable reform. 
 To that phase of the struggle he adhered, but his caution at times 
 led him to cross the more ardent purposes of others, who used to 
 accuse him of trimming — an ancient and easy method of de- 
 nouncing, and often of no worth. In this case there seems no 
 ground for supposing Humffray ever to have been disposed either to 
 abandon a legitimate, or to sanction an illegitimate agitation for 
 a redress of grievances. Vern was a Hanoverian, warm, rough, 
 uncertain, without the discretion, weight, and tact that Lalor 
 possessed. 
 
 John Fraser, an early gold-hunter, whom we shall meet again 
 by-and-bye, in more pacific and more civilised times, gives the 
 following revelation about Vern's movements : — 
 
 One of the foremost to incite the diggers to use physical force was 
 Frederick Vern. I first saw him at a meeting on Bakery Hill. Mounting 
 the stump, he soon attracted attention by the bitterness of his invectives 
 against the Government as "tyrants" and "oppressors," vowing that he 
 would never become the slave of despotism. Shortly afterwards I saw 
 him again, when the soldiers and police were skirmishing among the holes 
 on Gum Tree Flat, in search of unlicensed diggers : then he appeared 
 among the crowd with a long sword by his side. There were grave doubts
 
 146 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 of the sincerity and pluck of this foreigner, who could so glibly talk about 
 " despotism," as if he had only discovered its existence on his arrival in a 
 British colony. It appeared to me that, if anything, there was more 
 bluster than genuine courage in the man ; and my subsequent experience 
 of him did not alter that opinion. For several months prior to the 
 Stockade encounter, our party, consisting of Edmund Strange, Joseph 
 Butler, George Norgate, Walter Parling, Peter, the bakei', and myself, had 
 been camping together on Dalton's Flat. We were shepherding, and oc- 
 casionally working at a claim we owned on the Gum Tree Flat, at the same 
 time doing a little fossicking on Dalton's Flat to keep up supplies. Only 
 one of our party, Walter Parling, took an active part in the insurgent pro- 
 ceedings. More ardent than the rest, he enrolled himself in one of the 
 companies formed to bear arms, and was frequently absent of a night 
 attending to his drill. On Saturday evening, the 2nd December, he left, as 
 usual, after supper, to go to the Stockade. About one o'clock a.m. he came 
 home to bed, telling us, as he was imdressing, that he had been put on 
 sentry duty somewhere on the Melbourne Road ; that he had stayed there 
 two or three hours, and, finding himself very lonely and sleepy, he had 
 made tracks for home. He felt confident he would not be wanted that 
 night. He was mistaken. At early dawn we were all awakened by 
 the sound of firing in the direction of the Stockade. Hastily dressing, we 
 went to the summit of the rise north of Pennyweight Flat. Columns of 
 smoke could be seen in the vicinity of the Stockade, as if a number of the 
 tents were on fire. Troopers could also be seen rushing about in various 
 directions in the distance ; but what alarmed us the most was the peculiar 
 sound of bullets whizzing over our heads, or on either side of us. Had we 
 gone on, we would doubtless have shared the fate of other passive specta- 
 tors, who were so ruthlessly shot down by the infuriated troopers. Shortly 
 after returning to our tent, stragglers from the neighborhood of the 
 Stockade, some of them in a state of the greatest terror and excitement, 
 came hurrying along close to the tents. Au Irishman stopped a few 
 minutes to be supjilied with a drink of water. He had his wife and three 
 little children with him. The poor woman, crying bitterly, presented to 
 our mind a picture of distress, as, nursing her infant in her arms, she be- 
 wailed in heartrending tones the loss of all their little possessions — tent, 
 clothes, everything — burnt and destroyed by the troopers. On the following 
 day I decided to accompany my mate Strange and his brother toGeelong, and 
 remain there a few days. We found the people tlicre greatly excited over 
 the news of the fight. On the third day, hearing that matters had settled 
 down (juietly on Ballarat, we went back, and were met outside the tent by 
 our mates, who mysteriously whispered to us tliat one of the insurgent 
 leaders was concealed in our tent. On entering we were surprised to see, 
 reclining on my bed, which he had occupied during my absence, the man 
 whose name was in nearly everybody's mouth, the man for whose arrest the
 
 VERN IN HIDING. 147 
 
 authoritiea were offering £500, dead or alive — Frederick Vern 1 At his re- 
 quest, we pledged ourselves, as the others had done, to shelter and provide 
 for him, and keep his concealment a profound secret until he could regain 
 his freedom, or escape. Every morning on leaving to go to work we care- 
 fully closed the entrance to the tent, so that even our acquaintances in the 
 neighborhood would not attempt to enter during our absence. At one of 
 our evening meetings it was suggested that a letter to the Press should be 
 written by Vern, or in his name, announcing his departure from Australia. 
 It was argued that such a letter would have the effect of misleading the 
 authorities, and probably cause them to abandon their search for him. 
 This idea was at once carried out, with the result that " Vern's Farewell to 
 Victoria" was concocted and forthwith despatched to one of the papers — 
 I forget which. [It appeared in the A[/e, and was dated from "Port 
 Phillip Heads. "] I was his amanuensis, and he graciously permitted me to 
 do a little of the composing. In due time, I procured for him a copy of 
 the paper in which this precious epistle appeared, and his delight in reading it 
 in print was unqualified. He declared, with his usual emphasis, "that he was 
 certain he would now be able to elude the tyrants' vigilance, and return at 
 some future time to fight for the glorious cause of Liberty and Equality," 
 An incident occurred a day or two afterwards which severely tested the 
 strength of his nerves. The day being very hot, we were sitting together 
 in the shade of the entrance to the tent, when four troopers were observed 
 by one of us to be leaving the track over in the flat and making direct for 
 our tent. Not a moment could be lost. A^ern plunged under one of the 
 bunks, a rug or two was hastily throAvn on the edge to hide him from view, 
 and just as these arrangements were completed the troopers rode up to the 
 tent. Our agitation increased when we saw two of them dismount and 
 enter the tent for a drink and a smoke. We were all immensely relieved 
 when at last they bade us good day. As soon as we reported them out of 
 sight, Vern emerged from his hiding place. His face was ashy pale ; he 
 trembled in every limb, and it was some time before he could manage to 
 articulate. When his terror had partially subsided, he told us, in 
 broken accents, " that he really thought it was all up with him." Having 
 no money, Vern decided to apply to a lady friend for a loan, and sent me 
 with a letter to Mrs. Spanhake, of the Duchess of Kent hotel. Main Roadi 
 As soon as that lady learnt that her friend and countryman was still on 
 Ballarat, and not as she and others supposed on his way to Europe, she 
 evinced the greatest anxiety on his account. She gave me three sovereigns 
 to deliver to Vern, with strict injunctions to him not to venture from his 
 place of concealment on any account until all danger was gone. On re- 
 ceiving this message, its effect on Vern was just the reverse of what she 
 intended. It appeared to awaken an irresistible desire to pay her a visit ; 
 so a few nights afterwards a scheme was adopted to enable him to gratify 
 his wish. A female neighbor, a tall bony Scotch woman, who had been let
 
 148 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 into our confidence, supplied us with a dress, bonnet, and shawl, and a few 
 accessories to complete Vem'a disguise. Thus attired, he went do^vn town, 
 accompanied by Butler. They returned safely about midnight, and several 
 other trips to the same place were made afterwai-ds, but under another 
 disguise. About the end of February, Vern began to express impatience 
 at being kept so long a prisoner, as he termed it, and announced his inten- 
 tion of trying to find his way to Melbourne, where, he said, he had faithful 
 friends who would gladly shelter him. Having borrowed a pound from me 
 — nearly all I had at the time — and five pounds from Parling, he took his 
 departure one bright moonlight Sunday night, to make his way by the most 
 unfrequented tracks to Melbourne. He solemnly promised to refund the 
 money he had borrowed at the earliest opportunity, and when he was once 
 more a free man he would handsomely reward those who had with so much 
 fidelity screened him for so long. The old Scotch woman who had lent him 
 her clothes shed tears copiously, and so we parted. We had no tidings of him 
 for several months. At last we heard he was on Ballarat ; that he ap- 
 peared to have plenty of money, and was doing the grand among his 
 friends. As he had not considered it necessary to pay us a visit, our mate 
 Parling resolved to demand his five pounds. A day or two afterwards 
 Vern called on us, but made no mention of his indebtedness, until re- 
 minded by Strange. Assuming an air of being offended, he pulled out a 
 roll of notes from his pocltet, and, flinging one on the ground, haughtily 
 exclaimed, " There, Fraser, take your pound ; I am out of your debt now." 
 Seeing that I declined to pick up the money, Strange, whose temper was 
 getting ruffled, sternly asked Vern if that was the way he had received the 
 money, and demanded that he should pick the note up and pay his debt in 
 a proper manner. Knowing that Strange was not a man to be trifled with, 
 Vern awkwardly complied, at the same time muttering an apology when 
 handing me the note, and haughtily strode away without another word. 
 Parling happened to be away at work, and so missed that chance of getting 
 his money also. Seeing Vern some time afterwards, Parling asked him for 
 payment, but was met by a flat refusal. Parling then informed him that 
 he would take it out of him at the rate of £1 at a time, and proceeded at 
 once to take out the first instalment. He succeeded in getting the second 
 asid third in satisfaction, and doubtless would have insisted on taking out 
 the other two instalments, but poor Parling was killed shortly afterwards 
 in a claim at Buninyong, and so Vern escaped the finishing chastisement he 
 so richly deserved. Such are a few of my recollections of that strangely 
 diversified character — Frederick Vern. 
 
 Vern had a large ambition for cheap military glory, and, 
 like the great Napoleon, liad a stern unconquerable scorn of 
 facts. Emerson says, somewhere, that Napoleon's genius was 
 boundless in that direction, and before us lie letters in Vern's
 
 MOKE OF VERN. 149 
 
 hand which demonstrate his great ability and daring in that 
 peculiar walk of life. And this, too, while he declares in one of 
 the letters that his motto had " always been fiat justitia et si 
 pereat mundus." But Vern may be credible sometimes, neverthe- 
 less. In a letter to the Star, dated 2nd October, 1856, he 
 defends Humffray from charges of " treason" against the diggers, 
 and says he was one of the first to attend on Ross when wounded, 
 besides having kept Yern's hiding place secret when he could have 
 had £500 for revealing it. To those who were intimate with the 
 men and the time, the following letter — a literal copy — will be 
 regarded as characteristic of the writer's general frame of mind : — 
 Mr. Lalor. 
 
 My dearest friend ! 
 
 Once more enjoying the blessings of freedom, and having returned to 
 the colony free from danger, I hasten to address you. I hear that you was 
 seriously wounded and maimed for life. We are taking steps to subscribe 
 in Melbourne for a man who has so bravely risked his life in defence of the 
 miner's rights. My friend, would to Heaven you had taken my advice on 
 Friday, or would to Heaven we would have had men more true and honor- 
 able in our ranks. I have positive information, and hold a correspondence 
 in my hands now, from an officer in the insurgent army, and Mr. Furnell, 
 late of H.M.A. — as soon as I can fathem the infamous plot, I shall avenge 
 the murder of Ross and Capt. Potts, late of our ranks, and the world will 
 be to hot to hold me and Lieut. Col. M. 
 
 Did you read my letter dated Albury, signed E. W. and S, F., it was 
 a reply to Capt. Thomas' despatch. I am sorry that it should have cost 22 
 lives, or 23 including Capt. Pott's, to convince the diggers of the ridiculous 
 absurds of such a foolish outbreak as the late Ballarat affair. Do you re- 
 member the delegates fi'om Slaty Creek and their letter, as also M 'Gill's 
 reply to that letter, I have it from the best authority, that that was a plot. 
 We was sold to the government for £800. Would to God I had seceded 
 from the movement, or that you had taken my advice, and been discreet in 
 your trust to strangers. 
 
 I charge M'Gill with treason before God and men, and woe to him if 
 we meet again. I wish I had never accepted the command after your 
 resignation on Saturday morning, and then Sir Toorak could never have 
 offred £500 for my apprehension. The affair has produced good, but what 
 a cruel, useless, wantan sacrifice of humane life did it involve. You have 
 seen now that my advice was good, and that it was to permature a period 
 for such a movement as you unfortunately provoked. Vengeance is now
 
 150 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 the only thing that is left to me, and I shall do my duty cooly but not 
 foolishly. 
 
 Your 
 Melbourne, 7 | 4 | 55. sincere friend, 
 
 F. Vern, late of Ballarat. 
 This letter shows a little of what Raffaello calls " sky- 
 blathering," for Vern was one of the wildest and least reliable of 
 the physical force party. Lalor did not surrender, nor Vern 
 accept the command. The letter is a raving symptom of Vern's 
 delight in illusions. When peace returned Vern took to mining, 
 and in 1856 he was tried in Ballarat for "rioting at Black Lead 
 on the 7th April," and sentenced to three months' imprisonment. 
 The so-called riot was a combination, actively exerted, to fill up 
 the holes sunk by "jumpers" upon claims held under the frontage 
 regulations, then just become law. One of the witnesses at the 
 trial said — " I heard Vern say, ' If any man stops us from tilling 
 up the claims, I shall make a dead cock of him, by my God !' At 
 the same time he pulled out a revolver." They were out-spoken 
 men in those days here. 
 
 Vern was a voluminous writer to the newspapers of the 
 times, and in a letter to the Sta7- he explains how Humffray, 
 while pleading for Vern and others with the Government, was 
 summoned as a Crown witness. He says : — 
 
 Allow me also to say tliat tliis incident never caused Vern the least un- 
 easiness, inasmuch as Humffray had proved himself his best and truest 
 friend. I think the strongest proof of this is, that Mr. Humffray knew 
 Vtrn's retreat, came daily to sec him, and pei'formed for him all those little 
 offices of friemlship which his unfortunate situation required, and that at a 
 time when he could have made £500 by betraying Vern. This constitutes 
 Mr. Humffray's treason ! Wluit a serious offence ! Surely, after this, Mr. 
 Humflray will be deemed anything but a traitor 1 Humffray, indeed, loas 
 live rebel's best and IrueM friend. Jfumfrray, also, was tlie first man that 
 came to the assistance of our lamented friend Ross. 
 
 He also wrote as a friend to Mi-. Tliomas Loader, when 
 Loader was a candidate for Grant. Loader, seeing a letter by 
 Vern in the papers in wliicli anotlier character was assumed, 
 wrote to the Star, enclosing Vern's note to him, and the Star 
 editor sums up the matter thus : —
 
 HAYES IN A NEW CHARACTER. 151 
 
 Some men are badly used. Mr. Vern is so. He sends us a letter re- 
 ferring to Mr. Humtfray ; we publish that letter knowing it to be genuine. 
 Mr. Loader hands us another which had been sent to him. This we also 
 believe and know to be genuine and publish it. Again Mr. Vern sends us 
 a letter — the present one — disavowing the authorship of the one to Mr. 
 Loader. We believe and know it to be genuine and publish it. The 
 public can judge for themselves — the three letters are from the same pen. 
 We have shown the letters (which are still in our possession and open to the 
 inspection of the curious) to friends of both Mr. Humffray and Mr. Loader, 
 and they agree with us that either all the letters are genuine or they are 
 forgeries — take your choice, Mr. Vern, of either alternative. Mr. Vern's 
 courage has become proverbial, his truthfulness is now deserving of an 
 equally honorable distinction. 
 
 Vern does not seem to have made any response to this 
 revelation. As has been said, he was intrepid. But too much 
 has already been said respecting this singular actor in the Bal- 
 larat rising. 
 
 Black had a light complexion, was tall, thin, sanguine, 
 gentlemanly, irresolute ; but, the occasional perturbations of 
 some " sin of fear" apart, was true and faithful as became a 
 gentleman, and one having, in the Raffaello dialect, " a belief 
 in the resurrection of life." M'Gill was a young American, fuller 
 of ardor than of trusty courage and sagacity. Ross was of 
 another stamp ; he was a Canadian, bold, brave, and trusty : 
 about twenty-eight years old, of middle height, true as the steel 
 of the axe that felled his native forests, he was one of the best 
 loved men of those that fell. He was shot in the attack on the 
 Sunday morning, and was removed by friends to the Star hotel 
 that then stood in Main street, where he soon died. Esmond 
 was another who, with a few others, took the more prominent 
 positions in the struggle. His prominence was only comparative, 
 and was essentially local. Hayes had a genius for exploration, 
 and the airy flights of change were more seductive to him than 
 the " demnition grind" of dull prosaic life in the whim-round of 
 humdrum methodical duty. After the tragic comedy of the 
 Stockade time, he declined upon the less romantic occupation of 
 town inspector for Ballarat East, but private urgencies projected 
 him upon the quest of fresh woods and new pastures, and he 
 threw up his municipal prose for the poetry of life in the lands
 
 152 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 of Chili or Brazil. He took with him an honorable discharge 
 from office, duly attested by the big seal of the municipality, and 
 it seems that he bore with him also some mystic military charm 
 as from the post Bakery Hill meeting days, when oratory had 
 got translated into pikes and revolvers and muskets. For the 
 town inspector of Ballarat East blossomed forth in Chili or 
 Brazil as an authority upon military engineering, and he was 
 employed by the bellicose people of those latitudes as an inspector 
 of fortifications, on which he was to report forthwith, since 
 trouble on the frontier was expected as a result of the war be- 
 tween the Southern and Northern States of America. How our 
 hero came out of that exploit does not transpire, but he appeared 
 after a while in San Francisco, where he sought to coalesce with 
 Sweeney, once an auctioneer and municipal man in Ballarat East. 
 Sweeney, it was said, had made a pile of dollars by buying horses 
 and selling them to the Unionists or Confederates, or both ; but 
 instead of a coalition, there was a collision between the whilom 
 Ballarat chums, and Tim, around whom his brother Freemasons 
 liad helpfully rallied within the Golden Gate, returned with 
 larger experience to Victoria. He figured for a while as a railway 
 hand in some capacity in Melbourne, his portly presence adorning 
 the metropolitan halls and thoroughfares in his hours of leisure. 
 And there he died, and so we will hope that he, too, sleeps well 
 after his life's fitful fever. 
 
 In March, 185G, a return of the cost of the strife between 
 the insurgents and the Government was laid before Parliament. 
 The Deputy-Commissary General's figures showed the military ex- 
 penditure to be £26,733 18s. 6d., which, by deducting the cost of 
 the military in Melbourne on their oi'dinary footing, was re- 
 duced to £12,050. To this were added extra police charges, and 
 the sum of £4689 4s. voted in compensation to sufferers. 
 With regard to the compensation voted, it is to be remarked that 
 Lalor and Humffray both interposed on behalf of the claimants. 
 Lalor was specially active. The Star on the 22nd and 25th 
 March, 1856, had the following reference to the part taken by 
 the insurgent chief, then become a representative of the gold-field 
 in Parliament : —
 
 
 GO
 
 TWO STOCKADE ANNIVERSARIES. 153 
 
 To Mr. Lalor's exertions we must attribute this successful result. 
 * * * We can only consider as an additional grace to the triumph, that 
 he who was the foremost to defend our rights, has also been the principal 
 instrument in recovering compensation for wrongs inflicted. 
 
 On the 22nd November, 1855, a meeting was held on the 
 site of the Stockade, Daniel Sweeney in the chair, " to consider 
 the subject of compensation to the sufferers for the losses sus- 
 tained by those who had their tents burned down and their 
 stores and dwellings wantonly and ruthlessly destroyed by the 
 military and police on the memorable 3rd December." And on 
 the first anniversary of that day the fiery, lachrymose, faithful 
 Raffaello was again on the spot offering for sale the first pages of 
 his work, " The Eureka Stockade," which he had just brought up 
 from Melbourne. He sat there till the sun went down, a modern 
 Marius, with an eye to literary business. " He says (vide Star) 
 he will receive from Melbourne 1000 copies more, and as the price 
 is only 5s., all will have it in their power to purchase an interest- 
 ing account of the Ballarat disturbances." " Great works," as he 
 was called, from one of his favorite exclamations, sat there 
 selling his writing and wailing his " perdidi spem" not perceiving 
 that a splendid social and political victory had been won in that 
 sorry military defeat at the Stockade twelve months before. 
 
 On the 3rd December, 1856, there was a small procession to 
 the site of the Stockade, about two hundred people assembling. 
 Mr. John Lynch, who was a mining surveyor, a native of Ireland, 
 and one of Lalor's captains in the Stockade, mounted a tree- 
 stump and read an oration, the opening sentence of which was as 
 follows : — 
 
 Sensible of the debt of gratitude we owe to the memories of the brave 
 men who fell victims on the fatal 3rd December, 1854, in their efforts to 
 resist the oppression and tyranny of the then existing Government, we 
 meet here to-day, the second anniversary of that disastrous day, in solemn 
 procession, to pay to their manes the only tribute in our power, the cele- 
 brating with due solemnity the sad commemoration of their martyrdom. 
 
 When Lynch's oration was finished, a march was made to 
 the cemetery. The Star of that day reads thus : — 
 
 The persons present formed in procession, two and two, headed by Mr. 
 Esmond, carrying a pole draped in sable, with black crape streamers. 
 Next came Messrs. Seekamp and Lessmann, bearing garlands of flowers,
 
 154 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 and followed by the committee and the general procession. Nearly all the 
 persons present wore crape on the left arm, and many more also wore crape 
 on their hats. As the procession proceeded along the Eureka and Main 
 road its numbers swelled to nearly three hundred, the line reaching from 
 the Colonial Bank to the bridge, while numerous outsiders accompanied the 
 processionists. Arrived at the cemetery, the procession walked round the 
 spot where the bodies of the men who fell on the fatal Sunday morning are 
 interred, and, returning to the monument erected to their memory, the 
 apex of the monument was crowned with the garlands borne in procession. 
 An oration by Dr. Hanibrook followed, every person standing with head 
 uncovered. 
 
 At this time the enthusiasm of the days of agitation had not 
 all disappeared. There were left swelling bosoms and big words 
 that the least opportunity brought into play. An emotional 
 writer in the Star of the 9th February, 1856, drawing attention 
 to a meeting, to be held that day on Bakery Hill, to discuss 
 measures for the erection of a monument to the men who fell at 
 the Stockade, ended his appeal with the following burst of 
 fervor : — 
 
 The man on Ballarat who fails to swell to-day's meeting should be, in 
 its most perfect reality of chains, dungeons, and degredation, a victim of 
 slavery ! 
 
 It does not appear that the enthusiasm of the time was very 
 practical, for the only monument ever erected was a gift by the 
 man who constructed it and undertook its erection. Oratory, 
 however, was cheap, and at that time most of it was, no doubt, 
 as sincere at the moment as it was plentiful. 
 
 In a despatch by Deputy Adjutant-General Macarthur we 
 read of Captain Wise that " his remains are to be buried with 
 the honors due to his rank, in the graveyard at Ballarat gold-lield, 
 beside those of the three other meritorious soldiers which lie there 
 interred." Alas ! for years the honors were not very gratefujly 
 echoed by survivors. Mr. Westgartli was in Ballarat on that 
 day. He says : — 
 
 The day was hot and dusty as the cortege moved along to the place of 
 burial, a slightly rising ground nearly a mile from the township. This 
 rural cemetery was still wild and open, no fence having as yet been placed 
 around it, for even this is an expensive process at a gold-ticld. But some 
 excuse appeared for this apparent negligence, for the ground had evidently 
 been but recently devoted to its present purpose, as the small number of 
 graves amongst a large population indicated.
 
 soldiers' and diggers' monuments. 155 
 
 Since that time the city has spread out its arms all around 
 the " rural cemetery." The place has been enclosed ; it has well- 
 kept paths, flower borders, handsome monuments, and it is 
 crowded to overflowing with those who have fallen in this part of 
 
 The world's broad field of battle. 
 There is, too, a new and larger cemetery now, enclosed, orna- 
 mented, and already in part peopled with the silent ones. The 
 place in the old cemetery where the military were buried was 
 long like a neglected wilderness, a disgrace to the place, and all 
 around spoke of neglect and ruin. In 1879, when Mr. William 
 Collard Smith, then major, now a retired colonel, in the Victorian 
 volunteer service, was a member of the Victorian Government, 
 the burial place of the soldiers, after many appeals and remon- 
 strances from old pioneers of the gold-field, was enclosed with a 
 stone dwarf wall and iron fence. The ground was planted, the 
 graves adorned with flowers, and the decaying original head- 
 stones and tablets alone spoke then of the passage of the inter- 
 vening years. In the middle of the ground a freestone obelisk 
 was erected upon a pedestal, and on the east and west faces of 
 the obelisk two marble slabs were inserted, scrolls on each face of 
 the freestone carrying the word " Victoria," and on the north and 
 south sides the word "Duty" was carved beneath. Upon the 
 marble slab facing east, as if looking towards the spot where the 
 buried soldiers did their "duty," and fell in doing it, is the fol- 
 lowing inscription from the pen of this author : — " In this place, 
 with other soldiers and civilians of the military camp then in 
 Ballarat, were buried the remains of the British soldiers, Henry 
 Christopher Wise, captain, Michael Roney, and Joseph Wall, 
 privates of the 40th Regt., and William Webb, Felix Boyle, 
 and John Wall, privates of the 12th Regt., who fell dead or 
 fatally wounded at the Eureka Stockade, in brave devotion to 
 duty, on Sunday, the 3rd day of December, 1854, whilst attack- 
 ing a band of aggrieved diggers in arms against what they re- 
 garded as a tyrannous administration." The original draft read 
 " insurgent" instead of " aggrieved," but the Minister in ofiice 
 rejected the original word as a reflection upon the diggers whose 
 survivors' suflfrages helped to make members of Parliament, and.
 
 156 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 potentially, Ministers of the Crown. Upon the same marble slab, 
 beneath the inscription just quoted, and from the same pen, are the 
 following memorial words : — " Not far west from this spot lie the 
 remains of some of the diggers who fell in the courageous but misdi- 
 rected endeavor to secure the freedom which soon after came in the 
 form of manhood suffrage and constitutional government." Upon 
 the slab facing west are the following words : — " This monument 
 and the enclosing fence were erected Anno Domini mdccclxxix. 
 by the Government of Victoria at the request of the citizens of Bal- 
 larat." The sexton takes care of the enclosure now, and the 
 smaller one where the bodies of the diggers lie was not long since 
 repaired by private subscription. As long as men of the Fifties 
 survive, the memory of the dead Stockaders will be kept green, 
 and the little burial place and its monument will, let us hope, be 
 preserved from shameful neglect. But the old pioneers are fast 
 passing away to the same silences as the sturdy insurgents of the 
 fatal Sunday long ago reached, and who will keep the place of 
 graves when all are gone 1 Let the men of the future do their 
 duty as the buried soldiers and diggers did theirs, and both of 
 these mortuary memorials will be preserved to be at once a 
 tribute to heroic dutifulness and heroic resistance, and an incen- 
 tive for all time to emulation of the same virtues in similar cir- 
 cumstances if, which Heaven forfend, they should ever arise. 
 The diggers' monument is a grey sandstone obelisk, surmounted 
 by a draped urn, and resting on a bluestone base. The west face 
 bears the following inscription : — " Sacred to the memory of those 
 who fell on the memorable 3rd of December, 1854, in resisting 
 the unconstitutional proceedings of the Victorian Government. 
 This monument was presented by James Leggatt, Geelong, to the 
 people of Ballarat, and by them erected on the 22nd March, 
 1856." The otlier three faces have the following inscriptions : — 
 " John Ilaynes, Co. Clare, Ireland ; Patrick Gittings, Co. Kil- 
 kenny, Ireland ; Thos. Mullin, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland ; Samuel 
 Green, England ; John Robertson, Scotland ; Edward Thonen, 
 Elbertfeltdt, Prussia ; John Dimand, Co. Clare, Ireland ; Thos. 
 O'Neill, Co. Kilk(!nny, Ireland ; John Donaghey, Co. Donegal, 
 Ireland ; William Clifton, age 30, native of Bristol ; Ed. Quinn,
 
 THE STOCKADE MEMORIAL 157 
 
 Co. Cavan, Ireland ; Wm. Quinlan, Goulbourn, N.S. Wales ; 
 Wm. Emmerman, Hanover ; Lt. Ross, Canada ; Thaddeus 
 Moore, Co. Clare, Ireland ; James Brown, Newry, Ireland ; 
 Robert Jullien, Nova Scotia ; — Crowe, Scotland ; — Fenton, 
 England ; Edward McGlynn, Ireland." Between the two monu- 
 ments, but close on the west side of the soldiers' memorial, is a 
 plain truncated column of bluestone on a bluestone pedestal, en- 
 closed by a chain fixed to four low bluestone posts. The pedestal 
 has inserted on the east side a marble slab with this inscrip- 
 tion : — " In memory of James Scobie, who met with a premature 
 death on ' Eureka,' October 7th, 18.54. Erected by his brother 
 George." 
 
 On the 16th April, 1884, a meeting was held at Craig's 
 hotel to consider how best to ei^ect a permanent monument to 
 mark the site of the Eureka Stockade. A committee was ap- 
 pointed, with Mr. A. T. Morrison honorary secretary and trea- 
 surer. The Eastern Council concurring, a design by Mr. H. A. 
 King, C.E., was chosen. The monument is an octagonal body 
 of bluestone ashlar work in two tiers, with a flight of stone 
 steps leading to the top, where, upon a massive bed of ashlar 
 bluestone, is a cube of the same material, surmounted by a blue- 
 stone monolith twelve feet high. At the angles of the lower 
 platform are to be placed four 64-pounder guns, contributed to the 
 memorial by the Victorian Defence Department. The bluestone 
 cube bears the inscription : — " Eureka Stockade, Sunday morn- 
 ing, December 3rd, 1854." On the 3rd December, 1884, the 
 committee visited the then partially erected memorial as a mark 
 of respect to the dead, and on Friday, 27th August, 1886, the 
 still unfinished monument was formally handed over to the Town 
 Council of Ballarat East, that body recording its acceptance in 
 the following resolution : — " That the council recognise the eftbrts 
 of these gentlemen in a public manner, and accept the work so 
 well begun as a gift to the corporation, and that this corporation 
 will finish and maintain it for all time." The council has not yet 
 performed its contract, but a fence has been erected round the 
 monument, and the enclosure is to be further ornamented by the 
 planting of trees and shrubs. After the lapse of thirty years, some
 
 158 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 difficulty was at first met with in identifying the exact site of the 
 Stockade, and the spot on which the monument is placed was 
 chosen by the general agreement of many of the diggers and 
 others who were either present at the encounter between the 
 troops and the insurgents, or were at that time familiar with the 
 Stockade and its surroundings. The builders of the monument 
 were Rowsell and Son, the cost of stone and earthworks being 
 £286 4s., raised by public subscriptions, organised and in part 
 contributed by the honorary secretary and treasurer, and the 
 committee — Messrs. Hickman, Ferguson, Salter, Lewis, Roff, 
 "Williams, Bechervaise, Spain, Josephs, Wilson, Dyte, and Hall. 
 
 In the Legislative Assembly, on the 31st of May, 1870, while 
 the House was discussing a vote for the Nelson, ship, Mr. Frazer 
 said " he had been informed that the flag unfurled on board the 
 Nelson was the identical flag that was flying over the Eureka 
 Stockade at the time of the riot. (Laughter.) The flag in 
 question was subsequently stolen from the court, and had never 
 since been found." This is possible, perhaps, but hardly 
 probable. The flag was hauled down by trooper, or policeman, 
 John King, who, in 1870, was Living in or near Warrnambool. 
 King was a native of Mayo, Ireland, and he gave the flag, or 
 what was left of it — for it was much torn, and was also lessened 
 by relic-hunters taking bits of it — to Inspector P. H. Smith, who 
 also was a Mayo man. Smith died in Melbourne, but where the 
 flag is the author has not been able to learn. 
 
 Mr. Blanchard, who was at that time a compositor on the 
 Ballarat Times, informs the autlior tliat after the fight on the 
 Sunday, the soldiers had the diggers' flag lioisted on a pole at the 
 Soldiers' Hill camp, and were dancing round it as if wild with joy 
 ajid grog. 
 
 On the last day of the year 1855, at lialf-past twelve o'clock 
 of the day, Sir Charles Hotham died at Toorak. His disease was 
 dysentery, and his death was attributed to the harassing anxieties 
 which accompanied the crisis. He is the only Victorian Governor 
 who has yet died while in oflice hero. His remains were buried 
 in Melbourne. Governor Hotham failed, no doubt, to understand 
 the gold-digging population. His mistakes were due to a want
 
 DEATH OP SIR C. HOTHAM. 159 
 
 of sympathy with the democratic instinct inherent in all aggrega- 
 tions of free British colonists. His intentions, we may well 
 believe, were to do his duty dutifully. That duty he conceived 
 to be to rule with a high hand a people whom, though compli- 
 mented by him upon occasion as peaceable and law-abiding, he 
 practically regarded as a froward race of vagabond gold-hunters, 
 mixed with demagogues and escaped and liberated convicts from 
 the adjacent penal settlements. What wonder, then, that he, an 
 aristocrat, a naval officer used to peremptory command, with 
 such views heightened, too, by occasional excesses of language 
 and action amongst the miners, should fail to comprehend all at 
 once the policy required for the redress of wrongs which some of 
 his own subordinates on the gold-fields had first intensified and 
 then misrepresented. Divining only a part of the truth. Sir 
 Charles Hotham was betrayed into a misconception of the crisis. 
 As his predecessor had discovered " designing" men in the 
 journalists of his day, so Governor Hotham found the gold-fields 
 troubles to be the product of the schemes of " disafiected" men, 
 and that idea whelmed all other conceptions of the causes of the 
 outbreak. The Governor was partially right. There were among 
 the insurgents men wlio hated British rule with a hereditary 
 hatred. There were Irishmen who felt that feeling, and there 
 were foreigners who had no special sympathy, if any at all, with 
 British government ; but even those men never desired or aimed 
 at rebellion until they were maddened witli the excitement of the 
 agitation which sought, at least in its earlier stages, nothing but 
 the clear and rational redress of plain and insulting wrongs. 
 Here, even those who elsewhere may have been tlie least loyal 
 were disposed to peace and submission, no matter whence they 
 came, and it was nothing but the haughty folly of officials that 
 precipitated what has been called rebellion ; for it was clear to 
 demonstration that it was not so much the law, or the want of 
 law, as the unwise administration of law that provoked the rising 
 of the gold-fields population. 
 
 Since the first edition of this History was published, the 
 author has had opportunity for fuller examination of the evi- 
 dence touching the parts borne by Sir Charles Hotham and Mr.
 
 160 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Secretary Foster, and the irresistible conclusion is that the Gover- 
 nor, and not the Secretary, was the person directly responsible for 
 the later severity of the enforcing of the hateful license law. The 
 testimony of witnesses examined before tlie Select Committee, re- 
 ferred to by Irwin, is overwlielming in that direction. That 
 committee sat in 1867 to consider Mr. Foster's — by that time he 
 liad assumed Fitzgerald as the ultimate one of several names — 
 claims to a pension or compensation for his resignation of office 
 at the time of the Eureka Stockade, and on the 11th July of 
 that year the committee agreed upon its report, finding that 
 Foster resigned on the 9th December, 1854, that he resigned 
 voluntarily because " a prejudice, which he alleged to be without 
 foundation, had arisen against him on the part of the miners," 
 and that the evidence " did not warrant the conclusion that the 
 discontent then existing on the gold-fields resulted from a policy 
 for which he was responsible." The committee might liave gone 
 further than that, and included most of the gold-fields' com- 
 missioners in the same bill of acquittal. Foster shows that the 
 Governor ignored him and his officers generally, took outside 
 advice, issued peremptory orders on his own mere motion, and 
 both Foster and other witnesses show that just before the attack 
 upon the Eureka Stockade, the Governor held direct correspon- 
 dence in cypher with some of the commissioners, passing by not 
 only the Colonial Secretary Foster, but the Chief Commissioner 
 "Wright. Foster and Wright both held the licence to be a 
 blunder, and advised an export duty on gold instead, and this 
 was the view almost universally held by the commissioners on the 
 gold-fields, than wliom none should liave been better able to 
 judge of the merit of the law they had to enforce. The notable 
 order of the 13th September, 1854, instructing the commissioners 
 to go out twice a week in quest of unlicensed diggers, was the 
 Governor's own work, given without consultation with any of his 
 officers, and was the outcome of his persuasion that an export duty 
 meant smuggling, and that the enforcing of the law had not been 
 as dutifully done as it sliould have been. The Royal Commission 
 appointed to enquire into the Ballarat disturbances, reported of 
 that order that "previous experience should have dictated
 
 < 
 
 <■ 
 
 an 
 CO 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 CO 
 
 <
 
 FOSTER A SCAPEGOAT. 161 
 
 rather a change of the law ; a fire is kindling from the use of 
 some combustible material, and the official mode of extinguishing 
 tlie flames is to increase this material." No condemnation by 
 digger, journalist, or historian is stronger or more direct than 
 that, and it is to be remembered that the direct author of " the 
 official mode" was Sir Charles Hotham, and not Colonial Secretary 
 Foster, nor Chief Commissioner Wright, nor Commissioner Rede, 
 nor Acting-Chief Commissioner of Police M'Mahon. But the 
 diggers, as was natural, and, indeed, in a sense, proper, regarded 
 Foster as practically the source of trouble. They had come from 
 constitutional England, where the Minister, and not the Crown, 
 was responsible, and they had not learnt that Sir Charles Hotham 
 was both Crown and Minister in one. They could not conceive 
 that he who was less than the Queen was more than the Queen, 
 and that he was despotically breaking the law — the law of official 
 routine and of official courtesy — and that, not for the public 
 good, however excellent the motive. They therefore threw on 
 Foster, and secondarily upon the gold-fields commissioners, the 
 odium of a policy for whose increased vigor the Governor alone 
 was responsible. Foster resigned office to placate the people and 
 ease the Governor's position, and it seems probable, by the im- 
 plied consent, if not desire of the Governor, not, as is easy to 
 infer, from a wish on the Governor's part to escape personal re- 
 sponsibility, but as a concession to an irritated and misjudging 
 public opinion. It was only when before the Select Committee 
 of a Constitutional Parliament, thirteen years afterwards, that 
 Foster and the other officers of the Government under Sir 
 Charles Hotham — till then silent under the seal of official duty 
 and personal honor — revealed the fact that they had all denounced 
 the licence and the licence-hunting policy, and that its main- 
 tenance and odious application were made compulsory by the 
 fact, as declared in evidence by Foster, corroborated by the other 
 witnesses, " that Sir Charles Hotham was so self-willed that he 
 was indisposed to take counsel." 
 
 But Sir Charles Hotham is more to be pitied than blamed, 
 more to be honored than condemned. There is no doubt that he 
 died a martyr to a high and chivalrous sense of duty. He was a
 
 162 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 victim of error even before he reached his post in Victoria. The evi 
 dence of Captain Kay, R.A., his private secretary, declares that 
 
 Sir Charles Hotham disliked the licence fee ; and I know in Downing 
 street he was told before he came here that in consequence of what had 
 already taken place in regard to this licence fee, the question was not very 
 likely to be settled without a fight. He told me that more than once on 
 board the ship coming out ; and in conversation together he formed his 
 plan of action in the event of such an emergency arising. I have often heard 
 Ifim say he found the law imposing a licence fee in force by Act of the 
 Legislative Council when he came here, and it was his duty to carry it 
 c,i\t — that he did not make the law, but that he would use every means in 
 his power to get it altered as soon as he could. * * * Sir Charles 
 Hotham was far too high-minded and honorable a man to be able to make 
 a scapegoat of anyone ; he did not sacrifice Mr. Fitzgerald — Mr. Fitzgerald 
 sacrified himself. Sir Charles Hotham sacrificed himself also, but it was 
 in the performance of an onerous and thankless public duty, and he fell 
 in the discharge of it, as fully as any man ever did in the field of battle. 
 
 This is absolutely indisputable. It is borne out by the 
 evidence of Mr. Rusden, clerk of the Legislative Council, as is 
 also Captain Kay's opinion of the Governor's having abstained 
 from formally requesting Foster to resign. Sir Charles Hotham 
 arrived only at the end of June, 1854, hot from the stupid orders 
 of Downing street, himself a naval officer accustomed to com- 
 mand, untrammelled by the restrictions of constitutional go- 
 vernment, and impelled by the instincts of his profession and his 
 sense of duty. He had little time, perhaps as little inclination, 
 to acquaint himself with the temper of tlie people, or to take de- 
 liberate counsel with his officers in the Government, before the 
 troubles at the diggings had got beyond pacific solution. If 
 Foster ever gave advice, as is supposable, or if he did not advise 
 af^ainst the maintenance of the licence law, the Governor, with 
 the Downing street monitions ever about him, would naturally 
 go to his Attorney-General for counsel. Indeed, it is said that 
 Sir Charles did ask Mr. Stawell, now Sir William Stawell, the 
 Attorney General of 1854, wliat powers he had as Governor in 
 regard to the enforcing of the law, and that Mr. Stawell's advice 
 was that the Governor's powers were full and clear. There came 
 about, at any rate, a strong feelii»g at the time of the Stockade 
 and afterwards, that two martinets, a naval one and a forensic
 
 A MARTYR TO DUTY. 163 
 
 one, had come together, and that the conjunction had boded ill 
 for tlie diggers. But, besides these digging troubles, anterior to 
 them in some sort, the Grovernor suffered irritation from what 
 seemed neglect and imposition in connection with his household 
 furnishings at Toorak, and he was also anxious because of a de- 
 cline in the revenue. Captain Kay says his own idea was " that 
 one-fourth of the money charged as expended upon Toorak never 
 was expended on the place at all." Such a belief was, no doubt, 
 sliared by Sir Charles Hotham, and it is easy to conclude that the 
 result upon a man of ardent temperament and of high principles 
 of honor would be to dispose him to a want of confidence in the 
 officials whom he was bound to connect with the business. He 
 probably shrank proudly within himself, and Captain Kay says 
 before the Select Committee that the Governor " attempted to do 
 what no man alive could do, which was to take all the papers 
 connected with the Government of this colony and read them for 
 himself." "And did read for himself?" asks the committee. 
 " And did read for himself, and killed himself," is Captain Kay's 
 emphatic rejoinder. Mr. Rusden is equally convinced. " I 
 think," he says, " he overworked himself, and being subject to 
 internal disorder for a period of years after he was on the coast of 
 Africa, no doubt the weakness to which he was reduced made him 
 fall a prey to the illness that had overtaken him : he worked very 
 hard, very often till one or two o'clock in the morning." There is 
 something pathetic in the whole picture of this misguided, mistak- 
 ing. Governor's martyrdom to duty. He fell a courageous and 
 devoted victim to duty and to political errors, as before him had 
 fallen the equally brave diggers and soldiers at the Eureka Stockade 
 
 Soon after the Stockade trouble was over, the officer in 
 charge held a parade of all the military force on the space now 
 covered by the gas works. It was a symbolic display of the 
 supremacy of law and, military though it was, of peace also, for 
 tliere had already come an earnest of the better things for which 
 most of the diggers had risen, pacifically or otherwise. It may be 
 mentioned here that the plate showing the march of the troops to 
 the Camp is historical — ^not imaginary. The artist, Mr. Huyghue 
 saw what he has depicted.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Ballar&t Politically Active and Influential.— New Constitution.— Humffray and Lalor 
 Elected— Their Addresses.- Huniffray in Trouble.— Lalor on Democracy.- Lalor on the 
 Slnj:—The Grand Trunk Affair.— Petition for a Private Property Mining Law.— Neglect 
 by the Parliaments of Mining- Interests.- Probable Causes.- New Political Demands.— 
 Votes of Lalor and Humffray. — Burial Expenses of Governor Hotham.— O'Shanassy Chief 
 Secretary. — Haines Succeeds, with M'Cullochas Commissioner of Customs.— O'Shanassy 
 in Power Again.— Nicholson Cabinet.— Succeeded by Heales, with Humffray as First 
 Minister of Mines —O'Shanassy in Power Again.— Succeeded by M'CuUoch— The 
 Tariff —Re-call of Governor Darling.— Darling Grant Crisis.— Death of Governor 
 Darling.— Grant to his Widow and Family.— Sladen Ministry.— M'Culloch in 
 Power Again. — Representative Charges.— Jones Declared Corrupt.— Defeats Vale. 
 —The Macpherson Ministry.— Its Resignation.- Macgregor's Failure.— M'Culloch 
 and Macpherson in Office Together —Michie Elected for Ballarat West — First Berry 
 Government.— M'Culloch in Power Again.— Joseph Jones, Minister of Railways.-Major 
 Smith in the Second and Third Berry Governments.- His " Merry Millions."- His Breach 
 with Berry.— Ballarat Sticks to him. -C. E. Jones Returned Again.— He and his Tribune. 
 — R. T. Vale and Jones beat Bell and Fincham.— Ballarat East Candidates : their Ups 
 and Downs.— James, Minister of Mines, Loses his Seat, and Leaves Political Life.— 
 Council Elections.- Wanliss Petitions Against Gore's Return. — A Local Self-Government 
 Paroxysm. — Local Court— Mining Board. — Court of Mines.— Local Courts Wrongly Con- 
 stituted. -Mining Boards.- Judge Rogers and Black Wednesday. -One Code of Mining 
 Law Reciuired. — Valuable Services of the Earlier Courts and Boards. 
 
 HE acquittal of tlie State prisoners was an 
 earnest of a fuller fruition of the reform 
 struggle. It was not merely an acquittal of 
 the insurgent diggers, but a justification of 
 the basis of the whole reform movement, and 
 a condemnation of the system of tyranny 
 whose stupid and insulting administration 
 had provoked such bloody reprisals. The 
 report of the Commission of Enquiry averred 
 that the diggers had been " governed three times over," and de- 
 clared tliat if the insurgents ha<l been guilty of excesses, they 
 had l)een goaded thereto by bad laws badly enforced. The 
 rciiicdy suggested was the Government of the people by the 
 people through a fairly representative Parliament. Thence came 
 our present Constitution and all its benefits in the form of a 
 manhood franchise; and local self-government. 
 
 Thus, to the wild delirium of the early gold-hunting time there 
 QUQceeded the troubles of the Eureka Stockade, and then, with
 
 COLONIAL FOUNDATIONS. 165 
 
 the gift of constitutional freedom, there came the noble or ignoble 
 rage of party politics. Ballarat has always held a prominent 
 position in politics. The sturdy n.en who fought through all the 
 agitations that led up to and followed the Eureka Stockade 
 seemed to have given a character of influence to the electorates 
 that were the outcome of those early struggles. But some of 
 those earlier fighters were soon left behind. The current of 
 politics ran a turbulent race in keeping with the swift march of 
 colonial affairs generally. Some men who rose to early fame and 
 bade fair to ride firmly upon the waters of public life have drifted 
 upon lee shores and made wreck of health and reputation. 
 Others have been out-faced by newer and bolder, if not better, 
 men, and have fallen back among the shadows of private life. 
 The simple aims and earnest honesty of most of the earlier agita- 
 tors have given place to complications of policy and, too often, to 
 the mere self-seeking of cunning men who trade upon the weak- 
 nesses and the vices common to society everywhere, and nowhere 
 so potent as in a democracy where the passions and prejudices of 
 all classes have full play. 
 
 "We may as briefly as possible trace the course of those later 
 events, besides glancing at some anterior passages of Colonial his- 
 tory which were the prelude to those which relate more closely 
 to our story. On the 25th July, 1828, the British Parliament 
 passed an Act giving larger powers to the Governments of New 
 South Wales and Van Dieman's Land, and in 1837 the Govern- 
 ment of Australia was created. On the 5th August, 1850, the 
 Government of Victoria was constituted. One-third of the 
 members of the Legislative Council, the only House of Legisla- 
 ture then, to be nominated by the Crown, and the other two- 
 thirds by the inhabitants of the territory, separation from New 
 South Wales taking place on the 1st July of the following year. 
 The Victorian " Act to Establish a Constitution in and for the 
 Colony of Victoria," was reserved on the 25th of March, 185-i, 
 for Royal assent, was assented to on the 21st July, 1855, and 
 was proclaimed in Victoria, and came into operation on the 23rd 
 November, 1855. By that Act the old and partly nominee
 
 166 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Council was abolished and two Houses were created — a Legisla- 
 tive Council and a Legislative Assembly, both wholly elective, the 
 Council having thirty members, chosen from six provinces, and 
 the Assembly sixty members, chosen from thirty-seven districts. 
 Pending the Royal assent to that Act, however, five representa- 
 tives from the gold-fields had been added to the old Council. 
 This was done in pursuance of a recommendation from the Gold- 
 fields Commission after the quickening time of the Eureka 
 Stockade, and Lalor and Humftray were chosen to represent Bal- 
 larat. About the same time Messrs. Samuel Irwin, John Victor, 
 and William Bradshaw were appointed justices of the peace in 
 Ballarat. They were men of the times and of the mines, and 
 their appointment was one of the immediate fruits of the agita- 
 tion for reform of administrative as well as legislative abuses. 
 Irwin has already appeared in this narrative ; Victor became 
 principal of Grenville College, Ballarat, but now lives in Sydney. 
 
 The first printed election addresses of Lalor and Humftray 
 were as difi'ei'ent as the men. Lalor's was brief and plain as a 
 word of command from a military man. In his short address it 
 was natural he should say — 
 
 I am in favor of such a system of law reform as will enable the poor 
 man to obtain equal justice with the rich one, which at present I believe 
 to be impossible. 
 
 Humftray's was more verbose and rhetorical, full of wise 
 saws, and bristling with sentiments and statistics. 
 
 I respond (he said) to the call readily, because I am anxious to enter 
 St. Patrick's Hall, and have the high privilege of joining in tlic patriotic 
 chorus which will form at once the requiem of the present irresponsible 
 system, and be the herald of a glorious future for Victoria. 
 
 The printers of that day printed " golorious future," as if, 
 facetious in their work, tliey wished to qualify the pacific agita- 
 tor's eloquence ))y a sugg(!stion of wliat, in the language of 
 American politicians, is called " higli falutin." We, liowever, 
 may rather suppose he had only caught some distant echoes of 
 th(5 songs of the bards of his native land as, in the ancient times, 
 tliey sang in " patriotic chorus" among th(! liills of long uncon- 
 quered and ever romantic Cyuiry. Born in Montgomeryshire,
 
 LALOR AND HUMFFRAY. 167 
 
 near the source of the Severn, and not far from the head waters 
 of old Usk that runs fi^om the Brecon hills by valley, and glen, 
 and crumbling castle walls, close past the site of hoary Romano- 
 British Caerleon, thence to mingle its waters with those of the 
 British Channel not very remote from the mouths of broader 
 Severn and the more picturesque Wye, Humffray may have seen 
 visions of the past and the future, in which poetry and politics 
 became curiously blended. Lalor was not so much given to visions 
 and poetry, if his later life be the test. He was directer, more 
 practical, more commercial. However, youth and hope are im- 
 mortal, and HumfiVay, at the time under discussion, was nearer 
 than now to the days of " unbounded hope and heavenly 
 ignorance." He may have penned his first political manifesto 
 with the " March of the Men of Haerlech" ringing in his ears, 
 or under other remains of the inspiration of his legendary fore- 
 fathers who, if poets speak truly, were, some of them, in youth, 
 as " damsels-errant," and used to 
 
 Ride 
 Arm'cl as ye see, to tilt against the knights 
 There at Caerleon. 
 
 Humffray had spirit, and could assert himself in time of pres- 
 sure. On the 26th of March, 1862, a " monster meeting" was 
 held in the Town-hall, Ballarat East, to express indignation 
 against Humffray and John Cathie for their votes in favour of a 
 ten years' extension of the Squatters' Leases. Popular indigna- 
 tion is often accompanied by imputations of corruption, and by 
 insulting assumption of almost despotic authority over the very 
 reason and will of the representative. A display of this temper 
 in the electorate seems to have occurred, for Humffray retorts 
 upon some scandals of the kind. He did not appear before the 
 meeting, but a letter from him was read in which were the fol- 
 lowing passages in wholesome assertion of rational freedom in the 
 representative : — 
 
 I wish it to be distinctly understood that I claim now, as I ever have 
 claimed, the most unfettered freedom in the exercise of my judgment 
 while recording my votes ; as I would not, for one hour, occupy the 
 humiUating position of a mere delegate, and vote according to order '* *
 
 168 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 As to the vile insinuations of corrupt motives which have been made 
 against me, I know, and am known in Ballarat East too well to suppose 
 for one moment that they will discredit any but their authors. Thus much, 
 however, I will say, that if the price of a man's representing a constituency 
 is that he must submit to an inquisition, by public meetings, into the state 
 of his private affairs, whenever slanderous enemies choose to misrepresent 
 and stigmatise his votes as venal, no human being of any spirit will consent 
 to debase himself so far as to become a member. 
 
 Humffray fell, and Cathie too, before the storm ; Cathie, who 
 was no mean stump orator, upon occasion, having had the 
 the courage to tell the tumultuous meeting that " the thing 
 which shows me I have done right is the noise and not the reason 
 that greets me." In all HumfFray's public career he carried him- 
 self, as Hamlet puts it, " inditferent honest," not descending to 
 the cunning arts of falsehood which have in later years carried 
 away many constituencies captive. Later, he went the way, 
 though less noisily, that the Netherlands Brederode went, and his 
 influence consequently declined. 
 
 When the first Parliament was elected under the new Consti- 
 tution Act, the Ballarat members were again elected, Lalor for 
 Grenville district, including Ballarat West, and Humffray for 
 North Grant, including Ballarat East. 
 
 There was one time, in December, 1856, when Lalor was held 
 to have belied his previous democratic action. A new Electoral 
 Act, brought in under the Constitution, the advent of which the 
 Eureka aflair had done much to hasten, was before Parliament, 
 and the 4th clause proposed a renewal of the property qualifica- 
 tion for the franchise. This was opposed by the country 
 generally, as manhood's suffrage was demanded as the people's 
 right. It was certainly a fair d(;mand, and not illogical, as a 
 sequence to tlie principles declared by the gold-fields reformers when 
 Lalor was one of the most popular advocates of liberty. But 
 Lalor voted for the obnoxious clause in the Act, and brought a 
 storm upon himself. In a letter to the Ballarat Star on the 1st 
 January, 1857, he defended hims(!lf against tlie attacks of that 
 journal, and the complaints of his constituents. He said : — 
 
 I would ask these gentlemen what thoy mean by the term " demo- 
 cracy ?" Do they mean Chartism, or Connnuuiam, or Republicanism ? If
 
 LALOR ON THE FRANCHISE. 1G9 
 
 SO, I never was, I am not now, nor do I ever intend to be a democrat. But 
 if a democrat means opposition to a tyrannical press, a tyi-annical people, 
 or a tyrannical government, then I have ever been, I am still, and I will 
 ever remain a democrat. 
 
 Lalor held that " freehold suffrage is virtually manhood 
 suffrage, " and on that ground he justified his vote. No doubt he 
 had grown more sober since the days in the latter half of 1854, 
 when a programme of principles not much unlike Chartism, and 
 a Declaration of Independence were adopted by the agitators of 
 the day. His defence shows that he had the courage of his 
 opinions, whether they were new or old, and suggests a feeling of 
 the necessity of some such coiTection of the unequal action of a 
 purely numerical majority, arrived at in the ordinary way, as 
 proposed by Hare in his scheme for the representation of 
 minorities. But he also went the length of advocating an Upper 
 House of nominees instead of elected representatives. He even 
 then cited tha^t advocacy as a proof of his never having advocated 
 " thorough democracy." That such an opinion as to the Upper 
 House should have been held within twenty-four months of the 
 Eureka agitation by the armed leader of that rising is one more 
 instance of the mutability of human feeling if not of change of 
 opinion. Lalor may not have had any very well-reasoned opinions 
 on constructive politics when he took up arms against the rule of a 
 Government and a partially elective single House of Parliament, 
 but there is little ground for doubting that at that time his 
 sympathies were in favor of as wide a liberalism as was espoused 
 by those of his subsequent constituents who condemned his vote 
 on the 4th clause of the Electoral Act in December, 1856. 
 
 Though located in Melbourne then, Lalor did not cease to 
 take an interest in Ballarat afiairs, and in letters written in July, 
 1857, he advises on divers municipal matters, and acutely criti- 
 cises a prospectus for a tramway projected to be run from the 
 Buninyong Road, or Plank Road — as that part of the road from 
 about Clayton street to near Buninyong was then planked — to 
 the forest near Beale's Swamp, to connect the sawmills with the 
 town. The plank road to Buninyong was begun in 1856, and 
 was made because the road was not yet formed properly, was
 
 170 HISTORY OF BALLAEAT. 
 
 swampy, and the traffic at that time was very great. A few 
 years after, to wit in 1862, a Ballarat, Smythesdale, Linton, and 
 Carngham Tramway Company was projected, with a capital of 
 £10,000 in £10 shares ; R. H. Lock, provisional secretary ; but, 
 like the scheme Lalor criticised, it never came to fruition, though 
 near a quarter century was to pass before railway communication 
 between Ballarat and Smythesdale was established. Lalor dis- 
 plays business shrewdness in that other matter, and is suspicious 
 of undue local journalistic influence. The iitar was of baleful 
 aspect to his view, and he says : — 
 
 From what 1 have heard down here, I am satisfied that all the gentle- 
 men connected with the Star intend to rule Ballarat, not only politically 
 but commercially. Hence they have put Belford into the Council, Finnis 
 as Town Clerk, and Coote as Surveyor. They have also attempted to get 
 the Commission of the Peace for Belford, as I am informed. All these 
 exertions are intended to produce pecuniaiy profit, as may be seen by the 
 printing contract for the Eastern Council, which is, I believe, opposed to the 
 standing orders. Now, it is quite evident they wish to follow the same 
 game with respect to the Treasury. Hence Bailey and Coote are ap- 
 pointed. 
 
 This sort of stuff would be amusing reading now, were it not 
 a reminder of the more unscrupulous attacks upon the journals of 
 to-day by scheming politicians whose garrulous effrontery is sur- 
 passed by nothing unless by their insatiable and more than 
 womanly vanity, or by their unquenchable lust of power and place 
 and pay. As to Lalor, a dozen years from the Stockade episode found 
 him a much changed man as to his pursuits. The loss of an arm 
 and a cause had effectually reduced the revolutionary hysteria of 
 his earlier youtli, and he declined upon less heroic ambitions. He 
 had failed to free this colony from tlie dominion of the Saxon ; 
 but he could, at any rate, still tight for money and political posi- 
 tion, and in such a campaign discover talent as a user of men, as 
 one able to mine and countermine, and to push his combinations 
 with dogged tenacity even against odds. In 1854: he was a mere 
 working digger with transcendental political aims. In 1866 he 
 had became a mining capitalist. As a shareholder in the Grand 
 Trunk Company, Creswick, he fought a long and successful 
 battle with others of the company, who, wlien the company sus-
 
 THE GRAND TRUNK AFFAIR. 171 
 
 pended operations because the mine had not paid, bought the 
 plant and sought to obtain a new title by lease from the Crown. 
 James Boughtniau and Jonathan Middleton undertook the float- 
 ing of the new company ; the old lease was forfeited for non- 
 payment of rent, the new lease was applied for, and in the mean- 
 time, or before then, the projectors of the new company, called 
 the Australasian Company, had discovered rich ground. Then 
 the issue of the lease was opposed by a person who signed the 
 protest as " James Robinson." This person was never discovered. 
 Nobody was found who claimed to be the James Robinson in 
 question, and no proof of his existence or whereabouts was obtain- 
 able. He never appeared, but Lalor was omnipresent as an 
 obstacle, and the lease was not issued until one Dominick Dillon, 
 his friend and agent, had 400 shares in the new company trans- 
 ferred to him free of cost. The ground on which Lalor opposed 
 the issue of the lease was the assumption of fraudulent collusion 
 on the part of some of the projectors of the new company to the 
 wronging of the old shai'eholders in the Grand Trunk Company 
 generally, and the struggle over the lease application and its ac- 
 cessories led to long and costly litigation. Lalor had the courage 
 of his opinions on the subject, and opposed Longmore's motion in 
 the House "as an attempt by one member to gratify his feelings, 
 political or religious, at the expense of another member, upon the 
 mere assertion of parties with whom he had been engaged for two 
 years in a legal struggle to gain his own." That struggle in the 
 courts was lively and long. Nor was that all. The parties had 
 their respective friends in Parliament, and on the 11th August, 
 1868, Mr. Longmore moved—" That a Select Committee of nine 
 members of this House be appointed, by ballot, to enquire into 
 and report upon the circumstances under which certain persons, 
 such as Dominick Dillon and others, exercised a system of extor- 
 tion over applicants for mining leases and other privileges, which 
 may be dealt with by the departments, to procure bonuses and 
 corrupt advantages for the said extortioners and their accom- 
 plices, to the injury of the public, in consideration of departmen- 
 tal and parliamentary influences which they profess to exert ; 
 such committee to have power to call for persons and papers ;
 
 172 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 three to form a quorum." This hot motion was inspired by a 
 sti'ong belief that Lalor was using his position to extort advan- 
 tages from the innocents who were seeking the lease for the new 
 company. But Mr. M'Bain, by way of amendment, and in a 
 more judicial spirit, moved : — " That a Select Committee of nine 
 members be appointed to enquire into and report upon the cir- 
 cumstances connected with a certain application for obtaining a 
 mining lease with which Dominick Dillon and others were con- 
 nected ; such committee to consist of Mr. Wrixon, Mr. Sullivan, 
 Mr. E. Cope, Mr. Longmore, Mr. G. P. Smith, Mr. Aspinall, Mr. 
 Macpherson, Mr. Kerferd, and Mr. M'Bain ; five to form a 
 quorum, with power to send for persons and papers." The 
 original motion being negatived, Mr. M'Kean submitted 
 a further amendment, which was almost word for word 
 like Mr. Longmore's motion, but nominated eleven members, 
 namely, Messrs. Sullivan, M'Kean, Crews, E. Cope, Miller, Blair, 
 Kerferd, Thomas, Wrixon, Longmore, and Aspinall ; three to 
 form a quorum. This was rejected, and Mr. M'Bain's amendment 
 was adopted. The committee began its sittings on the 25th 
 August, and amongst the witnesses called were Messrs. Frazer, 
 Stutt, and C. E. Jones, members of the House, the last named 
 being then in office as Commissioner of Roads and Railways. 
 Lalor was also present, and at the close of the examinations was 
 informed that he could " make a statement" if he desired to do 
 so. He replied : — " If the committee desire to examine me upon 
 anything essential for me to say, I shall be very happy to 
 answer." Mr. M'Bain said :— " But you do not desire to say 
 anything unless the committee think proper to ask questions of 
 you ?" and Lalor's reply was : — " I am not aware that anything 
 that any of tlie witnesses Jwive said against me requires any 
 answer." And so "the honorable member withdrew" and added 
 nothing to the elucidations of the dark tangle of contradictions 
 which tlie committee had encountered in the course of the exami- 
 nation of witnesses. The Select Committee had the spirit of 
 Longmore's motion, though toned down by M'Bain's amendment, 
 as the motive and cause of its existence. Its members comprised 
 several trained lawyers; its implied instruction was to find out if the
 
 THE SELECT COMMITTEE'S FINDING. 173 
 
 issue of the lease had been improperly opposed, and the finding was 
 that the application for the lease was not improper ! This was an 
 impotent conclusion, doubtless, a kind of non sequitur thatniust have 
 disgusted the fiery Longmore, But it was not so bad as the first pro- 
 posal, made by Mr. Kerferd, for that included a perfect absolution 
 of all members of Parliament, so far, at least, as the words " nor is 
 it in evidence that any Member of this House is any way dis- 
 honorably connected with it" went. Longmore could not brook 
 so utter a verdict as that, and he broke up the sitting by vacating 
 the chair. That was on the 8th September. On the 9th he was 
 absent. Mr. Aspinall was in the chair, and the report as cited 
 above was adopted and reported to the House. Previously to 
 that, the committee had decided " that the chairman be ordered 
 to report James Boughtman to the House for being guilty of 
 gi'oss prevarication," and on the 1st September Mr. Longmore 
 moved the issue of the Speaker's warrant for Boughtman's arrest. 
 After debate, the motion was withdrawn, but was renewed on the 
 3rd September, and carried, and on the 8th the Sergeant-at-Arms 
 informed the House that he had, " in pursuance of the order of 
 the House, arrested James Boughtman, and that he has him in 
 his custody." The prisoner had earned his fate by not telling a 
 plain unvarnished story, but his incarceration was not that of a 
 felon. Like Hugh George, the Argus manager, who was before 
 tJiat put in parliamentary durance to sufier for the editor's attack 
 upon Premier M'Culloch, Boughtman had the range of the pre- 
 mises, and fared sumptuously every day, but he had to pay the 
 cost of his entertainment. Parliament was prorogued on the 
 29th September, and then Boughtman was set at liberty. 
 
 A perusal of the evidence taken before the Select Committee, 
 and of the multitudinous assertions and denials in the newspapers 
 of the day relative to the dispute, was not favorable to the taking 
 of optimistic views of the morality of the contending gold- 
 hunters. The emphatic verdict of many onlookers did not refer 
 to some of the witnesses who were disinterested, albeit to the 
 bulk of the disputants that verdict was applied promptly — ai'cades 
 omnes. But none of these things moved Lalor. His courage was 
 equal to his caution, and that new-born faculty was parallel to
 
 174 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 his tenacity of purpose. He forged his way onward, undeterred 
 by hostile criticism, and unseduced by the applause of 
 laudators. He retained his seat in each successive Parliament, 
 was Commissioner of Customs in the Berry Government, which 
 was killed by the general election of the 28th February, 1880; 
 and when the Service Government met with a similar fate by the 
 general election of the 14th July following, Lalor was elected 
 Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on the motion of Mr. Berry. 
 He had one violent opponent only, namely, Mr. Bent, Commis- 
 sioner of Public Works in the then expiring Service Ministry. 
 Bent, whose own reputation is in Hansard and the public journals, 
 said : — " As a native of this colony, I am sorry to think that, to 
 obtain the distinction of being the Speaker of this House, it is 
 absolutely necessary that a man should be a rebel against the 
 British Crown. (Cries of " Shame" and " Disgrace".) I am quite 
 sure the teetotal members of this House will be gratified and very 
 pleased to go back to their constituents and say that they voted 
 for a man who was drunk on the floor of this House while Chair- 
 man of Committees. (" Shame, shame"). I think it is a disgrace 
 to this country to elect Mr. Lalor as Speaker of this House, and 
 I am one who shall oppose his election." There was little 
 expressed sympathy with this fierce tirade, and even the 
 speaker's chief, Mr. Service, I'epudiated the coarse violence of 
 his literally surprising colleague. The Premier said : — " I rise 
 to express my extreme regret that my worthy and highly- 
 esteemed colleague has allowed his feelings on this occasion to 
 obtain the better of his judgment. I regret that he should have 
 referred to a very old passage in the life of the honorable member 
 for Grant, a passage which, I venture to say, reflects no disgrace 
 upon the honorable member." There may have been a slight 
 strain of Pickwickian humour in both addresses; but the Premier's 
 condemnation of the Bent attack was cheered by the House, and 
 Lalor's election to the Chair was unanimous. He discliarged the 
 high functions of the oflice with conspicuous ability, creditably 
 sustaining the respectable traditions of the Chair during many 
 sessions of mingled storms and calms, and as the end of the first 
 session of the Parliament of the Giliies-Deakin coalition drew to
 
 THE LAND CONVENTION. 175 
 
 its close in 1886, the Speaker announced his desire to retire. He 
 was almost prostrated by diabetes, the physical energy of robuster 
 manhood was gone ; and before the session ended, Lalor had to 
 absent himself from his place in the House. 
 
 In June or July, 1857, Messrs. John Yates, Alfred Arthur 
 O'Connor, and John Cathie were appointed delegates to represent 
 Ballarat in the Land Convention in Melbourne. The Convention 
 was called at the instance of the Victorian Land League, a body 
 sitting in the metropolis, and the immediate cause of the Con- 
 vention was the general opposition in the country to the Land 
 Bill then before the Legislative Assembly, and for his vote on 
 which Mr. Lalor was called to account by the electors of North 
 Grant. The first sitting of the Convention took place at Keeley's 
 Australasian Hotel, Melbourne, on the 15th July, Mr. Thos. 
 Loader, chairman of the League, presiding. When that series of 
 Convention sittings was over, a public m,eeting was held in the 
 Victoria Theatre, Ballarat East, to receive the delegates on their 
 return. Mr. Humffray presided, and he and the delegates were 
 received with great acclamations, HumfFray's vote against the 
 Bill being contrasted with the contrary vote of Lalor, " the 
 recusant member for North Grant." About that time, too, a 
 pecuniary testimonial was being subscribed for Humffray, and 
 meetings were being held and requisitions signed to procure 
 Lalor's resignation, as he had been acting, to quote the Ballarat 
 :<tar of that day, " in the licence of constant and unvarying 
 opposition to the wishes of his constituents." The feeling against 
 the Land Bill was strong, and a petition signed by 17,745 
 persons at Ballarat, and one from Sandhurst, signed by 11,875 
 persons, were sent to Parliament expressing the opposition of 
 the subscribers. In leaving this reference to the Land Conven- 
 tion, it may be remarked that many of the delegates, including 
 Wilson Gray, who became the President, were afterwards elected 
 to seats in the Legislative Assembly. 
 
 The miners were long without a law to legalise and regulate 
 mining on private property, though as early as on the 4th March, 
 1857, Humffray moved, in the Legislative Assembly, " that the 
 petition presented from the miners and storekeepers of Ballarat,
 
 176 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 praying for immediate legislation on the subject of mining on 
 private property, be printed." The records of Parliament inform 
 us that " the motion was agreed to." All the Parliaments for 
 many years after that were unmindful of the subject thus prayed 
 for, as the miners were too often content to feed upon the dry 
 husks of pleasant charlatanry and passionate party, instead of 
 seeking the pure and wholesome grain of honest and effectual 
 statesmanship. By so much, and only so much, can the Parlia- 
 ments be acquitted of neglect of the chief producing interest of 
 the colony. 
 
 The adage that a free people is governed as well as it 
 deserves to be governed has very few exceptions in illustration 
 of the rule. One great all-sufficing cause of the neglect of mining 
 interests in Parliament was the change that came in the political 
 constitution and in mining itself. That double change placed 
 power in the hands of the wages class, and converted mining 
 from a field of independent fortune-seeking for all alike into a 
 field for the exercise of capital and the employment on wages of 
 the class that held in their hands the balance of political power. 
 There thus arose the curious position that on the gold-fields tliem- 
 selves mining questions came to be of secondary political 
 importance, as those who were most able to suggest a mining 
 policy were outnumbered by those who only, or mainly, looked 
 for wages, and who were led to vote for men who supported any 
 policy that seemed to promise abundant employment and a wage- 
 rate well maintained. The political agitations that followed the 
 introduction of manhood sullrage and its accompaniments were 
 therefore marked by all kinds of cries but mining ones. Though 
 the mines were still tlie backbone of the country's prosperity, the 
 men who worked in the mines on wages were separated in 
 sympathy from the capitalists, who were nearly the whole 
 exploiters of the mines ; and theology, or protection, or free-trade, 
 or cheap lands, or some other liustings cry, or some absorbing 
 passion of party was generally the moving impulse to the exclu- 
 sion of questions relating to mining law and administration. In 
 tlie earlier days of th(i gold-iields men were of one heart and soul, 
 and on all public questions then current there was an irresistible
 
 Jjj 
 
 ">► TOT »Uk ' _ 5^ ^''^ I -tr^ jjkI _ 
 
 i-s' t<f ^ /
 
 PROTECTIONISTS AND FREETRADERS. 177 
 
 unanimity, for all were more nearly on a level in industrial value 
 and in relation to the chances of fortune. The difference between 
 the two times was natural, and the Parliamentary results equally 
 natural, for not even democracy can prevent a war of classes, or 
 make the greater to be always the wiser number. 
 
 While, however, this change in the aspect of gold-fields 
 politics had taken place, there had also come with the diversion 
 of power some prevision of a still remoter change. The demand 
 of the majority for protection and cheap land disclosed an instinct 
 prescient of coming necessities. It was felt that though the 
 mines had been, and still were, the chief producing interest in the 
 colony, their importance had, relatively, declined. It was further 
 seen that this decline must inevitably continue, and that for the 
 increasing population new sources of labour and wealth must be 
 developed. Hence the cry for protection that local manufactures 
 might be created, and for cheap land that fresh fields might be 
 opened for the employment of labour and the founding of new 
 homes for the people. 
 
 That which the Protectionists desired the Free-traders also 
 desired — the creation of new industries. But, in the differences 
 upon the economical question, there arose so fierce a fight of 
 party that hurtful issues foreign to the original ones, were raised 
 as ancillary to victory rather than to the elevation of public 
 opinion or the consolidation of a pure and stable scheme of 
 economical politics. This made openings for new men, banished 
 old ones from the political arena, and, in conjunction with the 
 change that had come in the relations of capital and labor at the 
 mines, caused questions of purely mining significance to occupy a 
 subordinate and even neglected position. 
 
 In the moribund nominee Council Mr. Haines was the last 
 Colonial Secretary as successor to the abused John Leslie Fitz- 
 gerald Vesey Foster, or " Alphabetical Foster" as he was some- 
 times designated from the multiplicity of names he bore. Mr. 
 Haines also formed the first Government under the New Consti- 
 tution of November, 1855. He was beaten on the 4th March, 
 1857, on a question of finance; Lalor and Humffray voting, as 
 they generally did, on opposite sides of the House. Lalor on
 
 178 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 that occasion was with the defeated Government, and Humffray 
 against it. 
 
 There was one notable occasion on which Lalor and Humffray 
 voted together. This was in the old Legislative Council on the 
 10th January, 1856 ; a part of the proceedings relative to the 
 burial of Sir Charles Hotham being reported as follows : — 
 
 Mr. Fawknermoved that the sum of £1500 be appropriated for funeral 
 expenses, which were estimated to amount to £500, and the remaining 
 £1000 would amply suffice for the erection of a monument. Mr. Lalor 
 was quite willing to defray the funeral expenses, but objected to the erec- 
 tion of a monument. The memory of the thirty individuals who met their 
 deaths at Ballarat would be a standing monument to the memory of Sir 
 Charles Hotham. Mr. Grant moved an amendment that the vote be 
 limited to £500, funeral expenses only. He said the House ought to be 
 just, and remember those for whom no monument had been erected, and for 
 whose widows no sympathy was expressed. What could they inscribe on 
 his monument ? Not his political character. Mr. Humffray seconded the 
 amendment. 
 
 The amendment was lost, only the gold-fields members and 
 one or two more, eight in all, voting for it. 
 
 On the 11th March, 1857, a new Cal)inet was declared, 
 with Mr. O'Shanassy as Chief Secretary, and Foster (whom 
 Williamstown had returned) was Treasurer in that Ministry, 
 which hardly lived two months. Its defeat was on personal 
 grounds rather than on any ([uestion of policy proposed. Lalor 
 and Humffray still voted one against the other on that occasion. 
 Haines then came into power again. This was in April, 1857, 
 and he had with liim Mr. M'Culloch as Commissioner of Customs. 
 That Ministry was defeated on the 22nd October, 1858, on a 
 question of extension of the franchise ; Lalor and Humffray 
 being still opposed to one another. On the 10th March 
 O'Slianassy formed his second Government. This Ministry was 
 defeated on the 22nd October, 1859, on the ground of a general 
 want of confidence ; Lalor voting against, and Humflray for the 
 Government. On the 2Gth October, tlie Nicliolson Administra- 
 tion was announced, with Wm. Nicholson Chief Secretary. 
 On the 2l8t November, I8G0, that Ministry was displaced also 
 on a vote of general want of coulidence ; Lalor and lluiiidray still 
 preserving their relative positi(;ns. Lalor, however, had now
 
 DARLING GRANT CRISIS. 179 
 
 changed his constituency and sat for South Grant, which seat he 
 has held ever since ; Humtfray and Cathie sitting for Ballarat 
 East, and J. R. Bailey (who shortly afterwards was Postmaster- 
 General in the Nicholson Administration) and R. M. Serjeant 
 for Ballarat West. These changes were synchronous with an 
 alteration in the electoral districts, Grant and Grenville being 
 divided into several districts of which Ballarat East and Bal- 
 larat West were two. In 1860 R. Gillespie and R. H. Locke 
 were elected for the district of Grenville, which included 
 Buninyong and the localities adjoining the Ballarat proper dis- 
 tricts on the south and west sides. 
 
 On the 29th November, 1860, the Heales Ministry was an- 
 nounced, with Richard Heales Chief Secretary ; and Humtt'ray, 
 Minister for Mines. This Ministry was defeated on the 12th 
 November, 1861, in a debate on the Budget ; and the next day a 
 coalition Ministry was announced, with O'Shanassy Chief Secre- 
 tary. This coalition Cabinet was displaced on 23rd June, 1863, 
 on the Land policy, both Lalor and Humffray voting with the 
 defeated Government. In the meantime Bailey and Serjeant 
 had been displaced in Ballarat West by Duncan Gillies and W. 
 C. Smith. For Grenville A. A. O'Connor was returned with 
 Gillespie in 1862, and in 1863-4 he sat with M. M. Pope, T. 
 Randall succeeding O'Connor in 1865. W. Frazer, once of the 
 Ballarat Local Court, and J. T. Smith sat for the Talbot district, 
 in which Creswick and Clunes were included. 
 
 On the 30th June, 1863, the lirst M'Culloch Administration 
 was formed, with J, M'Culloch Chief Secretary. On the 11th 
 March, 1868, this Ministry tendered its resignation on the ques- 
 tion of a grant to Sir Charles Darling, who had been removed 
 from office as Governor of Victoria on the ground of indiscretions 
 during disputes between the Houses of Parliament over the 
 Tariff. The " Darling Grant Crisis" was a dispute between the 
 opposing parties as to a grant of £20,000 proposed to the re- 
 called Governor. The party opposing the grant came to be 
 known in Victorian politics as Constitutionalists, whilst the sup- 
 porters of M'Culloch's policy called themselves Loyal Liberals. 
 While the dispute was pending Sir Charles declined the grant,
 
 180 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 and so the battle ended. After his death all parties here united 
 in voting an annuity of £1000 a year to his widow, and a sum of 
 £5000 in trust for her children. 
 
 While these events were transpiring electoral changes had 
 come about. In 1865, Charles Dyte and Charles Edwin Jones 
 were returned for Ballarat East. The former retained his seat, 
 but in 1869 Jones was defeated by HumfFray, who held his seat, 
 though Jones lodged an unprosecuted petition against his elec- 
 tion. For Talbot Frazer still sat also. His fame is in some of 
 the least creditable records in Hansard and the public journals. 
 For Ballarat West Gillies and W. C. Smith sat till 1865, when 
 Smith was replaced by W. M. K. Vale, who held the seat till 
 1869, when, while Commissioner of Customs in the M'CuUoch 
 Ministry, he resigned in order to contest the seat against Jones, 
 the defeated of Ballarat East. Jones had ousted Gillies, but, 
 while Minister of Railways and a colleague of Vale, he had 
 been turned out of Parliament on a charge of corrupt practices, 
 both sides of the House — his own colleagues in office as well as the 
 Opposition — voting for his expulsion. With great intrepidity he 
 declared his innocence, invoking God's name at a public meeting 
 in support of one particular averment of innocence, and he boldly 
 sought at the hands of the Ballarat West constituency a rehabili- 
 tation of his tarnished reputation. Vale resigned his seat to 
 contest the election, as he declared, in the interests of parlia- 
 mentary purity, and he was beaten by Jones, who had a large 
 majority among the Welsli miners of Sebastopol. Vale had 
 ceased to be as popular as he had been, and the assistance he 
 derived in the contest from his old political opponents, no doubt 
 raised party feeling, and caused the election to be determined at 
 least as much from party spirit as from a regard to the greater 
 issue propounded to the electorate. What helped Jones's cause 
 was, the general belief that if he was guilty, others still un- 
 punislied were as bad as he, and a suspicion in many minds that 
 Vale's contest was the result rather of envy or spite than of a 
 sincere regard for political honesty and purity of Parliament. 
 Jones and his accusers after that let the matter lie undisturbed. 
 The Assembly, as being unused to such great moral efforts, quietly
 
 JAMES GIVES PLACE TO MICHIE. 181 
 
 bore many taunts from without in relation to corruption, and 
 Jones was permitted to sit unmolested. 
 
 The M'Culloch Ministry having, as we have seen, resigned 
 on the Darling Grant dispute, a Ministry was announced on the 
 6th May, witli Mr. Sladen as Chief Secretary, Mr. Gillies being 
 Minister of Lands in this Administration. It was on the occa- 
 sion of Gillies seeking re-election on acceptance of office that 
 Jones had ousted him prior to his own expulsion from Parliament. 
 The Sladen Ministry was defeated on the 10th July, 18G8, on a 
 vote of supplies, and Mr. M'Culloch then returned to power. 
 This Ministry was displaced in September, 1869, by a coalition 
 of Constitutionalists and Loyal Liberals on the ground of want 
 of confidence. A Government was then formed, with J. A. 
 Macpherson Chief Secretary. This Ministry was defeated on the 
 Budget, and on the 31st March, 1870, the Government resigned. 
 Some of their own supporters deserted them, including several 
 Constitutionalists, and after some time spent in negotiations by 
 several members of the House, and notably by Mr. John 
 Macgregor, who had moved the hostile motion on the Budget, 
 Mr. (now Sir James) M'Culloch again returned to power, and 
 with him Mr. Macpherson, the deposed Chief Secretary, who 
 accepted office as Minister of Lands. The new Attorney-General, 
 Mr. Micliie, was returned unopposed for Ballarat West, taking 
 the seat vacated by Mr. John James, who had been elected to 
 the seat vacated by Mr. Vale in his contest against Jones. 
 James, at a meeting in the Alfred Hall — when Michie met the 
 electors on his unopposed return — " took credit to himself for 
 having done a noble act. He had done something to raise the 
 Ballarat electorate — in fact, more than had been done for years," 
 in giving up political life in favour of his more illustrious 
 successor. 
 
 When Mr. Berry came into power for the first time as 
 Premier and Treasurer, on the 7th August, 1875, Mr. W. C. 
 Smith accepted office as Minister of Mines, and was returned un- 
 opposed on the 20th August. Mr. Berry was defeated on his 
 land tax proposals, and Sir James M'Culloch took office, with 
 Joseph Jones as his Minister of Railways ; but on seeking
 
 182 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 re-election in Ballarat West on the 6th November, 1875, Mr. 
 Jones was beaten by Mr. Fincham, Acting- Governor Chief 
 Justice Stawell having refused Mr. Berry's demand for a dissolu- 
 tion. Mr. Jones's defeat was helped by want of faith in him as 
 to his ^aews on the secular education question, and a monster 
 Anti-Education Act meeting in St. Patrick's Cathedral at that 
 time increased the vigor of the secularists, and helped to secure 
 Mr. Fincham's victory. At the general election on the 11th 
 May, 1877, James Campbell contested Ballarat West, but failed, 
 the old members. Smith, Fincham, and Bell, being returned. 
 When W. C. Smith took office in the second Berry Ministry as 
 Minister of Mines and Education, he was again returned unop- 
 posed, and a similar compliment was paid to him in August, 
 1880, when he took office in tlie third Berry Cabinet as Minister 
 of Education. Mr. Smith, though no scrupulous Bayard, never 
 gave to faction what was meant for Ballarat, liberal as were his 
 contributions to mere party mauceuvres, for liis untiring devotion 
 to local affiiirs made him the idol of his constituency. When Mr. 
 Berry went to England on tlie famous embassy, Mr. Smith was 
 Acting-Treasurer, and he distinguished himself then by a speecli 
 in Ballarat, in which he declared that he liad initiated a policy of 
 retrenchment, the capitalised value of which would represent two 
 millions sterling. His political enemies took hold of the state- 
 ment, twisted its probable exaggerations into colossal masses of 
 ridicule, and the " merry millions of the Major" became a byword 
 and a gibe. In 1883, when the Service-Berry coalition Cabinet 
 was formed, and Mr. Smitli was left out in tlie cold, he became a 
 virulent opponent of his old leader, and was hardly more 
 scrupulous in his speech against Mr. Berry than lie had previously 
 been on his behalf. The Major, since become Colonel on the 
 retired list, thus lost caste with some of his old supporters, but 
 he retained his hold as " a good friend to Ballarat " upon his 
 constituency generally, and has for a long time been returned at 
 the head of the poll. In February, 1883, the electors were 
 invited by Mr. C. E. Jones to renew their political connection 
 witli him. He had dwelt for some years in the United States 
 for the benefit of liis political health, and returned to woo the
 
 JONES AND THE '* TRIRUNE." 183 
 
 suffrages of his old supporters again. In a poll of seven candi- 
 dates he and Fincham stood equal as in third place, and the 
 returning officer decided the tie in favour of Fincham. At the 
 general election in March, 1S8G, Jones was returned second on 
 the poll, R. T. Vale, brother of J ones's old opponent, being third, 
 and the old members, Fincham and Bell, were left to the studious 
 leisure of private life. To assist him in paddling his political 
 canoe, Mr. Jones started in Melbourne the People s Tribune, a 
 weekly paper, nearly the whole of which was written by his tire- 
 less and versatile pen. In that paper he posed as the people's 
 friend by excellence, as the champion of discontented civil 
 servants, as the opponent of the non-political railway and civil 
 service boards, and as the perpetually-pricking thorn in the flesh 
 of the editor of the Argus. With heroic hope, or equally intrepid 
 scorn of facts, the editor and proprietor of the Tribune assumed a 
 reversion of the adage that the darkest hour is before the dawn, 
 for the paper absolutely coruscated with brilliancy of promise 
 and assurance of imminent greater prosperity and influence the 
 week before it fell dead and joined the melancholy host of 
 abortive journalistic adventures. The hard-working editor was 
 thus left with larger leisure to pursue his custom of lecturing on 
 social and historical subjects, and to cultivate the field of practi- 
 cal politics. 
 
 In Ballarat East, at the general election in March, 1871, 
 there were no fewer than eight candidates for the two seats there, 
 John James heading the poll, with Robert Walsh, barrister, 
 second. At the general election of April, 1874, there were five 
 candidates, and Daniel Brophy won first place, and James second. 
 At the general election of the 11th May, 1877, when Mr. Berry's 
 party polled well nearly everywhere, an anti-Berryite was 
 returned at the head of the poll in the person of Townsend 
 M'Dermott, barrister, James being second. At that election the 
 two old members, Humffray and Dyte contested the seats, as did 
 also Emmanuel Steinfeld, who took third place, Humffray being 
 fourth, and Dyte fifth. At the next general election, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1880, James recovered his old place at the head of 
 the poll, another Wesley an local preacher, James Russell,
 
 184 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 winning second place by 14 votes more than Brophy, who repre- 
 sented the Catholic and Constitutional vote. Yet, Berry, the 
 Liberal, was beaten on the general result of the elections, and 
 retired, but returned to power in the following August, and 
 retired in July, 1881, when the O'Loghlen Ministry was formed, 
 and Brophy recovered his place at the head of the poll, with 
 James second. At the next general election, in February, 1883, 
 Russell was at the top, and Brophy at the bottom, James, with 
 monitions of the future in the air, taking second place. In 
 February, 1886, another coalition ministry was formed, with Mr. 
 Gillies as Premier, Treasurer, and Minister of Railways, and Mr. 
 Deakin as Chief Secretary and Minister of Water Supply. Then 
 Mr. James, who had served the Liberals and himself and friends 
 very faithfully for years, and had held office for a long period as 
 Chairman of Committees, aspired to higher position, and accepted 
 office as Minister of Mines. That was the knell to his political 
 life, at least for the present. The coalition was not popular in 
 his electorate, and he still further intensified the opposition by 
 holding (puisi ministerial functions for some time without seeking 
 the approval of his constituents in the usual way. So, when the 
 general election came, in March, 1886, he was rejected, Russell 
 heading the poll, and Mr. Edward Murphy, a Catholic, was given 
 to the Wesleyan local preacher as a colleague. James, who had 
 long since made friends of the mammon of agrarian acquisition, 
 in Gippsland, retired to the fertile acres he had secured there. 
 
 Of the elections for the Legislative Council, it will suffice to 
 refer to those which have taken place since the creation of the 
 Wellington Province by the reform of the Constitution Act of 
 1881, the whole of Ballarat being included in that province. 
 The first election was on the 6th November, 1882, when James 
 Campbell was returned unopposed. Tlie next was on the 10th 
 April, 1883, when he was again returned unopposed on his 
 acceptance of office as Postmaster-General in the Service- Berry 
 Ministry. In August, 1S81, tlie Hon. Henry Cuthbert retired 
 by rotation, and was returned by 2,. 13.5 votes to 2,126 polled by 
 James Long. In February, 1886, Mr. Cuthbert was returned 
 unopposed on his acceptance of office as Minister of Justice in
 
 A LOCAL GOVERNMENT SPASM. 185 
 
 the Gillies-Deakin Ministry. In June, 1886, the Hon. J. 
 Campbell having resigned office, Mr. David Ham was elected 
 in his stead by a large majority over Thomas Drummond 
 Wanliss, once proprietor of the Ballavat Star. In August, 1886, 
 the Hon. G. F. Belcher retired by rotation, and Henry Gore was 
 elected by 2,512 votes to 2,511 polled by Mr. Wanliss, who 
 petitioned against Gore's return, but Parliament being prorogued 
 before the inquiry had ended. Gore held his seat, and Wanliss 
 was left to moralise on the stupid old custom of trying such 
 issues by parliamentary committees, and to wonder whether his 
 petition was dead or alive. 
 
 One of the local episodes of 1886 was a movement in aid of 
 larger local self-government, and the decentralisation of metro- 
 politan and Executive functions and influence. It was headed 
 by James Oddie, and was but a spasm. The promoter engaged C. 
 E. Jones, M.L.A., as its advocate, and some other of the local 
 Parliamentary representatives mildly assisted at the first and 
 only public meeting in the Alfred Hall Assembly-room on the 
 30th July, 1886. Four resolutions were submitted — the first in 
 praise of local self-government, the second advocating its exten- 
 sion here, the third proposing an enabling bill to further the 
 union of local bodies, and the fourth urging the formation of a 
 Local Government Reform and Extension League. They were 
 all carried by acclamation, and were never heard of afterwards. 
 One morning paper praised the movement, the other one pooh- 
 poohed it, the public did not show any enthusiasm in the matter, 
 and the thing fell dead, though it contemplated the placing of the 
 police and all licence revenues and control under municipal direc- 
 tion. In February, 1887, the Mayor of Ballarat East, Mr. Russell, 
 M.L.A., re-opened the decentralisation issue in a serio-comic way, 
 by drawing attention to what he regarded as the evil of excur- 
 sions of Ballarat people to the seaside, urging that such indul- 
 gences took a great deal of money out of the place, and that it 
 should be counteracted by a big jubilee rotunda at the local 
 Botanic Gardens, and by other attractions. The Star laughed at 
 the complaint, and the Age gibed both at the complaint and the 
 cure ; the latter journal, on the 28th of the month, summing up
 
 186 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 its strictures in the following words which the inhabitants of this 
 city will do well to ponder over thoughtfully : — 
 
 Ballarat, with a population of 40,000, has three separate municipalities 
 without any bond of union. The consolidation of this divided municipal 
 power would do more to enhance the importance and promote the mterests 
 of Ballarat than all the Government favours likely to be conferred, and 
 certainly more than any futile effort to dictate to the citizens the manner 
 and place in which they shall spend their holidays. 
 
 To revert to more exclusively local self-government, the 
 course of Local Court and Mining Board history may now be 
 swiftly traced. On the 14th of July, 1855, James Ryce, Robert 
 Donald, Carboni Raffaello, Jolm Yates, William Greene, Edward 
 Milligan, John Wall, Thomas Chidlow, and Henry R. Nicholls 
 were chosen — at a meeting of the diggers near Lalor's stump, the 
 old try sting place during the previous year's agitation — to serve 
 in the Local Court granted under the reformed leghne. A day 
 before this Mr. C. W. Sherard, the resident-officer for the Go- 
 vernment, had attempted to hold the election from tlie top of a 
 dray near the site of tlie late Charlie Napier, but the crowd was 
 too great for the space available, and hence the resort to Bakery 
 Hill, where the election was had by show of hand. There was 
 no other way practicable then, for the times were primitive and 
 the circumstances pressing. Tliese courts were the first fruits of 
 the reform movement. They were presided over by wardens of 
 the gold-fields — the old commissioners with a new name and 
 smaller powers — and the members and electors of the courts were 
 men holding miner's-rights, documents issued annually in lieu of 
 the old licence. The Local Courts had power, not only to make 
 local regulations, but to sit as absolute and unappealable courts 
 of judicature upon cases brought under the regulations they 
 framed. This was a fatal error in constitution, and in the course 
 of time the defect became generally apparent, and led eventually 
 to tlie abolition of the Local Courts and the creation of the 
 Mining Boards as at present existing. The first sitting of the 
 first Ballarat Local Court was on the 20th July, 1855, and the 
 last sitting of the last court on the 30th April, 1857, Mr. Warden 
 Slierard bcnng the first chairman. To him soon succeeded Mr. 
 Warden Daly, who 111 led Mk-. (tilicc as long as tlm court existed
 
 JUDGE ROGERS AND BLACK WEDNESDAY. 187 
 
 The first clerk to the court was Mr. Bowker, who was followed 
 by Mr. Harrington, and after him came Mr. John Miskelly, 
 who held the office till the courts were abolished. Fresh parliamen- 
 tary legislation in 1857 created the Mining Boards and Courts of 
 Mines, the Mining Boards having power to elect their own chair- 
 men, and being invested with merely legislative and some trifling 
 administrative functions. His Honor Judge Rogers was the first 
 judge appointed in the Ballarat Court of Mines, presiding as well 
 (after the death of Judge Wrixon) over the County Courts and 
 Courts of General Sessions for this district. When the Berry 
 Government perpetrated the " Black Wednesday" outrage, dis- 
 charged a host of judges, magistrates, and other civil servants 
 in order to kill the Constitutionalists and promote the Berry 
 version of Liberalism, Judge Rogers declined to continue in the 
 service. He was a most painstaking judge throughout a long 
 term of the heaviest equity suits ever brought in this district. 
 His high position at the bar has since then been marked by the 
 added rank of Queen's Counsel. With the abolition of the Local 
 Courts and the establishment of Courts of Mines, there came also 
 the Wardens' Courts, dealing with applications for forfeited 
 ground, and with mining disputes of all kinds eventually, appeal 
 in all cases lying to the Court of Mines. The first Ballarat 
 Mining Board was elected on the 27th February, 1858, and 
 Messrs. James Baker, John Yates, Alfred Arthur O'Connor (for 
 Ballarat Proper), William Frazer, Robert Lamb (for Buninyong), 
 Duncan Gillies, Robert Critchley (for Smythesdale), Joseph Reed 
 (for Creswick), — Martin (for Blackwood), and William Butcher 
 (for Steiglitz) were the members, James Baker being chosen 
 chairman. Mr. Harrie Wood was appointed clerk, and he held 
 the ofiice until, in 1873, he received the appointment he now 
 holds as Under-Secretary for Mines in New South Wales. His 
 successor in the Mining Board was the present secretary, Mr. J. 
 M. Bickett, whose appointment was made on the 1 8th December, 
 1873. The first meeting of the board was on the 9th March, 
 1858. The Local Court members were remunerated by the fees 
 paid in the cases brought before the courts in their judicial 
 capacity. The Mining Boards receive each a Government subsidy
 
 188 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 of £500 a- year, and the clerk is paid by the Government. The 
 courts were more intensely local bodies than are the boards. The 
 boards preside over and legislate for large districts, but the courts 
 had very small areas of jurisdiction, nearly every mining centre, 
 small or large, ha^dng its own court and its own regulations. 
 
 In looking at the mixed powers of the Local Courts and their 
 great number, we see the cause of their abolition. The conjunc- 
 tion of the legislative and judicial functions did not work satis- 
 factorily, and the multiplicity of courts being followed by a 
 multitude of varying regulations, another element of dissatisfac- 
 tion was found to quicken the desire for further reform. Hence 
 arose the Mining Boards and Courts of Mines, the former legis- 
 lating for districts in which previously, perchance, half a score of 
 Local Courts had exercised their anomalous union of jurisdictions, 
 and the later exercising judicial functions over areas coterminous 
 with the mining board districts. In the present day the want 
 of still further reform is felt. To the Mining Boards is now 
 raised an objection similar in part to that raised against the 
 Local Courts. As the larger views and wants of the miners re- 
 quired the abolition of the Local Courts in order to do away with 
 vexatiously numerous and conflicting regulations, and get rid of 
 the inconvenient union of powers in the courts, so now the 
 abolition of the Mining Boards is held to be desirable as a means 
 of getting one uniform code of mining law for the whole colony. 
 Popular freedom is now perfect, and popular power so absolute, 
 that the form of local self-government existing in the Mining 
 Boards can no longer be regarded as essential to local interests. 
 On the contrary, the general feeling of the mining communities all 
 over the colony now is that the profitable pursuit of mining will 
 be best helped by a code that shall be applicable to the whole 
 colony, shall leave the pursuit as free as possible from trammels 
 of all kinds, and thus at once facilitate tlic investment of capital, 
 and give new fields to the operative industry of the working 
 miner. 
 
 But it must not be inferred from this that either the Local 
 Courts or the Mining Boards pcTformed no services of value to 
 the gold-fields. Both have done much good. They were crea-
 
 LOCAL COURT AND THE LAWYERS. 189 
 
 tions of the times, and served the times faithfully. As experi- 
 ments they proved defective, but their work has been a part of 
 our mining progress, and will remain an honorable portion of 
 colonial history. The miners showed almost invariably a singular 
 sagacity in the selection of representatives in these local bodies, 
 and some of their earliest favorites have continued to hold posi- 
 tions of credit and prominence up to the present day. Some 
 1600 cases were adjudicated upon by the Ballarat Local Court 
 during its twenty months' existence. Many of these involved 
 large sums of money, and were complicated in their issues, yet 
 few substantial complaints were made against the decisions de- 
 livered by the raw magistrates thus newly called by the will of 
 the miners from their ordinary and so different avocations. 
 Besides its judicial work, the court made laws, granted certain 
 claims and water-rights, and licensed " amalgamations," or unions 
 of companies. The court also, in its primitive sense of duty, 
 fought long with the lawyers, whom it tried ineffectually to ex- 
 clude from practising before the court. In this romantic attempt 
 to do without lawyers the whole court was unanimous, excepting 
 Mr. H. R. Nicholls, who dissented on the ground of illegality. 
 Though justified by the ultimate issue of the struggle, he had to 
 bend before the popular will of the hour, and so resigned his seat. 
 
 Is it worth while to exhibit in the light of these modern days 
 the literal merits of this quaint antique question. On the 25th 
 September, 1855, Carboni Raflaello, on behalf of his colleagues, 
 sent a letter to the BdUarat Star with the following enclosure : — 
 
 Local Court, Ballarat, September 25, 1855. Present — James Ryce, 
 Edward Milligan, Robert Donald, John Wall, William Green, Thomas 
 Chidlow, H. R. Nicholls, Carboni Raflaello. Proposed by Mr. Donald, 
 and seconded by Mr. Chidlow :—" That in all cases where attorneys or 
 members of the Legal professions are employed, either to advise or plead, 
 during the hearing of any case in this court, the court shall have power to 
 adjourn all such cases to any time, and from such time to time as the mem- 
 bers may see fit. Also, that this be made public in the local papers in 
 their first issue." The above proposition was carried by a majoi-ity of 
 eight. The following protest was then handed in by Mr. H. R. Nicholls, 
 the ninth member of the court : — " I beg to enter my protest against this 
 resolution, inasmuch as the law officers of the Crown have decided that 
 this Court has no power to prevent solicitors ao advising their clients
 
 190 HISTORY OF BALLARAT- 
 
 during the hearing of their case. The coui'se adopted by this Court in 
 adjourning such case is, I consider, unwise and unfair, inasmuch as it does 
 not in any way tend to settle the question, and is likely to cause much 
 injury both to the complainant and defendant in such cases." 
 
 As a pendant to this now amusing episode in Local Court 
 life, the following will serve to show that the same men could be 
 unanimous sometimes, could speak out with Spartan bravery, and 
 could, with a touching and egotistical earnestness, magnify their 
 office. The Court had passed a regulation extending the areas for 
 eight men " on the deep wet leads of this district" to twelve feet 
 square, and had sought the intervention of the Government to 
 sanction regulations to stop the " system of shepherding or hold- 
 ing claims in reserve of 24 feet square by individual men, boys, 
 and often children ! aye, and even women ! ! " The Government 
 did not respond and, on the same day that Raftaello wrote to the 
 Ballarut Star, the Court wrote an indignant letter to the Colonial 
 Secretary from which the above quotations, notes of admiration 
 and all, and the subjoined are copied : — 
 
 It is with feelings of regret and dying confidence in the Government, 
 that the members of the Local Court have observed the indifference with 
 which the Executive Government has treated these and other matters of 
 paramount interest to the miners. We are alone the sinews of the entire 
 colony, aye, even very life. It is remarkable that attention could be given 
 to the members of the bar who wish to force their eloquence and learning 
 upon us for a fee I to capitalists owning engines among us, &c. ; and not 
 have sufficient time to say yes or no to the aflair of the Ballarat miners, 
 inasmuch as the further consideration of the Executive Govei-nment, or 
 even of the Legislative body, on matters upon which their knowledge must 
 be second-hand, can throw no further light upon the subject. 
 
 Then followed a request for an expression of the " intention 
 of tlie Government witli regard to the regulations submitted for 
 their consideration," and all the nine members signed themanifesto. 
 The document seems to liave about it the odor of tlie old Bakery 
 Hill meetings. No mere "blatlierskiting," that, as Rallaello would 
 have said. But then, those tribunes sat there, not more than nine 
 brief months away from the Eureka Ijloodsliedding, and Raflaello 
 still less distant from tlie Melbourne goal and court of High 
 Treason. His blood at any rate had not cooled, and there was 
 still revolt in tlie general air at the least hint of adverse action
 
 RAPFAELLO IN AHMS AGAIN. 191 
 
 or inaction, for the Government and the Parliament had not yet 
 been popuhxrised. There was yet much to do before there was 
 full freedom and perfect self-government. 
 
 Ratfaello was lithe and irrepressible as Puck or Ariel. One 
 day, the 8th October, 1855, he objected to the presence of a Mr. 
 Watson, clerk of the bench of magistrates, who was sitting inside 
 the rail, or barrier, which divided the public from the members, 
 parties, reporters, and lawyers. Raft'aello asked the Chairman, 
 the merry, brown eyed, handsome young Warden Daley, to order 
 Watson's removal. The Chairman declined, and said he had no 
 power to exclude anybody who conducted himself with proper 
 decorum. Every one of the members of the court sided with the 
 peppery little Roman, and left the court. Watson had about 
 him the aroma of the recently-suppressed tyranny, and was 
 evidently offensive to the jealous tribunes of the people. The 
 Chairman adjourned the court, regretting " that the very men 
 who had been elected by the diggers to forward their interests 
 should be the foremost to impede them." Idle words, these, to 
 men red-hot with passion. Next day Raffaello returned to the 
 subject, tabled a motion, seconded by Robert M'Donald, excluding 
 from the inner area of the court all but parties and reporters. 
 The Chairman directed that the motion be made a record of the 
 the court, but reserved to himself discretion as to its enforcement. 
 Within forty-eight hours Raffaello was in the thick of another 
 fight. This time his enemy was a lawyer, and the battle-field 
 the columns of the Stai\ " An Advocate" had written taking 
 the Local Court members to task for objecting to lawyers prac- 
 tising, and for pocketing so many court fees. Our little Ariel 
 flew up at once with a letter on the 11th October, headed 
 
 " Principiis obsta ; 
 Sero medicina paratur, 
 Cum mala per longa invaluere moras." 
 
 He, at any rate, was not going to run any risks by long delays. 
 The court got no more out of the fees than it had a right to, and 
 " if Mr. Lawyer, ' An Advocate,' is fond of declamation, a 
 descendant of the Gracchi is just now getting better and better 
 in health, and will give him a good feed, all hot, of the old style :
 
 192 HISTORY OF RALLARAT. 
 
 — Quonsque tandem ahutei'e Catilina patientia nostra." Perhaps 
 " An Advocate" thought he had not encountered much patience 
 to abuse in the red-haired valiant little son of the Gracchi, and 
 after a little while the storm blew over, Ariel did his best to fold 
 his wings and keep quiet, and the lawyers having won their 
 battle, pocketted many fees by way of first fruits of a heavier 
 harvest yet to come. 
 
 The members had a few other smart tussles with the wardens 
 and the Government, battling like real tribunes of the people ; 
 now for a rain-proof house to sit in, and smooth forms to sit upon; 
 now telling a resident-warden to mind his own business ; aud now 
 calling on the Government to look after the court chairman, or 
 the governor of the gaol. Indeed, it is not too much to affirm, 
 that if the Parliament of the colony had been — in relation to the 
 gold-fields — composed of men as honest in intention and as 
 earnest in endeavor as have been the Local Courts and Mining 
 Boards, the main industry of the country would not have so long 
 suffered from the want of suitable laws. It is probable that the 
 scandalous neglect by the Government and the Parliament was 
 also owing, in some degree, to the sense of limited responsibility 
 caused by the existence of local boards of legislature ; and in this 
 view it may fairly be said that the existing Mining Boards can in 
 no way so well serve the mining interest as by securing their own 
 abolition in assisting the central authorities to prepare one code 
 of mining law for all Victoria. 
 
 The Mining Statute of 1865 created a new court, called " The 
 Court of the Chief Judge of Courts of Mines," to be presided 
 over by a judge of the Supreme Court. In its appellate jurisdic- 
 tion the orders of the court were final. Besides appellate and 
 original jurisdiction, special cases were reserved for the judge by 
 the inferior courts. Mr. Justice Molesworth was appointed Chief 
 Judge, and he held the office until his retirement from the bench.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OP MINING. 
 
 BIoRk .and Frontage Claims.— Some Early Dij^jfers.— Election Excitements.— Opposition to 
 Extended Areas —Such Opposition a Mistake.-Present Areas.— Progress of Mining: Dis- 
 coveries —Increased Operative Difficulties.— Introduction of Machinery. -Luck in 
 Digging.- -Mining Agreements and Litigation.— The Egerton Case.— The Clunes Riot.— 
 The Browns Leases.— Pleasant Creek Jumps. — Stink Pots — Priv.ate Property Leases and 
 Law. -Foreign Capital.— Sebastopol Di-ainage.— Prospecting Board. — Koh-i-Noor, Band 
 and Alt)ion Consols, Llanbervis, and Black HillQuartz Companies. —The Kingston Alluvia 
 Field.- Gold Returns and Mining Statistics.— Pre-eminence of the BalLarat District. — 
 Westgarth on the Purity of Ballarat Gold.— Assays of Ballarat Nuggets.— Table of 
 Nugget Dates, Weights, and Localities.— Sebastopol Plateau Revival.— Increasing Pro- 
 portion of Quartz Gold. — The Future to be Chiefly Quartz Mining— The Corner. 
 
 ' H E course of local legislation has been the 
 sign of progress in mining, and all other local 
 development has been involved in the pros- 
 perity of our chief industry. Two kinds of 
 claims have for some years been in existence, 
 one called " block" and the other " frontage" 
 claims. The block claim is a fixed area, with 
 bounds ascertained from the first ; the front- 
 age is a claim with a given width on a lead, 
 or gutter, witli boundaries changeable as to direction according to 
 the course of the lead. In California and at Golden Point in 
 1851, the system of parallel claims, with frontages to water for 
 washing purposes, was in vogue, and hence the application of the 
 term frontage to the deep workings in Ballarat at a later date. 
 
 Here, before going on with the story of development, may 
 be mentioned a discovery made by the author since the first 
 chapters of this new edition were printed. The story of the 
 Golden Pointers has been told already, but a week before they 
 reached the Point, a party of three from Geelong — John Smith, 
 Joseph Asplin, and the late " Old Harry," of the North Grant 
 livery stables — liad left Hiscocks and followed the Yarrowee 
 round to the Black Hill, passing by the rich Golden Point that 
 was to be, to pitch their tents at the foot of the Black Hill. They
 
 194 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 began to dig at once at Devil's Point, but got very little gold, 
 and by October their rations were exhausted, and they returned 
 to Geelong and brought up their wives and a replenished com- 
 missariat. By that time there was no room for them at Golden 
 Point, and they prospected about the Black Hill, getting gold 
 from the quartz outcrop on the top and in some alluvial patches, 
 but nothing heavy. Meanwhile came news of the Fryer's Creek 
 rush, and nearly all the diggers at Ballarat rushed away to the 
 new Pandora's box, the Black Hill trio following suit on New 
 Year's Day, 1852. They did wpII at the rush, but eventually 
 returned to Ballarat. " Old Harry " is dead, Asplin is settled 
 elsewhere, and Smith, now 73 years old, who was burnt out a 
 year or so ago, is now living on his old home site in a new house. 
 He is a by no means rich man, but one who still leads an indus- 
 trious life as the tiller of his own well-stocked terraced garden 
 on the eastern slope of Seymour Crescent, whence he can look 
 out upon the adjacent hill where his first tent was pitched and 
 his first gold won, thirty-six years now gone. Close upon Smith 
 and party's heels came others, amongst whom was William 
 Bradford, who is still here, a hale old pioneer of 76 years, father 
 of cycle-seller Bradford, who for many years has been busy in 
 mining affairs, notably as legal manager of claims at Gordon, 
 where his name is given to the Jones-Bradford Company. 
 
 There has been in many of the old diggers a strong develop- 
 ment of what the phrenologists call " inhabitiveness." Like 
 Smith and Bradford, they would cling with tenacity to the spots 
 where they pitched their tents at first, let tlie currents of business, 
 of settlement, or of mining drift as they may A similar dogged- 
 ness of " inhabitive " pertinacity has often been shown by the old 
 wifeless liatter, or lonely gold-hunter. The author has in his 
 recollection one of that sort of invincible plodders with the lone 
 hand. He bore one of the most ancient and most illustrious of 
 English names, had been a Major in General Scott's corps 
 during the Mexican war, and had then come to the Australian 
 diggings. Year after year he followed the digger's vocation, at 
 first in parties of other diggers, at last as the lonely liatter, was 
 never successful, and never gave up hope. Grey hairs and deep
 
 BLOCK VERSUS FRONTAGE. 195 
 
 furrows came with the long succession of luckless years, but his 
 grey-blue eyes were still clear, and he still pursued his hobby of 
 gold-hunting in the ranges, where he felt certain he would some 
 day " come on it heavy." Alas, the years were heavy, but the 
 gold light, and but for the kindly subsidies of old chums who 
 were better off, the gallant old Major would not have been able 
 to pursue the resultless battle so long as he has done ; for, at the 
 time of this writing, he is still carrying on the bootless quest. 
 
 Up to the year 1856 the block claim system had been exclusively 
 the rule here. Tlie original area of eight by eight feet per man, 
 established by the Latrobe Government, was enlarged as the 
 sinking increased in depth and the miners obtained the power to 
 make their own regulations. But so long as the areas were small 
 and fixed there was a great waste of labor, time, and money, as, 
 out of a group of many claims, only a few could be put upon the 
 gutter, or auriferous alluvium. In the first days of gutter-sink- 
 ing, too, the miners sank only for the gutter, the value of the 
 reefs, as the banks of the gutters were called, not having been at 
 that time ascertained. This led to tlie abandonment of shafts and 
 ground the moment the gutter itself was known to be outside 
 such ground, and to the practice of " shepherding," or holding 
 claims unworked pending the proving of the gutter course by 
 the workings in more advanced claims. When, however, the 
 ancient river-beds had been traced by the miner from their 
 shallow sources into greater depths beneath the surface, the sink- 
 ing of shafts became a more serious and more expensive business, 
 and the waste accompanying chance-sinking became obvious so 
 long as the areas remained too small to ensure tlie presence of 
 the gutter. At length arose an agitation by some of the miners 
 for the abolition of block claims on deep leads, and the adoption 
 of the system of frontage or parallel areas, ensuring a given 
 length of gutter to each claim. Tlie proposal was warmly con- 
 tested, and led to breaches of the peace and more general dis- 
 turbance than had occurred since the affair of the Eureka 
 Stockade. Mr. John Finlay first suggested the adoption of the 
 frontage system in 1855 in letters to the Ballarat Stai\ under 
 the signature of " Peeping Tom." Mr. Bacon, who was then in
 
 196 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 partnership with Mr. James Baker at Sebastopol, soon gave the 
 proposition a more substantial form, and after that Mr. Baker 
 espoused the cause so heartily, and fought for it so ably and so 
 persistently in print and on platform, that he made the project 
 peculiarly his own, and for a long time the frontage regulations 
 were known as the Bakerian regulations. As already stated, the 
 new scheme was opposed. The Sebastopol miners, who had to 
 sink through rock to get to the gutter, felt the need of the pro- 
 tection from risk which the frontages promised, but the miners on 
 the shallower and richer grounds of the older portion of Ballarat 
 retained their liking for the old block system. The Local Court 
 itself was divided upon the question, and resolved to refer the 
 decision to the miners as an election issue. Bands of music, 
 flags, and processions were a part of the outward and visible 
 signs of commotion evoked by the issue raised. After preliminary 
 election struggles, the members of the court resigned to test the 
 question by a general ballot of the miners. A hustings was erected 
 near the present site of the Ballarat gas works, and the result was 
 a decisive victory for the frontage advocates. This was on the 
 14th July, 1856. The triumphant party raised a shout of victory 
 as they moved off" up the then open slope on the eastern side of 
 Lydiard street, and the miners in the minority showed their sense 
 of defeat by chasing their opponents up the slope and hurling 
 blows and missiles in all directions. A riot seemed imminent, 
 but mounted troopers rode up, dispersed the mob, ;ind patrolled 
 the streets to maintain the peace. 
 
 Since then the depth of mining has increased, and with it 
 the areas of claims, while unforseen complications of titles arose 
 as different gutters were discovered and frontage boundaries in- 
 tersected each other. This led to a great deal of litigation, and 
 as the original argument for frontage claims had lost its force 
 wlien tlie extended areas ensured to each claim a portion of the 
 gutter, there gradually arose a demand for the abolition of 
 frontage and a return to blocks. This cycle was run in the 
 course of one decade, and now all our deep lead mining com- 
 panies have, wherever possible, converted their holdings into 
 blocks, held, in many instances, l)y leases from the Crown, or by
 
 AREAS OF CLAIMS. 197 
 
 consolidated miner's-rights, the price of the ordinary right having 
 been redviced from twenty to five shillings a-year. 
 
 The first proposals to largely extend the areas for mining 
 claims were violently opposed, but events have justified the fore- 
 sight of the advocates of extended areas, as immensely increased 
 difiiculties have made large outlay of capital necessary, and 
 larger areas equally indispensable. 
 
 The areas tenable as mining claims under the bylaws of 
 the Mining Board are limited by the bylaws, but areas held 
 under lease are limited only by the terms of each lease. The 
 latest bylaw of the Ballarat Mining Board limits a quartz claim 
 area to 750 feet in width, with a length of 100 feet to each man. 
 Alluvial claim areas are determined by the depth from the sur- 
 face to the bed rock on which lies tlie golden drift or gutter. 
 The latest bylaw ordains that a claim for one person shall be an 
 area not exceeding half an acre, where the depth does not exceed 
 50 feet ; over 50 and not over 100 feet, one acre ; over 100 and 
 not over 150 feet, two acres ; over 150 and not over 200 feet, 
 five acres ; over 200 and not over 300 feet, nine acres ; 300 to 
 400 feet, thirteen acres ; over 400 feet, twenty acres. Un- 
 registered claims may be occupied, one man having a right to 
 10,000 superficial feet in alluvial ground, and in quartz 50 feet 
 along the lode by a width of 250 feet. 
 
 As was seen in the previous chapter, the Local Court had to 
 take the Government to task for its inattention to some rules 
 proposed in the matter of shepherding. There was cause for the 
 Local Court interposing in the matter. On the 27th December, 
 1855, the Ballarat Star declared "we are not above the mark 
 when we estimate the shepherds at 4000 or 5000 men, or about 
 one-fourth of the population." But there was no frontage 
 system then, nor areas large enough to warrant sinking on the 
 areas then in vogue on the rock leads until the course of the 
 gutter was known. Hence the dilemma. The miners had just 
 traced the Frenchman's Lead beneath the Sebastopol plateau with 
 its superincumbent deposits of clay and basalt. On the 26th 
 December they held a meeting, and a proposal by Mr. Bacon, 
 " that parties of twelve should have 34 feet allowed them along
 
 198 
 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 the supposed lead," was rejected in favor, not of a demand for 
 larger areas, but of a petition to the Local Court " to propound 
 rules which shall permit shepherding on this difficult lead, and 
 obviate the deplorable consequences of jumping, riot, and tumult." 
 
 While all these legislative changes were going on, the 
 character of mining operations underwent remarkable mutation. 
 Excepting in old shallow grounds where the " hatter," as the 
 single worker was called, or the small party of co-operative 
 miners worked, the tub and cradle and windlass, those signs of 
 early digging days, had disappeared. The alluvial gutters that 
 had been found within the Ballarat East basin and on its sides, 
 as well as those afterwards discovered on the western slopes, as 
 White Horse, Frenchman's, Terrible, and Cobblers, had, by the 
 year 1857, been traced beneath the basaltic deposits of the 
 western plateau. Instead of having to sink through from 100 
 feet to 180 feet of diluvial clays and drifts merely, the miners 
 now had to go in some cases more than double the greater depth, to 
 blast through successive layers of dense basaltic rock, and to 
 encounter heavy flows of water in the rocks and drifts. The 
 Inkermann, Redan, and some tributaries still later discovered, 
 belonged to the same category of rock mining, and involved 
 similar difficulties and hazards. 
 
 The following table shows, approximately, the order of dis- 
 covery after the year 1854. Before the dates given as to the 
 leads mentioned there had been workings in the shallower por- 
 tions, but the dates refer to the discovery of well-defined gutters 
 or leads in the deeper ground : — 
 
 LOCALITY. 
 
 DATK. 
 
 LOCALITV. 
 
 DATE. 
 
 
 Iiikeniiaiiii Lead . . 
 
 Karlv in , . . 
 
 1850 
 
 Ksmond's Lead . . 
 
 August 
 
 .1856 
 
 lied Streak Lead . . 
 
 March 
 
 lsr)fi 
 
 Malakoff Lead 
 
 Auffust 
 
 .1850 
 
 Krinchinan's) Lead 
 
 .lime 
 
 1 «.'-..'■> 
 
 Mount rieasant Lead 
 
 Autfust 
 
 .1856 
 
 White HorHe Leafl 
 
 .lime 
 
 Ih-lf. 
 
 Miners Ri),dit Lead 
 
 September 
 
 .1856 
 
 Aselies Lead 
 
 .lime 
 
 lSf.fi 
 
 Cobblers Lead 
 
 October... 
 
 .1856 
 
 fJiitn Tree Flat .. 
 
 .lulv 
 
 18.% 
 
 Milkmaids Load . . 
 
 November. . 
 
 .1856 
 
 Teriil>le Lead 
 
 August 
 
 IS,'-..'-. 
 
 lU'dan Lead 
 
 Knd of ... . 
 
 .1856 
 
 <)rie-i;ve <!ullv 
 
 September. 
 
 . is.'-.r. 
 
 Al Lead 
 
 .July 
 
 .1857 
 
 renin wei;;lit Flat 
 
 September. 
 
 . Ksf.f. 
 
 Hush to Carn),'ham 
 
 October . . . 
 
 .1867 
 
 Dead Horse 
 
 Karlv in ... 
 
 i8.-.(; 
 
 Haphazard Lead . . 
 
 Some time inl857 
 
 NiKlitintfale Lead . . 
 
 February . . 
 
 18,'-.C. 
 
 Swamp Lead 
 
 Ditto 
 
 .1857 
 
 Golden I'oint Lead 
 
 .Ma\' 
 
 . !«.'-.(! 
 
 I'addv's & ( 'rawflsh Leads 
 
 Ditto 
 
 .1857 
 
 Caledonian Lead . . 
 
 .(line 
 
 18.'^.0 
 
 Woolshed Lead .. 
 
 May 
 
 .1858 
 
 UiiHh to lirowns 
 
 .lime 
 
 1850 
 
 Kssex liCad 
 
 .June 
 
 .1858 
 
 Lady Harkly Lead 
 
 .luly 
 
 . IHGO 
 
 Native Youth Lead 
 
 July 
 
 .1868
 
 ENGINES AND HORSES IN MINING. 199 
 
 During the ten years after the Stockade year, a good deal of 
 auriferous ground was opened down the valley of the Leigh as 
 far as the Durham Lead. The Scotchman's, Black Lead, Stone 
 Quarry, Sodawater, Devonshire, Goldseekers, Franklin, Victoria, 
 and Welshman's Leads were during that time opened, as also the 
 Union Jack and others at Buninyong. Well-detined leads in the 
 Smythesdale, Scarsdale, Linton, H addon, and some other fields 
 in that part of the district were also discovered. Some of these 
 last named, and Creswick likewise, have, with varying fortunes, 
 continued to yield gold from deep gutters up to the present time. 
 
 Looking back at the earlier stages of practical mining, we 
 see that, no longer able to carry on his vocation by mere manual 
 labor and simple co-operative organisation, the miner had to 
 invite the co-operation of capital and to employ expensive steam 
 machinery. On the Eureka the first engine was worked on 3rd 
 October, 1855, and before that date isolated attempts to use 
 steam power had been made at the Canadian, Red Hill, and Red 
 Streak, Peter Matthews at the Red Hill being the first to set up 
 pumping and puddling gear, and on a principle pretty closely 
 adhered to from that day to the present time. For a long time 
 the miners opposed the introduction of machinery and capital. 
 Mr. Wood tells us, in his notes published in Mr. Brough Smyth's 
 " Gold-fields of Victoria," that when Messrs. Talbot and others 
 put up an engine near the spot now intersected by Bridge and 
 Peel streets, to work a shaft on the Gravel Pits Flat there, " a 
 body of men proceeded to the claim for the purpose of smashing 
 the engine, but were prevented from doing so by Mr. Talbot, who 
 had provided himself with fire-arms, and threatened to shoot the 
 first man who approached." Some few years after this, namely, 
 in March, 1859, engines and horses were introduced below the 
 surface. The Burra Burra Company erected a four-horse power 
 engine below for hauling, and it was reported at that time that 
 thirty pounds weight of gold were taken from the excavation 
 made for the erection of the engine — an area of thirty feet by 
 seven. At the same date a Welsh Company in Paddy's Gully, 
 Winter's Flat, used horses below ground. Since then both 
 engines and horses have been used in several of the larger mines.
 
 200 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 So long as the grounds worked were shallow and rich the 
 opposition to machinery was in some sort tenable, but as soon as 
 gold-seeking assumed the features already described as belonging 
 to rock-lead mining, the use of capital and machinery became a 
 necessity. The eight feet square claim, bottomed at from two to 
 twelve feet, and exhausted in as many hours sometimes, when 
 Governor Latrobe first saw the gold hunters of Golden Point in 
 1851, has been followed by areas of hundreds of acres, held by 
 hundreds of shareholders in incorporated companiess a single claim 
 often worked by several large deep shafts, at each of which is an 
 extensive plant of steam machinery, with the best possible shaft 
 apparatus, the mine traversed by a network of tunnels and tram- 
 ways, and taking many years to exhaust even approximately of 
 its auriferous deposits. The tub, cradle, tom, whip, and whim 
 are out of date and inapplicable to the claims now held by our 
 large rock-lead companies, save only that the windlass or the 
 whim is still sometimes used in initial operations. Many thousands 
 of pounds sterling are spent in the mines of to-day before gold 
 is ever reached by the miner. The United Hand-in-Hand and 
 Band of Hope Company was said, by deputations before the 
 Government, to have expended over £300,000 without having 
 paid a dividend. Whole forests have been felled to supply fire- 
 wood to our steam engines, and timber for the mines below. Our 
 companies call for tons of candles at a time, and in some instances 
 have gas to light up the dark recesses of their mines To draw 
 the trucks of ore along the extensive iron roads in their mines they 
 have studs of horses snugly housed in the warm bowels of the 
 earth. Engineers, engine-drivers, clerical managers, clerks, mine 
 managers, captains of shifts, troops of miners, boards of directors, 
 all belong to tlie working statf of our mines of to-day. The 
 surface works at a single shaft involve an outlay of thousands 
 of pounds in some instances, where tliere are engines, boilers, 
 tramways on the ground, tramways in the air, lofty poppet-heads, 
 with braces supported by ponderous beams and uprights, and 
 housing to shelter all the costly portions of the plant. In the 
 sinking of a single shaft many thousands of pounds are sometimes 
 expended. The outlay is similar in many instances, wliether the
 
 GO 
 
 < 
 en
 
 LUCK IN DIGGING. 201 
 
 mine be a quartz or alluvial one, and in several of our mines, as 
 notably in the Prince of Wales mine, Sebastopol, both quartz 
 and alluvium were worked, the steam-driven iron batteries work- 
 ing simultaneously with the steam-driven iron puddlers in extract- 
 ing the gold from the original matrix and the alluvium respectively. 
 
 Of the luck of gold digging the history of the early years 
 was full. A few instances of the early fifties are all we have 
 room for here. John Hosking and party, eight in all, had taken 
 up ground on the Red Streak, near Poverty Point, and, after 
 shepherding several shafts awhile, left the ground, as the gutter 
 appeared to be in a ditferent direction. The party were strolling 
 down the Main road one day, and Hosking, who still had some 
 faith in the claim, proposed to Frank Kneebone, one of his mates, 
 that they should toss up to decide whether or not they should go 
 back and work the claim. A half-crown was thrown and Hosking 
 won the toss. To work they went, and in nine weeks took out 
 192 lbs. some odd ounces of gold. This was from part only of a 
 24 feet square claim, for the party left the reef unworked, and a 
 second party, who bought the claim after Hosking's crowd had 
 done, took out near £500 a man. As was the custom in those 
 days, Hosking's party threw away the headings, or top part of 
 the wash dirt, until they found that Chinese were washing it 
 greedily. Testing it they discovered that it paid well, and after 
 that they washed all the dirt. Hosking and his son went home 
 with £3,300 after a sojourn in Ballarat of only a year and nine 
 months in all. It appears that the Indicator strike of gold passes 
 through the claim on the Red Streak whence Hosking and his 
 mates took so much of the precious metal, and that helps to ex- 
 plain its richness. Wood's " Notes" tell us tliat one party of 
 six obtained 112 lb. of gold in ten weeks. Belcher and party of 
 eight made .£3000 each in four months. Eight Frenchmen ob- 
 tained £2500 each in five months. The " Hell Fling Mob" 
 obtained a similar amount each, and the " Sanctified Mob" 
 £1500 each. These are only specimens. The working of the 
 Eureka, Red Hill, and Canadian gutters, with their '' Jewellers' 
 Shops," their nuggets, their rich " pockets," their reefs or gutter- 
 banks, often as rich as the gutters, supplied many instances of
 
 202 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 large individual successes. Now we go on with the development 
 of mining. 
 
 Some documentary evidence befoi'e the author as he writes il- 
 lustrates the development of operative mining partnership, from the 
 Golden Point days of a few select friends working together to the 
 modern times of large incorporated companies, as also the big 
 equity suits which were a part of the modern phase of mining. 
 The first mining agreement extant is dated 22nd September, 1851, 
 is brief, plain, pithy, and signed by James Scott, John Arm- 
 strong, George Maynard, William Blaikie, Henry Duncan, and 
 Thomas Butler, a party from Geelong. There is nothing specially 
 notable in it, but clause 2 provides " that we do agree to abstain 
 from digging or searching for gold on the Sabbath day '' and 
 clause 4 " that any person being found intoxicated shall forfeit 
 the sum of £5, and for the second offence shall be expelled, should 
 a majority of the party request it, and shall accept of such terms as 
 the remaining portion of the party may deem just and equitable." 
 One of the party — ^presumed to be Duncan — gave place to Alex- 
 ander FyfFe, who filled a pviblic space afterwards in Geelong life. 
 The provisions as to Sunday work and temperance show how at 
 the very start of the gold-fields there were men who had in them 
 the religious sense and connnon sense, qualities which liave been 
 as saving salt in all the after years of change, toil, trouble, and 
 turbulence. The next agreement bears date 8th October, 1851, 
 and is signed by H. T. Bond, Alfred Higgins, James Curtis, Jno, 
 Francis, Alfred John Windley, Wm. Morrison, Alfred Scott, 
 James Watt, all of Geelong and neighborhood. It is a much 
 more elaborate paper than the first one, and has a smack of legal 
 lore in the wording, though nearly all the subscribers were 
 printers. It bound the subscribers " for two calendar months 
 from the date hereof for the purpose of digging or procuring 
 gold or other minr'ral at Ballarat or at such other place as may 
 be determined on ))y a majority of themembers of the Association." 
 Tlie rules were precise for the maintenance of sobriety and 
 integrity, and for the due deposit and division of gold, the treas- 
 urer being W. Morrison, a relative of ex-mayor A. T. Morrison, 
 of Ballarat City. The John Francis of the signatories became
 
 THE ALBION COMPANY'S RULES. 203 
 
 proprietor of the Crestcick Advei tiscr, and w<as one day found 
 dead in a water hole at Sulky gully where he had apparently 
 fallen on his way home at night. The James Curtis has been for 
 years in business, as printer and stationer, in Armstrong street. 
 
 The next document is a printed half sheet of foolscap con- 
 taining the Albion Co.'s rules, introducing us, still under the co- 
 operative system, to the half shareman who by that time had come 
 to be common in deep sinking work, where capital was necessary 
 and was represented by the " sleeping" half shareholder, or by 
 the " furnisher" who supplied materials of some kind, and had a 
 sleeping interest in the " mine," as the earlier " claim" had come 
 to be called. It is a " Memorandum of Agreement, Rules, and 
 Regulations, made and entered into this twenty-seventh day of 
 February, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven between 
 the undermentioned miners, being the shareholders working the 
 claims numbered 115 to 123 (surveyed under class F of the re- 
 gulations Gazetted 9th January 1857) on the Frenchman's 
 Lead, Sebastopol Hill, in the District of Ballarat." The rules create 
 a board of nine, to conduct the company's affairs, one of the nine 
 to be chosen by the company as manager to " carry into effect all 
 rules and decisions of the board." A secretary was to be similarly 
 chosen from the nine who were to audit his books every Saturday 
 and see that a " monthly balance sheet shall be posted up in the 
 Albion Lodge for the inspection of the shareholdei's." Then came 
 rules for registration of shares, half shares, and so on, for fines 
 for breaches of rules, for payment of 100 per cent, per an. on 
 unpaid fines, and 50 per cent, per an. on wages paid on account 
 of an absent shareholder. Only necessary work to be done on 
 Sundays, and " no fossicking unless by the sanction of three or 
 more of the Board " Excellent provisions were made for order, 
 for safety in working and for a world of necessary details, and 
 fvirther, "this company shall engage two or three beds in the Ballarat 
 Hospital for the benefit of sick or otherwise disabled shareholders." 
 
 Our next and last specimen is a big bundle of twenty-one 
 parchment folios, with an aggregate area of twenty-one feet by 
 one and-a-half. This portentous heap is in orthodox legal form, 
 illuminated with red ink lines, seals nearly as " big as muffins,"
 
 204 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 to quote the words once used by barrister (now judge) Cope, 
 when appearing in a Local Court case a few yeai-s before the 
 creation of these " Articles of Agreement made and entered into 
 this twenty fifth day of March, One thousand eight hundred 
 and sixty four" between Frederick William Tatham, as legal 
 manager, and the Prince of Wales Co., on the Cobblers Lead, 
 Sebastopol. This bundle of very expensive parchment brings us 
 into the epoch of mining scrip, mining disputes, lawyers, litiga- 
 tion, and heavy bills of costs. It is, itself, a monument of liti- 
 gation, for it is initialed here and there as an exhibit by the clerk 
 of the Court of Mines at the several dates when the unhappy 
 company had to appear and be duly shorn by the shearers. It 
 provides, with the tedious tautology so dear to lawyers, for the 
 constitution of the board and all its functions, and all the rights 
 and liabilities of the shareholders. There are schedules, and 
 forms of transfer and acceptance of scrip, showing that the com- 
 pany was registered as the Prince of Wales Company (Limited), 
 under 24 Victoria, No. 109 (Pyke's Act), in 2560 shares of £50 
 each. Three or four superficial feet of the parchment are covered 
 with the names and seals of the shareholders ; broad margins 
 with notes and numbers guide the eye, and red lines bound the 
 whole as if blushing at the enormous expenditure of words and 
 costs. Then follow on " further agreements" in German and 
 other text, bearing date 9th January, 1865, and setting forth 
 that the company is re-formed as the Prince of Wales Company, 
 Registered, with a capital of £128,000, in 5170 shares of £75 
 each, £22 10s. per share paid up. More superficial feet than before 
 are now covered with signatures, seals, schedules and otlier pain- 
 ful details. These folios recite a schedule, showing the company's 
 property representing the paid up capital, namely : — 
 
 Frontage claim, Cobblers Lead, 4'22S feet for 64 men. Frontage claim, 
 Golden Point Lead, 27!>.') feet for 7") men. Frontage claim, I'rince of 
 Wales Lead, 3000 feet for 41 men. A (juartz lilock claim, Cobblers Reef, 
 3000 feet by 500 feet for (i4 men. An alluvial lilock claim, S. C. Mobeck and 
 ()3 others, 2000 by 040 feet. An alluvial Block claim, Augustus Sheppard 
 and party, — men, I. 320 \)y 700 feet, tlOa.OOO. One (juartz battery of 16 
 head of stamps. One aO Honse power steam engine, winding engine, 25 
 Horse power engine and three puddling machines, OlHce houses, out-
 
 SOME COSTLY PARCHMENTS. 205 
 
 houses, machine house, P^ngine house, Battery house. Blacksmith's shop, 
 Storeroom, Firewood 2000 Cord, Rails, Ropes, Chain Ropes, Large pump 
 and small surface pump. Long Tom, Cradle £10,200. Total, £115,200. 
 
 Then follows the usual array of signatures and seals to this 
 new departure, and after that we come to a fresh set of folios 
 under date 15th November, 1866, setting forth that " at two of 
 the clock P.M. a majority in number and value of the share- 
 holders being present" at an extraordinary meeting, the capital 
 was increased to £208,575, in 8343 shares of £25 each; the same to 
 be " increased" by giving to the Albion Company 3223 shares of 
 £25 each in settlement of that company's claim for ground taken 
 by the Prince of Wales Company. This was the last and 
 biggest burst of the company in the matter of parchment dis- 
 play. There is twice as much space covered with signatures and 
 share details this time as ever before, and the absence from some 
 folios of previous columns of tiny seals is compensated for by two 
 great crimson ones of nearly the dimensions of the Cope-muffin 
 type. But there was also a new feature in the form of a photo- 
 graph of a weird-looking, scratchy, pen and ink sketch of intricate 
 claim-boundaries, showing the involved lines of the manifold 
 frontage systems, a memorandum of apportionment of scrip, the 
 signatures of the contracting directors, and two little black seals 
 as symbols of the two companies, in settlement of what was too 
 often a business too dark for satisfactory apprehension. Another 
 extraordinary meeting followed on the 30th July, 1869, reducing 
 the number of directors from nine to seven, and at another on 
 the 2nd December, 1870, as set forth in several folios, the 
 directors were empowered to forfeit and sell shares on which calls 
 had remained unpaid seven days. This regulation is signed by 
 "John Embling, chairman of the meeting," and underneath, and 
 ending this strange eventful history of corporate and regulational 
 change, we have the following relatively brief finial, but still in 
 big black Grerman and other text : — 
 
 At a meeting of the company duly held, it was moved by Mr. George 
 Coleman Robinson, seconded by Mr. James Slater and carried, That the 
 minutes of Resolutions passed on the 2nd day of December one thousand 
 eight hundred and seventy be confirmed. John Dane, Chairman of the 
 meeting, F. W. Tatham, Manager of the Company.
 
 206 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Although there is no date to this last bit, it was probably a 
 record of what took place at an ordinary or special meeting as 
 soon as the other was over, and as legally necessary as a 
 sequence to what went before. Amid all the paroxysms of 
 change, in all the exits and entrances of signatories set out in 
 this waste of sheepskin, there is one constant person. He is 
 like Tennyson's brook. " F. W. Tatham, manager," goes on from 
 start to finish. The first agony in 1864 was that of passing 
 from the primitive condition of co-operation to that of incorpora- 
 tion under Statute, with the original shares converted into scrip. 
 In this process there had to be a larger number of scrip given to 
 the holders of sleeping shares, halves, quarters, eighths, or what not, 
 than to the holders of working interests, as these last had to work 
 or pay for substitutes, while the holder of the sleeping interest had 
 no labor liability. Thus, in the first issue of scrip by the Prince of 
 Wales Company, a full original share was made into 40 scrip, of 
 which the sleeping half had 24, and the working half 16. So the 
 Great Extended Company, Redan, turned its shares into 60 scrip, 
 and gave 34 to the sleeping and 26 to the working holder. The 
 apportionment of interests in the Nelson and Wellington Com- 
 pany, under the Limited Liability Act, in 5570 scrip, on the 4th 
 August, 1864, was 40 scrip to each of 139| twelfth shares. But 
 some holders had lOths in the original partition, and received 50 
 scrip ; others originally had 8ths, and received 60 scrip ; whilst 
 58 scrip were allotted to each original share in the Bullock Horn 
 claim, absorbed in the Nelson and Wellington. The dillerence in 
 market value of working and sleeping interests will be seen in 
 the following prices advertised on the lOtli August, 1862, by S. 
 Goujon, sharebroker : — 
 
 One full Nelson 10th, £2100 ; a stiuarc lialf Nelson, £1050; a sleephig 
 quarter 8th Nelson, £675. On the same date Micliacl Walsh advertised : — 
 One Albion, £18.")0 ; ^ working All)ion, £67.5 ; \ sleeping (ireat Extended, 
 £1700 ; A working ditto, £1400 ; 1 Cosmopolitan, £1900 ; ^ sleeping ditto, 
 £1150; h working ditto, £760; quarter 12th Nelson, £.350; 1 Prince of 
 Wales, £2000; k working ditto, £800 ; 1 (ireat Republic, £900 ; ^ sleeping 
 ditto, £600. 
 
 The year 1864 was tlie (irst year in which these transforma- 
 tions took place. Then, too, began tin; larger and more complex
 
 A OREAT TRIANGULAR SUIT. 207 
 
 and more costly disputes, weary equity suits bristling with 
 attorneys and barristers, and with costs incurred in coursing 
 from court to court. Titles became more involved as local re- 
 gulations and statutory law gave opportunities to " jumpers" who 
 discovered that somebody's miner's right had expired, or some- 
 body never had one, or found flaws in the mode in which a claim 
 had been measured, or pegged out, or registered, or worked. The 
 Prince of Wales Company paid large sums for clerical labor alone 
 in connection with such difficulties, and that was but the poor 
 fringe to an aggregate of over £13,000 costs for encroachment and 
 other disputes. 
 
 If an old Golden Point digger of 1851, looking into his little 
 shallow hole, rich as a jeweller's shop, or, as bullock-driver 
 Hannington says, like a ginger-bread basket, had seen below, in 
 the uprising future, the long law suits and the monstrous bills of 
 costs, the worry, the waste of time and energy, he would have 
 recoiled in horror. Affrighted by the vision he would, surely, 
 have fled with foot as fleet as fabled Mercury's, and left all the 
 gilded promises of the unknown for the more sober certainties of 
 a less fascinating, but more certain, industry. The sacred thirst 
 broke out very early in claim disputes, and it is only within the 
 last few years that mining has come to be less heavily weighted 
 with law and lawyers. The period of Local Court and Mining 
 Board regulations was the halcyon time of the attorneys and 
 barristers and their prompters the jumpers, but as frontages gave 
 way to blocks, and as the leads reached private property and 
 leaseholds came into vogue, litigation grew less and less, and the 
 exhausting journeys from Court of Mines, to the Supreme Court, 
 and from there to the Privy Council were almost mere matters 
 of history. Nothing but the great richness of the mines saved 
 the litigant period from being one of general ruin. The Prince 
 of Wales Company obtained its first gold in 1860, some 63 ozs. 
 being won up to 20th September of that year. Altogether the 
 company obtained 164,874 ozs. of alluvial gold and 44,196 ozs. of 
 quartz gold, and, after surviving all its costly transformations and 
 disputes, paid £250,894 in dividends to its long suftering share- 
 holders.
 
 208 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 More famous suits were those of the United Hand-in-Hand 
 and Band of Hope, the Great Extended Redan, and the Kohi- 
 noor Companies, a kind of triangular battle over registration 
 rights to gutters which raged for years, rolled from court to court 
 and, after an outlay of £60,000 in law, ended, as such disputes 
 often did, in a compromise. For a time the combat was, generally, 
 a outrance, and even the mathematics ceased in such conditions 
 to be an exact science. Surveyors, theodolites, calculations, the 
 very properties of the angle and the circle seemed to dissolve into 
 thin air in the heat of those conflicts, and distance, number, 
 weight, color depended, it would often seem, on the side for which 
 the witness was called. The arena was one in which the builder 
 up of bills of costs found his vocation abnormally easy, and the 
 mining disputants bled with alacrity. But sometimes the victim 
 turned upon the operator and criticised the demands made. 
 Before us lies a printed address of James Cotter, the manager of 
 the Hand and Band Company, with regard to a suit by Hardy and 
 Madden, solicitors, " for recovery of £288 claimed by them as a 
 refund due in respect of their 1,152 shares." The solicitors won 
 their case. Cotter was a tall, spare. Irishman, with a quaint 
 solemn mediieval-like face liable to sudden lights of intelligent 
 humor. His face reminded one of those dull, saintly, effigies in 
 old church windows, sadly serene in shadow, almost severe in 
 their immobile expression, then suddenly a glint of sunlight 
 comes and the figure is brighter with radiant aureoles of a new 
 and vivid and almost articulate life. Him, the Court of Mines 
 judge, Rogers, used to regard as a witness conspicuous for 
 veracity, and Cotter held that the appellate judge, Molesworth, 
 " failed to grasp the actual merits" of his (Cotter's) evidence on 
 the bill of costs, and thus " thi'ough some error or mistake, quite 
 inexplicable, arrived at an erroneous, though no doubt a conscien- 
 tious, judgment." The dispute is cited merely to show how far 
 the uncertainties of law in mining matters could extend, and 
 specially, how the bills of costs arose. To that one firm of 
 hiwyors the compaTiy paid £5,551 7s. .'kl. for a suit that dangled 
 from January 1875 to August 1879 between the Ballarat Court 
 of Mines and the London Privy Council. From Trinity Term to
 
 THK EGERTON CASE. 209 
 
 Michaelmas, to Hillary, to Easter, to Trinity again, the game was 
 kept up in that particular suit in which the solicitors in question 
 acted for the company in the Victorian Courts and by their 
 London agent in the Privy Council appeal, and Cotter publishes 
 the items charged by the London solicitor and by the Ballarat 
 firm, the auditors finding a difterence of ,£124 18s. 6d. between 
 the two accounts. Bat the £5000 odd was only an item in the 
 general sum of costs in one of tliese long-winded suits, as from 
 .£40,000 to £50,000 was sometimes the price paid for the luxury 
 of a good stand-up fight in equity. 
 
 Of all the celebrated mining suits here, the most celebrated 
 was that known as the Egerton case, in which Messrs. A. J. L., 
 T. L., and S. L. Learmonth, the Ercildoun squatters, who had 
 purchased the Egerton mine in 1863, and in 1873 sold it by their 
 S. L. Learmonth to Martin Loughlin for £13,500, sued said 
 Loughlin, William Bailey, James "Williamson, Owen Edward 
 Edwards, and an unnamed contingent called the Egerton Com- 
 pany. Bailey had been the plaintiffs' mine manager, and sold, as 
 their agent, to Loughlin, joining Loughlin, Williamson, and 
 Edwards thereupon as equal partner. The plaintiffs' case in 
 effect was that these four defendants had played a comedy of 
 fraud, in which Bailey, the confidential adviser and agent of the 
 plaintiffs, who was said to have wept under pressure of ante- 
 cedent gratitude for Learmonth favors, and Loughlin, the 
 purchaser, were star actors, and Williamson, manager of the 
 Union Bank, Ballarat, where the purchasing cheques were 
 honored, and Edwards, a broker at the Corner, performed the 
 parts of general utility men, whilst at the back of the stage was 
 a chorus of nondescripts who held 1000 of the 25,000 scrip into 
 which the chief actors had converted their original shares. But 
 if the chief plaintiff felt the logically dramatic significance of his 
 case, how the iron must have entered his soul. For there had 
 been that tender and touching prologue to the play in the form of 
 an interview between the confidential manager and his employer, 
 in which the former softening, as it would seem, and almost 
 
 Enamoured more, as more remembrance swells 
 
 With many a proof of recollected love, 
 became, for one short, soft moment, " like Niobe, all tears."
 
 210 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 The plaintiffs brought their suit in equity before Mr. Justice 
 Molesworth, and it subsequently took the form, before Chief 
 Justice Stawell and a special jury of twelve, of the live following 
 issues to be tried as an interlocutory proceeding : — 
 
 I. That the quartz contained in the mine, the subject matter of this 
 suit, before or on the 15th clay of September, 1873, was richer in gold than 
 the defendant William Bailey represented to the plaintiff Sommei-ville 
 Livingstone Learmonth. II. That the defendant William Bailey did make 
 a representation to the plaintiff, S. L. Learmonth, of the value of the 
 quartz in the said mine, or of the value of the said mine false and to the 
 knowledge of the said defendant, and with the intention of inducing the 
 plaintiff to sell the said mine at an under value. III. That the plaintiff, 
 S. L. Learmonth, was induced by the representations of the defendant, 
 W. Bailey, as to the value of the said mine or quartz therein to sell the 
 mine to the defendant, M. Loughlin, for the sum of £13,500. 
 
 IV. That there was on or previously to the 15th day of September, 1873, 
 an agreement or arrangement between the defendant, M. Loughlin, and 
 W. Bailey that the defendant, W. Bailey, should have a share of the said 
 mine after the sale thereof by the plaintiffs to the defendant, M. Loughlin. 
 
 V. That both the defendants, J. Williamson, and 0. E. Edwards, or one 
 of them knew of the existence of such agreement or arrangement at the 
 time of their or liis entering into a bargain for the purchase of the mine. 
 
 The four chief defendants represented the four quarters of 
 the Imperial flag, and were all then in prime middle age. Bailey 
 was a tallish, light-coniplexioned, stoop-shouldered Saxon English- 
 man. Loughlin was over six feet high, a dark complexioned 
 Irishman, with, perhaps, a strain of Hispano-Galway blood in 
 him. Williamson was a Scotchman, of broad make and middle 
 height, and fair complexion, one of Green's north of Tweed 
 English. Edwards was a light, mobile, middle-height Welshman, 
 who spoke good English with a Cambrian accent. Their answer 
 to the plaintiffs' suit was, in effect, tliat they were all as innocent 
 as new born babes. Tlie poverty of the mine before the sale, 
 and its richness after the sale, were not coincidences of the type 
 so delicately liinted at by Mr. Weller, senior, but were events 
 honest and true, irrefragable as tlie postulated innocence of in- 
 fancy. And so, in sooth, they may liave been. Mining luck is 
 full of such sudden changes. 
 
 S. L. Learmonth deposed that Loughlin had written on 
 1st September, asking if the mine was for sale, and Learmonth,
 
 THE EGERTON CASE. 211 
 
 remembering some former advice of Bailey's, replied that he 
 would sell for £50,000. Then, communicating with Bailey, 
 Learmonth was advised to sell for £12,000, as the mine had been 
 yielding poorly, and was only worth three years' purchase, Bailey 
 saying that he would not give more if he had a cart load of gold. 
 Upon this Bailey was authorised to sell, and did sell to Loughlin 
 for £13,500, receiving froni Learmontli 5 per cent, commission on 
 the sale. Then the quadrilateral partnership was formed, the 
 company floated in 25,000 scrip, the quad holding nearly all the 
 scrip, and the output from the mine began to improve almost im- 
 mediately, Bailey admitting in the witness-box that up to the date 
 of the suit (1-ith March, 1876), he had received as his share of the 
 gold " about £30,000." The defence set forth a denial of the 
 allegations in the five cited issues, and an averment that " the 
 rich stone after the sale was owing to the discovering of the new 
 reef in the Rose (shaft)." Each side employed four barristers, and 
 the case was opened on the 14th March, 187G, before Chief Justice 
 Stawell and a special jury of twelve. Witnesses of all classes f I'om 
 all parts of the colony gave evidence ; plans and models were used 
 in profusion, and the public interest excited was great, as the 
 allegations and denials were often very strongly opposed, and in 
 the popular mind the unpopularity of tlie rich squatter plaintiffs 
 was pretty well balanced by the fact of the sudden change in the 
 mine's value after the mine had gone from their possession. On the 
 3rd April the judge sumraeduptothe jury ; the jury could not agree, 
 not even a majority of three-fourths, and they were discharged. 
 
 Mr. Dovan, one of the jurymen, said at the close of the 
 iudge's charge that he wished to make a statement which he con- 
 sidered a duty to himself and his fellow jurymen. " Last Wed- 
 nesday evening a fellow came up to him in the interest of the 
 defendants and offered hiiii £250 to stand out and give a verdict 
 on their side, and told him at the same time that they only wanted 
 one to complete the number to form a disagreement." When the 
 jury had announced their final failure to agree the judge said to 
 Dovan : — " Can you recognise the person you said spoke to you f 
 Dovan replied : — " Yes, I can give his name." His Honor then 
 discharged the jury.
 
 212 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 The defendants won the battle along the whole line, in- 
 iunction motions, issues, everything, for when the plaintiffs' made 
 another essay to get back the mine they fared worse, the jury 
 finding for the defendants on all the issues. Disconcerted, but 
 not yet vanquished, the plaintiffs obtained leave to appeal to the 
 Privy Council, but after a while began to treat with the defend- 
 ants. This sent the defendant company's shares up 5s. and, as it 
 was calculated that an absolute settlement would enhance their 
 value 200 or 300 per cent., the defendants agreed to forego all 
 claim for costs, which were estimated at =£26,000. The dispute 
 was settled on these terms, the plaintiffs' costs being about 
 £50,000 or £60,000 of which, if rumor were not a liar, not less 
 than £15,000 was paid to one man to act as general overseer of 
 the tight for them. 
 
 This was the heaviest single suit in all Ballarat Mining liti- 
 gation. It seemed to close the belligerent period that followed 
 upon the advent of large companies and frontage complications — 
 the halcyon time of the unscrupulous jumper and the fruitful 
 source of disputes ; just as the largest and most disastrous of the 
 Ballarat conflagrations closed the specially igneous period of old 
 Ballarat. Cotter, who had large experience in law-tights, argues 
 in favor of the union of the two branches of the profession as a 
 mode of cheapening law. He says that when Barrister M'Dermott 
 returned to Victoria from New Zealand he consulted with clients 
 without the attorney go-between, and he was boycotted by the 
 attoi-neys for a while. But liis action, according to Cotter's 
 statement, reduced the cost of counsel's opinion from £12 to £2 
 13s. 4d., or in the case of Mr. Webb (now Mr. Justice Webb) to 
 £3 13s. 4d. 
 
 The Honorable Thomas Livingstone Learmonth, M.L.C., 
 had been taken away, by Providence or a desire to settle for his 
 latter days in the old lajid, from the evil days of litigation which 
 had come upon his brother Somerville in person as the remaining 
 representative of the firm. Thomas was a public man, and a 
 religious and charitable man, in a more prominent sense than any 
 of his brothers, and when he left the colony for Britain tliere was 
 a public recognition of his personal worth as an old colonist and
 
 THOMAS LIVINGSTONE LEARMONTH. 213 
 
 dutiful citizen. On the 6th October, 1868, a soiree was given in 
 his honor in the hall of the Mechanics' Institute, the late Robert 
 Lewis presiding, and addresses expressive of remembrance of his 
 many public services, his large enterprise, and his much appreci- 
 ated philanthropy, were presented to the guest. One was on behalf 
 of " the inhabitants of Ballarat and the surrounding districts," 
 and another was from the Agricultui'al and Pastoral Society. 
 The former referred to the changes Mr. Learmonth had seen since 
 he first settled in the district, and in reply he said : — " You have 
 alluded to the wonderful changes I have seen. They are indeed 
 wonderful, for within twenty years I have seen a flock of sheep, 
 tended by its solitary shepherd, feeding on the very spot on which 
 this stately hall is built, and where this busy city, with its golden 
 treasures, is carrying on the business and bustle of life." 
 
 The Browns leases dispute was a turbulent instance of the 
 conflict of claims arising out of conflicting mine boundaries, and 
 the costly uncertainty of mining law. Within four years after 
 the Eureka Stockade the leasing disputes occurred, and revived 
 for a time the excitemeut which had glared up over the frontage 
 regulations issue at the Mining Board election on the 14th July, 
 1856. The dispute at Browns was caused by the granting, under 
 leasing regulations gazetted on the 23rd December, 1S58, of a 
 lease to Duncan and party, known as the Great Britain Com- 
 pany. The lease was of an area 1200 feet square, or 33 acres, on 
 the Contest Lead, in the Smythesdale Division of the district, 
 and it was opposed by 96 miners forming the Washington, 
 Banner of War, Better Late than Never, and Victoria Com- 
 panies. The lead was proclaimed in November, 1857, under the 
 frontage bylaws, and claims were duly registered ; but many 
 were soon abandoned, and then they were taken up with ex- 
 tended areas under regulations existing for that purpose, the sub- 
 sequently leased area being one of the areas so taken up on the 
 1st September, 1858, taken up with the increased area as a pro- 
 tection under the plea of prospecting for the lead ahead of the 
 last known place of the gutter. We have no space for all 
 desirable particulars, and it must sutiice to say that after great 
 excitement, questionings of bylaws by the warden, Lowther,
 
 214 HISTORY OF RALLARAT. 
 
 costly suits in the courts, incipient riots, the lessees were forcibly 
 put in possession by Crown Lands Commissioner Sherard and 
 sixty foot and twenty-five mounted troopers on the 25th May, 
 1859. A Select Committee of Parliament sat on the business 
 afterwards, and found that all the facts in the lease affair had not 
 been officially presented to the Government, and that though the 
 bylaws of the Mining Board were of doubtful legality, still, " if 
 Mr. Warden Lowther had duly and properly carried out the 
 bylaws, no dispute would have arisen ; and if he had reported 
 all the facts to the Government, the Government would not have 
 deemed it just or politic to grant the leases." The anti-lessees 
 claimed compensation for losses to the extent of £12,256, and 
 the Select Committee recommended compensation to the ninety- 
 six miners interested, but Parliament declined to adopt the 
 advice thus given, and all the compensation obtained by the 
 miners was .£30 a man paid by the lessees in settlement of the 
 dispute. 
 
 There were a few Chinese gold digging in Ballarat as early as 
 1852, but there was no rising of the "yellow agony" in the dis- 
 trict till the year 1873, when a dispute at Clunes led to a disturb- 
 ance of the peace on the 9th December. There had been a strike of 
 the miners employed in the Lothair mine, as the directors refused 
 to give a Saturday afternoon holiday shift as was generally the 
 custom. The directors pleaded that the miners had no right to 
 demand a holiday sliift without a rateable reduction of the two 
 guineas a week wage, and, moreover, that as the Lothair mine 
 was in wet and swelling alluvial country the works could not be 
 safely left idle as if it were a dry quartz mine. There was a 
 long series of palavers between the disputants and finally the 
 miners struck work, supported therein by the Assocation then 
 formed there. The directors of the mine, including Mr. Francis 
 (tlien Preini(!r), and Mr. Lalor, the whilom hero of freedom, ttc, 
 at the Eureka Stockade, decided to counter-plot against the 
 strikers by employing Chinese labor, of whicli Creswick and 
 Ballarat offered an amj)l(! supply. The Chinese were detested as 
 an inferior race, as the harl)ing(irs of degrading pagan immorality, 
 and as alien competitors for the bread which the miners required
 
 THE CLUNES RIOT. 215 
 
 for themselves and families. By Monday, the 8t1i December, the 
 miners had information respecting the employment of Chinese, 
 and at once made a demonstration in force. About 500 men of 
 the Miners Association, headed by the Clunes Brass Band, and 
 armed with pick-handles, battens, and waddies marched about 
 the town, many women accompanying them. At midnight the 
 fire bell was rung, and the crowd went to the Lothair mine, 
 ordered up the few men who were still below, and when they re- 
 fused and could not be found in the mine the shaft was covered 
 over and cages lowered upon the covering. The crowd then put 
 ropes round a building prepared for the Chinese and pulled it 
 down. Daylight of the 9th soon dawned, the bells were rung 
 again, and over a thousand men, womea, and children moved to 
 the toll-gate on the Creswick road, and took possession of it and 
 the contiguous fences. Lothair directors were approaching with 
 a caravan of Chinese and police, but hearing of the hostile crowd 
 turned off by the T<)urella road to enter Clunes by the Ballarat 
 road, and the miners at once rushed across to the new line of 
 march and erected a barricade of timber, stones, ploughs, harrows, 
 ropes and other obstructions. The caravan, headed by a coach 
 driven by McPhee, its owner, by whoie side sat Sergeant Larner, 
 of the police, rapidly approached the bd,rricade. A storm of 
 missiles from the defenders of the barricade poured upon the 
 caravan, and so heavy was the onslaught upon the Chinese that 
 the police had to abandon their attempt to carry the barri- 
 cade and return to the beleagured caravan. An order to retreat 
 was given, and the caravan turned back on the way it caine. The 
 Sandhurst miners caught the excitement, aud threatened to march 
 to the aid of their brethren at Clunes. Mr. Blanchard, the 
 mayor of Clunes, who was also president of the Miners' Associa- 
 tion, and Mr. Phillips, M.L.A. es^joused the action of the 
 miners, the more emotional of the commentators in the Press 
 championed their doings, and some were silly enough to compare 
 the riot to the stand made at the Eureka Stockade. This was 
 not wonderful if not very wise, for the business was a medley 
 of conflicting legal and moral rights. The Lothair directors 
 were within the law, and the rioters were violating the law. But
 
 216 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 the miners had the whole moral weight of the argument on their 
 side, and if the Lothair directors had shown more tact they 
 would, probably, have found it as easy to carry on the mine as 
 other Clunes managements had carried on theirs. The refusal 
 of concession was a blunder, the employment of Chinese was a 
 blunder, and the sending an armed police escort was a blunder. 
 This M^as felt by the authorities, and so it was that nobody was 
 prosecuted, and even the anomaly of the mayor being also a 
 rioter, or an apologist of the rioters, was passed over. 
 
 Tlie jumper — so called from the primitive digger who 
 jumped into an unoccupied shallow hole — has always been one of 
 the troubles of mining life. He sometimes was honest and did 
 good work, and sometimes was a rogue and did great wrong. 
 The Pleasant Creek jumps of 1872-3 were famous for the excite- 
 ment they created all over Victoria. Ballarat men were the 
 jumpers, and they sought to get possession of quartz ground at 
 Stawell, on the plea that it had been shepherded for ten years. 
 The shepherds were rich, and there was a great fight in the 
 courts, besides threats of physical force disturbances. Public 
 meetings were held in Ballarat and elsewhere, a " Pleasant Creek 
 Jumps Company" was formed, and after a long struggle the 
 wealthy shepherds made terms with the chief jumpers, paid their 
 costs, and got back the ground, to the great disgust of the general 
 body of shareholders in the J umps Company. 
 
 One of the uglier forms of mining dispute was the physical 
 force tactics sometimes adopted by tlie disputants and the men in 
 their employment. These methods were, in underground encroach- 
 ment cases, sometimes dangerous to health and life. Drives were 
 Ijarricaded and defended vi et armis. Hometimes water was let 
 out to overwhelm the enemy, and sometimes stink pots were 
 used. The encroachment dispute between the Prince of "Wales 
 and Albion Companies in 1866 was made infamous by the use 
 of stink pots. Tlie legal manager of the Prince of Wales Com- 
 pany writes : — 
 
 On account of its bciii|4 hucIi a serious ciiinc, and hard to bring home 
 to tiic real offenders, tlic prosecution was abandoned. I believe we could 
 have proved wiio it was tliat purchased the deleterious drugs which were 
 placed in our drives to prevent tlie men working, and which, if not dis
 
 PRIVATE PROPERTY LEASES. 217 
 
 covered in time, would most certainly have destroyed more lives than one. 
 The modus operandi was simple enough, though I cannot say what drug 
 was used ; probably acetic acid, such as the plumbers use. I did not see 
 it, but I can imagine a quantity poured into a vessel with copper scraps. 
 
 The latest jumping essay of special significance was an 
 attempt in December, 1886, by near a hundred men to get 
 possession " of that portion of the Band and Albion Consols 
 claim, known as the No. 9 lease, and on which is the No. 9 shaft." 
 Consols stock fell a few shillings in the market at once, but revived 
 next day, and nothing more was heard of the business, save a 
 plea by the jumpers that they only applied for some private 
 property lots. The attempt and not the deed confounded them. 
 
 Three decades had gone, after the gold discovery, before a 
 law was passed to legalise mining on private property, but scarce 
 one had passed when mining leases on private property were in 
 vogue. The first in the Ballarat district was for the Learmonth 
 pre-emptive at Buninyong, applied for by Messrs. D. FitzPatrick, 
 S. Irwin, and J. Victor, who also were the earliest appointed 
 justices of the peace in Ballarat. That application fell through, 
 and a lease of the ground was obtained by H. Cuthbert, solicitor, 
 since then a member of the Legislative Council and a member of 
 several Cabinets. In 1860 D. and P. FitzPatrick obtained a 
 lease of Egan's Corinella Estate, near Daylesford, and after that 
 mining leases became common both on private and on Crown 
 lands. But the agitation for a private property law went on, 
 and for the course of some thirty years Ballarat fought hard at 
 intervals in mining boards, and committees, and in the press^ but 
 tlie question was shelved by the Parliament. For the people who 
 voted and paid were " mostly fools," and the game went on till 
 the political state of the country was so rank and corrupt that 
 even manhood suftrage began to stir itself and call for reform. 
 Then came the era of railway and civil service boards to restrict 
 political patronage, and with these things there also came a law 
 to legalise mining on private property. 
 
 Some of the Australian mining ventures were floated wholly 
 or in part upon capital obtained in Great Britain. Excepting the 
 Port Phillip Quartz Mining Company, of which mention is made
 
 218 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 hereafter, the only notable local instance of that kind was the 
 Winter's Freehold Company which Mr. (now Colonel) W, C, 
 Smith went to London, in 1868, to launch. A f ar-ewell banquet 
 was given to him on the 9th September of that year, in 
 the Alfred Hall, Mayor Davey, of Ballarat West, presiding, 
 and the occasion was made the vehicle for conveying to Mr, Smith 
 very hearty recognitions of his many and valuable services to 
 Ballarat as municipal councillor, mining promoter, and parlia- 
 mentary representative. With Mr. Smith, went to London 
 Mr. Ligar, ex-surveyor general of Victoria, and Mr. Thomas 
 Carpenter, a mining engineer, but the embassy was in tlie main 
 a failure. The ambassadors were nobodies in London, and their 
 bait was not attractive enough to the London Exchange. All 
 that was done was to leave the project in the hands of broker 
 Thomas Dicker, of the Mining Record, who placed 1,455 of the 
 12,960 shares composing the company's stock. This was, in fact, 
 the third and final company. First, there was a company for 
 boring for the lead, and that began to bore in October, 1866. 
 Then a company to purchase the land was formed, an area of 
 1,360 acres being bouglit from Mr. John Winter for £50,000 
 cash, near £40 an acre being paid for land whose intrinsic value 
 was about £3 an acre only. The company ceased mining in 
 September, 1877, after spending £390,000, and having at the close 
 of operations a debit balance of £33,000 at tlie Bank of Victoria. 
 The bank, in fact, foreclosed, took possession, carried on the mine 
 for eighteen montlis, and then tlie mine was abandoned. Dui'ing 
 its operations the company raised £89,518 14s. 8d. worth of gold. 
 The bank raised very little comparatively, and only partially re- 
 couped itself by the sale of plant and freehold. 
 
 The only other venture of any importance launched in the 
 Ballarat district with foreign capital is the Port Phillip and 
 Colonial G. M. Co., at Clunes. This company was established in 
 London, at the end of 1851, with a capital of £500,000, afterwards 
 reduced to £125,000, tlu; aiuount paid up being £100,000 in £1 
 shares. A staff, with a number of miners, stores, implements, 
 tkc, was sent out early in 1S52, and a f(!w months afttM- that the 
 present manager, Mr. II. II. IMand, was placed on the board of
 
 THE PORT PHILLIP COMPANY. 219 
 
 directors in London, and was appointed to take charge of the 
 company in the colony. Mr. Bland arrived in Melbourne in 
 August of that year. After some ventures in and around 
 Ballarat, the company took up its present mine at Clunes under 
 lease from the owner in 1857, work being commenced in March 
 of that year. As there was at that time a difficulty in working 
 the mine by the London company alone, an arrangement was 
 made with a party of local miners, who formed themselves into 
 the Clunes Quartz Mining Company, and have from that time till 
 the present worked in conjunction with the Port Phillip and 
 Colonial Company. The amount of capital expended in opening 
 up the mine and erecting machinery was £19,500, of which the 
 Clunes Company contributed <£1,500, and since then a large 
 amount from the profits of the mine has been expended in 
 additions to the plant. Of the £100,000 capital called up in the 
 Port Phillip and Colonial Company, only £27,000 was called after 
 Mr. Bland's appointment to the control of the company's opera- 
 tions in Victoria. By courtesy of the manager we have the 
 following statement : — 
 
 The following is the return of quartz raised and crushed at the mine 
 from 1857 to 29th September, 1885 : — Quartz raised and crushed, 1,307,727 
 tons; amount of gold obtained, 512,881 oz. 18 dwt. ; value of the same, 
 £2,056,552 6s. lOd. Profit obtained and divided as follows :— The Port 
 Phillip Company, £225,028 19s. 4d. ; Clunes Q.M.C., £118,415 2s. lid. ; 
 proprietors' royalty, £138,877 lis. 7d.— total, £482,.321 13s. lOd. The 
 highest yield of gold in any one year was 1 oz. 9 dwt. per ton. The lowest 
 yield was 3 dwt. 23 gr. : and the total average was 7 dwt. 9 gr. The 
 largest quantity of quartz crushed in any one year was 70,222 tons. The 
 total quantity of pyrites saved and treated was 7496 tons ; gold obtained, 
 28,705 oz. 15 dwt. ; value, £116,319 4s. 2d. ; profit on the same, £88,899 
 15s. 9d. The plant consists of : — At the north shaft — (driven by steam 
 supplied by three boilers) : 1 winding engine, 24-inch cylinder ; 1 pumping 
 engine, 24-inch cylinder; 1 capstan engine, 10 inch cylinder; I Root's 
 blower, driven by a 6-inch engine. South shaft : 1 engine and 1 boiler. 
 Reducter works : 1 engine, 24-inch cylinder, driving 80 head of stamps, 2 
 stone-breaking machines, 6 buddies, 2 Chilian mills, 4 amalgamating 
 barrels ; 1 12-inch engine (supplied with steam from five multitubular 
 boilers). 
 
 A movement was made in 18S6 to drain the Sebastopol 
 plateau, two plans being suggested, one by an adit tunnel starting
 
 220 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 near the Napoleons Lead, the other by a powerful pumping plant 
 on the plateau. It was proposed to obtain State aid in both 
 cases, either in the form of a cash subsidy or by statutory right 
 to levy royalties or other contributions Nothing has yet been 
 done towards realising either scheme. 
 
 In response to a louder call than usual for State aid in the 
 shape of a larger prospecting grant, .£80,000 was voted by 
 Parliament in 1886, and local Prospecting Boards were created 
 to receive applications for aid and report thereon to the Minister 
 of Mines. The Ballarat board was elected on the 1st December 
 last and consisted of Messrs. T. Richards, for the Mining Board ; 
 the Hon. H. Gore, M.L.C., for the Mine Owners ; G. "Williams, 
 for the Miners' Association ; City Mayor Tliompson, for the Local 
 Bodies ; and Mr. J. Lynch, surveyor, for the Government ; Mr. 
 J. M. Bickett being appointed secretary. Each of the seven 
 mining districts of the colony claimed an equal share of the vote, 
 applications poured in with torrential plenitude, the boards sifted 
 them, made their reports to the Minister, and then it was dis- 
 covered that the Government included the cost of diamond drill 
 work in the charges upon the vote which was thus reduced to less 
 than half the £80,000. Thereupon arose a violent storm of gold- 
 fields indignation, and threats of dire political vengeance hurtled 
 through the air both inside and outside Parliament. 
 
 The Kohinoor Company, on the Golden Point Lead, com- 
 menced operations early in tlie year 1857, began driving in the 
 latter half of 1858, and paid the tirst dividend on the 25th 
 June, 1859. The area of the claim was 170 acres. There were 
 4 shafts, 8000 feet of drives, 2 steam engines, 3 boilers, 4 
 puddling machines, and the usual other belongings to a first-class 
 company's plant, value £22,000. Tlie company had expended 
 £286,845 19s. 6d. up to November, 1869 ; had won 147,570 oz. 
 15 dwt. 7 gr. of gold, value at £4 per oz., £590,283 ; and had 
 paid £304,460 in dividends. It must be noted that Ballarat gold 
 has realised generally more than £4 per oz., but we have adopted 
 that as a sufficiently accurate basis of calculation. The company 
 was one of the very best ventures ever launched upon the 
 alluvium of this gold-iield.
 
 BAND AND ALBION CONSOLS. 221 
 
 The Band of Hope and Albion Consols Company is a cor- 
 poration formed by two companies, the Albion Company on the 
 Frenchman's Lead, and the Band of Hope Company on the 
 Golden Point Lead. The Albion Company was the first which 
 tested ground in Victoria by boring operations before sinking. 
 The first bore was commenced under the auspices of Messrs. Elder, 
 Campbell, and others, on the 21st June, 1856, when what is now 
 the borough of Sebastopol, and the greater portion of the borough of 
 Ballarat West, were still unreclaimed bush country. The company 
 began its shaft on the 4th of June, 1858, sinking through clays, 
 drifts, and basaltic and schistose rocks to a depth of 475 feet. 
 By the year 1868 the company had obtained gold realising 
 £254,144, had paid £117,995 in calls, and £90,921 in dividends. 
 The Band of Hope Company began sinking in March, 1858, 
 after previous boring. Unusual difficulties were encountered in 
 heavy flows of drift and rock-water, for it took the company five 
 years to sink the No. 1 shaft 340 feet, and put in a drive 180 
 feet, the shaft not being sunk 400 feet till April, 1866. In Sep- 
 tember of that year the company united with the Hand-in-Hand 
 Company to work certain portion of the two companies' claims. 
 The company procured the heaviest engines obtainable, lighted its 
 mine witli gas, and carried on operations upon the grandest scale 
 then known here. It raised 700 tons of washdirt a day, and ob- 
 tained as mucli as 1637 oz. of gold from one day's washing. 
 Having bought and expensively altered the shaft of the extinct 
 Golden Gate Company on the Redan Lead, it began, after 
 boring, to sink a third shaft south of the Smythesdale road in 
 November, 1865, and on the 26th September, 1866, a fourth shaft 
 was begun in the centre of the Redan Racecourse. Up to the 
 date of union with the Hand-in-Hand Company the Band of 
 Hope Company had spent £29,565 on the No. 1 shaft, and 
 £101,955 on alterations in and driving from the No. 2 shaft. 
 The No. 3 shaft cost £11,859 in sinking, and the No. 4 shaft a 
 nearly similar sura, and in all over £3000 were spent by the 
 company in boring operations. Up to a date a few months pre- 
 vious to joining the Albion Company, the company had excavated 
 and washed two and a half millions of cubic feet of auriferous
 
 222 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 alluvium and schist, from which 161,943 oz. of gold were ob- 
 tained, value £656,869, yielding in dividends £388,000. On 
 the 7th March, 1869, the United Hand-in-Hand and Band of 
 Hope Company united with the Albion Company, forming the 
 incorporated Band of Hope and Albion Consols Company ; capi- 
 tal £449,000, in 22,450 shares of £20 paid up ; area held, about 
 400 acres. The company's plant then included 11 engines, 14 
 boilers, and 16 puddling machines, besides buddies. In Septem- 
 ber, 1869, nineteen horses were employed in the underground 
 works of the mine ; 900 men, exclusive of splitters and others 
 in the bush, were employed by the company, and the monthly 
 expenditure of the company in working the mine was £10,600. 
 
 By the courtesy of Mr. Serjeant, the manager, the author is 
 able to append the following later details of this mine, which is 
 now a quartz mine only, and is still the premier mine of Bal- 
 larat : — 
 
 Up to the date of amalgamation, the gold won by the Albion Com- 
 pany was 84,324 oz. ; by the United Extended Band of Hope Company, 
 188,490 oz. ; and by the present company from the date of amalgamation 
 to March, 1879, 246,737 oz. 6 dwt. 3 gr.— total 519,551 oz. 6 dwt. 3 gr., all 
 from alluvial, and of the value of £2,078,235 9s. 2d. Early in 1879 quartz 
 of a payable character was discovered at the company's No. 6 shaft at a 
 deptli of 268 feet, and up to tlie .30th of December, 1886, we raised and 
 cruslied 190,970 tons of stone, wliicli produced 123,480 oz. 8 dwt. 14 gr., 
 including 3283oz. 13dvvt. 12gr., from 1807 tons pyrites, value £509,355 
 19s. 9d. ; total value of gold from all sources being £2,566,752 8s. 8d. The 
 dividends paid amounted, at the close of 1886, to £1,134,101 li)s., showing 
 that shareholders have received £44 3s. 8d. per cent, of the gross value of 
 the gold obtained. The above total is made up as follows : — United Ex- 
 tended Band of Hope, £446,400 ; Albion, £153,391 15s. ; Band of Hope 
 and Albion Consols, £314,861 5s. ; do., do. (from quartz), £219,448 153. 
 The plant consists of 13 engines, equal to 393 horse power nominal, 12 
 boilers, 70 heads of stamps, 1 steam hammer, 2 lathes, 1 slotting nuichine, 
 1 shaping macliinc, 1 Denny's concentrator, 2 Wheeler and Wilson's pans, 
 10 Halley's shaking tal)les, 6 amalgamating barrels, 1 stone cruslier, 1 air 
 compressor— valueil at £15,000 7s. During 1881, after repeated trials, 
 coul was introduced as an article of fuel, the results sliowing 1 ton of coal 
 to he equal to 5 tons (50 feet to tlie ton) firewood. The present consump- 
 tion is 60 tons coal and 100 tons of wood weekly. The former at 28s. per 
 ton shows a considerable saving compared with the latter at 6s. 6d. per ton. 
 The consumption of fuel in the stamp-house is estimated at the rate of 1
 
 BAND AND ALBION CONSOLS. 223 
 
 ton of wood to 5 tons of quartz. The st;unpcrs, with sliank and disc com- 
 plete, weigh S cwt., and have a drop of 8 inches. They strike from 70 to 
 75 blows per minute, and require 8 gallons of water per minute for each 
 head of stampers. Each stamper is capable of reducing daily (24 hours) 
 from 2| to .3 tons of hard stone, to pass through 160 holes to the square 
 inch. Various samples of material have been used for permanent heads, 
 and for shoes and false bottoms. For heads we find they are less liable to 
 split when about 10 per cent, of wrought iron scrap is mixed with the cast 
 metal. For shoes, the Lai Lai is the best we get. It is quite as hard as 
 hematite, and possesses a toughness which hematite does not. We have 
 also tried cast steel, which is far more durable than iron ; but this is an 
 imported article, and the charges at the Customs house is greater than the 
 total cost of iron. The concentrated sulphides collected by means of 
 Halley's tables are roasted before being treated for the gold they contain. 
 The bye products are sulphur, arsenic, and sesqui oxide of iron. The 
 latter we grind with oil for paint, which finds ready sale among boiler- 
 makers, bridge-builders, and ship-owners. Of arsenic, we have a surplus, 
 and the sulphur is not collected. The cost connected with mining and 
 crushing the quartz is estimated at 5 dwt. per ton, and the cost of treating 
 the pyrites at f2 per ton. No. 7 is 1.300 feet, and No. 10 shaft is 1200 
 deep, and have been opened out at l'{ levels. The greatest depth from 
 which quartz has yet been raised is 1200 feet. The claim covers 193 acres 
 of ground, chiefly held under lease. We employ 2.30 hands, and our fort- 
 nightly pay sheet, including wood and timber, carters and trade accounts, 
 amount to an average of £1200. We pay captains 7s. lid. per shift, face- 
 men 7s., truckers 5s., 5s. 6d., bracemen, platmen, and laborers 6s., engine- 
 men 7s. 6d. 
 
 In 1870, when the first edition of this work appeared, the 
 Consols Company had let some of its shafts on tribute, and in 
 giving that information Mr. Serjeant added the subjoined state- 
 ment, which is of interest, as showing the difference in the scale 
 of operations : — 
 
 The company, therefore, has only two shafts now at work in its own 
 hands. At these about 500 men are employed, and the rate of wages has 
 been altered as compared with the rate in November, 1869 : — Captains, 
 from £3 5s. per week to £2 10s. ; facemen, from £2 5s. to £2 2s. ; truckers, 
 bracemen, platmen, puddling-men, laborer's, from £2 2s to £2 ; sluicemen, 
 from £3 to £2 10s. ; engine-drivers, 8s. 4d. and 7s 6d. per day — " Sunday 
 gratis" -when required. There are eight boilers now in use, eight puddliug- 
 machines, nine horses, and the monthly expenditure now is £5000. 
 
 The wage is, as shown before, now paid per shift of eight 
 hours, and there is now no " Sunday gratis." Evidence of the
 
 224 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 magnitude of the alluvial and quartz operations in the area held 
 by this company is found in the fact that thirty-two miles of al- 
 luvial driving were excavated, and four miles of quartz driving, 
 exclusive of stoping strips. 
 
 The Llanberris Q.M. Company is the oldest quartz company 
 in Ballarat, the claim having been taken up by sixteen men in 
 September, 1858, and the first crushing had in the next Septem- 
 ber, the produce of the mine to the end of 1863 being 6391 oz. 
 of gold, value £25,469, from which £9,052 were paid in dividends. 
 In October, 1864, the co-operative company was made a registered 
 one in 2,000 shares in which £13,400 have been paid in dividends 
 from a total output value £76,896. The company's present claim 
 includes the New Enterprise mine, which in one year gave to the 
 original (sixteen) holders 16,000 ozs. of gold from quartz and a 
 profit of £750 per man. The Learmonth Brothers, of subsequent 
 Egerton fame, bought the New Enterprise, erected a new plant, 
 and then sold to the Llanberris company. The Llanberris mine, 
 taken in its entirety now, occupies the site of the confluence of 
 the Red Streak, Canadian, and Red Hill alluvial gutters in the 
 Gum Tree Flat, and in working the alluvial the eastern quartz 
 lode presented at one place a perpendicular wall 18 feet high. 
 This was known to Thomas Jones, of Llanberis, in Wales ; he 
 helped to form the Llanberris company, but tlie registrar spelled 
 the name with two r's and hence the present style of the 
 company. The mine is not a rich mine, but the company worked 
 so economically that on a less than 3 dwt. average per ton debts 
 were discharged and dividends paid. A rich tliin golden strike 
 of slates, known as tlie Indicator, traverses the Ballarat East 
 belt of lodes, and it has lately lielped to enrich the Llanberris 
 workings. 
 
 The Black Hill Quartz Company is another example of suc- 
 cess upon small average returns. Tlie registrar, reporting in 1870, 
 says of tliat company : — 
 
 The Black Hill Conijiany began work in January, 1862, and from that 
 time to the end of December, 1809, embracing a period of eight years, they 
 have obtained the quantities of (|uartz and gold set down hereunder : — 
 Quartz crushed, 250, .575 tons ; gold got therefrom, 30,185 o/. 15 dwt. lOgr. ; 
 average per ton, 2 dwt. 21 31 gr. ; total value, tHSiSll Cs, 3d. ; total divi-
 
 i 
 
 CO 
 uJ 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 >- 
 
 < 
 
 <
 
 NEW NORTH CLUNES COMPANY. 225 
 
 dends, £21,730, being 10 per cent, per annum on the capital. The last 
 dividend was paid in 1868. 
 
 In 1880 the company altered its constitution to that of a 
 no liability company, m 14,880 shares, dividends amounting to 
 <£4,088 being paid under the new organisation, and in all, from 
 the beginning to the present date, £31,130. The old mine has 
 not been very productive for the last year or two, and tribute 
 parties have been working parts of the ground with but moderate 
 results. 
 
 The New North Clunes Company was started in 1859, 
 Esmond, the gold discoverer, being one of the shareholders, and 
 the company's mine has been one of the best in the district. The 
 first gold was obtained on the 5th October, 1867, and up to the 
 end of May, 1887, there had been crushed 424,461 tons of quartz 
 for 241,802 ozs. of gold ; value, at £4 per ounce, £967,208. The 
 total amount of dividends paid to the same date was £516,056, 
 or £251 per 2,056th share. 
 
 Among the many alluvial projects in Ballarat which never 
 grew to fruition was the Grand Trunk Leads or Great River Com- 
 pany. This was a magnificent venture, on paper, in 6,000 shares 
 of £5 each, for working " the continuation of the four rich trunk 
 gutters of Ballarat, namely, the Golden Point, Inkermann, 
 Redan, and Frenchman's * * * or nearly five miles of gutters 
 held under the frontage system." This was at the end of the 
 fifties or beginning of the sixties, and the area taken up lay 
 where the Royal Park and Alfredton now are. Other interests 
 militated against the success of the project, and the area was 
 subsequently absorbed in the territories held by other companies. 
 
 For many years the alluvial deposits in Ballarat Proper have 
 been exhausted, and the bulk of gold won in the Central Division 
 has been quartz gold. This was foreseen in 1870, when the first 
 edition of this History appeared ; but a great revival of alluvial 
 mining began in the Creswick Division in the early seventies. 
 This was caused by the success of Graham, Brawn, and others at 
 Broomfield Gully, in shallow ground. Their success led to the 
 starting of the Lewer's Freehold Company on the 22nd July, 
 1872, the first party comprising Messrs. W. P. Jones, S. Fyson,
 
 226 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 H. Gore, T. Rossell, W. Curten, E. and G. Daws, Rev. J. Wagg, 
 W. J. Gillard, R. Henden, J. Riordan, J. M. Davies, G. West- 
 cott, Alex. Stewart, W. Saville, and Alex. Rogers. The first 
 washing was on the 8th April, 1873, when 28 oz. of gold were 
 obtained. This led to a great rush ; the shallow ground was 
 traced till the famous De Murska, Ristori, Lone Hand, and 
 Madame Berry gutters were discovered, and nearly the whole of 
 the country between Creswick and the Loddon taken up for 
 mining. The rich deposits and the deep ground recalled the old 
 days of Ballarat itself, and the locality is now the only largely 
 productive alluvial field in Victoria. Fortunately, or unfortu- 
 nately, the whole of the territory was private property, the 
 Birches and the Hepburns, of the pastoral epoch, or their suc- 
 cessors, vendees or assigns, being lords of the soil. The fortunate 
 element was the freedom from the jumper and the other risks of 
 Crown land regulations ; the unfortunate element was the royalty 
 tax imposed upon the miner by the land-owners. Early in 1875, 
 by which time the shallow rush had reached the edge of deep 
 deposits and given expectation of a large and profitable field, a 
 band of Ballarat capitalists bought 6000 acres of Birch's estate, 
 at £Q an acre, from Alexander Wilson, the owner at that time. 
 This band consisted of Messrs. M. Loughlin, W. Bailey, E. C. 
 Moore, J. A. Chalk, R. Orr, D. Ham, E. Morey, and H. Gore, 
 who called their company the Seven Hills Estate Company. The 
 company was registered under the Trading Companies' Statute, 
 in 200 shares of £250 each, and their land was taken up by the 
 famous Ristori, West Ristori, Louglilin, West Louglilin, Lone 
 Hand, Lord Harry, Berry Consols, and Madame Berry G.M. 
 Companies, upon whom a royalty of seven and a-half per cent, of 
 the gold won was levied, with one per cent, extra when an ex- 
 tension of leases was required. In May, 1881, the Seven Hills 
 Estate Company was registered in 10,000 shares of £20 each, but 
 very few of the original company's shares changed hands, and 
 the new company has never numbered more tlian fifteen share- 
 holders. The company under its first organisation received 
 £28,600 in dividends, and up to the 18th April last £138,885 
 under the new organisation, including £18,834 received as
 
 KINGSTON ALLUVIAL FIELD. 227 
 
 srazine rents from surface lessees. Thus we have an instance of 
 a large sum (£148,651) being taken from the miner which, upon 
 the theory that the gold belongs to the Crown, ought not to have 
 been taken from him, and an instance of a very successful specu- 
 lation which has already paid for the land more than four times 
 over, and leaves still the estate intact, barring, indeed, some sur- 
 face damage here and there, and the certainty of other mining 
 royalties yet to accrue. 
 
 But the ability to pay such a large aggregate of royalty 
 proves the richness of the alluvium and the success of the mining 
 investors. Thus the dead Ristori Company (12,000 shares of £1) 
 obtained 104,224 oz. 10 dwt. 12 gr. of gold, value £430,918 16s. 4d. ; 
 paid £32,153 14s. 2d. in royalty, and divided £16 14s. 5|d. per 
 share. The dead Ristori West Company (20,000 shares of £1) 
 obtained 38,491 oz. 5 dwt. of gold, value £158,409 15s. Id. ; 
 paid £12,707 9s. 8d. in royalty, and £3 14s. 5Jd. per 20,000th 
 share in dividends. The dead De Murska Company (8000 £2 
 shares) obtained £76,600 Is. 2d. worth of gold, paid £5743 9s. lOd. 
 in royalty, and £28,200 in dividends upon £8800 called up. The 
 dead Lone Hand Company (12,000 shares of £1 10s.) obtained 
 126,146 oz. 3 dwt. 3 gr. of gold, value £522,162 17s. 3d.; paid 
 in royalty £39,163 Is. 3d., and in dividends £242,700, the paid 
 up capital being £15,300. But the still live and flourishing 
 Madame Berry Company (18,000 shares of £1 10s.) puts all the 
 others into shadow, for it has obtained already 160,592 oz, 11 dwt. 
 of gold, value £656,464 18s. 5d. ; has paid in royalty 
 £49,177 13s. lid., and £21 8s. per share, or an aggregate of 
 £385,200 in dividends, with only 17s. odd paid up per share. 
 This was up to the 18th April last, and the company has 
 apparently a long and prosperous life still before it. This 
 is the richest of all the Kingston mines, and its works are 
 extensive, as already (June 1887) there have been over nine 
 miles of drives excavated in auriferous wash, a mile and a-half 
 excavated in reef, or bed rock, and forty rises put up from six to 
 157 feet in height, or an average of 30 feet each. The West 
 Loughlin and Berry Consols have not yet become productive 
 mines. The Hepburn Estate is in gold, the Berry No. 1 is
 
 228 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 beginning to open up wash, and it and the Consols will soon, ap- 
 parently, be productive, the Hepburn Estate and Berry No. 1 
 being liable to the same royalty rate as that in the claims before 
 catalogued, though outside the Seven Hills Estate. The Lord 
 Harry and Earl Beaconsfield mines are likely to be producing 
 gold before long, and a host of progressive companies stretch out 
 the line of ventures to the borders of the Loddon Valley. 
 
 Among the unpleasant mysteries of mining adventure the 
 discovery by the Hepburn Estate Company in the week ending 
 the 12th February, 1887, that the officially reported details of 
 work done by the No. 4 diamond drill bore were a delusion was 
 one of the most unwelcome. As the drill was Government 
 property and the drill managers Government officers, the reports 
 officially made were regarded as trustworthy, and these reports 
 declared that the drill had drift at 414 fret, rising over 150 feet 
 in the bore, at 417 feet was in quartz boulders, and reached bed 
 rock at 420i feet. This depth was enough to admit of the passage 
 there of the proved deep leads adjacent, and trusting in the re- 
 port the company spent £20,000 in the erection of powerful 
 pumping and winding plant and in sinking a large well-appointed 
 shaft. The shaft bottomed on gold, the company's future was 
 regarded as assured, and shares on the 27th January, 1886, sold as 
 high as £9 10s., but when the drive for the supposed gutter, 
 where the bore was, reached the bore, and hard rock was found 
 over head for 66 feet instead of deep gutter ground there was a 
 panic, and on the 15th February 1887, shares fell to sales at£l 3s. 
 6d.,a fall of £199,800, rallying very little after that. A deputation 
 from the company to the Mining Department led to the nomina- 
 tion of Messrs. C. W. Carr, P.M. ; R. M. Serjeant, manager of 
 the Band and Albion Consols Company ; and Stuart Murray, 
 C.E., as a board to enquire whether the reports of tlie bore 
 operations were true or false, and who, if anybody, was to blame 
 for the company having been deceived. The board began to sit 
 in Ballarat on the 10th March last, counsel assisting, and on the 
 12th the board found that the evidence e.xonerated Harrison, the 
 drill director, from all blame of fraud, and ventured the opinion 
 that it did not tend to lessen public confidence in the drills, but
 
 DOWLING FOREST ESTATE. 229 
 
 the board reserved its opinion on alleged errors in the drill re- 
 ports. Directors, miners, all sorts of people, lay under suspicion 
 of fraudulently dealing with the drill debris and drill reports for 
 sharemarket purposes, but there was no proof of anything of 
 that kind, and the material fact seemed to be that the haste and 
 high pressure with which the drill was worked converted the 
 indurated sandstone bed rock into its original drift constituents 
 instead of drawing up a proper core. In their final report to the 
 Government the board added to its previous findings the opinion 
 that " in all cases the cores representing the strata passed through 
 should be submitted to technical examination by skilled mineralo- 
 gists, and reported upon, before mining operations are commenced, 
 and that samples, with description of strata passed through, 
 should be preserved for reference." 
 
 Encouraged by the brilliant success on the Creswick side of 
 the Dividing Range, adventure was afresh stimulated on the 
 western side, where the old Sulky Gully leads sprawled out into 
 private property and were abandoned in the early sixties. A 
 year or two ago a company called the Dowling Forest Estate 
 Company leased from Sir W. J. Clarke 5,000 acres of his Dowling 
 Forest Estate for mining purposes, and a portion of the leasehold 
 between Mount Hollowback and the Dividing Range was sub-let 
 to the Dowling Forest No. 1 Company. This company has sunk a 
 shaft, opened up a considerable area of reef and gutter ground, 
 and done some puddling, by way of testing the value of the 
 deposits, but up to the present time no remunerative wash has 
 been discovered there. Mr. George Cornwell, of Melbourne, was 
 chairman of the original leasehold company, and his daughter, 
 Alice, a lady of much spirit and keen commercial enterprise, 
 took great interest in the fortunes of the newly opened field. 
 Under her auspices the Midas Company was formed, whicli took 
 up ground a mile or two south of the Dowling Forest No. 1 where 
 some of the best known of the Sulky Gully leads had been left. 
 The Midas was in shallower ground, by the end of 1886 had opened 
 up rich wash, and up to the present time (end of May) has won 
 close oil 2,000 ozs. of gold. This success led to the floating of a 
 host of other ventures round about, from the ranees westward
 
 230 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 ®ut among the rich basaltic hills and plains of the Dowling 
 Forest Estate. The diamond drill was brought into play as an 
 auxiliary, the work of prospecting is going on vigorously, and it 
 is hoped that a valuable new gold field will be opened up to 
 balance the rich discovery on the Kingston side of the range. 
 
 Whilst these pages are going through the press the tide of a 
 revival of quartz mining on the Sebastopol plateau is flowing 
 Strong. This revival is due to the success of the Star of the 
 East Company, a relatively new venture, and the continued good 
 fortune of the Band and Albion Consols Company. Ten or a 
 dozen years ago, or more, the Guiding Star Company, in working 
 alluvial, had struck quartz that gave 1,300 ozs. of gold from 1,600 
 tons of quartz, but the company had to succumb to water and 
 other difliculties. Some good results thereafter obtained by the 
 Band and Albion Consols and Washington companies caused a 
 rush, and several claims were taken up south and north of those 
 companies, as there had been also as the outcome of the almost 
 synchronous Hurdslield alluvial rush upon some rich alluvial 
 wash to the north-east of the Washington and east of the Kohi- 
 noor claims. The Star of tlie East claim was taken up and the 
 company registered in June, 187S), capital £34,000 of which 
 £19,000 was paid up. Gold was first obtained in September, 
 1886, and up to the 3rd May last there had been 5,966 ozs. of 
 gold won from 3,749 tons of quartz, and £4,800 paid in dividends. 
 The claim is next south of the Band and Albion Consols claim, 
 and there are several auriferous lodes in the area held by the com- 
 pany, including the Consols and the Guiding Star lodes. This 
 marked success, and the prospect of equal luck north and south 
 of the Star and tlie Consols along the strike of the proved belt of 
 lodes, led to a fresh rush of adventurers, and claims were taken 
 up for over a mile both north and south, and companies floated to 
 work them. The favorite names for the new ventures were Star 
 and Plateau, and on these two notes a peal of changes was rung, 
 and the Stock Exchange share-list was much swollen by the 
 added novelties. There is thus i)romise of a good testing of the 
 quaru resourc(!S of the wlioh; reach of country from beyond Lake 
 Wendouree, on the nortli, to the Durham on the south — a tract
 
 OLD BALLARAT SUPERIORITY. 
 
 231 
 
 of country that was rich in alluvial deposits — and the reasonable 
 inference is that the quartz lodes traversing the same country, 
 and which were the matrices whence the stream gold was in 
 large part drawn, will prove remunerative in the working. Upon 
 the success or failure of this large experiment upon the Sebas- 
 topol plateau depends, in great measure, the immediate future of 
 mining in the central division of the district 
 
 In attempting to show the aggregate produce of gold of this 
 or any other district in the colony, great difficulty is at once 
 encountered, and it is found that all figures must be merely 
 approximate. For several years nothing like statistics of gold 
 yields were attempted by the Government, and up to the present 
 day it is impossible to arrive at more than probable aggregates 
 and comparisons. The Mining Department has, all the years 
 past, been busy with letter writing and the receipt of gold 
 statistics, but has never found time or brains for distilUng out 
 district totals. Amplitude of details, a very waste of figures, 
 but no informing or well diflerentiated total results. One 
 thing, however, at the date of the first edition of this work 
 (1870), amid all the dubiety of gold-fields statistics, had been 
 irrefragably established, namely, the superior auriferous wealth 
 of the Ballarat district over all the other mining districts 
 of Victoria. A few figures will illustrate this. The return 
 for 1868 of the value of mining plant in the several districts gave 
 the following comparisons: — Ballarat, .£706,393; Sandhurst, 
 £418,738; Beechworth, £283,4-15; Castlemaine, £277,248; 
 Maryborough, £227,348. The subjoined table of companies 
 registered in the Court of Mines up to the end of 1868 illustrated 
 the metropolitan character of Ballarat in another fashion : — 
 
 Districts. 
 
 No. of 
 Companies. 
 
 No. of Shares. 
 
 Nom. Capital. 
 
 Ballarat 
 
 Beechworth . . 
 
 Sandhurst 
 
 Castlemaine . . 
 
 Maryborough 
 
 Ararat 
 
 Gipps Land . . 
 
 90S 
 641 
 188 
 431 
 195 
 94 
 14 
 
 .1,347,924 
 
 1,240,731 
 
 3,057.433 
 
 771,524 
 
 873,048^ 
 
 105,687 
 
 25,165 
 
 £10,579,711 
 5,935,419 
 3,100,350 
 2,270,176 
 1,805,410 
 662,429 
 77,710 
 
 Subjoined is the tabular summary for 1869, issued by the 
 Mining Department, from which it will be seen that the mining
 
 232 
 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 collapse in the late sixties told heavily upon the returns, but, that 
 up to the end of that decade, Ballarat maintained its position as the 
 leading field : — • 
 
 Districts. 
 
 No. of 
 Companies. 
 
 No. of Shares. 
 
 Norn. Capital. 
 
 Ballarat 
 Maryborougrh . . 
 Beechworth . . 
 Ararat 
 Sandhurst 
 Castlemaine .. 
 Gipps Land . . 
 
 135 
 
 87 
 53 
 45 
 44 
 39 
 20 
 
 402,492 
 332,554 
 240,086 
 153,060 
 643,636 
 131,686 
 80,746 
 
 £1,555,300 
 1,157,656 
 772,875 
 606,160 
 583,686 
 298,414 
 261,136 
 
 The returns for the quarter ending 31st March, 1870, give 
 the subjoined comparative table relative to the steam machi- 
 nery at work on the Victorian gold-fields, this return also 
 demonstrating the pre-eminence of the Ballarat field, while show- 
 ing also the decline caused by the depression in mining affairs : — 
 
 
 ALLUVIAL MINING. 
 
 QUARTZ MINING. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Approximate 
 
 Districts. 
 
 No. of 
 
 Horse 
 
 No. of 
 
 Horse 
 
 No. of 
 
 Value 
 
 
 Engines 
 
 Power. 
 
 Engines. 
 
 Power. 
 
 Stampheads 
 
 of all Plant. 
 
 Ballarat 
 
 214 
 
 6,374 
 
 144 
 
 3,455 
 
 1,256 
 
 £695,513 
 
 Sandhurst 
 
 35 
 
 518 
 
 151 
 
 2,724 
 
 1,431 
 
 427,867 
 
 Beechworth . . 
 
 47 
 
 752 
 
 69 
 
 939 
 
 1,099 
 
 302,257 
 
 Maryhorouffh . . 
 
 63 
 
 1,235 
 
 109 
 
 1,991 
 
 720 
 
 279,211 
 
 Castlemaine .. 
 
 31 
 
 552 
 
 134 
 
 2,291 
 
 995 
 
 262,070 
 
 Gipps Land . . 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 39 
 
 659 
 
 489 
 
 134,199 
 
 Ararat . . 
 
 16 
 
 224 
 
 36 
 
 879 
 
 397 
 
 124,110 
 
 The Victorian gold returns show that the year 1856 was the 
 culminating one, with a yield of 2,985,991 oz. From that year 
 to the year 1867 inclusive the?e was an annual decrease in the 
 gold yield, the product in 1866 being 1,479,194 oz., or less than 
 lialf the 1856 return. There was a recovery in 1868 of over 
 200,000 oz., or an increased produce worth nearly a million 
 sterling. But the tables for 1869 show a return to the decreas- 
 ing scale. What the whole colony did iii the first ten years was 
 shown by a pyramid of gilded wood sent to tlie London Exhibi- 
 tion of 1862 by Mr. J. G. Knight. This pyramid showed the 
 size in mass of the Victorian gold exported from the 1st October, 
 1851, to the 1st October, 1861. It measured 1492^ cubic feet, 
 and represented 26,162,432 oz., or 800 tons 17 cwt. 3 qr. 7 lb. of 
 gold ; value, £104,649,728 sterling. In Hayter's Year Book the
 
 BALLARAT AND SANDHURST. 
 
 233 
 
 total export of Victorian gold up to the end of 1885 is set down 
 at 53,727,986 oz., value at £4 per ounce, £213,911,944. This 
 shows the singular rapidity with which the diggers discovered and 
 worked the richer deposits everywhere, since nearly as much gold 
 was won in the first ten years as in near a quarter century follow- 
 ing thereafter. For the last few years the returns have been 
 falling. Hayter gives the Victorian average from 1851 to 1885 
 inclusive at 1,535,000 oz. per year, or more than twice the 1885 
 total, 735,218 oz., as given by him. But the returns of the 
 mining registrars enable him to show that though the output has 
 been falling, there has been a rise in the proportion won to the 
 number of miners employed. His estimate of gold per miner is 
 £104 4s. 4d. for the year 1883, £106 14s. 6id. for 1884, £108 
 15s. 9Jd. for 1885. But it has always been difficult to get at the 
 district yields very accurately. 
 
 So long as the escorts were maintained, district returns of 
 more or less accuracy were possible, and we now cite them as fol- 
 lows, comparing with those of Ballarat the Sandhurst or Bendigo 
 returns, that district being the only one that ever claimed rivalry 
 with Ballarat : — 
 
 BALI/ARA.T. 
 
 SAKDHURST. 
 
 
 
 ozs. 
 
 
 
 ozs. 
 
 1853 
 
 
 . 319,099 
 
 1853 
 
 .. 
 
 . 609,728 
 
 1854 
 
 
 . 584,967 
 
 1854 
 
 . . 
 
 . 661,749 
 
 1855 
 
 
 . 769,429 
 
 1855 
 
 . 
 
 . 429,933 
 
 1856 
 
 
 . 920,351 
 
 1856 
 
 . . 
 
 . 451,588 
 
 1857 
 
 
 . 686,263 
 
 1857 
 
 
 
 1858 
 
 
 . 502,948 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 1859 
 
 
 . 467,223 
 
 
 
 
 1860 
 
 
 . 556,207 
 
 1860 
 
 
 . 2,152,998 
 
 Total .. 
 
 . 4,806,477 
 
 
 Total . . 
 
 . 4,305,996 
 
 In this table we have, in the absence of returns at hand, 
 assumed that Bendigo produced as much during the last four 
 years tabled as during the first four years, though it is known 
 that that field did not produce in equal ratio. Yet, after assum- 
 ing in her favor what is not true, we find that Ballarat stood half 
 a million ounces, or two millions of pounds sterling, a-head of the 
 northern field. 
 
 With the after years there came a change in the relations of 
 the two districts. The alluvial field in the Creswick division has
 
 234 
 
 HISTORY OP BALLABAT. 
 
 saved the Ballarat district from an ignominious decadence beneath 
 the position of its ancient rival, whose title to the name of the 
 Victorian Quartzopolis is unquestioned. The positions of the two 
 fields during the last few years is seen in the following table, 
 made up from the annual summaries of the gold-fields corres- 
 pondents of the Melbourne Age : — 
 
 
 BALbARAT. 
 
 
 
 SANDHURST. 
 
 
 
 
 OZS. 
 
 
 
 OZS. 
 
 1882 
 
 
 216,565 
 
 1882 
 
 
 202,268 
 
 1883 
 
 
 210,009 
 
 1883 
 
 
 220,157 
 
 1884 
 
 
 220,000 
 
 1884 
 
 
 218,009 
 
 1885 
 
 
 211,242 
 
 1885 
 
 
 216,772 
 
 1886 
 
 
 159,886 
 
 1886 
 
 
 156,772 
 
 The foregoing Ballarat totals are ascertained by the addition 
 of 10,000 oz. each year, for unreported gold, to the weekly ofiicial 
 returns of managers of companies. The Sandhurst totals are taken 
 from the Age correspondent's returns, but the 1886 total is, in 
 the absence of a direct statement, made up by taking 60,000 oz. 
 from the previous year's return, the correspondent saying " the 
 returns for 1886 are from 50,000 to 70,000 oz. less than those of 
 1882-3-4-5." But to show how Ballarat owes its relative position 
 to the discovery in the Creswick division, the following table of 
 ascertained Ballarat district alluvial and quartz returns may be 
 glanced at, it being remembered that the bulk of the alluvial gold 
 is from the Creswick-Kingston field : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Alluvial. 
 
 Dividends. 
 
 Quartz. 
 
 Dividends. 
 
 1882 
 1883 
 1884 
 1885 
 1886 
 1887, to end of May 
 
 OZS. 
 
 122,332 
 109,271 
 131,305 
 125,446 
 84,718 
 24,135 
 
 £ 
 225,650 
 158,900 
 240,566 
 311,810 
 162,737 
 32,610 
 
 OZS. 
 
 84,234 
 55,860 
 63,332 
 60,101 
 54,041 
 28,667 
 
 £ 
 140,583 
 34,002 
 66,663 
 45,216 
 31,626 
 22,171 
 
 Totals .. 
 
 597,206 
 
 1,141,273 
 
 356,135 
 
 340,261 
 
 This table shows the recent decline in the general output 
 from the mines, and for the first time in local mining history, 
 exhibits an excess of quartz over alluvial gold. As in 1870, it 
 may now he said more emphatically, the future of the gold- 
 fields is, no doubt, to be one chiefly of quartz mining. 
 
 Mr. Westgarth, in his " Victoria in 1857," bears testimony to
 
 PURITY OP BALLARAT GOLD. 235 
 
 the superior quality and yield of this field, and to the enterprise 
 of its miners. He says at page 182 : — ■ 
 
 Ballarat gold for its purity excels the gold from any other Australian 
 field. Ballarat, indeed, takes the position alike of the oldest gold-lield of 
 any note, and that which has yielded the largest quantity of the precious 
 metal. From the month of September, 1851 — when the Government first 
 established the armed escorts — to the end of 1856, there was sent down 
 from Ballarat by these conveyances no lessthan 2,801,729 ounces of gold, of 
 the value, in consideration of its purity, of upwards of £4 per ounce. It was 
 at Balla)i-a>t where the spirit of enterprise was most prevalent. 
 
 The great purity of the Ballarat alluvial gold was early dis- 
 covered. It has always commanded the highest rates in the 
 bullion market. The assay of gold won from the Band of Hope 
 and Albion Consols mine for the half-year ending June, 1869, 
 was 23 carats 2^ carat grains fine, and for the half-year ending 
 December, 1869, 23 carats 2| carat grains fine. Some assays of 
 nuggets show similar purity. The Welcome Nugget assay was 
 99*20 pure gold = 23 carats 3^ carat grains fine. The Nil 
 Desperandum gave an assay 98*80 pure gold = 23 carats 2| carat 
 grains fine. Thus, whether in large lumps or small particles, the 
 gold found in the alluvium or drift of the ancient water-courses, 
 or on the banks of those water-courses, is ascertained to be nearly 
 free from all impurity, while gold in the matrix, quartz, is always 
 charged more heavily with the baser elements. 
 
 As the origin of gold is still a mystery, unsolved by science 
 or experiment, each student has his own theory. Some hold that 
 gold is the product of electric action, some of vaporific sublima- 
 tion, others of precipitation. The modes of its occurrence, the 
 principle which governs its purity in and out of the matrix, and 
 other items in the arcana, remain nearly as they were to the un- 
 lettered digger of the first days. Our most erudite savans, 
 indeed, can say but little more about gold than was expressed by 
 the old diggers, who pretended to no very clear vision of the 
 subject, and said — " All we can say is, that where it is, there it 
 is!" 
 
 In Smyth's " Gold-fields of Victoria," from which we have 
 taken some of the above assays, we find nearly all the particulars 
 tabulated below in relation to large Ballarat nuggets. We have
 
 236 
 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 had to supply omissions and correct some errors in dates in 
 Smyth's tables : — 
 
 LOCALITV. 
 
 When Found 
 
 
 Gross 
 
 Wght. Troy. 
 
 
 
 
 lb. 
 
 oz. 
 
 d\vt. 
 
 gr. 
 
 Black Hill.. 
 
 14th October 
 
 1851 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 Canadian Gully 
 
 20th January 
 
 1853 
 
 93 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 Canadian Gully 
 
 22nd January 
 
 1853 
 
 84 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 Canadian Gully 
 
 31st January 
 
 1853 
 
 134 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 Canadian Gully 
 
 February 
 
 1853 
 
 30 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 Canadian Gully 
 Canadian Gully 
 
 
 1853 
 1853 
 
 30 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 February 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 Eureka 
 
 7th February 
 
 1854 
 
 52 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dalton's Flat, Canadian, " Lady Hotham " 
 
 8th September 
 
 1854 
 
 98 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 Bakery Hill 
 
 6th March 
 
 1855 
 
 47 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bakery Hill 
 
 March 
 
 1855 
 
 40 
 
 (1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Union Jack Gully, Buninj'ong . . 
 
 2Sth February 
 
 1857 
 
 23 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 "Nil Desperandum," near Black Hill Lead 
 
 29th November 
 
 1857 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " Welcome," Bakery Hill 
 
 9th June 
 
 1858 
 
 184 
 
 9 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 Kohi-Noor Claim 
 
 27th July 
 
 1860 
 
 69 
 
 e 
 
 
 
 
 
 Koh-i-Noor, " Sir Dominick Daly" 
 
 February 
 
 1862 
 
 26 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Koh-i-Noor, other nuggets 
 
 Feb. 1862 to May 
 
 1869 
 
 62 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 VVebbville, Buninyong 
 
 1st August 
 
 1869 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 " The Corner" is the name given to the place where the 
 sharebrokers and share jobbers assemble. For many years the 
 gathering has been in front of the Unicorn hotel, on the south 
 side of Sturt street, the brokers' offices being in the Unicorn 
 passage, or right-of-way, and in Bones' Buildings, next east from 
 the hotel. Bones' Building was originally a draper's shop, then a 
 mining exchange, and Bones has added to it a second story, made 
 one end into a billiard room, and retained most of the brokers' 
 offices. The name " Corner" arose from the fact that in the early 
 sixties, when the previously unorganised business of share deal- 
 ing began to assume regular form — Messrs. Stallard and S. 
 Goujon being of the earliest — share dealing offices were opened 
 at the south-east corner of Sturt and Lydiard streets, where the 
 London Chartered Bank now stands. The Corner at that time 
 was covered by a wooden building on posts, an ironmonger's store 
 occupied by A. R. Reid, now the actuary of the Geelong Savings 
 Biunk. Micliac^ Walsh was one of the earliest brokers to open 
 an office in the corner building, and he took in a partner named 
 Were, and E. C. Moore, who had been hospital secretary, subse- 
 quently joined the firm. Otlior y)rokers followed, a daily muster 
 was established, and the foundation of the Ballarat Stock Ex- 
 change was thus laid ; the first Exchange, with M. Walsh 
 president, meeting in a wooden building erected over an old shaft
 
 THE CORNER AND STOCKS. 237 
 
 on the site now occupied by the Academy of Music. This was 
 in the sixties. After that the Mechanics' Institute and the 
 Unicorn hotel became the homes of the Exchange, and to 
 Walsh succeeded F. C. Downes, and to Downes succeeded W. 
 Nixon, the several secretaries being Messrs. Main, Slater, and 
 Woolcott. On the 6th July, 1881, a rival, called the Royal 
 Exchange, with Edwin Millard president, and S. W. Smythe 
 secretary, was opened, the members having seceded from the 
 original Ballarat Exchange because they declined to refuse to 
 give individual quotations to the press. On the 5th December, 
 1885, the Royal was merged in the Ballarat, with Millard presi- 
 dent and "Woolcott secretary, both still (June, 1887) holding their 
 respective offices. There were then 98 members on the roll, and 
 the entrance fee by that time had been raised from £5 5s. to <£25, 
 and the stock list including 108 mines, the bulk of which are in 
 the Ballarat district. Whilst this chapter is going through the 
 press, the foundations of a new stock exchange building are 
 being laid in Lydiard street. 
 
 The Ballarat alluvial stocks were large and costly things in 
 the days of the origin of the share market. In the Melbourne 
 stock and share list of 23rd June, 1863, Great Extended shares 
 (80) were quoted at £2850, Kohinoor (40) at £2800, Albion (72) 
 at £1800, Prince of Wales (64) at £1750, Defiance (52) at 
 £1250, Working Miners (57) at £1100, Band of Hope (1600) 
 £34. Thus we have the Great Extended with an aggregate value 
 of £225,000, whilst at the time of this writing, May, 1887, the 
 Band and Albion Consols, whose stock is a purely quartz stock, 
 covering most of the areas held by the old Albion, Great Ex- 
 tended, and Band of Hope alluvials, is quoted at 76s., giving an 
 aggregate value of £85,310. When the rich gutters were nearly 
 worked out, and the large original shares had got reduced to 
 scrip, share dealing became a larger and livelier business, and 
 brokers and jobbers multiplied, nearly all of them being, for the 
 first few years, men who had been actually engaged in mines 
 as working or sleeping shareholders. The business was accom- 
 panied by projection of new ventures, and the occasionally
 
 238 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 violent alternations of activity and depression which usually mark 
 the course of share dealing, for promoters of new schemes have 
 to live, if they can, by their craft, and the passion for scrip 
 gambling provided an ample arena for their exploits. 
 
 We have now ended our sketch of mining development, and 
 the instances cited show what a vast transition has taken place 
 in the miner's vocation since the days of tlie early shallow digging, 
 and even the deeper and richer digging of the days when the 
 Eureka, Canadian, and Gravel Pits were in their glory. The 
 immense outlay in labor and plant before gold is reached now 
 contrasts strangely with the easily won fortunes of the earlier 
 days. If the classical digger of the Eureka were here now he 
 might exclaim, " Oh ! mihi prneteritos referat si Jupiter annos ;" 
 interpreting it auriferously to mean, " Oh ! that the gods would 
 give us back the Jeweller's Shops and the Italians' holes of the 
 bygone days." And some yearn for even an earlier time than 
 that. For to an old goldfields man, weary with the hope deferred, 
 and the many losses of deep sinking, the memory of the first 
 diggings, or the sight of a little shallow-ground " rush" now, is 
 like a sweet vision of childhood coming back to bless the world- 
 worn old man in his desolateness and sadness of heart. The 
 shallow-ground days were blythe with rapid golden successes, the 
 joyous energy of independence and hope, and a continuous and 
 hilarious change ; but now the mines are tilled with men who 
 have to plod on at their dull and ever dangerous routine year 
 after year upon a small wage, while capitalists win or lose upon 
 their market speculations or by the labors of the men who, in the 
 primitive days, would liave scorned to call any man master.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TOWN OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Area and Population of Ballarat. — Slunieipal Statistics of Ballarat West, Ballarat East, 
 and Sebastopol. — Water Supply. — Lake Wendouree. — Yacht and Rowing Clubs. — Hospi- 
 tal. — Benevolent Asylum. — Orphan Asylum. — Female Refuge. — Ladies' Benevolent 
 Society. — Roman Catholic and Anglican Dioceses. — Churches.— State and Church Schools. 
 — School of Mines.- -Museum. — Observatory. — Public Art Gallery. — The Stoddart Gift. — 
 The Russell Thompson Bequest. — The Burns Statue. — Other Statues Projected. — Typo- 
 graphy. — Photography. — Lithography. — Public Libraries. — Mechanics' Institute. — 
 Academy of Music. — Eisteddfod. — Cambrian Society.— Musical Societies. — Agricultural 
 and Horticultural Societies. — Iron Foundries. — Implement Factories. — Woollen Mills. 
 — Flour Mills. — Bone Mills. — Breweries. — Distilleries. — Cordial Factories. — Bacon Fac- 
 tories. — Tanneries. — Boot Factories. —Juvenile Industrial Exhibition. — Old Pioneers. — 
 Fire Brigades. -Volunteers and Militia. — Gas Company. — Banks. — Recreation Reserves 
 — Cricket and Football Clubs. — Hunt and Race Clubs. —Electric Telegraph and 
 Telephone. — Public Offices.- Public Halls. — Gaol and Court House. — Camp. — Last 
 of the Military. — Railways. — Tramways. — ShireCouncils. — Local Journalism. — Royal and 
 Other Visitors. — Queen's Jubilee.— Reminiscences. — Past and Present Contrasts. 
 
 [HE town or city of Ballarat must be said to 
 comprise the borough of Sebastopol, as there 
 is no break in the continuity of streets 
 actually built upon and inhabited. The 
 latest municipal baptisms have made Bal- 
 larat East to be the Town of Ballarat, and 
 Ballarat West to be the City of Ballarat. 
 This ridiculous nomenclature is a perpetual 
 puzzle to strangers at a distance, and well 
 beseems the moicellement of local self-government, and the local 
 jealousies and ambitions which tax citizens for the maintenance of 
 distinct halls, offices, and officers, where one staff might better ful- 
 fil all necessary municipal functions. This state of things is a sur- 
 vival from the early days, when the western part of Ballarat was 
 nothing, and the eastern part was everything, save in municipal 
 matters, and the local interests that grew up on both sides of the 
 muddy little Yarrowee were kept alive in a more or less absurdly 
 belligerent form through all the foundation years of the two 
 Ballarats.
 
 240 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 From the northern boundary of Ballarat "West to the 
 southern boundary of Sebastopol borough the distance is five 
 miles and a quarter, and from the western boundary of Ballarat 
 West to the eastern boundary of Ballarat East the distance is 
 four miles. These distances are measured along the central 
 thoroughfares, where the whole alignment, with immaterial ex- 
 ceptions, is built upon. Thus, starting from the eastern boundary 
 at the Canadian and going to the western boundary at Alfredton, 
 the traveller passes along Main, Bridge, and Stui't streets, and 
 performs a journey of a few hundred yards over four miles. This 
 is a distance as great, if not greater, than that in London from 
 Hyde Park Corner to the Bank, that from Westminster Bridge 
 by water to the Tower, or that from the Elephant and Castle, 
 south of the Thames, to Highbury Park in the north. It is as 
 great as the distance in Melbourne from the University to the 
 Junction at St. Kilda, or from the Spencer street railway ter- 
 minus by way of the streets to the junction of the Merri Creek 
 with the Yarra Yarra on the eastern boundary of Richmond. 
 In starting from the noi'thern boundary of Lydiard street, and 
 passing to the southern boundary at Bonshaw, the traveller per- 
 forms a journey of five miles and a quarter, and traverses 
 Lydiard, part of Armstrong, Skipton, and Albert streets. This 
 long stretch of street is represented in London by the distance 
 from Hyde Park Corner past the Bank and Whitechapel to the 
 Mile End road, from the Elepliant and Castle to the New River 
 reservoirs, or from Westminster Bridge by water, to Limehouse 
 Reach. In Melbourne it is etjual to a walk from Flemington to 
 St. Kilda, or by water from the mouth of the Yarra Yarra to 
 Richmond. 
 
 When the first edition of this work appeared in 1870, the 
 traveller, while traversing the Ballarat thoroughfares mentioned, 
 passed along the two central lines of streets of a city with over 
 ■10,000 inhabitants, 50 churches, 3 town-halls, 477 hotels, many 
 other large public edifices, over 10,000 dwellings, 84 miles of 
 made streets, 164 miles of footpaths, 15 miles of pitched channel- 
 ling, property of tlic rateable value of a quarter million sterling, 
 and yielding a yearly niunicipal revenue of £50,COO, exclusive
 
 GREAT MINING COLLAPSE. 241 
 
 of a water supply revenue of £15,000. He passed over the two 
 centres of a city comprising an area of 9400 acres in extent, 
 where lay 60 miles of water mains, 50 miles of gas mains, and 
 over 3000 lineal yards of stone flagging. He saw about him 
 long reaching lines of stately buildings, and elegant shops, and 
 large manufactories, including 11 banks, 8 iron foundries, 13 
 breweries and distilleries, 3 flour-mills, and other manufactories, 
 all within the town boundaries ; while everywhere around him, 
 where less than twenty years before there was only the wild soli- 
 tude of the primeval forest, the works of mining companies, the 
 fertile farms, and the hum of commerce revealed at once the 
 secret of the power which had created this great prosperity. 
 
 Owing to the migration caused by mining changes, Ballarat 
 has not increased its population, though it has otherwise made 
 large progress. When this History first appeared, in 1870, the town 
 and district were suffering from a depression caused by the reckless 
 spirit of gambling at the Corner, by the responsive tastes of a 
 hopeful public, and by the natural operation of the progress of 
 mining, by which last the alluvial grounds had been in great part 
 exhausted. The large sums lavished upon mere paper claims, and 
 the heavy demands upon capital caused by a too great extension 
 of adventfure, had so far prostrated the ability of the district that 
 a general collapse ensued, to the partial or total pecuniary ruin 
 of scores of families, and a very general depreciation of property 
 of all kinds, and notably of mining stock. In 28 mining com- 
 panies whose offices were in Ballarat, and whose mines were in or 
 near the town, the depi'eciation in the market value of stock — 
 comparing prices in Jvily, 18C9, with those in May, 1870, reached 
 the sum of £1,042,000. At least another million sterling must 
 be added for depreciation in other stocks besides the companies 
 specified These calculations were furnished by a gentleman 
 familiar with the market, and they do not include the losses in 
 call-paying. In April, 1870, the Melbourne Leader estimated 
 the depreciation in -io given companies' stocks to be ,£1,016,000 
 in March, 1870 — as compared to March, 1869. The depreciation 
 in mining stock, as cited above, amounted to £2,042,000 sterling 
 — a sum equal to two-thirds of the annual public revenue of
 
 242 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 Victoria at that time. The gravity of this fact, and the relation 
 of mining to what is called real property, will be seen from a 
 comparison with some estimates of municipal revenue and town 
 property. The mining depreciation was very nearly equal to 
 fifty years purchase of the total revenue of the boroughs of Bal- 
 larat West, Ballarat East, and Sebastopol, and more than equal 
 to eight years purchase of the whole real property in the city at 
 that date. 
 
 This was a notable example of the ups and downs which the 
 city, as the centre of a mining district, has been subject to. 
 Similar conditions still exist and operate, though in a less marked 
 degree ; and the tables of yearly assessments may be taken, in 
 some sort, as indications of the ebbing and flowing of civic 
 fortunes. In the interval since 1870, great urban and industrial 
 developments have taken place ; new social and ecclesiastical crea- 
 tions have added distinguishing features to the city ; arts and 
 manufactures have grown in importance, albeit there may not 
 have been additions to the number of business firms. There are 
 fewer flour mills, breweries, distilleries, and hotels now than at 
 the eailier date ; no additions have been made to the number of 
 churches in permanent materials, and some of the wooden ones 
 have disappeared ; but additions have been made here and there 
 to churches existing in 1<S70, and in some places new churches 
 have taken the place of old ones. There are still eleven banks, 
 not including the Savings Bank ; some metropolitan wholesale 
 firms have oflfices here ; warehouses and factories exist now that 
 were not built in 1870 ; several manufactures are new, and others 
 have extended their boundaries, whilst municipal works have 
 gone on with ceaseless march whether revenues have risen or 
 fallen. As large mention of these several changes as space 
 allows will be made further on ; but first we have to recount the 
 beginnings and expansions of local municipal institutions. 
 
 This large and populous city, whose area and population and 
 annual revenue would absorb those of several English cathedral 
 cities, is situated 50 miles west from the shores of the Port 
 Phillip Hay, and at an elevation of 1137 feet above the sea. Its 
 western half is spread ovei- a basaltic table land, the foot of whose
 
 .TEAMES SARTORQUE IN EXCELSIS. 243 
 
 eastern slopes is traversed by the Yarrowee Creek, which for a 
 part of its course is the boundary between Ballarat West and 
 East. Its eastern half is spread over schistose ranges and made 
 hills of the auriferous detritus, and includes the oldest inhabited 
 portions of the city. From it issued the leads or gutters of 
 golden drift which have been worked beneath the elevated 
 plateau of the western portion of the city. 
 
 The borough of Ballarat West, now called the City of Bal- 
 larat, was the oldest of the three boroughs. It was constituted 
 a municipality on the 17th December, 1855, and on the 14th 
 January, 1856, the first council was elected, consisting of Messrs. 
 Jas. Oddie, Robt. Muir, Jas. Stewart, M.D., Wm. Tulloch, Alex. 
 Binney Rankin, John Smith Carver, and Patrick Bolger. James 
 Oddie was the first chairman for 1856-7, and Joseph Combe was 
 the first town-clerk, and Samuel Baird first and only town- 
 surveyor. Both left office many years ago, and Richard Ford, now 
 a railway com-nissioner, succeeded J. Combe; the present clerk, 
 George Perry, succeeding Ford ; works overseer Wood, on Baird's 
 retirement, acting as quasi surveyor. 
 
 The greater dignity of being a city instead of a borough in- 
 volved greater splendor of official appointments. Robes and 
 chains for the mayors, a gown for the clerk, and a livery suit for 
 the city hall caretaker, altogether a right brave display of finery 
 came into vogue with the civic eighties, to wit the robes in May, 
 1879, and the chain in the mayoralty of 1884:-5. The city clock 
 was erected in the mayoralty of 1872-3. The following official 
 description of the mayoral chain of solid gold is a nuinicipal 
 history in little : — 
 
 Mayor's Chain. — ^At pi-esent 13 shields, with connecting links and 
 medallion. On face of medallion, the corporate seal. On reverse side, 
 " Ballarat proclaimed a municipality December ISth, 1S55"; " Council first 
 met January 17th, 1856"; " proclaimed a borough October, 1863"; "pro- 
 claimed a city September 9th, 1870." On face of each shield is monogram 
 of the chairman or mayor, and on reverse the following : — -James Oddie, 
 chairman 1856-7 ; James Stewart, M.D., chairman 1858-9 ; William CoUard 
 Smith, chairman 1860-1, mayor 187-1-5 ; Robert Lewis, chairman 1862, 
 mayor 1863, IS71-2, 1880-1; Daniel Brophy, mayor 1875-6 ; John White- 
 man Gray, mayor 1877-8 ; John Noble Wilson, mayor 1881-2 : Fred. 
 Moses Claxton, mayor 1872-3, 1876-7, 1882-3 ; John Hickman, mayor
 
 244 HISTORY OP BALL AR AT. 
 
 1883-4 : Alex. Thomson Morrison, mayor 1879-80, 1884-5 ; Charles Salter, 
 mayor 1885 6 ; T. H. Thompson, mayor 1886-7. 
 
 Since the foregoing has been in type, new sartorial wonders, 
 in jwsse, have been revealed, and the local journals tell of council- 
 lors, on the suggestion (congrutnter nominatas) of Councillor 
 Little, being about to outshine the beadle. They are to sit in 
 " cut-away coats of aldermanic pattern, stand-up collar in 
 Prussian military style, and front and cuffs ornamented with 
 point lace ; coat and trousers of broadcloth, and shoes with silver 
 buckles." The clerk's attire is acutely differentiated from the 
 rest, and the gorgeous caretaker's uniform remains unabated. 
 
 The first council chambers were of wood, erected by Messrs. 
 Doane and Ringrove on tlie site of the District Police-court in 
 Sturt street, and were destroyed by fire. The erection of a new 
 town-hall with granite front, from a design by ]\Ir. C. D. Cuth 
 bert, having been decided on, the foundation of the first portion 
 was laid by Mr. John Robinson Bailey, M.L.A. for Ballarat 
 West, on the 16th August, i860. The builders were Messrs. 
 Evans and Barker, the contract being for £4,900, and the new 
 building was opened on the 1st February, 1861. The borough 
 council afterwards decided on a change of plan, and competitive 
 designs were obtained, and finally the council ordered that a 
 design by Mr. Lorenz be adopted, subject to variations to be 
 designed by Mr. Oakden, the borough architect, under whose 
 superintendence the present liall was erected. The initial letter 
 at the beginning of this chapter shows the upper portion of the 
 centre and tower. The contractor for the works was Mr. Cow- 
 land, for the sum of £16,767, the contract to be completed by the 
 end of 1H70. On the 14tli January, 1870, Tliomas Cowan, the 
 mayor, laid the new memorial stone of the town-hall. His 
 worship in his address on that occasion made the following state- 
 ment : — 
 
 The Sturt street frontage will occupy a space of 15.3 feet. The princi- 
 pal entrance to the municipal ofiicus, will be in tlie centre under tlic tower, 
 which will stand riglit out to tlie front so that the stone whicii lias just 
 been laid will also be the foundation stone of the tower. This tower is to 
 carry the Alfred Memorial Hells which have already arrived in Ballarat. 
 They have been cast by Messrs, Meats and Stainbank, of Whitechupel,
 
 CITY HALL AND ALFRED 15ELLS. 245 
 
 and competent judges have pronounced them to be the finest peal that has 
 come to these colonies. There are eight bells in all, pitched in the key of 
 E flat, and the largest — the tenor bell —is 4 feet 3 inches in diameter, and 
 weighs 23 cwt. The total weight of the eight bells is nearly 4^ tons ; the 
 weight of the eight bells in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, being only 
 3i tons. The Alfred Memorial Bells are valued at £1,180. In addition to 
 the bells, the tower will contain a splendid illuminated clock, with four 
 dials, each 9 feet in diameter, and which, besides striking the hours and 
 quarters, will ring a chime every hour on fifteen small musical bells, that 
 will be placed in the roof of the tower. The centre of the clock face will 
 be 95 feet above the street, and the total height of the tower about 135 feet. 
 It is to be observed that the building now in progress will leave nearly half 
 the town-hall reserve unoccupied, the depth of the ground being 132 feet, 
 and the depth of the building only 70 feet, so that if at any future time it 
 should be decided to erect a spacious public hall, there will be a site avail- 
 able for the purpose of 120 feet by 70 feet. 
 
 The hall was opened in due course, tlie Alfred bells were 
 set up in the tower, the illuminated clock is there also, but it 
 does not " ring a chime every hour on fifteen small musical bells," 
 for they were not musically audible, and their tiny tinkle was 
 mockingly compared to the jingle of bullock bells. Some bell 
 doctors essayed amendments in the carillons, as they were called, 
 but the essays were failures, and the little bells have been laid 
 aside. The Alfred bells are a success, and so is the ringing of 
 them sometimes, but the ringers are not always a happy family, 
 and then hitches occur in the bell service, whilst apprentice hands 
 occasionally make the evenings horrible with their sad lessons in 
 the art of campanology. 
 
 The first assessment was in 1856, and showed that there 
 were then 267 tenements within the municipality, and 297 vacant 
 lots, the whole valued at £40,061. On this assessment tlie council 
 struck a rate of sixpence in the pound, wliich the Grovernnient 
 disallowed, and a shilling rate was then struck. Among the 
 applications to the Government by the first council were requests 
 for a site for a mechanics' institute, for a market place, for public 
 gardens, for the removal of buildings where Sturt and Lydiard 
 streets now intersect, and for the formation of Sturt street. Sturt 
 street, which is now made throughout its whole length, is three 
 chains wide, and is ornamented with elegant s'hops, churches,
 
 246 
 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 and gardens. All the other streets are one chain and a-half wide. 
 The borough comprises an area of 2,880 acres, and has now pro- 
 pei'ty of the rateable value of £146,105. 
 
 The following table shows the course of assessment values 
 for the city, and the number of tenements rated : — 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tenements. 
 
 Rateable Value. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tenements. 
 
 Rateable Value. 
 
 1S56 .. 
 
 564 
 
 £40,061 
 
 1873 .. 
 
 5665 
 
 £128,735 
 
 1857 .. 
 
 8111 
 
 32,1188 
 
 1874 .. 
 
 5400 
 
 122,195 
 
 1858 .. 
 
 1430 
 
 41,015 
 
 1875 .. 
 
 5400 
 
 108,665 
 
 1860 .. 
 
 2608 
 
 54,500 
 
 1876 .. 
 
 4924 
 
 102,825 
 
 1861 .. 
 
 — 
 
 72,058 
 
 1877 .. 
 
 4542 
 
 103,688 
 
 1862 .. 
 
 2788 
 
 82,721 
 
 1878 .. 
 
 4506 
 
 103,586 
 
 1863 .. 
 
 3451 
 
 102,434 
 
 1879 .. 
 
 4338 
 
 102,957 
 
 1864 .. 
 
 3474 
 
 95,6 -ig 
 
 1880 .. 
 
 4410 
 
 104,361 
 
 1865 .. 
 
 3571 
 
 98,172 
 
 1881 .. 
 
 4625 
 
 115,238 
 
 1866 .. 
 
 3948 
 
 112,580 
 
 1882 .. 
 
 4567 
 
 128,190 
 
 1867 .. 
 
 4191 
 
 114,7.57 
 
 1883 .. 
 
 4857 
 
 136,246 
 
 1868 .. 
 
 4839 
 
 132,538 
 
 1884 .. 
 
 4982 
 
 138,939 
 
 1869 .. 
 
 5365 
 
 148,522 
 
 1885 .. 
 
 4929 
 
 141,057 
 
 1870 .. 
 
 6099 
 
 178,040 
 
 1886 .. 
 
 5320 
 
 143,091 
 
 1871 .. 
 
 6024 
 
 153,869 
 
 1887 .. 
 
 4978 
 
 146,105 
 
 1872 .. 
 
 5894 
 
 135,098 
 
 
 
 
 There are within the city 86 streets, of which a length of 
 52^/ miles is formed and metalled. There are also 90 miles of 
 footpaths, 36 miles of kerbing and channelling, over 3,000 lineal 
 yards of flagging, 17 h miles of flagged or asphalted footpaths, 
 near 5,000 dwellings, 120 hotels, 24 churches, 2 steam flour- 
 mills, 7 iron foundries, 4 agricultural implement factories, 2 
 woollen factories, 3 ;erated water and cordial factories, 3 furni- 
 ture factories, 10 printing oflices, 1 tannery, 1 gas works, 
 a town-hall, a theatre, a mechanics' institute, a free library, a free 
 art gallery, a free museum, a gynuiasium, friendly society and other 
 halls, 7 State schools, many private schools, 2 fire brigades, post 
 and telegraph oJHce, assize and police courts, gaol, and other Go- 
 vernment oflices. The total population of the city is set down 
 by the valuer at 20,878 persons, the City Council having a 
 revenue from all sources of i! 26,841 for the year 1886, and for 
 the same year an expenditure of £26,675. 
 
 The assessment and population of the diflerent wards for 
 
 1887 are as below : — 
 
 ■South — Assessment, £.38,808; tenements, 22t{() ; poiml.ition, 9919. 
 Central — Assessment, tO(),9;U : tenements, 1228 ; population, 4206. Nortli 
 — Asaeasmeut, £40,."{G6 ; tenements, U>8!) ; pnpuhition, fi754.
 
 FINANCE AND MARKETS. 247 
 
 Under the new licensing policy of the Legislature, the 
 number of hotels has been lessened. The number stated in these 
 pages are from the sub-treasury record of licenses issued up to 
 the end of May, 1887. 
 
 Taking the city treasurer's figures for the year ending 30th 
 September, 1886, we have the city's financial condition thus set 
 down : — 
 
 Indebtedness— Loan, 1875, £47,500; do., 1884, £10,000; total, 
 £57,500. Process of liquidation : — The whole of the principal of the loan 
 of £47,500 is repayable on 1st May, 1903. In the meantime, interest of 6 
 per cent, is payable half-yearly, viz., on 1st May and 1st November ; and 
 2 per cent, of the loan is invested yearly towards the establishment of a 
 sinking fund for the liquidation of the original debt. The principal of the 
 £10,000 loan of 1884 is repayable at the rate of £800 on 1st June in every 
 year until 1893 ; the balance, £2,800, becomes due on 1st June, 1894. In 
 the meantime, interest of 5 per cent, is payable half-yearly, viz., on 1st 
 June and 1st December ; and 2 per cent, is invested yearly towards the 
 establishment of a sinking fund for the h([uidation of the balance. Amount 
 of sinking fund to date, £12,(:)2S Os. Id. ; debentures redeemed, loan 1884, 
 £1,600 ; last assessment, £143,091 ; value in fee simple, £1,787,910. 
 
 The market inspectors supply the following returns : — 
 The live stock that passed through the Corporation Sale-yards for the 
 year ending 31st July, 1886, were : — Cattle, 18,9.50 ; calves, 2,252 ; sheep, 
 503,971 ; lambs, 62,045. Sales in the private yards for the same period 
 were :— Horses, 3,028; cattle, 7,420; sheep, 2,151; pigs, 14,077. The 
 market returns for agricultural produce exhibit a lively increase, notwith- 
 standing the large quantity now taken past by railway ; but it is difficult 
 to say whether the increase is due to climate causes or increased lo(;al 
 demand ; in either case it is satisfactory. The returns are : — Oats, 215,179 
 bushels ; pease, 72,649 bushels ; barley, 18,304 bushels ; hay, 18,405 tons ; 
 straw, 1,251 tons ; potatoes, 9,629 tons. 
 
 The death-rate of the city for the ten years ending 1886 was 
 422 7-lOths per year, but this included hospital deaths of patients 
 from the whole district, and raised the average 25 per cent. 
 
 Ballarat East was proclaimed a municipality on the 5th May, 
 1857, and on the 1st June, 1857, the first council was elected, 
 consisting of Messrs. Daniel Sweeney, John Gibbs, William 
 M'Crea, Richard Belford, William Bramwell Robinson, William 
 Bickham Rodier, and Geo. Clendinning, M.D. Mr. Rodier was 
 chosen chairman, and Mr. Jno. Campbell was appointed town
 
 2i8 
 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 clerk. The municipality became a borough in October, 1863, and 
 in August, 1872, a town. Following Mr. Rodier as chairman of 
 the municipality, there were Messrs. Richard Belford, 1858 ; 
 William Scott, 1859; George Clendinning, M.D., 1860 ; William 
 Scott, 1861; Charles Dyte, 1862; and Frederick Young, 1863. 
 As in Ballarat West, so here, the last chairman became the first 
 mayor of the borough. His successors were John Fussell, 1864 ; 
 George Clendinning, M.D., 1865; Emanuel Steinfeld, 1866 to 
 1869. Then followed in order Edward Eastwood, 1870 ; James 
 Ivey, 1871 ; J. K. Baird, 1872 ; Henry Josephs, 1873 ; James 
 Russell, 1874 and 1886-7 ; James Long, 1875-6-8 ; David Turpie, 
 1877 ; William Scott, 1879 and 1885 ; William Robertson, 1880 ; 
 Theophilus Williams, 1881 ; John Ferguson, 1882-3 ; Thomas 
 Walker, 1884. The municipal council held its meetings in 
 several rented houses during the earlier years of its existence ; 
 but on the 26th December, 1861, the foundation stone of the 
 present town hall was laid by Mr. Charles Dyte, the incoming 
 mayor, with Masonic ceremonies. The architect was Mr. C. D. 
 Cuthbert, long since a resident in Fiji, and the builders were 
 Irving, Glover, and Co., the total cost being about ,£4,500. The 
 town includes an area of 4320 acres, and has rateable property 
 valued at ,£62,900. The first assessment on the books was in 
 1860, when the number of dwellings was 2470, amount of assess- 
 ment not obtainable. The returns for the subsequent years are 
 as follow : — 
 
 There are within the town 40 miles of streets made and 
 formed, of wliich 20 miles ai'e kerbed and channelled, and over
 
 '■•■^* 
 
 s 
 
 «?
 
 BALLARAT EAST AND SEBASTOPOL. 249 
 
 50 miles of footpaths, of which 5 miles are asphalted, 17 
 churches, 7 State schools, 79 hotels, over 3,000 dwellings, a town 
 hall, a tire brigade, candle, soap, clog, and other manu- 
 factories, a police court, and a public library. Bridge, Main, and 
 Humffray streets are what in the tirst days were bullock tracks ; 
 the former street is one of the busiest and handsomest in the 
 city, and Victoria street is as wide as Sturt street, and, like it, 
 planted with trees. Estimating the population of the borough at 
 4^ to each tenement, the total population is about 15,000. 
 
 The following statement by the town treasurer gives the 
 financial state of aftairs at the dates mentioned : — • 
 
 Revenue for year ended 30th September, 1886, £10,901 14s. lOd. ; ex- 
 penditure for year ended 30th September, 1886, £8,941 8s Id. ; indebted- 
 ness and process of liquidation (overdraft to be liquidated under the pro- 
 visions of " Municipal Indemnity Act" before 30th September, 1888), £3,708 
 15s. lid. ; less amount to credit of general account at 30th September, 
 
 1886, £330 8s. 7d. ; leaving debt, £3,375 7s. 4d. Outstanding Loan— 100 
 debentures, of £100 each, due in 1903, total, £10,000 ; bearing 5 per cent, 
 interest per annum. To liquidate the said loan £300 is yearly placed to a 
 "sinking fund in liquidation of debentures," bearing 6 per cent, interest. 
 
 The death-rate of the town for the ten years ending 1886 
 was 212 3-lOths per cent. This average, and that for the city, 
 are calculated by Mr. Walker, the registrar. 
 
 The borough of Sebastopol was proclaimed in October, 1864, 
 and the first election of councillors took place on the 12th 
 December, 1864, when Messrs. F. F. Beverin, Thomas Dickinson, 
 John Edwards, Ricd. Miles, Ellis Richards, John C. Rowlands, 
 Geo. C. Robinson, Geo. Tait, and Isaac Vickers were elected. 
 Mr. John Wall, formerly of the Local Court, and a mining sur- 
 veyor, was appointed town clerk and surveyor, and still holds 
 those ofiices. The mayors of the borough have been Frederick 
 F. Beverin, 1865-6 ; Isaac Vickers, 1867 ; Thomas Dickinson, 
 1868-71; John Whittaker, 1869; John Edwards, 1870; John 
 Morris, 1872 ; Thomas Bray, 1873 ; Nicholas Kent, 1874 ; 
 Peter Alroe, 1875; James Barrie, 1876; Joseph H. Ellsworth, 
 1877-84-5; David Hughes, 1878-9; Thomas H. Gray, 1880-1; 
 James Leckie, 1882-3; William Hicks, 1886; Henry Mathes, 
 
 1887. The first council sat on the 4th January, 1865. At that
 
 250 
 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT 
 
 time the population was 1800, and by 1870 had risen to 8200, 
 but has fallen to 2300 in 1887. The municipal census is taken 
 by the valuers under the Local Government Act, and Mr. Wall 
 claims to have been the suggester of the process. The average 
 death-rate of the borough, taking a term of 21 years, is given at 
 only 10-5 per 1000. There are 40 miles of surveyed and 15 
 miles of made streets, 2 miles of kerbed and channelled paths, 
 and ^ mile of asphalted paths. The area of the borough is 
 1800 acres. The financial state of the borough is easy. Last 
 year's £900 of revenue was expended, but the council's indebted- 
 ness is only £300, being balance of 10 debentures of £100 each 
 unredeemed. There are 8 licensed hotels in the borough. The 
 following are the assessments for the several years since the 
 formation of the borough : — 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tenements. 
 
 Rateable Value. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tenements. 
 
 Rateable Value. 
 
 1865 .. 
 
 449 
 
 £6,028 
 
 1876 .. 
 
 1017 
 
 £9,600 
 
 1866 .. 
 
 751 
 
 9,040 
 
 1877 .. 
 
 9911 
 
 7,010 
 
 1867 .. 
 
 1030 
 
 14,231 
 
 1878 .. 
 
 870 
 
 5,900 
 
 186S .. 
 
 1245 
 
 16,680 
 
 1879 .. 
 
 680 
 
 4,848 
 
 1869 .. 
 
 1661 
 
 22,352 
 
 1880 .. 
 
 545 
 
 4,690 
 
 1870 .. 
 
 1730 
 
 15,400 
 
 1881 .. 
 
 631 
 
 5,036 
 
 1871 .. 
 
 1740 
 
 15,306 
 
 18S2 .. 
 
 524 
 
 5,195 
 
 1872 .. 
 
 1665 
 
 13,512 
 
 1883 .. 
 
 502 
 
 5,410 
 
 1873 .. 
 
 1.570 
 
 12,825 
 
 1884 .. 
 
 500 
 
 5,314 
 
 1874 .. 
 
 1404 
 
 12,(104 
 
 18S5 .. 
 
 506 
 
 5,155 
 
 1875 .. 
 
 1185 
 
 10,400 
 
 1886 . 
 
 496 
 
 5,095 
 
 The salaries of municipal officers are as follows : — City : 
 Town clerk and treasurer, £500 ; assistant clerk, £150 ; his 
 assistant, £26 ; rate collector, £220 ; ditto and revenue officers 
 (2), £200 and £150 ; produce market and weights and measures 
 inspector, £250 ; assistant, £39 ; cattle yards inspector and 
 pound-keeper, £225 ; assistant, £130 ; dog inspector, ranger, and 
 bailiff, £100; hall-keeper, £104; health officer, £50; cab and 
 nuisance inspector, £37 10s. ; curator of gardens, £200. Town : 
 Town clerk and treasurer, £250 ; assistant, £156 ; rate collector, 
 £235; weights and measures inspector, £156; town inspector, 
 £156 ; health officer, £25. Sebastopol : Town clerk, £75 ; rate 
 collector, £65 ; health officer, £10. Allowances for mayors 1886 
 were — For the city, £300 ; for the town, £175. 
 
 In 1886, Sandhurst, the next large.st inland city after 
 Ballarat, had an assessment of £167,908, revenue £23,453, 7137
 
 WATER SUPPLY. 251 
 
 tenements, H4 miles of kerbed and cliannelled streets, 100 miles 
 planted with trees, 97 miles of road maintained and in use, and 
 a population, at 4^ per tenement, of 30,332. Geelong, which 
 ranks next after Sandhurst, had at the same date an assessment of 
 £73,242, 2398 tenements, and 40 miles of kerbed and channelled 
 streets, and a population of about 10,200. But this does not include 
 theadjoining boroughs of Newtown and Chilwell, and Geelong West, 
 from which the author has been unable to obtain a return in detail, 
 but whose population nearly equals that of Geelong pr'oper. 
 
 In December, 1852, the first attempt was made at water 
 supply. The Government Camp authorities then here employed 
 men to build a small dam across the Gnarr Creek, at the spot 
 where the creek then ran, and where the buried culvert now hugs 
 the hill on which are the locomotive sheds. The little dam 
 intercepted the overflow from Yuille's Swamp and the Gnarr 
 Creek drainage, and served mainly for the Camp use. Yuille's 
 Swamp, or, as it is now called, Wendouree Lake, was for some 
 years the only source of supply ; but, as the town grew, that 
 reservoir was found to be insufficient, and steps were taken to 
 secure water reserves in the Bullarook Forest, on which to con- 
 struct reservoirs for the permanent supply of the town. The 
 boroughs of Ballarat West and East united in a scheme of water 
 supply, whose magnitude and excellent organisation were un- 
 equalled in the colony, save by the metropolitan supply. Mr. 
 Richard Belford, when chairman of the municipal council of Bal- 
 larat East, was one of the first proposers of a supply of water 
 from the forest, and owing to the steps taken then, the question 
 was at intervals agitated, until the supply was carried out to its 
 present limit. When Mr. J. B. Humffray was Minister of Mines 
 in 1861, Mr. Kirk, who owned the first reservoir made in the 
 forest for mining purposes, offered the reservoir to the Govern- 
 ment for the use of Ballarat, and Mr. Humfiray eventually pro- 
 moted the purchase, and sent Mr. Engineer Bagge to report on 
 the repairs necessary. Subsequently, Mr. Engineer Palmer, who 
 became the first engineer for water supply, was employed to 
 survey the forest, with a view to the construction of additional 
 reservoirs for a more liberal supply.
 
 252 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Before this, a commission for the whole town had been pro- 
 posed in a circular by the Eastern Council, but the proposition 
 was not then entertained, and when Mr. Palmer made his survey 
 there were grave doubts entertained as to the wisdom of adven- 
 turing upon the larger scheme. Mr. Palmer held that the scheme 
 was practicable, and would pay, and he conferred with Mr. H. R. 
 Nicholls, of the Ballarat Stai; who urged the adoption of the 
 larger supply upon the attention of Mr. C. Dyte, then chairman 
 of the Eastern Council. Mr. Dyte did not fall in with the re- 
 presentations made, and Mr. W. C. Smith, of the Western 
 Council, was then appealed to. He was convinced by the argu- 
 ments used, and he became one of the earliest and ablest muni- 
 cipal advocates of the scheme of water supply. Every year helps 
 now to confirm the wisdom of those who sought betimes to pro- 
 vide a good supply of this essential element in urban health, 
 wealth, and comfort. The borough councils having had joint 
 possession of Kirk's dam given to them in June, 1862, pushed 
 the business of supply with energy, procured loans of money and 
 grants of water-shed reserves from the Government, until at 
 length there were reserves secured to the extent of near 3000 
 acres, and when the first edition of this work appeared there 
 were three dams — Beale's, Pincott's, and Kirk's — with an aggre- 
 gate storage capacity of 294,000,000 gallons, 60 miles of 
 mains, serving 5000 houses, 40 manufactories, and 16 mines, and 
 producing an annual revenue of .£15,000. Then came a project 
 for a fourth reservoir on the Gong Gong Creek. At first it was 
 proposed to erect a dam across the narrow gorge where the 
 granite outcrops a quarter mile or so below the site of the present 
 Gong Gong, but after a severe fight in local councils and local 
 journals, the present site was adopted. At tliat time Mr. C. 
 H. O. Bagge was the engineer, and Mr. W. Thompson tlie secre- 
 tary, for water supply, the borough councils of East and West 
 ]3allarat being the committee or commission of control, with a 
 chairman chosen from one or other of the councils, Mr. Andrew 
 Anderson being for a long time chairman. He acted with great 
 energy and sagacity, and was one of the foremost to promote the 
 planting of tlie reserves with exotic and indigenous trees. The
 
 LAKE WENDOURRE. 253 
 
 Gong Gong reservoir, having a storage capacity of 420,000,000 
 gallons, was constructed by Messrs. Young and M'Guigan, from 
 plans by Engineer Bagge, and a second line of 24 and 18-inch 
 mains was laid to convey the water to Ballarat and Lake Wen- 
 douree. Between the town boundary and the Gong Gong, there 
 is beside the roadway, where the mains are laid, a " connecting 
 house," where, by working a series of valves, either the Gong 
 Gong or the Kirk's line of mains can be shut off', or the pressure 
 in the Kirk's line be increased by turning into it the water 
 from the Gong Gong line. The first sod of the new reser- 
 voir was turned on the 12th May, 1874, by Councillor 
 M'Dowall, chairman of the commission, and by October, 1877, 
 the works were so far completed that water was turned into the 
 new mains. The whole work was carried out under Mr. Bagge's 
 supervision, assisted by Mr. R. M. Gale, A.I.C.E., with Mr. W. 
 Seeley as clerk of works, the total cost of the new reservoir and 
 valve house being about £105,000, including costs of settlement 
 of a law suit between the contractors and the commissioners. The 
 whole cost of the water works was .£362,000, and the revenue 
 about £16,500 a year, most of which is absorbed by interest on 
 Government loans, and in outlay for maintenance and manage- 
 ment. At the end of 1886 there was due to the Government 
 £313,457 10s. lOd , including principal money £281,438 15s. 
 lOd., bearing interest at 4i per cent., and arrears of interest, not 
 bearing interest, £32,018 15s. The arrears had been £43,405, 
 but when the present chairman of commission (Mr. Wilson) took 
 office, he obtained a remission of the difference between the two 
 amounts. The annual interest now payable is £12,664 15s. 2d., 
 and the sum of £86,808 17s. 3d. has been paid in interest since 
 the reorganisation of the commission in 1880. The commission 
 was then created by statute as the Ballarat Water Commission, 
 consisting of seven members, of whom three, including the chair- 
 man, Mr. John Noble Wilson, represent the Government, and 
 are appointed every four years by the Governor-in-Council, and 
 two members are elected by and from the City Council, and two 
 by and from the Town Council, their term of office being two 
 years. The first meeting of the new commission was held on the
 
 254 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 21st July, 1880, the members being J. N. Wilson, chairman. 
 Councillors W. Scott and R. Lewis with him representing the 
 Government, and Councillors F. M. Claxton and J. W. Gray 
 from the City Council, and Councillors H. Josephs and J. 
 Phillips from the Town Council ; Mr. J. B. Cathcart, who had 
 some time previously been appointed in place of Mr. Thompson, 
 being the secretary and treasurer. The commission has no engi- 
 neer now, but Mr. Cameron is the foreman of works. To Mr. 
 Secretary Cathcart the author is indebted for many of the fore- 
 going details, and for much information besides, unusable here 
 for want of space. 
 
 Lake Wendouree, the modern name of Yuille's Swamp, very 
 truly indicates by its name the transformation which has come 
 over that scene of one time alternate swamp and mud or dust 
 hollow. By conserving the water and pouring in additions from 
 catchwater drains and overflow from the forest reservoirs, a per- 
 manent lake has been created, which has for some years now been 
 the great home of local aquatic sports and pleasure taking. It 
 is the only inland water resorted to for aquatic contests of any 
 note, and the beauty of its shores, the safe depths of its water, 
 and the large fleet of steam, sailing, and rowing boats at all times 
 available, have made the lake the favorite trysting place not only 
 of boating people but, during the summer season, of pic-nic parties 
 from nearly all parts of the colony. Since the early sixties, when 
 Bob McLaren and Ned Williams led the way in boating, or Town- 
 clerk Combe and Town-surveyor Baird pushed out in a flat 
 bottomed punt through the masses of reeds that then covered the 
 *' swamp," the changes effected there have been many and great. 
 To-day the visitor sees a nearly cleared sheet of some 300 acres 
 of water, jetties, boathouses, yachts, and boats in profusion, and 
 a fine fleet of steam pleasure boats plying from sliore to shore at 
 fares within tlio reach of all kinds of pleasure seekers. The 
 City Council, with wise sagacity, has done much to improve the 
 shores, and tlui walks round the well-planted borders are now 
 among the ploasantest resorts of the ped(^strian, who always has, 
 as a permanent, strong attraction to healthful exercise, the botanic 
 gardens as the western margin of the lak(^, and on the lake
 
 THE BALLARAT ROWING CLUB. 255 
 
 itself a host of vessels going hither and thither as may suit the 
 fancy of private parties or the routine of the steam companies 
 and others plying for regular traffic. 
 
 The Ballarat Rowing Club was the first club formed in 
 Ballarat for regular aquatic exercises, some contests on Lake 
 Burrumbeet with both sailing and rowing craft having been the 
 harbingers of the safer and more convenient boating settlement 
 and exercises at Wendouree. We have not space here in which 
 to detail the origins of aquatic sports, but may say that Messrs. 
 Cooper and Dobson, at Burrumbeet, and the McLarens, Ned 
 "Williams, Ben. Oxlade, and others in Ballarat, were the pioneers, 
 closely followed by Ward, Taylor, and others, still to be found 
 about the shores of Wendouree. From their initial doings have 
 come the well appointed clubs of to-day, the many well fought 
 contests on local and other waters, and the respectable position 
 occupied by both the sailing and rowing fraternities of Wendouree. 
 The club was born on the 20th November, 1861, at McLaren's 
 hotel. Bridge street, when it was resolved to form a regatta club, 
 under whose auspices a regatta came off at Burrumbeet on the 
 31st January, 1862. The club had for its first officers S. T. 
 Clissold, president ; J. W. Pringle and C. W. Sherard, vice- 
 presidents ; W. Clarke, honorary secretary ; R. McLaren, starter 
 and treasurer ; and E. Williams, E. Scrase, J. H. Harris, J. 
 Ahrens, R. Davidson, H. Golightly, J. Calder, J. Cummins, A. 
 
 C. Kerr, and Cochrane, committeemen. The club afterwards 
 changed its name to the Ballarat Rowing Club, and it now 
 numbers about 100 members, and its present officers are F. M, 
 Claxton, president ; R. W. Holmes and J. Shiels, vice-presidents ; 
 F. W. Commons, captain ; G. Read, vice-captain ; J. P. Moran, 
 treasurer ; C. J. Aikens, secretary ; and E. Williams, G. Tonner, 
 P. Marxsen, L. Cutter, J. Pobjoy, J. Lonie, and R. Ditchburn, 
 committeemen. After the Ballarat club came the Alabama in 
 1864. It lived for a year or two only, and after that came the 
 Wendouree, the Lebentia, the Ariel, and they all died after a 
 short existence. The City club was formed in 1871 and has a 
 members' roll of close on 100, its officers in February last being 
 
 D. Brophy, president ; C. Salter, M. Cahill, and W. P. Bt^cher-
 
 256 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 vaise, vice-presidents ; E. Bailey, secretary ; J. Fitzgerald, 
 treasurer ; A. McNaughton, captain ; J. Barnes, vice-captain ; 
 and R. Toy, J. Byrne, W. Robertson, W. Trahar, A. Kortlang, 
 M. B. Jenkins, J. Aikens, J. J. Dobson, and R. A. Strachan 
 committeemen. In 1884 was formed the last of the rowing clubs 
 so far, and it revived the old name Wendouree. Its officers are 
 J. Hickman, president ; Colonel W. C. Smith, and Messrs. 
 McDonald and Hartley, vice-presidents ; J. Whitelaw, captain ; 
 
 C. Leggo, vice-captain ; G. Male, secretary ; G. Miller, treasurer ; 
 and D. Hare, J. McDonald, F. McGarey, J. Leggo, W. Archi- 
 bald, 0. Liddiard, and E. Cutter, committeemen. The Wendouree 
 also numbers near 100 members. 
 
 The Ballarat Yacht Club was formed at a meeting held at 
 Gill's Lake View Hotel, on the 29th May, 1877. Mr. O. E. 
 Edwards in the chair. The following officers were elected for the 
 first year : — President, R. Le Poer (afterwards Judge) Trench ; 
 commodore, 0. E. Edwards ; captain, G. Hathorn ; treasurer, 
 A. Brown ; secretary, A. T. Seal ; judge, H. R. Caselli. The 
 first regatta under the auspices of the club was held on 30th 
 November, of that year, when prizes to the amount of <£150 
 were given. The principal yachts in commission at that time 
 were — Victoria, 5 tons ; Vagabond, 3 J tons ; Endeavor, 3 tons ; 
 Telegraph, 3 tons ; Daphne, 5 tons ; Kathleen, 3 tons ; Leader, 
 G tons ; Flying Scud, 6 tons. On the 22nd October, 1878, A. T. 
 Seal liaving resigned, W. Downie was elected honorary secretary, 
 in which office he still (1887) remains. In 1881 E. Morey was 
 elected commodore, which position he still (1887) retains — the 
 officers at this last named period being — President, Hon. P. 
 Russell ; vice-presidents, B. Hepburn and T. Bath and the Hons. 
 
 D. Ham and H. Gore ; commodore, E. Morey ; vice-commodore, 
 W. Bailey ; captain, T. Bailey ; treasurer, J. Murray, as successor 
 to T. Mann on that gentleman's retirement, after being in olHce 
 for eight years ; secretary, W. Downie ; judge, W. Gale (vice H. 
 R. Caselli, deceased) ; starter, W. P. Bechervaise, who has 
 occupied the position nearly ever since the formation of the club ; 
 timekeeper, R. W. Holmes (vice Lieut.-Colonel Sleep). The 
 yaclits in commission (1887) are — Commodore E. Moray's Bal-
 
 ■y^/H 
 
 > ^'j'J^^^^i'i V^ft 
 
 4i 
 
 '%^^^l|i!i.^'; 
 
 ^. 
 
 ^% 
 
 ■:^iii if'i 
 
 . Ja»jJbr^3faA.ar^ ■* fn Vtt-
 
 YACHTS AND STEAM BOATS. 257 
 
 larat, 6 tons ; Vice-Commodore W. Bailey's Viola, 7 tons ; E. 
 Millard's Darlie Bay, 7 tons ; Messrs. Gill and Mann's Flying 
 Scud, 6 tons ; Alex. Monsbourgh's Wendouree, 6 tons ; T. 
 Stoddart's Pinafore, 4 tons ; R. Orr's Reporter, 4 tons ; R. 
 Taylor's Victoria, 5 tons. There are besides those named several 
 other yachts on Lake Wendouree, which are usually kept for 
 cruising purposes, amongst them being the Kathleen, Daphne, 
 Endeavor, Idea, Coquette, Miranda, together with a number of 
 other sailing craft. The yachting season usually commences in 
 September and closes about April, during which period, in addi- 
 tion to the annual regatta, club contests are held almost every 
 Saturday for trophies given by a number of liberal patrons, on 
 which occasions a steamboat is always provided by the club for 
 members, ladies, and guests. During the series of years the club 
 has been in existence, one or more of the Wendouree fleet have 
 represented the club on Lake Colac, Corio Bay, and once on 
 Hobson's Bay, and on every occasion with success, even to the 
 carrying off the first prize in each instance but one, thus establish- 
 ing a name and fame unequalled by any yachts of their class in 
 the colony. The members' roll at the commencement of the 
 season 1886-7 numbered 120, and this is expected to be largely 
 increased as the season progresses. For this concise summary of 
 the Wendouree sailing fleet the author is indebtedto Mr. Downie, 
 the honorary secretary of the Yacht Club, and it is almost ex- 
 clusively given in his own words. 
 
 As regards the fleet of steam-boats on the lake, enterprise 
 in that direction began in 1865, when the Victoria, built by 
 Messrs. Bishop and Co., of the Soho Works of that day, was 
 launched. The Victoria has disappeared, and now there are six 
 elegantly appointed steamers plying upon the lake, the owners 
 being Mr. James Ivey and Mr. Gill. That is to say, Mr. Gill 
 owns one, and Mr. Ivey, who was the largest original owner, is 
 now part proprietor in, and is manager for, the Garden City 
 Steam Boat Company, whose blazon on the wharf notifies the 
 reader of the carrying capacity (690 souls) of the fleet. 
 
 Ballarat is rich in charitable and other public institutions. 
 The District Hospital, in Drummond street, corner of Sturt
 
 258 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 street, an edifice in the classic style, is the earliest of the public 
 charities, sick and injured people having at first been housed in 
 huts at the Government Camp. The wounded men at the 
 Eureka Stockade could not be provided with proper accommoda- 
 tion, and that led to the taking of steps for building a hospital. 
 Messrs. Lynn, Henry Foster (Superintendent of Police), W. B. 
 Rodier, J. Daly (Warden), R. Lewis, and others, mentioned as 
 among the first officers of the hospital, started the movement. 
 When the building was begun the site was in the bush, and some 
 people lost their way in returning to their homes in what is now 
 Ballarat East and the parts adjacent to Lydiard street. The 
 foundation stone of the first portion of the hospital was laid on 
 Christmas Day, 1855, by Mr. James Daly, police magistrate and 
 warden, the architect being Mr. J. Robertson. The foundation 
 stone of the remainder of the south wing was laid on New Year's 
 Day, 1866, by Mr. Henry Cuthbert, with Masonic honors, 
 Mr. Charles D. Cuthbert being the architect. The foundation 
 of what is intended to be the centre, or Alfred Memorial, was 
 laid on Queen Victoria's birthday, 1869, by Mr. Robert Lewis, 
 and was opened on the next anniversary of the day ; Mr. J. H. 
 Jones being the architect, and of the completing north wing, 
 not yet erected. The edifice stands on a reserve of five acres on 
 the highest part of the western table-land. The names of the 
 first committee of management and of the first staff' of officers 
 are as follow : — Messrs. J. A. Douglas, president ; W. B. Robin- 
 son and J. Oddio, vice-presidents ; M. Elliott, J. Oddie, H. 
 Foster, J. Dixie, and A. B. Rankin, trustees ; J. Dixie, treasurer ; 
 R. Muir, R. B. Gibbs, W. C. Smith, C. H. Edwards, S. Irwin, J. 
 Cummins, G. Butchart, W. Moore, J. Daly, D. Oliver, J. M'Dowall, 
 A. B. Rankin, and M. Elliot, committeemen ; T. Doyle, J. Stewart, R. 
 J. Hobson, and C. J. Kenworthy, honorary medical officers ; H. 
 Foster, hon. secretary ; T. Hillas, resident surgeon ; J. Garrard, 
 dispenser and house steward ; Mrs. Garrard, matron. The presi- 
 dents sincehavebeen Messrs. W. B. liobinson, 1857-8; A. L. Lynn, 
 1859-60; A. Drury, 1861-2-3-4; W. H. Foster, 1865; J. M. 
 Strongman, 1866; R. Lewis, 1867-8-9; J. O'Meara, 1870; W. 
 Cameron, 1871[; J. Permewan, 1872; F. C. Downes, 1873; G.
 
 THE DISTRICT HOSPITAL. 259 
 
 Smith, 1874-5; A. H. King, 1876; D. Brophy, 1877; F. M. 
 Claxton, 1878 ; T. Clegg, 1879 ; A. Anderson, 1880 ; J. J. Fitz- 
 gerald, 1881 ; J. J. Goller, 1882 ; J. Hickman, 1883 ; C. Salter, 
 1884; P. Papenhagen, 1885; A. Hunter, 1886. The resident 
 surgeons have been T. Hillas, 1856 to 1859 ; W. P. Whitcombe, 
 1860 to 1866; R. J. Owen, 1867 to 1884 ; J. E. Moffatt, 1885 
 to 1886; W. Morrison to end of 1886; R. Scott, 1887. The 
 paid secretaries and collectors conjointly have been E. C. Moore 
 to 1863, and C. I. Burrows from 1864 to the present time. 
 G. Moore was at one time employed as collector only. 
 Omitting those already mentioned, the following is the official 
 list for 1886 : — Vice-presidents, D. Brophy, Alex. White ; 
 honorary treasurer, W. Eyres ; honorary solicitor, C Salter ; com- 
 mittee of management, F. M. Claxton, P. Papenhagen, T. Clegg, J. 
 J. Goller, G. Smith, A. Anderson, S. L. Bailey, D. Cameron, O. 
 
 E. Edwards, J. Phillips, C. Salter, J. Hickman, J. Permewan, 
 W. J. Higgans, J. J. Fitzgerald ; honorary surgeons, E. G. 
 Ochiltree, W. A. Bradford, W. P. Whitcombe ; honorary physi- 
 cians, F. H. Eastwood, J. F. Usher, S. E. A. Zichy-Woinarski ; 
 honorary consulting physician, H. H. Radclitfe ; honorary con- 
 sulting surgeon, R. F. Hudson, M.D. ; honorary surgeon dentist, 
 J. M'Burney ; auditors, J. A. Chalk, J. F. Spillman ; dispenser, 
 
 F. F. Shelly ; matron, Mrs. A. Neilson ; clerk, J. A. Richmond ; 
 galvanist, H. Weeks. The house contained, in 1870, 185 bed- 
 spaces, the last report then returning 1033 as the number of 
 patients admitted in the year 1869, and 5372 as the number of 
 out-patients. Mr. Burrows, to whose courtesy the author is 
 indebted for the statement, gives the present bed accommoda- 
 tion as 105 for males and 43 for females; the male in-patients 
 during 1886 as 634, females 252, in all 886, and the out-patients 
 as 1351 males, 1777 females, in all 3128. There are nine wards, 
 including one for convalescents. The total cost of buildings has 
 been £25,022, and the average cost per annum per patient .£51 
 7 s. llfd. 
 
 The Benevolent Asylum, on a five-acre reserve fronting 
 Ascot street, was the next of the public charities. It is a palace 
 in the Elizabethan style, with well-kept grounds, a magnificent
 
 260 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 home such as the English poor, we may suppose, have never 
 dreamt of in their wildest flights of fancy. The foundation stone 
 of the first portion was laid on St. Patrick's Day, 1859, by F. 
 Gell, D.P.G.M., with Masonic honors, the architect being Mr. 
 Christopher Porter ; builders, Messrs. Evans and Barker ; cost, 
 £3765 4s. 2d. The first building was opened on the 20th 
 February, 1860. The foundation stones of the subsequent por- 
 tions appear to have been laid without ceremony. Mr. J. A. 
 Doane has been the architect of all those portions of the asylum 
 which have been built since the first, save the chronic ward now 
 building from designs by James and Piper. The second portion was 
 built by Mr. J. Francis at a cost of .£2907 15s., and was opened 
 on the 10th June, 1862. The third, or north centre portion, 
 was built by Mr. J. Hope, at a cost of £2016 8s., and was opened 
 on the 26th August, 1863. The fourth, or north wing portion, 
 was built by Mr. F. Nicholls, at a cost of £2127 Is. 5d., and 
 was opened on the 19th March, 1867. The fifth, or southern 
 wing — a lying-in hospital — was built by Messrs. Irving, Glover, 
 and Co., at a cost of £2712 10s. 2d., and was opened on the 27th 
 of July, 1869. On the 29th April last. President Phillips and 
 Treasurer Shoppee laid the foundation stone of the chronic ward 
 now in course of erection. The total outlay forbuildingsand repairs 
 up to the 30th October, 1886, was £22,216 8s. lid. The first com- 
 mittee sat in 1857 as the almoners of tlie " Ballarat Visiting and 
 Benevolent Association," and consisted of Mr. R. Smith, presi- 
 dent ; the llevs. P. Madden, J. Bickford, J. Potter, J. Strong- 
 man, G. Mackie, and Niquet ; Messrs. W. C. Smith, R. Belford, 
 W. Fraser, R. Ocock, J. H. Dunne, J. Oddie, M. J. Cummins, 
 M'lvor, A. Dimant, D. Morris, Martin, S. Donnelly, Tristram, 
 A. Dewar, W. Dimsey, J. Dodds, Crane, H. Wood, I. Wheeldon, 
 R. Davidson, R. Lewis, Brannon, A. Davies, Lockhart, Gripe, 
 and Talbot, committeemen ; A. S. Park, hon. treasurer ; A. A. 
 Tarte, hon. secretary. The presidents of the asylum since then 
 have been:— R. Lewis, 1860-4; W. Scott, 1865; J. O'Meara, 
 1866; G. Lovitt, 1867; J. A. Doane, 1868; G. Lovitt, 1869; 
 J. Oddie, 1870; R. Wrigley, 1873-4; C. C. Shoppee, 1875-6; J. 
 Long, 1877-8; J. J. Fitzgerald, 1879-80; H. Josephs, 1881 ; J.
 
 BENEVOLENT AND ORPHAN ASYLUMS. 261 
 
 T.Phillips, 1882-3; J. Oddie, 1884-5; J. Phillips, 1886. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Boughen were the first master and matron, and Mr. 
 Boughen is still in office, but Mrs. Boughen is dead, and the pre- 
 sent matron is Mrs. M. H. Phayer. Peter Cazaly was the first 
 paid secretary, and Dr. M'Farlane the first medical oflicer, and 
 to them have succeeded T. C. Coates as secretary, and Dr. 
 Holthouse as medical officer. The office-bearers for the year 
 ending July, 1887, were: — J. Phillips, president; J. Hickman 
 and J. Ferguson, vice-presidents ; J. T. Phillips, J. Oddie, D. 
 Brophy, W. Dimsey, and A. Anderson, trustees ; C C. Shoppee, 
 treasurer ; Drs. Whitcombe, Usher, and Radclifie, honorary 
 medical officers ; H. Josephs, J. Showman, J. Russell, Rev. 
 Father Doyle, Hon. D. Ham, J. J. Fitzgerald, T. Taylor, S. 
 Cohen, J. Curtis, D. Lessels, J. M'Cafierty, M. C. Carey, W. 
 Scott, G. K. Coutts, J. Murray, O. E. Edwards, committeemen. 
 The charity is a home for old age and chronic invalids, and pro- 
 vides rations also for out-door patients, the committee under- 
 taking to visit out-door claimants for i^elief, and generally to 
 supervise the administration of the funds. On the 6tli December, 
 1869, there were 195 patients in the house, and 816 patients were 
 receiving out-door relief, the outlay for the ten years from 1859 
 to 1868 having been £68,202 10s. 2d. At that time beds were 
 made for 274 in-patients. On the 31st December, 1886, there 
 were in the asylum 251 inmates — 196 males and 55 females, the 
 total admissions during the year being 290 males and 114 females, 
 exclusive of 14 males and 23 females born during the year in 
 the Lying-in Hospital. During that year there were issued 21,490 
 adult rations and 13,836 children's rations to out-patients, or a 
 weekly average of 413 to adults and 266 to children ; and the 
 medical officer treated 1690 cases — 1373 males and 317 females. 
 The weekly average of in-patients for the year was 248, and the 
 average cost, calculated over the last eight years, per patient per 
 annum, was £17 15s. lOid. 
 
 The District Orphan Asylum is in Victoria street, and is a 
 plain edifice, designed by Architect H. R. Caselli. It was estab- 
 lished in 1865, the licensed victuallers of Ballarat, with Mr. W. 
 R. Watson at their head, having been foremost in its promotion,
 
 262 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 assisted very nobly from the first by the friendly societies of the 
 town and district. The foundation stone was laid on the 8th 
 December, 1865, by Mr. (now Sir James) M'Culloch, the Chief 
 Secretary of the colony, and the building, as far as then erected, 
 was opened on 8th July, 1866, the cost up to 1870 being £7500. 
 Since then large additions have been made to the asylum, at once 
 increasing the accommodation and completing the harmony of 
 the architectural design, the total cost to date being £18,538 3s. 
 lid. In December, 1869, there were 80 children in the asylum, 
 the building then having accommodation for 200. The asylum 
 can now house 300 orphans, the number on the roll at the end of 
 1886 being 72 males, 49 females, in all 121. The asylum grounds 
 comprise an area of 40 acres, and the gardens supply the asylum 
 with a large amount of edibles, besides adding beauty to the sur- 
 roundings. In this later respect, the gardens of the hospital and 
 the Benevolent Asylum even excel those of the Orphan Asylum. 
 The following are the names of the first committee and office- 
 bearers : — President, W. R. Watson ; vice-presidents, E. Stein- 
 feld, H. H. Peake ; trustees of land, G. Lovitt, W. R. Watson, 
 R. B. Gibbs, E. Steinfeld, H. H. Peake ; trustees of funds, W. 
 Jones, G. Lovitt, R. B. Gibbs, W. P. Martin, E. Drake ; com- 
 mitteemen, W Scott, W. Dunn, James Walker, J. Craddock, W. 
 M. Brown, Jas. Hall, T. J. Mitchell, R. Kent, H. Cuthbert, J. 
 Eddy, R. Jones, Gilbert Duncan, P. C. Parry, Jas. Goujon, W. 
 Jack, E. Larkiii ; secretary and collector, AVm. Webster ; superin- 
 tendent, John Finlay ; matron, Catherine Finlay. After Mr. 
 and Mrs. Finlay came Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Sadlier, then Mr. R. 
 Wreford and Mrs. Wheeldon, and then the present Mr. and Mrs. 
 A. Kenny. The names of the present committee and otfice- 
 bearers are as follow : — President, J. Richards ; vice-presidents, 
 H. Josephs, W. P. Martin ; treasurer, W. Scott ; hon. con- 
 sulting medical adviser. Dr. Hudson ; hon. medical olHcers, Dr. 
 Usher, Dr. Woinarski, Dr. Salmon ; hon. solicitor, Hon. H. 
 Cuthbert ; committee, D. Brophy, E. W. G. Chamberlain, Jas. 
 Curtis, C. Dyte, J. Ferguson, D. I'^itzpatrick, Wm. Gale, W. T. 
 Glenn, J. Jlickman, W. Lakeland, W. D. M'Kee, J. C. Moiloy, J. 
 Nicol, H. R(;id, T. H. Thompson ; secretary and collector, Robert
 
 ROMAN AND ANGLICAN BISHOPRICS. 263 
 
 Wreford. The presidents have been : — ^W. R. Watson, 1865-6-7-70; 
 R. B. Gibbs, 1868; Wm. Scott, 1869; R. Lewis, 1871; E. 
 Chamberlain, 1872; J. Long, 1873; D. Brophy, 1874; J. W. 
 Gray, 1875; H. Levinson, 1876; R. Wreford, 1877-8; J. C. 
 Molloy, 1879; W. Lakeland, 1880; D. Fitz-Patrick, 1881; D. 
 B. Macaw, 1882 ; W. D. M'Kee, 1883 ; J. Ferguson, 18b4 ; J. 
 Richards, 1885-6. 
 
 For both Orphan and Benevolent statistics, the author is 
 largely indebted to the present secretaries of those charities. 
 
 The Female Refuge was originally in Grant street, but is 
 now in Dyte's parade, and is devoted to the shelter of several 
 classes of women in distress. There are now 12 inmates in the 
 house, and accommodation for 20 in all. The Refuge is under 
 the management of a committee of ladies. The present matron 
 is Mrs. Munro. The Grant Street Refuge was started some 20 
 years ago, Mesdames Clendinning, Swift, Henderson, and 
 Cummins being of the first committee. The present committee 
 are Mesdames Swift (president), Thornton, Inglis, Clarke, Glenn 
 (secretary), J. Jones, Towl, W. T. Thompson, Corbould, R. and G. 
 Thompson, Williams, Thomas, W. H. Jones, and Trevor. The site 
 in Dyte's parade is the gift of Mr. James Oddie. 
 
 The Ladies' Benevolent Clothing Society is an auxiliary to 
 the larger charities, the main form of its benefactions being the 
 distribution of clothing to necessitous people who do not come 
 directly under the provisions of the Benevolent Asylum. 
 
 Ballarat is the See of two bishops, the Churches of Rome and 
 England having, in 1873, created each a Ballarat Diocese in what 
 had previously been the Diocese of Victoria. Although the Sees were 
 created at about the same time the Roman Catholic bishop was 
 first consecrated, the Right Rev. Michael O'Connor, D.D., having 
 been consecrated in Rome in May, 1874. He arrived in Bal- 
 larat on the 18th December, 1874, and was installed in St. Patrick's 
 Cathedral on Sunday, the 20th, by Archbishop Gould, a sermon 
 being preached on the occasion by the Rev. W. Kelly, S.J. 
 Bishop O'Connor died on the 14th February, 1882, aged 52 years, 
 and his remains were buried in the north transept of the cathedral, 
 A mortuary chapel in his memory is to be built adjacent to the
 
 264 HISTORY OP BALLARAT, 
 
 cathedral. Dr. James Moore, who was dean and vicar-general 
 under Bishop O'Connor, had been entitled monsignor by the Pope, 
 and had previously been the senior clergyman in charge of the 
 mission, was appointed bishop in his place, and was consecrated 
 by the archbishop in St. Patrick's Cathedral on the 27th April, 
 1884, the bishops of Hobart (Murphy), Adelaide (Reynolds), Goul- 
 burn (Lanigan), and Armidale (Torregiani), assisting, and the 
 Yery Rev. T. Cahill, S.J., preaching on the occasion. 
 
 The Right Rev. Samuel Thornton, D.D. (and M.A., of Mel- 
 bourne), and late Michal Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, was 
 consecrated first Anglican bishop of Ballarat by the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, and the bishops of London, Melbourne, and Goul- 
 burn, in Westminster Abbey on the 1st May, 1875, S. S. Phillip, 
 and James' Day. Bishop Thornton arrived in Ballarat on the 10th 
 August, 1875, attended a thanksgiving service on the same day 
 at Christ Church pro-Cathedral, and was next day there installed 
 by the Ven. T. B. C. Stretch, archdeacon of Ballarat and Hamil- 
 ton, the bishop preaching the sermon. In the evening of the 
 same day there was a public reception in the hall of the 
 Mechanics' Institute, where attended the clergy. Chief Justice 
 Stawell, and other leading laymen of the church. On following 
 days addresses of welcome were presented to the bishop from the 
 Ballarrit Presbytery and by a number of Birmingham men, from 
 whose town the bishop hailed. 
 
 The Ijoundaries of the Anglican Diocese are officially described 
 to be those of the colony " except on the east where the boundary 
 is irregular, but adjoins rouglily the 144th meridian." Tlie author 
 lias not succeeded in oljtaining a dctiiiition of tlie Roman Catholic 
 Diocesan l)ouiidaries. 
 
 Of the many churclies in Ballarat, those in permanent ma- 
 terials, as V)rick and stone are called, may be particularised. 
 Evei'y comniunioh li.icl ('■•irlicr ( liurclios of wood, and at the 
 present time most coninumions h;i\(' chui'cihes both of wood and 
 of brick or stone ; l)ut llic n)orc jx-cishable buiklings are 
 gradually disappearing as cliurclics, and this record only refers 
 in detail to the more durable; edifices.
 
 ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 265 
 
 The Anglican communion lias six cliurches in permanent ma- 
 terials, of which Christ Church, in Lydiard street, is the oldest 
 of all existing permanent ecclesiastical edifices here. It is a 
 Gothic structure, built of basaltic stone, the nave designed by 
 Backhouse and Reynolds, and the transepts by Mr. E. James, and 
 was begun in 1854 during the incumbency of the Rev. J. R. 
 Thackeray, the foundation stone being laid by Archdeacon Stretch. 
 At that time the building was not carried on. In the year 1857 
 the nave was built, the Rev. John Potter being then the minister. 
 It was opened on the 13th September, 1857, by the Revs. P. 
 Homan and J. Gr. Russell. The transepts and chancel were 
 added in 1868, and were opened on the 6th May of that year. 
 The transepts and chancel cost £1,792, and the earlier portion 
 over £2,000. A wooden annex to the north transept has since 
 been added for the accommodation of the increasing congregation. 
 The Church Assembly having resolved upon the erection of a 
 cathedral, arrangements were made that the site should be that 
 occupied by Christ Church, which had already become the pro- 
 Cathedral, but by a later decision that scheme has been abandoned, 
 and a site chosen at the Dana street corner of the reserve, now 
 occupied by the vicar's residence. Designs for a cathedral were 
 accepted from Messrs. Tappin, Gilbert, and Denehy, and at a meet- 
 ing in the Alfred Hall, on the 10th September, 1886, presided 
 over by his Excellency Sir Henry Loch, the sum of £4,850 was 
 promised in aid of the erection. The style of the proposed edifice 
 is to some extent early English at a transition period, plan cruci- 
 form, with nave, side aisles, transepts, side chapels for organ, 
 choir, sacrarium and vestry, accommodation for other church pur- 
 poses to be made in the basement. Nave length, 1 30 feet ; width 
 of nave and aisles, 64 feet ; length of transepts, 120 feet ; height 
 of nave walls, 52 feet. The choir is an apse, and the bold west 
 front rises sheer from the street footpath, flanked by two towers, 
 whose altitude is about 200 feet. The nave roof is continued in 
 an unbroken line over the choir, and at the junction of the nave 
 and transepts a richly decorated fleche rises some 120 feet. The 
 competition was open to all Australia, and it is a matter of satis- 
 faction that a firm whose members are native born, cue of them
 
 266 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Ballarat born, have carried ofi' the honors. Altogether, the 
 cathedral promises to be one of the most beautiful of sacred 
 edifices in any of the^colonies. The school-house of brick, which 
 stands north of the church, was opened on the 1st of October, 1868. 
 St. Paul's, in Humtiray street, a Gothic design, built of brick, has 
 been re-built, in part, and was opened in its present state in April, 
 1864 ; architect, Mr. L. Terry. The original body of the church was 
 built for a school, the foundation stone being laid on the 17th of 
 May, 1858, by Mr. J. B. Humfiray, who then said it was "the 
 first stone foundation laid for educational purposes in Ballarat 
 East." The tower was built and the church enlarged in 1862, 
 but in 1864 the site of the church subsided in consequence of 
 mining operations beneath and the building was taken down. The 
 present church was then erected, the Rev. R. T. Cummins incum- 
 bent, the old tower remaining, and the church built west of the 
 tower instead of east as before. St. John's, a Gothic design, in 
 Armstrong street north, built of brick, and designed by Mr. L. 
 Terry, was begun on the 15th of March, 1864, the Dean of Mel- 
 bourne laying the foundation stone. It was opened on the 29th 
 of February, 1865, by the Rev. C. T. Perks. On the 16th of 
 November, 1869, Archdeacon Stretch laid the foundation stone 
 of additions to the church, which were opened on the 11th March, 
 1870, the Rev. G. W. Watson being the incumbent. On the 16th 
 May, 1884, Bishop Thornton laid the memorial stone of a side 
 aisle and organ chamber, and the church was re-opened on the 2nd 
 October of that year, by Archdeacon Julius. The additions were 
 designed by Terry and Oakdeii, and cost .£773 6s. St. Peter's, 
 in Sturt street west, Gothic design, built of basaltic stone, was 
 begun on the 16tli November, 1864, Mr. B. H. Hassell laying the 
 foundation stone. Mr. C. D. Cuthbert was the architect, and the 
 nave was opened on the 11th of June, 1865, the Rev. W. H. 
 Adeney being the incuml)ent. St. James', Little Bendigo, Gothic, 
 built of brick, and designed V)y H. R. Caselli, was opened by the 
 Dean of Melbourne on the 17th of July, 1864, the Rev. G. C. 
 Allanby being the incumbent. Holy Trinity, Albert street, 
 Sebastopol, ))uilt of l)rick, and designed by If. R. Caselli, was 
 begun in September, 1867, Archdeacon Stretch laying the founda-
 
 CATHOLIC AND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES. 267 
 
 tion stone. Since then two bays and a chancel have been added, 
 a memorial stone being laid by Miss Kate Bray in January, 1870; 
 the Rev. Gualter Soares, minister. 
 
 The Koman Catholics have two churches — St. Patrick's, 
 Sturt street, now the Cathedral Church, and St. Alipius', in Vic- 
 toria street. The first is in Flamboyant Gotliic style, and is at 
 present the largest and most beautiful Gothic edifice in the town. 
 The materials are basaltic stone, with freestone enrichments. 
 Bishop Gould laid the foundation stone of the nave and side- 
 aisles on the 7th of February, 1858, the Revs. P. Madden and R. 
 F. X. Fennelly being the resident ministers ; architects, Messrs. 
 Shaw and Dowden. The pillars of the nave were erected in 1861, 
 and the building, as far as the point now intersected by the 
 transepts, was opened by the same bishop on the 8th of Novem- 
 ber, 1863, Dr. Shiel, Archdeacon of Ballarat (afterwards Bishop 
 of Adelaide) being then resident here. The ti-ansepts, side 
 chapels, chancel, and sacristy were built after drawings by Mr. 
 Denney, Dean Moore, now the bishop, being the clergyman in 
 charge. The erection of the tower and spire is reserved for the 
 future. The nave and aisles cost £12,000 ; the after contracts 
 amounted to a larger sum, and <£1.500 were spent on the iron 
 fence round the reserve, the total outlay to date being near 
 £40,000. Steps were taken in 1872 for the erection of St. 
 Alipius', in place of a weatherboard building previously in use on 
 the site, and the present edifice was opened in 1874. Archbishop 
 Gould laid the foundation stone early in 1873. 
 
 The Scottish Presbyterians have three churches. St. 
 Andrew's, in Sturt street, is a Norman design by C. D. Cuthbert, 
 built in basaltic stone, with an ornate freestone doorway. The 
 foundation stone was laid on 1st of December, 1862, by tlie Rev. 
 W. Henderson, the minister. While being built a portion of the 
 walls was blown down in a gale on the 3rd of August, 1863. 
 The church cost £3150, and was opened on the 15th of August, 
 1864. The tower and spire were built in 1884 from designs by 
 Architect C. D. Figgis, at a cost of £2133, the height of the 
 spire being 148 feet. The spire is named the Henderson 
 Memorial Spire, the minister having died during the building of
 
 368 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 it, and the dark layers of stone in the pinnacles show the height 
 to which the work had reached on the 22 nd July, when the pastor 
 died. Two small congregations had existed before the original 
 St. Andrew's one, which latter worshipped in a wooden building 
 adjoining. The two earlier ones belonged respectively to the 
 Synod of Victoria and the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria. 
 The remnants of these two joined in one, making the St. 
 Andrew's congregation under the charge of the Rev. W. Hender- 
 son, the wooden church being opened on the first Sunday in 
 May, 1858. Soon after that nearly all Presbyterian bodies in 
 Victoria united as the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and the 
 congregation of St. Andrew's joined that union. Ebenezer, 
 United Presbyterian, in Armstrong street south, built of basaltic 
 stone, and designed by H. R. Caselli, was begun on the 10th of 
 December, 1862, the minister of the congregation at that time, 
 the Rev. R. T. Walker, laying the foundation stone. The church 
 was opened on the 21st of June, 1863. Some cliurch additions and 
 a manse have since then been erected. Doveton Street Church, 
 United Presbyterian, built of brick in 1866, and opened in June 
 of that year, was then a Welsh Cjugregational Church, designed 
 by Carpenters T. Lewis and J. Thomas. It became tlie property 
 of United Presbyterians, under the pastoral charge of the Rev. 
 R. T. Walker, who opened his pastorate there on the 15th 
 of August, 1869. The building has long ceased to be a church, 
 and is now a liall for secular uses. The congregation of St. 
 Jolin's, Presbyterian Church of Victoria, at first worshipping 
 nearly opposite to the Synagogue, in Princes street, and then in 
 the Alfred Hall, accepted a design by Mr. Oakden for the present 
 large wooden church in Peel street, the site not being suitable for 
 heavier materials. This course was taken on the advice of the 
 architect, Mr. Percy Oakden, and the present church, wiiich 
 holds over 1000 persons, and is said to be the largest wooden 
 church in Victoria, was built by Irving and Clover, the site and 
 building costing £3500. The edifice was opened on Sunday, 13th 
 August, 1871, when tlie llev. Dr. Cameron, and the resident 
 minister, the Rev. J. \V. Iii'^lis, oHioiatiMl. On thi^ 9tli Octoljor, 
 1881, a Sunday school and liictun; hall, at the roar, was opened l)y
 
 WELSH AND METHODIST CHURCHES. 269 
 
 the Rev. T. Hastie. The architects were Caselli and Figgis ; 
 builder, W. Robertson ; cost, about .£1500 ; holding capacity, 
 from 900 to 1000. 
 
 The Free Church of England had one building, dedicated to 
 St. Thomas, built of brick, in Macarthur street west, designed by 
 J. R. Burns. It was opened on the 19tli of July, 1869 ; minister, 
 the Rev. C. W. Collins, and is now a Wesleyan church. 
 
 The Catholic Apostolic Church has recently purchased, and 
 now occupies, the church in Sturt street west, originally known as 
 Holy Trinity Congregational Church. 
 
 The Welsh Presbyterians have one church. It is in Albert 
 street, Sebastopol, is built of basaltic stone, and was designed by 
 H. R. Caselli, the foundation stone being laid on the 3rd of 
 March, 1865, by Mary, wife of Ellis Richards, a deacon of the 
 church. The church was opened on the second Sunday in April, 
 1866, by the Revs. R. T. Walker and W. Henderson in the 
 English language, and on the next Sunday by the Revs. Messrs. 
 W. M. Evans, Farr, Roberts, and J. Evans in the Welsh lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The United Welsh Protestant Church has a church of brick 
 in the reserve at the corner of Lydiard and Armstrong streets. 
 It was built in 1858 for the use of Welsh Protestants of all 
 denominations. The Revs. J. Farr and L. Llewellyn were the 
 first ordained ministers. 
 
 The Primitive Metliodists have four churches — one of brick, 
 in HumfFray street, the foundation stone of which was laid by 
 Mr. J. Richardson on the 9th of April, 1860. The church was 
 designed by J. Buckle, and was opened on the 8th of July, 1860. 
 One of brick, in Burnbank street, designed by W. Benson. Mr. 
 J. Richardson laid the foundation stone on the 6th of June, 1864, 
 and the building was opened on the 5th of August of the same 
 year. One at the south-east corner of Eyre and Lyons streets, 
 designed by J. A. Doane, and built of basaltic stone. Mrs. M. 
 D. Morgan laid the foundation stone on the 10th of May, 1868, 
 and the church was opened on the 23rd of October of that year. 
 One of brick, in Beverin street, Sebastopol, designed by J. A. 
 Doane. The foundation stone was laid on the 23rd of June,
 
 270 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 1868, by the Rev. S. Bracewell, and the church was opened on 
 the 27th of the following September. 
 
 The Wesleyans have eleven churches. Wesley Church, in 
 Lydiard stieet, built of basaltic stone, was designed by Backhouse 
 and Reynolds ; cost, £5000. The foundation stone was laid by 
 his Excellency Sir Henry Barkly on the 17th January, 1858, and 
 the church was opened on the 18th of July of the same year, the 
 lirst sermon being preached by the Rev. D. J. Draper, who was 
 drowned in the " London" steamer, that foundered in the Bay of 
 Biscay on the 11th January, 1866. The change of prices between 
 1854 and 1870 is shown in the fact that .£2500 was the cost of 
 the original school-house at the corner of Lydiard and Dana 
 streets, a small, plain, low-walled building of rotten sandstone 
 from the Black Hill, and basaltic boulders. A similar building 
 could now be erected for a fifth or sixth of the cost. The blue- 
 stone church was sold a year or two ago to the School of Mines, 
 and is now the School Museum. The present handsome edifice, 
 of brick and stone, in pointed Gothic, at the corner of Dana 
 street, is from designs by Messrs. Terry and Oakden, of Mel- 
 bourne, and was built by Messrs. Irving and Glover, cost over 
 £10,000, and will seat 1100 persons. The works were begun on 
 the 5tli October, 1883 ; tlie memorial stone was laid by the Hon. 
 J. Campbell on the 11th December, 1883, and the church was 
 opened on the 14th December, 1884, by the Rev. H. Bath, a 
 former superintendent of the circuit. Barkly Street Church, of 
 brick, cost £1933, was completed on the 5tli of May, 1860 ; J. 
 A. Doane, architect. There was no ceremonial laying of the 
 foundation stone. Neil Street Church, of biick, cost £1400, was 
 completed on the 16th of March, 1867 ; J. A. Doane, architect. 
 The foundation stone was laid by the Rev. W. L. Binks. Wen- 
 douree Church, of brick, cost £475, was finislied on the 16th of 
 June, 1860; J. A. Doane, architect; the Rev. J. Bickford the 
 officiating minister. Tliis building has recently been closed, as 
 suVjsidence of the site has made the place unfit for use. Sebastopol 
 Church, of stone, in Cheshunt street ; first part opened in 
 March, 1864, completed on the I'L'nd May, 1869 ; founda- 
 tion stone laid in August, 1863, l^y the Rev. W. Taylor,
 
 WESLEYAN AND OTHER CHURCHES. 271 
 
 of California; J. A. Doane, arcliitect ; the Rev. J. S. 
 Waugh officiating minister. Little Bendigo Church, of bjick, 
 cost £611 ; J. A. Doane, architect; foundation stone laid by 
 Mrs. D. Morgan; completed on the :2.'^th of June, 1865. Mount 
 Pleasant Church, of stone, cost £980 ; foundation stone laid by 
 the Rev. J. S. Waugh ; completed 16th September, 1865 ; J. A. 
 Doane, architect. Pleasant Street Church, of bi'ick, cost .£1700 ; 
 officiating minister. Rev. W. L. Binks ; architect, J. A. Doane ; 
 completed on the 24th of June, 1867. In 1886, additions for 
 choir purposes were made to this church, after designs by Mr. C. 
 D. Figgis. A handsome new parsonage has also been erected 
 close by the church. Golden Point Church, of brick, cost £850 ; 
 foundation stone laid by the Rev. W. L. Binks ; architect, J. A. 
 Doane; completed on the 29th of June, 1867. Brown Hill 
 Church, of brick, cost £714 ; foundation stone laid by George 
 Smith ; architect, J. A. Doane ; completed on the 22nd of March, 
 1869. The eleventh church is that in Macarthur street, already 
 mentioned. 
 
 The Bible Christians have four churches. Armstrong Street 
 Church, of brick; foundation stone laid in December, 1860, by 
 Mrs. Fi'ederick Baker ; opened on the 3rd of March, 1861 ; F. 
 O. Korn, architect. Skipton Street Church, of stone ; founda- 
 tion stone laid on tlie 8th of August, 1865, by the Rev. John 
 Orchard ; opened on the 25th of March, 1866 ; H. R. Caselli, 
 architect. Grant Street Churcli, of brick ; foundation stone laid 
 on the 19th of December, 1865, by the Rev. W. H. Hooker; 
 opened on the 18th of Marcli, 1866 ; designed by carpenter S. 
 H. Lugg. Humffray Street Church, of bi'ick ; foundation stone 
 laid on the 30th of October, 1866, by the Rev. James Lowe ; 
 opened on the 20th of January, 1867 ; designed by carpenter S. 
 H. Lugg. 
 
 The Hebrew Synagogue, in Princes street, of brick, cost 
 £900, was designed by T. B. Cameron. The foundation stone 
 was laid on the 25th of January, 1861, by Mr. C. Dyte, M.L.A., 
 and the opening service was celebrated on the 18th of the follow- 
 ing March, the Rev. Mr. Isaacs, minister,
 
 272 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 The Baptist Church, of stone, in Dawson street, opposite to 
 St. Patrick's, a substantial edifice, with Grecian fiont, was de- 
 signed by J. A, Doane, and cost .£3591. The foundation stone 
 was laid on the 23rd of October, 1866, by the Eev. Isaac New ; 
 pastor, the Rev. W. Sutton, and the building was opened on the 
 6th of November, 1867. Since then the building has been much 
 beautified both inside and out, and at considerable cost. 
 
 The old Congregational Church, of brick, near the corner of 
 Dawson and Mair streets, was designed for a school by J. A. 
 Doane, and cost £800, the site adjoining being reserved for a 
 church. The old building was opened on the 21st of March, 
 1862 ; the Rev. Mr. Gosman, minister ; after him the Rev. 
 J. J. Halley. The first church was of wood, in Sturt street, 
 and opened on the 6th of June, 18.57. It was sold in September, 
 1861, to Mr. Boyd, the printer, who still occupies all of the 
 premises. In 1881, on the Queen's Birthday, the memorial stone 
 of the present church, at the corner of Mair and Dawson streets, 
 was laid by the Rev. Joseph Walker, the pastor, to whom has 
 succeeded Dr. Roseby, whose pastorate began in December, 1885. 
 The church is of brick, in Gothic, with novel treatment in some 
 details, tlie architects being Caselli and Figgis, and the cost 
 £3550. The present accommodation is for 500 persons, site 
 space being reserved for future extension if necessaiy. The par- 
 sonage adjacent was designed by C. D. Figgis, and cost £1400. 
 The Dawson Street Church is the only one belonging to this 
 denomination in Ballarat. 
 
 The Disciples of Christ have a brick churcli in Dawson street, 
 built from a design by J. A. Doane ; cost of l)uilding, £500 ; 
 fittings, vestry, and extras, £185 ; land, £75 ; total, £800 ; 
 opened in June, 1865. They have a wooden chuich also at the 
 corner of Peel and Eastwood streets. 
 
 The Friends have a small wooden meeting-house in Grant 
 street. The Wroeites once had a meeting-place in Dyte's parade, 
 and tlio Unitarians one in East street, but neitlier sect has one in 
 Ballarat at present. 
 
 The Lutherans have erected a brick cliuich in place of an 
 earlier woodt.'n one on tlieir reseivcMii Doveton street south. The
 
 TOWN MISSION AND SALVATION ARMY. 273 
 
 architect was C. D. Figgis; builders, Taylor and Ellis; cost, £1100 
 says Pastor Herlitz, but £995 2s., says the architect. The chuiuh 
 was opened on the 19th March, 1870, by Pastor Herlitz, the head 
 of the Lutheran Synod of Victoria. 
 
 The Town Mission was begun in an organised form in March, 
 1870, by Messrs. M. Morgan, Cortlet, Etchells, Jones, Nash, and 
 Costain, and Mesdames Kitchen, Whitrick, and Burton. In Feb- 
 ruary, 1872, the present missioner, Martin Hosking, was engaged. 
 Tliere is now a mission hall in Eureka sti'eet, and a Chinese school 
 and meeting-house in Main street, and the work done by the 
 missioner and his assistants in caring for the bodies as well as the 
 souls of the poor is veritably practical religion of a very Christian 
 type. Mr. W. Little, who, with Mrs. Little, gives valuable help 
 in the musical pox'tion of the mission work, has furnished the 
 author with much interesting detail in connection with the 
 establishment and operations of the mission, but there is no space 
 available here for moi*e than this bare and ineffectual record. The 
 author has only that poor but pressing apology to offer to the 
 churches generally for his meagre notices in these pages. 
 
 That modern invention, the Salvation Army, opened its cam- 
 paign in Ballarat in April, 1882, the commanding officers being 
 Major (now Colonel) and Mrs. Barker, Captain (now Adjutant) 
 Hodges, Lieut. Hayes, Happy Dinah, and others; and a branch of 
 the Prison Gate Brigade was opened in August, 1885. An iron 
 roofed wooden barracks, measuring 90 x 50 x 12 feet, and accom- 
 modating 1,700 people, is erected in Little Bridge street, the 
 memorial blocks having been laid on the 2nd April, 1884, by the 
 Hon. J. Campbell, M.L.C., and Mr. Jas. Russell, M.L.A. 
 
 The passing of the Education Act of 1872 revolutionised the 
 primary school systems of the colony and annihilated at a stix)ke 
 all the denominational schools save some of the Roman Catholic 
 ones. That church has fought and still fights against the State 
 schools, and lias opened new schools of its own in all directions, 
 but as the denomination is in a minority, and the great bulk of 
 the children of Ballarat are sent to State schools, these have 
 become a notable feature in civic architecture, as they are neces- 
 sarily numerous, and they mark the advent of a new school of
 
 274 
 
 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 architecture in the Public Works Department. In the older days 
 the State buildings of all kinds were, as a rule, hideous to the 
 sight. The new State schools are sightly, and lend some really 
 welcome aspects to the landscape. There are eighteen State 
 schools in Ballarat, and there was an aggregate average attendance 
 during 1886 of 5,342 children. The aggregate cost of the school 
 buildings was £48,230, not including some outlay for yards, and 
 tree planting here and there. The following table gives some 
 details of interest, the names of head teachers, where changes 
 have occurred, being given in the order of their appointment. 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Dana street 
 Pleasant street 
 A If red ton 
 Wendouree 
 
 Macarthur street 
 
 Urquhart street 
 Huniffray street 
 Brown Hill 
 
 Eureka street 
 
 Orphaiiatre 
 Mount Pleasant 
 
 Golden Point 
 
 St. Paul's 
 Queen street 
 black Hill 
 
 Redan 
 
 Sebastopol 
 
 Nerrina 
 
 Building 
 Completed. 
 
 State No. 
 
 29th Feb., 1875 
 
 33 
 
 25th Aug., 1877 
 
 695 
 
 30th June, 1880 
 
 1091 
 
 5th May, 1877 
 
 1813 
 
 21st Aug., 1878 
 
 2022 
 
 2nd .Tan., 1879 
 10th March, 1876 
 7th Dec, 1877 
 
 2103 
 34 
 35 
 
 22nd June, 1880 
 
 1071 
 
 Leased 
 
 7th Aug., 1874 
 
 1256 
 1436 
 
 9th Jan., 1875 
 
 1493 
 
 27th June, 1877 
 6th March, 1878 
 25th June, 1878 
 
 1919 
 1998 
 2043 
 
 13th Feb., 1875 
 
 1289 
 
 25th Jan., 1875 
 
 1167 
 
 16th Sep., 1878 
 
 2093 
 
 / R. A. Armstrong 
 \J. Oldham 
 J. Holding 
 /J. Howarth 
 \ G. H. Scarse 
 R. Williams 
 ,^W. M. Cox 
 I J. Oldham 
 ; W. M. Cox 
 1 J. Bartley 
 V J. L. Willox 
 J. Lowther 
 E. I. Rosenblum 
 T . Potter 
 / H. Young 
 \ W. Ryan 
 E. P. 'Date 
 W. H. Nicholls 
 / R. Kent 
 \ J. Blythe 
 J.C.Molloy 
 L. H. Kildahl 
 G. Duck 
 / J.Dennant 
 \ L. Whyte 
 E. JL Whalley 
 J. L Clark 
 J. Oldham 
 H. Young 
 J. Elvins 
 W. T. Dimsey 
 P.Eva 
 
 School No. 34 was the first Associated Training School in 
 the district. It was thus created in 1874, with Mr. Rosenblum 
 as associate. Seventy-one students have been trained there, of 
 which number sixty are now State school teachers. From school 
 No. 1436 seventy two pupils have passed the matriculation 
 examination of the Melbourne University, and eleven have 
 obtained from the Education Dc^partment exhibitions of the 
 yearly value of £'.\f), tenable for six years. On the 8th April, 
 1884, Mr. Nicholls, the head teache«j was elected by the teachers 
 
 Average 
 Attendance. 
 
 Cost. 
 
 808 
 
 £6504 
 
 282 
 
 2758 
 
 58 
 
 736 
 
 85 
 
 950 
 
 6S8 
 
 5064 
 
 712 
 407 
 114 
 
 6369 
 
 4097 
 1894 
 
 193 
 
 1648 
 
 1(17 
 351 
 
 2831 
 
 362 
 
 3188 
 
 341 
 243 
 
 217 
 
 2246 
 1093 
 1393 
 
 320 
 
 2955 
 
 251 
 
 33411 
 
 53 
 
 564 
 
 Head Teachers.
 
 STATE AND OTHER SCHOOLS. 275 
 
 of the colony as their first representative on the Committee of 
 Classifiers. This committee was created by the Public Service 
 Act of 1883, for the purpose of classifying all State schools and 
 teachers, and for dealing with the transfer of teachers. On the 
 4th May, 1887, Mr. NichoUs was declared re-elected to the office 
 by a majority of 462 over Mr. John Sergeant, the other candidate. 
 School No. 2103 is the successor to the Denominational school in 
 Errard street, over which Mr. Lowther also presided, and to 
 which between 5000 and 6000 scholars had been admitted. The 
 number admitted to the State school has been close on 4000. 
 Under Mr. Lowther's management many teachers have been 
 trained, and " about sixteen" have passed the matriculation 
 examination, two have obtained exhibitions, and four have won 
 scholarships. 
 
 Church schools amongst Protestants now are Sunday schools 
 only, and as such do not seem to come within our purview here. 
 The private day schools are many, and their successes at Uni- 
 versity examinations indicate a fair average of teaching ability. 
 The largest school is the Ballarat College, which is in some sort 
 attached to the Presbyterian Kirk of St. Andrew's. Its first 
 principal was R. O. M'Coy, and the present one is J. Garbutt. A. 
 A. Buley is now principal of Grenville College, which was founded 
 by John Victor. Victor has left Ballarat, and the school has 
 migrated to Sturt street. Bain's High School, in Camp street, 
 Queen's College, in Dana street, Mrs. Kennedy's School, 
 on Soldiers' Hill, both for girls, and Kearney's Ballarat 
 Grammar School, in Eyre street, are the other main private 
 schools. The Catholics have several primary and other educa- 
 tional establishments. There are the Loretto Convent, Mary's 
 Mount (quaint misnomer for the flat marge of Wendouree), 
 founded in 1875 by sisters from the parent house, Loretto 
 Abbey, Rathfarnham, County Dublin ; the Loretto preparatory 
 schools and Ladies' College, Dawson street, conducted by the 
 same sisterhood ; the training college, in the same gi'ounds ; the 
 primary schools, Sfc. Josephs', Lyons street ; St. Aloysius', Redan ; 
 the Sisters of Mercy Convent schools, Victoria street ; the 
 Christian Brothers' School, in Skipton street ; and three primary
 
 276 HISTORY OP BALLaRAT 
 
 schools for boys at St. Alipius', Victoria street, Eedan, and 
 Palmer's Gully, under lay teachers. 
 
 The Ballarat School of Mines, which has recently been 
 affiliated to the Melbourne University, was begotten in some 
 discussions between Messrs. J. M. Bickett, Harrie Wood, J. 
 Lynch, and a few others connected with the mining interest of 
 tke district, Mr. Bickett at the first (1869) suggesting what has 
 only now been accomplished—to wit, the connection with the 
 University. Early in 1870 the project took shape, Judge 
 Rogers having drawn up a draft constitution for the School, and 
 Mr. Justice (Sir Redmond) Barry taking a lively interest in the 
 business. The Government gave for the use of the School the 
 old Court-house, in Lydiard Street, next north from the gaol, and 
 all the land and buildings between the gaol and the Wesley 
 Church of that day. On the 26th October, 1870, Mr. Justice 
 Barry opened the School with an inaugural address, and as the 
 School developed, more buildings were erected, including class- 
 rooms, laboratory, lecture-hall, steam-gauge testing tower. On 
 the 8th October, 1885, the Wesley Church of 1870, which had in 
 the interim been purchased by the School authorities, was opened 
 by his Excellency Sir H. B. Loch as a museum free to the 
 public. The whole property of tlie School is valued at about 
 £15,000, including the site, an insurance for £10,350 covering 
 the buildings and their contents. An annual vote in aid of 
 Schools of Mines is passed by tlie Legislature, the Ballarat 
 School receiving half, as since 1880, inclusive, the ordinary 
 annual vote has been £4,000, and has been equally divided 
 between the Ballarat and Sandhurst Schools. The School is 
 governed by a council meeting (juartorly, and an administrative 
 council me(!ting monthly. The first president of the School was 
 Mr. Justice Barry. The other members of the first council were 
 — Judge Rogers (vice-president), Sir J. M'Culloch, J, A. 
 M'Pherson, J). Gillies and W. M'Lellan, M's.L.A., Professor 
 M'Coy, Messrs. II. Wood, J. M. Bickett, H. B. de la Poer Wall, 
 Dr. Usher, T. Gray, U. W. Newman, R. Lewis, J. M'Dowall, H. 
 R. Caselli, VI. Trennery, L. S. Cliristie, C. S. Reeves, R. M. 
 Sergeant, T. D. Wunliss, and the chairmen of the mining boards
 
 SCHOOL OF MINES. 277 
 
 of the colony ab that date. The first secretary was James 
 Baker, of frontage regulations fame ; then J. Croker, then W. 
 H. Barnard, as a methodically enthusiastic first registrar, then 
 the present registrar. The museum, which is open free to the 
 public, is a growing attraction, and very rich in mineralogical 
 exhibits. In February last, Mr. R. M. Sergeant deposited £'26Q 
 in the City of Melbourne Bank as a premium for the best 
 method, other than the smelting mode, of treating auriferous ores. 
 The offer was to remain open for two years, and if not then won, 
 the money was to be applied to the founding of a School of Mines 
 scholarship for engineering ; the mayors of Ballarat, the vice- 
 president of the School of Mines, and the chairman of the Band 
 and Albion Consols Company are the trustees. This offer has 
 greater moment from the fact that from several colonies, even as 
 far off as the Kimberley gold fields, in South Africa, applications 
 have been sent to the School for help in the supply of mine 
 managers, engineers, and persons skilled in the treatment of 
 refractory ores. Want of space shuts out a mass of details of 
 interest relative to the School and Museum, and this notice must 
 close with list of council and ofl&cers at the close of 1886 : — 
 President, Sir Wm. Foster Stawell ; vice-president, James Oddie ; 
 trustees. Sir W. J. Clarke, Bart., M.L.C., R. H. Bland, J. W. 
 Rogers, Q.C.; council, the president, the vice president, D. Gillies, 
 M.L.A., W. M'Lellan, M.L.A., F. M'Coy, F.G.S., Prof. Univ. of 
 Melbourne, J. W. Rogers, Q.C., the Anglican Bishop of Ballarat, C. 
 R. Blackett (the president of the Pharmacy Board, Victoria), A. 
 Anderson, .1. M. Bickett, I. J . Jones, Archdeacon Churchill Julius, 
 J. Lonie, J. F. Martell, W. H. Nicholls, H. Reid, E. I. Rosenblum, 
 R. T. Vale, M.L.A., Theos. Williams, A. Wynne, the Mayor of 
 the City of Ballarat, the Mayor of the Town of Ballarat East, 
 and the chairman, for the time being, of each of the seven mining 
 boards of Victoria ; honorary solicitor, H. Cuthbert ; honorary 
 treasurer, I. J. Jones ; curator of museum, F. M. Krause, 
 F.G.S.; botanical reserve, hon. curator, W. Longley ; auditor, 
 Chas. Kent ; registrar, Andw. Berry. 
 
 The School of Mines Observatory, which was begun on the 
 16th December, 1885, is situated near the south boundary of
 
 278 HISTORY OF BALLAKAT. 
 
 the Town of Ballarat East, on a moderately elevated spur of the 
 White Horse Ranges, known as Mount Pleasant. In 1885 the 
 Government reserved three acres on this site, selected by Mr. J. 
 Wall, for observatory purposes, and in March, 1886, the Anglican 
 Bishop of Ballarat, Mr. Ellery, Mr. James Oddie, Mr. Isaac J. 
 Jones, Mr. Theophilus Williams, Mr. Rosenblum, and Mr. Agar 
 Wynne were appointed a committee under the provisions of the 
 Land Act 1884 for the care, protection, and management of the 
 reserve. Mr. James Oddie, with a generous zeal for the promo- 
 tion of astronomical science, supplied the means by which the 
 Observatory buildings have been erected and equipped. The 
 first telescope placed in position was a 12^-inch Newtonian 
 reflector, made by Captain H. E. Baker, late of Goldsborough, 
 now residing at the Observatory. This instrument was turned to 
 the heavens for the first time on the 13th January, 1886. On 
 the 1 1th May, 1 886, the formal opening took place, when Mr. D. M. 
 Davies, M.L.A., occupied the chair. The Hon. W. C. Smith, 
 M.L.A., introduced Master M'Hutchinson, who, on behalf of the 
 students of the astronomical class, read an address to Mr. Oddie, 
 the conclusion of which was a request that he would permit the 
 "lighthouse of the sky to be named the Oddie Observatory." 
 Mr. Oddie, in reply, expressed the hope that the Observatory 
 would prove a valuable adjunct to the School of Mines, and that 
 the establishment would ultimately be taken over by the council of 
 that institution. This is probably the destiny of the Observatory. 
 
 Ballarat is tlie first provincial city in Australia to possess an 
 art gallery open free to the public. The gallery is the outcome 
 of an exhibition in June, 1884, of local and other pictures in the 
 city hall. The expenses of that display, £200, were borne by 
 Mr. James Oddie, and he and Messrs. T. Price, J. Oldham, E. 
 Turnbull, C. N. Gilbert, and H. J. Hall were the original pro- 
 moters of the exliibition. A meeting of citizens decided that a 
 permanent galleiy of art .should be established ; the front floor 
 of the Academy of Music was rented at a nominal rate from Sir 
 W. J. Clarke, and his Excellency the Governor opened the 
 gallery on the lltli of September of the same year, his Excel- 
 lency and Lady Loch being then on their first visit to Ballarat.
 
 THE ART GALLERY. 279 
 
 Mr. Turnbull acted as secretary. The gallery was nearly filled 
 "with loaned pictures, and in course of time many presentations 
 of works by Australian and other artists were made, Mr. Oddie 
 being specially liberal in his donations both of money and pic- 
 tures. To Mr. Turnbull succeeded the present secretary, Mr, J. 
 A. Powell. In August, 1886, the Government sanctioned a vote 
 of £2000 for the purchase of pictures, and granted a site of 21 
 perches in Lydiard street for a gallery, designs for which, by 
 Tappin, Gilbert, and Denehy, were adopted by the gallery com- 
 mittee, who decided on erecting the front part of the building. 
 Last May the patrons of the gallery were incorporated as the 
 Ballarat Fine Art Public Gallery Association — President, J. 
 Oddie ; vice-presidents, Right Rev. Dr. Thornton, Right Rev. 
 Monsignor Moore, Sir W. J. Clarke, Bart., T. Stoddart, J. Shiels; 
 executive committee, the vice-presidents, and Archdeacon Julius, 
 Father Rogers, J. Oldham, E. Morey, F. Martell, J. Robson, G. 
 Perry, T. Bath, C B. Retallack ; council, members of tlie execu- 
 tive, and Rev. Dr. Roseby, Dr. Maconnochie, A. Anderson, D. 
 Brophy, J. Coghlan, J. Hickman, H. J. Hall, J. Holland, F. W, 
 Niven, W. H. Nicholls, T. Price, J. Sommers, C Schutze, A. 
 Wynne, R. Wrigley, T. Uthwatt ; hon. treasurer, J. Oddie ; 
 hon. solicitor, A. Wynne ; Melbourne selection committee, G. F. 
 Follingsby, J. Smith, L. Patterson, J. Reed ; local selection and 
 hanging committee, H. J. Hall, J. Oldham, J. Sommers, T. Price. 
 On the 21st June, the Queen's Jubilee Day, the memorial stone 
 of the gallery was laid by Sir W. J. Clarke. The architects' 
 description of the building is as follows : — 
 
 The Art Gallery has a frontage of 58 feet, with a depth of 100 feet. 
 At present it is intended to only build a portion, viz. , the facade complete, 
 with a depth of 77 feet. The ground plan is divided into two large shops, 
 placed one on each side of a grand eta trance 13 feet wide, which leads to 
 a double flight of stone steps, each 6 feet 6 inches wide. Behind the stair- 
 case is the secretary's office and students' rooms. The first floor is merely 
 two large rooms, lit from the ceilings, the main gallery being 55 feet long, 
 35 feet wide, and 24 feet high ; the back or water color gallery being 55 x 
 20 X 20. The whole of the building is fire proof, and ventilated in accordance 
 with the Tobin principle. The front, which is 50 feet high, is divided into 
 three bays by three-quarters rouiad Corinthian columns, relieved by pedi- 
 ments, and crowned by the figure of Britannia, supported by figures repre-
 
 280 HISTORY OF BALLARAT, 
 
 senting arts and science. The basement will be in the Doric order, the 
 columns being rusticated. jSlaterial of basement, bluestone ; rest of front, 
 brick and cement. The shops may at future date be converted into stu- 
 dents' rooms. Total cost of present ^lortion. £500. 
 
 Mr. Thomas 8toddart, a wealthy mining speculator of relined 
 tastes and liberal ideas, has given to Ballarat possession of an 
 art gift unique in all Australasia. None of the public grounds of 
 even the metropolitan cities of Australia are graced with marble 
 statues in such profusion as are the Botanic Gardens of Ballarat, 
 and this distinction is due to the large liberality of Mr. Stoddart. 
 When in Italy a few years since, he remembered Ballarat, and 
 resolved to embellish it with no fewer than twelve statues in 
 Carrara marble from divers studios in that place, and on the 
 Queen's Birthday, 1884, he formally handed over his splendid 
 present to the mayor and council of the city, as custodians for the 
 city for all time, the statues being at that time set up in the 
 Gardens. A procession of boats across the lake, a large con- 
 course of spectators, the presence of the Ballarat Rangers with 
 their band, all lent interest to the occasion, and the spontaneous 
 applause of the people who witnessed the ceremony of the transfer 
 betokened the public appreciation of the generosity of the giver. 
 The statues represent Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Hercules, 
 Mercury, Leda, a Bacchante, the Farnese, and another Flora, 
 Hebe, and Pomona. 
 
 James Russell Thompson's name occurs in the early passages 
 of this book. He was a very true gentleman, well informed, 
 studious, generous, modest. From the early fifties to tlie early 
 eighties he was, with brief exceptional absence, a citizen bearing 
 a (juiet retired part in tlie building up of this city and its in- 
 terests. He died on the 2Gth May, 188G, and by his will he 
 bequeathed a landscape, a portrait, and a study of dogs' heads, all 
 in oil, to the Ballarat Art Gallery, besid(^s a residuary bequest 
 amounting to £3000 in trust to his executors, Messrs. J. Noble 
 Wilson and 11. A. Nevett, for the purchase of statuary for the 
 Botanic Gardens, Mr. Stoddart being requested by the testator 
 to assist the executors in selecting tlie works of art to be chosen. 
 These gentlemen have been in comnumication with the Hon. 
 James Service, who is travelling in Europe, and he has pro-
 
 LIBERAL ART PATRONS. 281 
 
 visionally advised the purchase; of a marble group in Rome, re- 
 presenting the flight of a man, woman, and child from Pompeii. 
 The executors and Mr. Stoddart have also under consideration 
 the selection of another work, probably either a statue of 
 Wallace, the Scottish hero, or the symbolical group Britannia 
 unveiling Australia ; but at the time of this writing (June, 
 1887), no selection has been made absolutely. 
 
 The statue of Robert Burns, erected in Sturt street opposite 
 to the General Post-olfice, is the gift of a body of citizen 
 subscribers, and this ornament to the city may fairly be 
 regarded as a first fruit of the example given in the Stoddart 
 presentation to the city. The statue is by Giovanni Udney, of 
 Carrara, from a design by Mr. Tliomas Thompson, of Ballarat, 
 and a portrait of the poet sent to the artist for his inspiration. 
 The work was unveiled on the Eight Hours Anniversary Day, 
 1887, by the Hon. J. Nimmo, Minister of Public Works, who 
 made an oration on the occasion in the presence of ten or fifteen 
 thousand holiday sight-seers. Mr. Stoddart was one of the more 
 active of the committee, and a banquet was given to him on the 
 10th June, 1887, on which occasion a gold watch was presented 
 to Mr. J. M. Bickett, who had acted as secretary to the committee. 
 The cost of the statue and its belongings was over £800. 
 
 The seminal influence of good deeds is seen again in a 
 movement already forward for the erection of a statue of Tom 
 Moore. As was the case with the Burns statue, so now, as these 
 words are being written, all sorts of people are joining in the 
 endeavor for the honor of Moore of the " Melodies." The com- 
 mitteemen have applied to the City Council for leave to erect the 
 statue in Sturt street, immediately west of Armstrong street, 
 where the Queen's Birthday Oak at present stands, and the 
 council has referred the matter to the Lake and Gardens Com- 
 mittee. The council itself has also under consideration a project 
 of its own for the city, namely the erection of a statue of the 
 Queen in Sturt street, opposite to the city hall, and in commemora- 
 tion of Her Majesty's Jubilee. 
 
 Typography was almost as early an art in Ballarat as was 
 that of the blacksmith, for the diggers had not been long here
 
 282 HISTORY OP BALLARAT, 
 
 before the printers were at work. The first attempt, as we have 
 seen in an earlier chapter, to get a press conveyed to Ballarat 
 failed, and the first office actually opened appears to have been 
 Seekamp's Ballarat Times office, in Mair street, Ballarat West. 
 He afterwards migrated to Bakery Hill in the East. After him 
 came Fletcher and Evans, in the old Main road, now called Bridge 
 street, but before the old levels were raised to what they are now, 
 with some of the shop floors in the present street eleven feet 
 above the original surface. Fletcher was one of those arrested for 
 the burning of Bentley's hotel. His office was the first jobbing 
 office apart from the newspaper press, and Wheeler's Trumpeter 
 was printed there. This office became the printing and book- 
 binding establishment for some years of Armstrong, who, in 1853, 
 introduced at Golden Point the first Ballarat circulating library. 
 Charles Boyd, who is still here, began business as a printer in the 
 Main road, near the United States hotel in 1857, and he claims 
 to have first introduced Greek letter type in Ballarat. That was 
 in 1862, the type being specially imported from England for his 
 use. It was employed for some years by Mr. J. H. Pope, then 
 head teacher of the Soldiers' Hill Presbyterian school, for print- 
 ing examination papers. The letter is seldom used now here, and, 
 indeed, is not kept in any other office but Boyd's. Like gold 
 digging and the several sports, printing was first started in the 
 east — if Clarke's foiled essay in 1851 may be called a start — but 
 it has long since made the west its head quarters. Excepting 
 M'Kee's printing office in Bridge street, all the offices now are in 
 the west, namely, the newspaper offices, and the jobbing offices, 
 large and small — to wit, Boyd's, in Sturt street ; J. Curtis' and J. 
 Anderson and Co.'s, in Armstrong street ; F. Pinkerton's, E. 
 Campbell's, J. M 'Hutchison's, Rider and Mercer's, in Lydiard street; 
 and the publishers of this book, in Sturt street. F. W. Niven 
 and Co.'s business is the largest in Ballarat, and the largest in the 
 colony outside the metropolis. A Courier report of a visit to the 
 establishment on the 10th of November last states that " during 
 tlio past few years the firm has brought into use £1500 worth 
 of tli(! n(!west machinery, and their excellent work in printing 
 and chromo-lithography has enabled them to largely increase their
 
 LOCAL TYPOGRAPHY. 283 
 
 business." The visit was made to view exhibits prepared for the 
 exhibition then about to be opened at Sandhurst, and the scene 
 presented by the busy working of sixty-five hands, with engines, 
 presses, and so forth, and the prolific output of pictures, posters, 
 cards, labels, scrip, crests, monograms, almanacs, and what not, be- 
 sides engravers and lithographers at their nicer and noiseless work, 
 was a display to remember. The magnitude of the firm's opera- 
 tions is reflected in the average weekly wage sheet of £111, the 
 £5000 worth of machinery in use, and the annual consumption 
 for the year of £6500 worth of paper and printing, book- 
 binding, and stationery materials. This edition of the History 
 of Ballarat, comprising 10,200 copies, when bound complete, will 
 have absorbed 256 reams of paper, and will weigh no less 
 than 6| tons. Inspired by the Cornier reporter, the author 
 notes that at a banquet on the same day, at Craig's hotel, Mr. 
 Niven, the senior partner, referred to Seekamp and the first 
 printers, and the improvements now in vogue whereby " millions 
 of bills, tfec, could be turned out in the same time as about 100 
 were printed with the old hand arrangement." The Star reporter 
 lets in the following ray of light upon the development of the 
 firm's business : — " Four and a half years ago, we understand, 
 the firm employed 20 hands. At that time they devoted their 
 attention almost solely to mining and ordinary letter-press print- 
 ing. Since Mr. H. W. H. Irvine joined the firm, however, and 
 relieved Mr. Niven of the management of the commercial part of 
 the business, enabling him to devote his attention more fully to 
 the artistic work, the firm's trade has increased by leaps and 
 bounds, until now there are 65 or 67 hands employed." This 
 firm supplies orders all over Victoria, and in parts of adjacent 
 colonies, and for its exhibits at the Sandhurst Exhibition a 
 silver medal was awarded. 
 
 Photography was a very early form of localised pictorial art 
 in Ballarat, that is if photography be an art, a question which is 
 left for experts to discuss. William Ellis was the first Ballarat 
 photographer. He was a bricklayer, who had emigrated from 
 Liverpool to Port Natal, crossed over to Victoria in 1853, worked 
 at his trade in Melbourne, picked up the rudiments of photo-
 
 284 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 graphy there, and settled on the Red Hill, Ballarat, in 1855. 
 In December, 1855, a daguerreotypist named Rochlitz had a 
 " studio" near the Golden Fleece hotel, Lydiard street. His place 
 was a two storied wooden house on the site now occupied by 
 offices of the Ballarat Banking Company. Messrs. Cowley and 
 J. Noble Wilson subsequently practised photography there, with 
 Rochlitz as assistant. About that time, or a few months later, 
 when Lola Montes was in Ballarat, an American daguerreotypist 
 practised a little while, and issued some rather free and easy 
 photographs of the famous strolling player of so many experiences. 
 Cowley and Wilson also had on view daguerreotypes of Lola, A. M. 
 Quinn, and other celebrities of the day. Madame Charpiot 
 daguerreotyped also in Bridge street, and Fenton, Coldrey, and 
 Co. practised in collodion near what was then the horse bazaar, 
 in the Main road. Ellis sold his business to the late A. V. Smith. 
 After that came Solomon and Bardwell, then Roberts Brothers, 
 then Wright, then Glenny, then Silverlock, then Willetts, then 
 Richards and Co., then Chuck, then Williams. The last four 
 practise here now, and an amateur society has its home at the 
 School of Mines. 
 
 Lithography, or the art of printing from stone, was intro- 
 duced in Ballarat by the late Mr. Ronalds, of the Wendouree 
 Nursery Gardens, in 1853, but his little hand presses were rather 
 cherished old companions than active workers in those days. In 
 August, 1856, as mentioned in chapter iii., Robert Bell printed 
 his Chinese Advertiser from stone, and about the same tinie Henry 
 Harris, E. C. Moore, C. Abbott, and others started the first 
 Ballarat Puncli,¥. W. Niven assisting in the illustrations with one 
 of Ronalds' hand presses. In 1857 Niven purchased Ronalds' 
 presses and l)egan lithographing regularly, subsecjuently joining 
 H. Deutsch, in Bridge street. Deutsch was famous in those days 
 for his lithographic views of old Ballarat, and here and there 
 exist valuable collections of the street and other views issued 
 from his office. In 1858 the first steam lithographing machine 
 in Ballarat and in the colony was started by Niven, at 19 Lydiard 
 street, and was a great success. About the same time another 
 was got to work in Melbourne, by il. de Grouchy. These ma-
 
 LOCAL LITHOGRAPHY. 
 
 285 
 
 chines were looked upon with great distrust by trade critics, as 
 altliough such machines had worked well in France, England, and 
 other relatively cold climates, they were considered unfit for Aus- 
 tralia. But Mr. Niven says that was the very reason which 
 induced him to order one through Detmold, of Melbourne, as he 
 thought the speed of the machine would counteract the tendency 
 of the stone to dry as the slower hand rollers did. The result 
 proved the accuracy of the reasoning, for it was found that the 
 heat here scarcely affected the stone at all, and very soon Troedel, 
 of Melbourne, found his way to Ballarat to see Niven's success, 
 and he then followed in Niven's wake. In a short time machines 
 almost entirely superseded the old hand presses, and instead of 
 injury to the trade, as had been predicted, their general use soon 
 increased the amount of lithographic work tenfold, and where 
 formerly small orders of 100 or so were done by the hand press 
 at a high cost, the continuous machine turned out impressions by 
 the million at a cheap rate. This, as in the case of other ma- 
 chinery, created demand, and employment was made for establish- 
 ments with 50 or GO hands, as at F. W. Niven and Co.'s works, 
 instead of smaller shops with hand presses and relatively few 
 employes. As we have said, Deutsch was once a name here. 
 He sold to F. W. Niven. J. Gellatly and J. Curtis did litho- 
 graphic work at one time, but at present Rider and Mercer, in 
 Lydiard street, and F. W. Niven and Co., in Sturt street, are the 
 only lithographers in Ballarat. These firms, and notably F. W . Niven 
 and Co., have made mining plans and similar works obtainable at 
 small cost, and have thus facilitated the extension of the mining 
 industry. Lithographic views of Ballarat, Sandhurst, Warrnam- 
 bool, and other places, and views of Lake Wendouree and other 
 scenes in the district have been issued in abundance from these gas 
 driven lithographic presses, F. W. Niven and Co. alone being able 
 at present to execute the larger pictures. Curtis, in Armstrong 
 street, and M'Kee, in Bridge street, have turbines as a press 
 motive power, Curtis having gas in addition to the water power. 
 
 Xylography, or wood engraving and printing, was introduced 
 with color printing by Charles Boyd, who brought it from Phila- 
 delphia to Melbourne in 1854, and to Ballarat in 1857. Boyd
 
 286 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 cut his own blocks, and is still practising the art at his office in 
 Sturt street. The Melbourne firm was Walker, Boyd, and Co., 
 now Walker, May, and Co., Boyd going alone as a printer in Bal- 
 larat. He claims, in fact, to have, in the elegant language of 
 America, " licked" all local creation in the printing line, having 
 won "three medals and five certificates for excellence in printing — 
 a record not achieved by any other printer in Victoria," But 
 Boyd does not afi'ect the finer class of woodcuts ; for that he, 
 like other printers in Ballarat, has recourse to Mr. William Gooch, 
 of the Argus agency, Ballarat, a past pupil of M. Jenny, a 
 Swiss artist in Melbourne. The initial letters of the chapters in 
 this book were engraved in M. Jenny's office, and Mr. Gooch 
 sustains to-day the prestige of his teacher's studio. 
 
 The Public Library, in Barkly street, was established in 
 1862, and is open free to the public. The building is handsome 
 outside, and the interior library hall very elegant. The founda- 
 tion stone was laid by Sir Redmond Barry on the 21st of 
 January, 1867, and the cost of the building and fittings was 
 about £3500. A hall has since been added at a cost of £1200. 
 There are 12,000 vols, in the library, the number of reference 
 books in history and science being probably the largest and best 
 of any provincial library in Victoria. The first president was 
 Mr. Emanuel Steinfeld, and the first librarian Mr. Miller, Mr. 
 Frederick Young having been the first chairman of committee. 
 To Mr. Miller succeeded Mr. J. Fitzherbert, and to him Mr. S. 
 E. Mendoza, the present librarian. A small public library has 
 been opened also in the old Warden's Court-house in Sturt street, 
 and a project is on foot for the erection of a suitable building for 
 the purpose of the library. The officers now (June) are — R. 
 Baker, M.L.A., president ; J. R. Matthews and W. Evans, vice- 
 presidents ; J. Vallins, librarian ; E. H. L. Swifte, secretary. 
 
 The Mechanics' Institute, in Sturt street, was born in April, 
 1859, in a little wooden house between Humffray and Bai'kly 
 streets, in Main street, and its first reading-room was opened, as 
 was afterwards the Ballarat East Public Library, in the engine- 
 house of the Ballarat Fire Brigade. On the 20th of April, 1859, 
 the first committee was chosen as follows : — Messrs, J. B, Humf-
 
 THE mechanics' INSTITUTE. 287 
 
 fray, president ; A. Anderson and R. Belford, vice-presidents ; 
 J. Stewart, M.D., T. S. Learmonth, H. R. Caselli, F. Young, and 
 W. C. Smith, trustees ; G. G. Mackay, treasurer ; C. Dyte, W. 
 H Batten, R. Lewis, J. Cathie, D. O'Connor, J. M'Dowall, R. 
 Mitchell, "W. Frazer, J. Dodds, W. B. Withers, W. Cooper, and 
 D. Oliver, committeemen. Mr. W. H. Batten was subsequently 
 elected secretary, and has held office ever since. The presidents 
 up to 1870 inclusive were — J. B. HumfFray (two years), A. 
 Anderson and T. Lang (two years), C. Lister, F. C. Downes (two 
 years), and Joseph Jones (three years). Since then F. M. 
 Claxton, 1872-3-4-5 ; A. Marshall and I. J. Jones, 1875-6 ; T. 
 H. Thompson, 1877-8; E. W. Stephens, 1879-80; E. James, 
 1881 ; L. Stansfield, 1882 ; J. R. Marshall, 1883 ; J. M. Bickett, 
 1884 ; A. Brown, 1885 ; A. Jack, 1886 ; H. Wheeler, 1887 ; E. 
 P. Date being in office for the current official year. The first 
 stone of the first part of the Sturt street building was laid with 
 Masonic honors by Mr. H.Cuthbert on the28-thof September, 1860, 
 and on the 19 th of December the reading-room was opened. The 
 room has been since then enlarged, and is now the most spacious of the 
 kind in the colony. The completed building, designed by J. H. Jones, 
 isone of the largest and handsomest in the town. It was opened for 
 a fine arts exhibition by his Excellency the Governor on the 21st of 
 July, 1869. There are 1200 members on the roll, and near 14,000 
 vols, in the library. A billiard room is now part of the Institute. 
 It was opened in February, 1879. The Institute is now free 
 of debt. In May, 1870, while Haydon's " Aristides" yet hung in 
 the hall of the Institute in the exhibition then on view there. 
 General Tom Thumb and his companion dwarfs were also exhibit- 
 ing themselves to large crowds. A writer to the Ballarat Star, 
 himself an artist, remembered Haydon's wail of despair in his 
 diary, and pointed out the coincidence that 24 years afterwards, 
 and 16,000 miles away from the Egyptian Hall, the picture and 
 the dwarf were again in contact, and again the dwarf the more 
 popular. 
 
 The Academy of Music, in Lydiard street, is the successor 
 of the old Theatre Royal, in Sturt street, and of tlie last of the 
 Charlie Napiers, in Ballarat East. G. V. Brooke laid the founda-
 
 200 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 tion stone of the Royal on the 20th January, 1858, and in 1873 
 Thespis was deposed in favor of commerce, whose servants reign 
 there now. In tlie meantime Mr. C. Dyte had, on the 26tli 
 December, 1861, laid the foundation stone of the last of the 
 Charlie Napiers, and the first in permanent materials, but that 
 also has disappeared, after having for some time served as a 
 brewery for Messrs. Scrase and Ainley. Madame Arabella 
 Goddard laid the foundation stone of the Academy on the 24th 
 September, 1874, and the house was opened on the 7th June, 
 1875. The site belongs to Sir W. J. Clarke, Bart., and the 
 building was erected at his cost (.£12,000) from designs by archi- 
 tect George Brown. The Academy has a more beautiful interior 
 than had any of the other theatres, but it is less cosy than the 
 Royal was, and its long shape is less adapted to the convenience 
 of spectators of the drama. The Alfred Hall, in Grenville street, 
 built for the reception of the Duke of Edinburgh when he visited 
 Ballarat, has been often used for dramatic performances, and is 
 the largest hall in the city. 
 
 The Welsh Eisteddfod has become an established institution 
 in Ballarat, and it is tlie only one of the kind extant in Victoria. 
 These festivals in Ballarat date from the year 1855, and they 
 have done much to foster and evoke musical talent, not only 
 amongst the nativesof the principality and theirchildren, butamong 
 all classes of citizens. The Eisteddfod is held every St. David's 
 Day, or on some day as near thereto as is convenient. Vocal and 
 instrumental music, poetry, oratory, are all subjects within the 
 programmes, and the best masters are employed as the awarders 
 of the prizes ofiered for success. The more prominent of the 
 originators and promoters of these local festivals were Messrs. 
 J. B. Humfiray, Theophilus Williams, 11. B. Williams, R. Lewis, 
 H. Davies, Ellis Richards, Timothy Thomas, John Morgan, John 
 Morris, and others. 
 
 The Cambrian Society in Ballarat is founded on similar lines 
 to those of the Melbourne Society, that is for the promotion of 
 greater unity and a better organisation of mutual help amongst 
 Welsh colonists, and the keeping alive the fires of Welsh 
 patriotism. The society was projected on tlie 30th April last.
 
 MUSICAL SOCIETIES. 289 
 
 and the officers chosen on the 7th May as follow : — Rev. W. 
 Thomas, president; Joseph Josephs and Philip Lewis, vice-presi- 
 dents ; H. Lewis, treasurer; Theos. Williams, secretary, and W. 
 L. Roberts, assistant secretary ; Theos. Rhys, D. W. Davies, D. 
 Davies, P. L. Jones, J. Harris, P. L. Roberts, J. Lewis, D. 
 Prosser, committeemen. There are (June) 50 members enrolled. 
 
 Musical societies have been many in Ballarat, commencing 
 with the Philharmonic, which was formed on the 5th of March, 
 1858, Mr. D. Oliver in the chair. He was chosen secretary; A. 
 T. Turner, conductor; A. Fleury, leader; A. Oliver, treasurer; and 
 E. Towl, Dr. Kupperberg, L. Bruun, C. Franz, J. Lake, J. A. 
 Doane, Stoddart, E. Gates, Sayers, and J. Stower, committeemen. 
 The society died in 1863, and was succeeded by the Musical 
 Union, which also soon died. The Harmonic Society was formed 
 in 1863, with J, Robson, G. O. Rutter, J. Robson, A. T. 
 Turner, R. Wrigley, and A. T. Turner as conductors, in order, 
 till the society was wound up at the end of 1875. The secre- 
 taries were R. Wicking, Holmes, A. Brown, J. R. Pascoe, and 
 then Wicking saw the close of the society. Then came, in 1866, 
 the Glee and Madrigal Union, with W. Rees (father of Alice 
 Rees), A. Gray, S. Nightingale, E. T. Whitten, P. Cazaly, S. 
 Lamble, and J. Knox as its main elements. It was a quiet quasi 
 private organisation, and broke in pieces in 1870. The Choral 
 Society was a creation of the year 1866, with Carl Schmitt as 
 conductor, but did not long survive its first appearance. Another 
 Choral Society was started in July, 1873, with Mr. Bucke as 
 leader, succeeded by A. T. Turner. This society was also short- 
 lived. There was also the German Leider Krantz, which merged 
 in the Liedertafel of May, 1881, whose first officers were the 
 Hon. H, Cuthbert, president ; C. B. Finlayson and A. T. 
 Morrison, vice-presidents ; A. Bruun, treasurer ; J. Bunting, 
 libi'arian ; J. Dunn, secretary ; Carl Hartmann, conductor. The 
 officers at the close of 1886 were — H. Cuthbert, president ; A. 
 Anderson and H. Brind, vice-presidents ; C. Eyres, treasurer ; 
 R. L. Nicholl, librarian ; J. Robson, conductor ; W. D, Hill, 
 secretary. In 1884 another Musical Union was born. Its 
 first officers were — W, S. Matthews, conductor ; J. Ware, tres^-
 
 290 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 surer ; "W. King, secretary ; and the officers now are — Arch- 
 deacon Julius, president ; J. M'Leod and G. K. Coutts, vice-pre- 
 sidents ; G. Herbert, R.A.M., conductor; F. Herbert, pianist; 
 D. J. Coutts, organist ; A. Bruun, leader ; J. Ware, treasurer ; 
 Bryant, librarian ; L. R. Llewelyn, secretary ; and Messrs. 
 Gray, Radley, Hardie, Roberts, Whitten, and Chalmers, commit- 
 teemen. The Maennerchor is the latest organisation, a small band 
 of singers who do not attempt the more ambitious programmes of 
 the larger societies. There is a great and interesting local 
 musical, as well as dramatical, history, but there is no room for 
 it in these pages. 
 
 The Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society assumed 
 that style on the 3rd May, 1865. Previously it was called the 
 Ballarat Agricultural Society merely. The first record we find 
 of it is a report of a meeting held at the George hotel on the 14th 
 of June, 1856, Mr. Robert Muir in the chair, when arrangements 
 were made for the first ploughing match, which was held on Mr. 
 Baird's farm on the 10th of July, 1856. The records of the 
 society show that on the 15th August, 1856, a meeting was held 
 in the old Council Chambers, in Sturt street, when Messrs. R. 
 Muir, J. M'Dowall, T. Bath, R. Dickson, Butchart, J. Stewart, 
 M. D. Haydon, J. Baird, W. Sim, and Bilton, were appointed a 
 committee with R. Dickson secretary, and Messrs. Fisken, Morton, 
 Dalgleish, and M'Intosh represented the society at the Victorian 
 Board of Agriculture. The society held its first exhibition of 
 produce on the 12tli March, 1859, in the old brick building called 
 the Corn Exchange in the Market square. Learmonth and 
 Burrumbeet had a certain localisation of the society there 
 until the 2nd of April, 1860, when a unification took place 
 and the society was known as the Ballarat Society. The 
 first National drain Show was held in the Ballarat Society's 
 yards on the 22nd and 23rd of October, 1868. The first 
 Grand Champion Sheep Sliow was held at Ballarat on the 
 13t}i and 14tli of September, 1876. Tlie total value of the 
 prizes awarded at the (eleven sheep shows which liave now been 
 held at Ballarat amounts to tlie very handsome sum of .£6501. 
 The largest aiiiouiit received at any on(! sliow was at the J^ationaJ
 
 AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 291 
 
 Show in 1881, wlien over £600 were taken at the gates. During 
 the past 26 years the society has expended no less than £31,852 
 in prizes for the encouragement of rearing and breeding good live 
 stock, and fostering the manufacture of first-class agricultural 
 implements and machinery. It has also laid out about £8000 
 upon show yard improvements. Its annual exhibitions are at- 
 tended by large crowds of visitors from all parts of this colony. 
 The Hon. Philip Russell, of Carngham, is now the president of 
 the society, an office which he has held for six years. The secre- 
 tary, Mr. Simon Morrison, has held his position in connection 
 with the society for upwards of 22 years, and Mr. Thomas Bath 
 has been honorary treasurer for the society for nearly 20 years. 
 The vice-presidents last elected were Messrs. G. G. Morton, Jas. 
 Baird (since dead), and W. Anderson, M.L.A. Both the pastoral 
 and agricultural interests are represented on the committee. The 
 secretary, Mr. Morrison, states that he learns that the first ground 
 broken in the Burrumbeet district was by Messrs. Robertson and 
 Ross, after whom came Messrs. Strachan and Beaton. On the 
 Learmonth side Messrs. J. Medwell, G. G. Morton, J. Baird, 
 J. M'Intosh, and Moore were the first. Medwell is said to have 
 put the first post in the ground at Learmonth, and turned over 
 the first acre of ground for a crop of potatoes. The magnitude 
 of the pastoi-al and agricultural interest of the district is reflected 
 from that of the demands of the town markets. The author has 
 no room for many other details of interest in regard to these im- 
 portant industries. 
 
 The Ballarat Horticultural Society was formed in 1859. On 
 the 11th October of that year there was a meeting at Bath's 
 hotel ; present — Messrs. Ocock (in the chair), T. Lang, W. 
 Elliott, R. U. Nicholls, C. Tunbridge, B. Hepburn, and G. 
 Binsted, when preliminaries were discussed. On the 18th of the 
 same month another meeting was held, at which Dr. Kenworthy 
 (of Eureka Stockade fame) presided. The society was then for- 
 mally constituted, with Dr. Kenworthy president, Dr. Richardson 
 vice-president, T. Lang treasurer, G. Binsted secretary, and W. 
 Elliott, G. Smith, W. Appleby, R. U. Nicholls, R. Ocock, J. 
 Tugwell, and W. H. Foster committeemen. The society held its
 
 292 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 first exhibition on the 25th of JSTovember, 1859, in W. C. Smith's 
 sales-room in Sturt street, near the south-east corner of Doveton 
 street. The Alfred Hall is now the place of exhibition. The 
 present officers are Messrs. A. Anderson, pi-esident ; J. Nicholls, 
 J. C. Chalmers, vice-presidents ; A. Fraser, treasurer ; J. Ware, 
 secretary and librai'ian ; N. D'Angri, D. Laidlaw, W. Rattray, 
 S. Rennie, J. Ross, G. Smith, J. Williams, professional com- 
 mittee ; A. Engeler, A. Gray, H. Hunt, S. D. Partridge, G. Periy, 
 R. W. Phillips, R. Stringer, amateur committee ; F. C. Wain- 
 wright, hon. auditor. There were in June of this year 320 mem- 
 bers on the roll. 
 
 The iron, woollen, and other industries of Ballarat demand a 
 volume for their proper record, but we can only insert here the 
 more prominent names and doings. The Victoria, Soho, and 
 some minor iron foundries have lived and died, and to the Vic- 
 toria belongs the honor of making the first locomotive in Bal- 
 larat. That was the Lady Barkly, so named by his Excellency Sir 
 H. Barkly, about the year 1860. The engine was made for Mr. 
 Davies, an engineer on the Geelong to Ballarat railway. Other 
 engines were made soon after for New Zealand and West Aus- 
 tralia ; but a new and important era arose when the Pha-nix 
 Foundry Company, started in Fobiuai-y, 1856, by Messrs. Carter, 
 Oldham, and Shaw, became an incorporated company on the 12th 
 November, 1870, with Mr. W. H. Shaw as managei-, and the 
 manufacture of locomotives for the Victorian railways was begun. 
 The new departure was a complete success, and the company has 
 established the largest locomotive factory in Victoria, securing 
 against all competition the making of nearly the whole of the 
 colonially manufactured engines. The company delivered the 
 first locomotive to the Government on the 4th March, 1873, the 
 next day'.s Cornier saying : — " At five o'clock to the minute yes- 
 terday morniiig, locomotive No. 88 left the Pluiniix Company's 
 works, ill AiiMstroiig street, on the steam hiiry specially made for 
 the conveyance of the engines and tenders to the lailway station." 
 By the 2nd Apiil the engine had comjileted its 1000 miles test, and 
 the feat was celebrated by liiinging uji a special tiain of Cabinet 
 Ministers and others from Melhounir, liy Ihigs all over the city,
 
 FOUNDRIES AND FACTORIES. 293 
 
 by pealing of the Alfred Bells, and by a banquet in the city hall. 
 The completion of the 100th locomotive was celebrated on the 
 13tli April, 1883, when there were still greater rejoicings. Mr. 
 Service (the Premier), other Ministers, and Parliamentary repre- 
 sentatives were present, and the locomotive was decked with liags, 
 and boughs, and flowers. Speeches, cheers, pealing of bells, 
 banquets, a whole city keeping holiday, and the Tubal Cains of 
 the great locomotive workshop of Victoria as the applauded heroes 
 of the day, made up a series of sensations long to be remembered. 
 By the end of 1886 the company had delivered 203 complete 
 engines with tenders ; and the company's immense plant is so 
 complete, its workmen so skilled, its management so able, that 
 practically the Phoenix Foundry seems to have made successful 
 competition out of the question at present. The trustees of the 
 company are Messrs. D. Brophy, chairman ; W. H. Sliaw, 
 manager ; R. Gr. Middleton, secretary ; G. Perry, Thos. Body- 
 comb. The value of the industry locally is seen in the distribu- 
 tion of near ,£2000 monthly in wages, and the creation of a school 
 where hosts of youths learn one of the most valuable of all the 
 mechanical arts. The Union Foundry, started in March, 1865, 
 by Messrs. J. Walker, J. F. Woods, T. Bradcock, and W. Sandry, 
 changed its tirm status by losing Mr. Sandry and gaining Mr. W. 
 F. Harrington, a branch having been in the meantime opened at 
 Maryborough, in Queensland. Then in October, 1872, Mr. John 
 Hickman bought half of the Ballarat business, and the local firm 
 became Walker, Hickman, and Co., and since November, 1879, 
 Mr. Hickman has been sole proprietor. The tirm's work i? 
 mainly the manufacture of heavy mining engines and machinery 
 the most ponderous pumping, hauling, and other plant being sup 
 plied to mining companies all over the colonies, details of which 
 there is no space here to narrate. The company's wage-sheet is 
 about £1000 per month, and the importance of the manufacture is 
 second only to that of the Phoenix works. Bromley and Co., in 
 Windermere street ; Trahar and Sons, Yarrowee ; Abraham, 
 Little Bridge street, of patent windmill and pump fame, have 
 each some special casting work as their leading trade features. 
 The agricultural implement factories comprise the works of Kelly
 
 294 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 and Preston, and Dingle, Laverick, and Co., in the Creswick road, 
 and Munro's, at Alfredton, and the products of these factories win 
 prizes all over the colonies, and find their inarket eA'en as far as 
 India. John Tynan's plough factory, in Mair street, is the suc- 
 cessor to older ones under the same direction, and his fame is as 
 great in that special work as any man's in Australia. The Lai 
 Lai Iron Company has ceased to be for the time a practically 
 operative venture, but the company has great resources in valuable 
 ore lodes, which some day, doubtless, will receive due attention 
 from capitalists. The School of Mines analysis of the lode shows 
 it to be haematite brown ore, yielding 50 per cent, of iron, besides 
 yellow ochre and brown umber pigments. 
 
 There are two woollen factories in Ballai-at — the Ballarat 
 Company's, at Sunny Corner, and Messrs. Dennison, Wynne, and 
 Hepburn's, in Doveton street north. This last was previously held 
 by Wilson and Co., and was originally a flour mill owned by a 
 Mr. Hayes. This factory is mainly employed in the manufacture 
 of coarse tweeds, and is a private property. The Ballarat Com- 
 pany is an incorporated venture, and was started in October, 1871, 
 work commencing in June, 1873, with one set of machines. Im- 
 provements wei-e made from time to time, until the whole of the 
 capital (£40,000) had been called up, and by the end of 1886 the 
 company had 40 looms at woi'k and 130 hands employed. Flannels 
 and blankets were iirst made, and then tine clotlis and tweeds. 
 The greater part of tlie clothing for the Victorian militia lias 
 been made by the company, and now the company has built 
 larger rooms and obtained additional plant with which to manu- 
 facture worsted and compete for the £5000 bonus offered by the 
 Government for the iirst production of that class of goods. Up 
 to the end of 1886 tlie company had paid tinee dividends of 7^ 
 per cent, on tlie capital, tlie net pi'oiit for the lialf-year ending 
 Slst December, 1886, being set down at £1194 2s. lid. Mr. 
 David Melvin is the manager, Mr. J. T. Williams the secretary, 
 and Messrs. Alex. Jjcll ((chairman), Robert Bell, and J. C. Smith, 
 directors. 
 
 CoachVjuilding Ix^gan very early in Jiallarat, and the various 
 exhibitions in the district have shown that tiie local factories can
 
 BREWERS, DISTILLERS, AND CORDIAL MAKERS. 295 
 
 produce vehicles which may rival the elegancies of Long Acre. 
 The leading firms to-day are Jones and Trembath, in Mair street; 
 Cutter, in Chancery lane ; and Dickson, in Armstrong street. 
 
 There are two steam flour mills at work now in Ballarat — 
 that of Fry and Co., Limited, Wendouree, and that of Mr. 
 Nicholson, in Armstrong street. There are two bone mills — 
 Jopling's, on the Creswick road, and Elsworth's, at the upper end 
 of Pennyweight Gully. Tlie breweries comprise Leggo and Sons' 
 Barley Sheaf, Creswick road ; Magill and Coghlan's, Warrenheip^ 
 Tulloch and M'Laren's Royal Standard, Armstrong street, all large 
 and long established properties, and of growing value, besides the 
 more recent Black Horse Brewery, Ascot street, G. T. Lee, proprietor 
 The Warrenheip Distillery Company, famous for its spirits, has 
 about 1.50acres of land at Dunnstown, an unfailing supply of spring 
 water, and turns out about 80,000 gallons of whiskey, geneva, and 
 rectified spirits of wine per annum, which could be increased, if 
 need were, to 100,000 gallons. The proprietors are Messrs. 
 Goller, Brind, and Walker. 
 
 Cordial factories in Ballarat are three in number, namely, E. 
 Rowlands {late Rowlands and Lewis), in Dana street ; O'Hehir 
 and Co., in Errard street ; and T. A. Hawkins and Co., in 
 Lydiard street. They all manufacture jerated waters and cordials; 
 but Rowlands' factory, as being the first in Ballarat, and as being 
 one whose fame and extent are quite unique in the colony, 
 demands special notice. In 1854 the original firm started making 
 lemonade, soda water, and ginger beer on the shores of what is 
 now Lake Wendouree, when eight hands were employed. To-day 
 the firm has five depots — Ballarat, Melbourne, Sydney, Creswick, 
 and Smythesdale — the first three being manufacturing places, at 
 each of which an eight horse-power steam engine is used, and in 
 all 300 hands are employed, receiving an aggregate weekly wage 
 of £330, the 1854 Ballarat output of 300 dozen bottles a day 
 having grown to a daily manufacture in 1886 of between 3000 
 and 4000 dozen, whilst the first day's Melboui-ne make of 6 dozen 
 in July, 1873, had grown to an output of 3547 dozen in one day 
 of last year. A big stride this, surely, and one to note. 
 Meanwhile the simple triad of beverages which sufiiced for
 
 296 HISTORY OF BALLABAT, 
 
 the diggers of 1854 has been followed by waters and cordials 
 galore. The factories of the firm now produce, besides the ori- 
 ginal three comforts, seltzer, potass, lithia, magnesia, apollinai-is, 
 Carlsbad, and tonic waters ; ginger ale, sarsaparilla, Ballan seltzer, 
 A'igoi'ine, noyau, maraschino, curacoa, rhatang bitters, orange bitters, 
 aromatic bitters, quinine bitters, sarsaparilla extract, hop bitters, 
 alkine bitters, aerated bitterade, ginger brandy, pine apple syrup, 
 ginger wine, raspberry vinegar, lime juice syrup, lemon syrup, 
 peppermint, cloves, milk punch. This list symbolises the develop- 
 ment of the firm's trade, which is spread all over the colonies. A 
 commercial ^\dtness, of some travel himself, writes to the author ; — 
 
 Mr. Rowlands, by the introduction of his manufactures all over the 
 colonies, does more to advertise Ballarat than does any other manufacturer ; 
 for, as one gentleman said to me at Deniliquin once, " When you get beyond 
 the reach of Rowlands' soda water, you are beyond the pale of civilised 
 society," and though I do not agree absolutely with that, still I recognise 
 the fact that in all the colonies, and in the leading towns in Victoria, Bal- 
 larat drinks, through the agency of Rowlands, are obtainable. 
 
 Even the fiery teetotaller may well exclaim- — " More power 
 to this earnest solacer of thirsty souls , and may his unintoxicating 
 shadow never grow less." The Australasian Trade Ecvicw, of a 
 year or two ago, was full of interesting details of the firm's 
 doings, for which we have no space in these pages ; but the writer 
 there gives us a glimpse of the inner works when he says the Dana 
 street works can turn out over 3000 dozen bottles a day, and that 
 at the vigorine counter alone in the Collins street factory " half 
 a score of men and boys are kept labelling and gold foiling the 
 bottles, of which thousands of dozens are sent out monthly, and 
 the sale steadily increasing." The Ballarat factory has, as general 
 manager and foreman respectively, Messrs. A. Attwood and 
 Joseph Franklin, the Melbourne factory Messrs. D. Jones and 
 Thos. Ferguson, and the Sydney factory Messrs. J. Jones and 
 W. Moxom. Franklin is the iiestor of the firm's employes, for he 
 has breathed tlie efiervescing atmosphere of the factories for 32 
 years now gone. On retoiunc Umjuurs a ses premieres amours, and 
 Mr. Rowlands, though living in Melbourne, gives most of his 
 trade patronage to Ballarat iirms.
 
 INDUSTUIAL EXHIBITION FIRE BRIGADES. 297 
 
 Ballarat possesses three bacon factories — to wit, Farmer's, 
 Day's, and Foord's, whose hams, flitches, and sausages have gone 
 out to the ends of Australia, and made the makers baconically 
 famous. Of tanneries, Anderson's, by Wendouree, is the oldest, 
 and belonged originally to Messrs. Burrington, Anstis, and 
 Baker. At Fellmongers and at Buninyong there are tanning 
 works, Messrs. Davies and Graham's, at the latter place, being one 
 of the larger works. Boot factories have multiplied of late years 
 in Ballarat, the latest outcome being a co-operative factory born in 
 a strike a year or two ago. It is not paying dividends, or none 
 are publicly announced. There is a clog factory in Humft'ray 
 street ; and of the boot factories those of Whitten and Cairns, 
 in Dana street. Book and Sons, in Main street, and Davies and 
 Graham, in Armstrong street, are the larger. 
 
 The first Juvenile Industrial Exhibition in Victoria was 
 opened in Ballarat on the 15th February, 1878, by his Excellency 
 Sir G. Bowen, in the Alfred Hall and in the market hall then 
 adjacent. It was projected and managed by Mr. R. D. Bannister, 
 and was very successful. A credit balance of £758 17s. 2d. re- 
 mained at the close, and was vested in the following trustees — 
 A. Hunter, H. R. Caselli, J. Buley, G. 0. Preshaw, and H. Reid. 
 Subsequently J. Hickman and E. Curtis were appointed in place 
 of Buley and Caselli, deceased, and J. C. Smith in place of 
 Preshaw, removed. With £500 of the money entrusted the trust 
 purchased the frontage in Lydiard street, on which the Com- 
 mercial Club building and other offices stand. The site was let 
 on a 40 years' building lease to the club, at a rental of £91 a year, 
 with the right of purchase for £3000 at any time within 15 years 
 from the date of the lease. A commemorative banquet was given 
 in the city hall on the 1st of last month (June) by Mr. Hickman 
 to the committee and representative citizens, when Mr. H. Brad- 
 bury, the exhibition secretary, read a report showing that there 
 was £725 in bank at interest. The banquetters resolved infor- 
 mally that another exhibition should be held as soon as possible. 
 
 There are three volunteer fire brigades in Ballarat — the Bal- 
 larat, the City, and the Soldiers' Hill brigades. The Ballarat was 
 established in 1856, and has its engine station at the corner of
 
 298 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Barkly and East streets. It has 40 members, was the first in 
 Victoria to procure a steam fire engine, and to its generally com- 
 plete outfit is now adding a set of Bright's electric fire alarms. 
 The City Brigade was established in 18-59, a previous organisation 
 ha\ang disbanded because the municipal authorities refused a 
 subsidy. The brigade's engine station is at the corner of Sturt 
 and Raglan streets, and it has a steam engine as part of its 
 large equipage. There used to be a Sebastopol Brigade, but the 
 City Brigade has taken over that body's duties, and now has a 
 member roll of 40. A Soldiers' Hill Juvenile Brigade was 
 formed in 1879, and disbanded in 1881, and the present brigade 
 was formed. It has no engine, but has a look-out station, and 
 hose, hose carriages, hydrants, branches, and couplings. The fire 
 fighters of Ballarat have won much fame alike in their intrepid 
 battles with the igneous disasters of the past in Ballarat, and in 
 the competitions which since then have been held in all the 
 colonies. The brigades are at present officered as follow : — Bal- 
 larat Brigade — W. Trotman, captain ; C. H. Craiinage, lieu- 
 tenant; G. A. Beyer, secretary ; J. B. Johns, treasurer ; J. Coward, 
 hose officer ; J. W. Dark, apparatus officer ; A. Anderson, F. H. 
 Drew, T. H. Lawn, trustees ; Rudolf Miiller, caretaker. City 
 Brigade — J. M 'Donald, captain ; Gr. Palmer, lieutenant ; A. 
 M'Garey, hose officer; J. C. Fraser, apparatus officer; J. M'Kenzie, 
 engineer ; J. H. Leggo, treasurer ; T. Curnow, secretary ; W. 
 Perry, caretaker. Soldiers' Hill — H. Carlyon, captain ; W. 
 Rooney, lieutenant ; J. Burke, hose officer ; R. Henderson, ap- 
 paratus officer ; H. Fern, secretary ; S. Selman, treasurer. 
 
 The volunteer corps of Ballarat Rangers was tlu^ out- 
 come of a movement in the year 18.57. On the 23rd of October, 
 1857, a meeting, convened by Mr. Ocock, was lield at Bath's, 
 now Craig's, hotel, Ballarat West, " to consider the propriety of 
 establishing a rifle corps in this district." Mr. A. Davies pre- 
 sided, Mr. Cooper acted as secretary, and Messrs. Davies, 
 Wilkes, Coleman, Cooper, Daly, Ocock, and Major Wallace (tlien 
 sheriff), were appointed a committee to prepare a memorial to the 
 Government. On 21st of July, 1858, the consent of the Govern- 
 ment to the enrolment of a corps was received, and on the 26th
 
 RANGERS CAVALRY MILITIA. 299 
 
 of July a meeting was held in the ShakspearBj^notel, Main street, 
 Ballarat East, Mr. W. B. Rodier in the chair, when the name 
 " Rangers" was rejected, and it was agreed that the name should 
 be the " Ballarat Volunteer Rifle Regiment." The regiment was 
 to consist of four divisions of infantry and two of cavalry. On 
 the 9th August the first meeting of enrolled members was held 
 at the Shakspeare hotel. At this meeting Mr. Richard Belford, 
 who had been then, or was soon afterwards, elected Lieut. -Colonel, 
 presided, and it was reported that there were 65 members on the 
 rolh The rules were referred to the committee for revision, and 
 on the 24th of August Mr. Belford presided at another meeting, 
 held at Bath's hotel, when Major Wallace, who was a half-pay 
 officer of the line, was elected adjutant, C. Forster captain, J. 
 Daly first lieutenant, and D. Sweeney second lieutenant of in- 
 fantry ; and Alley captain, and A. Kelly and A. Davies first and 
 second lieutenants of cavalry ; Mr. Rodier acting as treasurer, 
 and Mr, Just as secretary. Mr. Belford subsequently resigned 
 office, and Major Wallace became the chief. The name of the 
 corps also was changed to " Ballarat Rangers." The corps after 
 that consisted of three companies of infantry ; Nos. 1 and 3 
 being manned in Ballarat West and East respectively, and No. 2 
 in Clunes and Creswick. The cavalry force of the colony, called 
 the Prince of Wales Light Horse, was a distinct arm of the ser- 
 vice then also, and a troop existed for some time in Ballarat. Of 
 the Ballarat Rangers the commissioned officers, when this History 
 was issued in 1870, were : — 1st Company- — W. C. Smith, major; 
 J. Johnston, W. Henderson, and R. W. Musgrove, captains ; W. 
 P. Whitcombe, assistant-surgeon. 2nd Company — P. Keatch, 
 captain, Creswick detachment ; B. Jessup, captain, and L. Le 
 Gould, lieutenant, Clunes detachment. 3rd Company — J. T. 
 Sleep, captain commandant ; A. M. Greenfield, captain and 
 adjutant ; J. Ivey, captain ; T. Hillas, assistant-surgeon ; A. J. 
 Boulton, lieutenant. Of the Ballarat troop of cavalry E. C. 
 Moore was captain, J. H. Mount lieutenant, and G. Nicholson 
 assistant-surgeon. Mr. Ocock, whose tall gaunt figure had a 
 military look, and whose nose bore a striking resemblance to that 
 prominent feature in the face of the Hero of Waterloo, was one
 
 300 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 of the first, if not the first, to drill the beginnings of the cavalry 
 force here, and James M'Dowall, one of the troop of that day 
 (1857) says they were frequently taken out as far as Miners' 
 Rest on drilling excursions. The troop had C. W. Sherard as 
 captain after that, then E. C. Moore, Julius Mount, D. Madden, 
 the last captain being James A. Wilson, the troop being dis- 
 banded in December, 1883. Attached to the troop was a Rifle 
 Club, whose first meeting was held at the old Orderly-room on the 
 5th of January, 1873, the foundation members being Lieut.- 
 Colonel Rede, patron ; Surgeon Nicholson, president ; Lieutenants 
 Madden and Carty, vice-presidents ; Lieut. -Colonel Rede and 
 Troopers Purdue and Beck, handicappers ; Sergeant Wilson, 
 treasurer ; Trooper Deeble, secretary ; Sergeant Tannock, and 
 Troopers Lynch, Quinan, Lynch, Brown, Cummins, Skoglund, 
 Walden, Snowball, Horwood, Rayreux, Russell, Young, Lynch, 
 and Farming being also members. In 1883, the year of the dis- 
 banding of the cavalry troop, the Rifle Club also was broken up, 
 and new defence legislation by Parliament h^d to the formation of 
 a militia in place of the old volunteer infantry. There was an 
 earlier civilian Rifle Club in 1860, whose practice; butts were on 
 the Golden Point range. Messrs. Clissold (president), Mumby, 
 C. Boyd, Wanliss, M'lvor, and others wei'o of that club, and 
 matches were a regular addition to the ordinary practice pastime 
 of tlie members. 
 
 The Rangers were disbanded when the Militia Bill was 
 passed, and the first militia battalion for Ballarat was started in 
 November, 1883.. The flrst name was taken on 24th November, 
 
 1883, and the first batch of recruits sworn in on the 21st January, 
 
 1884. The orticers of the battalion when flrst formed were the 
 senior oflicers of the disbanded Ballarat Rangers^Lieut.-Colonel 
 J. T. Sleep, Major A. M. Greenfleld, Major L. H. Kildahl, Cap- 
 tain and Adjutant Thos. Maun. Surgeon R. D. Pinnook, Majors 
 Greenfleld and Kildahl, were gazettcnl to thini- majoi'ities after the 
 formation of tlu; militia. The establishment provided for 326 
 oflicers and mcui, the former including, besides those already 
 named, 3 captains and 8 lieutenants. For these vacancies 10 
 recruits were selected, and at the examinations held the following
 
 THE GAS COMPANY. 301 
 
 passed, and on 30th June, 1884, were posted lieutenants to the 
 battalion : — R. E. Williams, J. Garbutt, H. A. King, T. Holding, 
 W. Laidlaw, J. M'Whae, H. D. Longden, E. Hayes, D. Madden, 
 and F. W. Claxton. Subsequently Lieutenant Holding retired to 
 the unattached list, and Lieutenants Williams, Garbutt, King, 
 Laidlaw, M'Whae, and Hayes were promoted to be captains as 
 vacancies occurred. Other changes and promotions followed, in- 
 cluding Captain Williams' elevation to a majority on the retire- 
 ment of Major Kildahl ; but, much to the author's regret, there 
 is not space for further details. The battalion has well held its 
 place in all respects, and is now in possession of one of the finest 
 orderly rooms in Victoria, with a spacious parade ground adjacent. 
 
 The Gas Company is a private corporation, dating from 1858, 
 with a capital of £35,000, and a freehold of 3-^- acres, bounded 
 on the west by Albert street, on the south by Dana street, on the 
 east and north by Grenville street and the back of allotments in 
 Lewis street. The first directors were Messrs. J. Hepburn, M. J, 
 Cummins, R. Belford, J. Gibb, R. B. Gibbs, E. A. Wynne, and 
 Dr. Stewart. The engineers have been Messrs. Jones, father and 
 son, and the present Mr. S. E. Figgis; and the secretaries Mr. G. 
 Binsted,and Messrs. S. and W. H. Figgis, father and son. Exactly 
 100 days after the turning of the first sod for the erection of the 
 works, gaswas first turned on at the main for the supply of the town. 
 This opening of the works was performed by Mr. J. B, Humffray 
 on Saturday evening, 17th July, 1858, and the newspapers speak 
 of the " brilliant devices" illuminating the gas works and other 
 parts of the town. Wesley Church was the first public building 
 lit by the company ; but gas made by a Mr. Courtis from gvim 
 leaves and oil had before then been used in Christ Church, Bath's 
 hotel, and other places, and the old Charlie ISTapier was lighted 
 about the same time with gas of a similar kind made by Mr. John 
 Gibbs. The Ballarat company's revenue for the first year of 
 supply was £12,000, and at the close of 1868 it was £24,600, 
 with 1200 consumers, and at the close of 1886 the revenue was 
 £27,497, with 2720 consumers, the total expenditure having been 
 £98,626. At first the price of gas was 40s., and has since been 
 reduced to 8s. 4d. per 1000 feet, less discounts of from 5 to
 
 302 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 10 per cent, to large consumers, the rate of dividends paid being 
 10 per cent, per annum. The best appliances in manufacture 
 have been added from time to time, and the gas -making powei- at 
 the close of last year was 2,000,000 cubic feet per week, and the 
 storage room 400,000 feet, the quality of the gas being set down at 
 18 candle power. There are five gas-holders, the latest being a 
 telescopic one of 200,000 cubic feet capacity. The author regrets 
 to be compelled, by want of space, to suppress divers details anent 
 this and suburban companies. 
 
 The Banks are nearly all clustered in Lydiard street, 
 between Dana and Mair streets. The Bank of Australasia, 
 Union, London Chartered, National, Colonial, New South Wales, 
 Victoria, City of Melbourne, and Ballarat Banking Company are 
 there, and all have buildings more or less elegant and costly, 
 whose architectural prominence attracts the notice of every visitor 
 to the town. The designs for these edifices are generally some 
 phase of Italian. The Commercial Bank is at the city hall, 
 corner of Sturt and Armstrong streets, occupying the whole of 
 the Armstrong street ground floor of the hall, and part of the 
 Sturt street front also. The Mercantile Bank has taken over Mr. 
 Oddie's premises at the corner of Dana and Armstrong streets, 
 and the London Chartered Bank has a branch in Post office place 
 Ballarat East. 
 
 The Ballarat Savings Bank completed its thirtieth year on 
 15th of last November, and during the thirty years £2,075,023 
 7s. 5d. was paid in, £100,048 13s. lOd. was credited in interest 
 to depositors, £1,948,577 7s. Id. was paid out to depositors, 
 40,663 accounts were opened and 32,188 closed, leaving on the 
 15th of November last 8,475 depositors with £226,494 14s. 2d. 
 to their credit. William Tliomas Pooley was the first actuary, 
 and to him Charles Wale Sherard, the present actuary, succeeded 
 in 1870. 
 
 Australians love out of door sports, and Ballarat has its 
 share of recreation reserves, as the Eastern Oval, the Western 
 Oval, Russell Square, Miners' Racecourse, Mount Pleasant Re- 
 serve, Sebastopol Oval, whilst the Saxon Paddock, private pro
 
 CRICKET AND FOOTBALL CLUBS. 303 
 
 perty by Wendouree, is rented by the Ballarat Football Club, and 
 has a stand erected for spectators. 
 
 The Eastern Oval is the oldest and most popular place of 
 resort for cricket. The Ballarat Cricket Club was founded in 
 1856, when Daniel Sweeney (captain), Henry Davies, and some 
 others were active promoters of the club. On the 29th of 
 October, 1856, the club had its first practice on the then open flat 
 near the present Oval. To secure the present reserve the club 
 and the borough council have worked together generally, the club 
 spending large sums in making the Oval what it now is — one of 
 the finest cricket grounds in Australia. The oflB.cers of the club 
 now are — Messrs. C. B. Finlayson, president ; H. Brind, J. Shiels, 
 vice-presidents ; Alex. Miller, treasurer ; E. J. Wollaston, secre- 
 tary ; Bain, Williams, O'Connor, Dunn, Hunt, Ferguson, Martyr, 
 Pearson, committeemen. At the pavilion was for some time 
 treasured a rude lightwood bat, one of the first played with by 
 the club. In the Cricket Reserve the Ballarat Bowling Club has 
 a green. The first president of this club was Donald Macrae. 
 There is also a tennis court there, and during the winter season 
 the Oval is used for football exploits. A new grandstand and 
 pavilion are projected, as well as a union of the cricket and one of 
 the football clubs ; but nothing in that respect is yet settled. 
 There is a book of local sports yet to be written, and it must 
 sufiice us here to say that, besides a second bowling club, the 
 Central, in Mair street, cricket and football clubs are now as 
 plentiful in Ballarat as yellow leaves in autumn. The Ballarat 
 is, as of old, the leading cricket club ; and the Ballarat, the 
 Imperial (born Galatea), and the South Ballarat are the leading 
 football clubs. All of these have had first class players, and 
 they have generally been drawn away to the metropolis to 
 strengthen the several clubs there. Those three clubs are at 
 present oflicered as follow : — Ballarat — T. Bath, president ; S. L. 
 Bailey, J. Shiels, and C. Welch, vice-presidents ; R. M. Duthie, 
 treasurer ; A. B. Berry, secretary ; E. Williams, J. S. Reid, D. 
 Davies, A. Reynolds, A. Bodycomb, W. Palmer, F. Mann, 
 Graham, J. Brown, W. M'Millan, J. Manderson, W. Christie, 
 committeemen. Imperial — J, M, M'Kenzie, senior, president j
 
 304 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 R. Chinnery, W. Peach, J. Leggo, W. H. Hennah, J. M'Donald, 
 G. Williams, J. Reed, D. Cameron, Manning, J. T. Sleep, J. C. 
 Chambers, and E. Catherall, vice-pi*esidents ; G. Williams, trea- 
 surer \ J. Cunningham, secretary ; Douglass, delegate ; W. 
 Robertson, G. M'Kenzie, J. Young, A. Gough, T. Thomas, com- 
 mitteemen. Soutli Ballarat — President, Dr. E. G. Ochiltree ; 
 vice-presidents, C. Stewart, H. L. Pobjoy, W. Barton, J. T. Wil- 
 liams, H. O'Connor ; P. O'Neil, delegate ; J. Finnegan, D. Mont- 
 gomery, J. Lyons, C. Vaughan, J. Caldwell, W. Perkins, H. 
 Watson, committeemen ; H. F. Elliott, treasurer ; J. G. Rennie, 
 secretary. 
 
 The Ballarat Hunt Club was formed in 1881 at the instance 
 of Mr. A. Chirnside, of Werribee, who acted as master, with Mr. 
 A. Wynne as treasurer, and Mr. R. Macrae as secretary. It 
 hunts deer, foxes, and sometimes bits of kerosened rag. Saturdays 
 are the days, and the " fields" are generally numerous, and made 
 up of more or less valorous people of both sexes. 
 
 The Ballarat Turf Club is the successor of the Ballarat and 
 Creswick Race Club, which began racing in 1853, and it has a 
 reserve of 486 acres in Dowling Forest properly laid out as a 
 course, with grandstand and other belongings. Mr. A. M. 
 Greenfield is the secretai-y, and Messrs. II. Walsh, C. W. Slierard, 
 H. Cuthbert, A. M. Greenfield, M. Loughlin, A. Wynne, and R. 
 Orr are the trustees of the freehold. The Minei-s' Racecourse is 
 on the Sebastopol plateau, where racing began in 1863, was dis- 
 continued in 1883, after a race on the 6th April of that year, 
 and was revived this year. In i\w interim the course was fenced, 
 and a grandstand erected, the last race meeting being on Jubilee 
 Day, 21st June just past. The trustees of the course are 
 Messrs. B. Hepburn, M. Loughlin, J. King, R. Stewart, and R. 
 Walsh, and J. A. I'light is the club secretary. The Lai Lai Club 
 has its course near the Lai Lai Falls, and its great trysting time 
 is New Year's Day, when holiday folk gather there in thousands. 
 The officers last New Yeai-'s Day were — R. Ifiiger, president ; D. 
 Fitzpatrick, vice-president ; J. Taniiock, judge ; T. Cahir, starter ; 
 G. Vowles, Imndicapper ; Colonel Sleep, timekeeper ; H. Way, 
 clerk of the course ; R. Vickers, weigher ; J, A. Blight, secretary.
 
 COURSING AND GUN CLUBS. 305 
 
 The Ballarat Coursing Club was formed at a meeting in the 
 George hotel on the 22nd May, 1873, Dr. Whitcombe in the 
 chair, when the chairman, and Messrs. R. U. Nicholls, J. 
 Hughan, F. Parker, Wood, A. Clarke, D. Bantock, J. Johnstone, 
 T. Creighton, and J. Ward were appointed a provisional com- 
 mittee. Subscription was fixed at two guineas, the rules of the 
 Victoria Club were adopted, and Mr. J. Johnstone was appointed 
 secretary. The first registration of dogs was by B. Hepburn 
 and J. Hughan on the 15th September, 1873. The first coursing 
 meeting was at the Pentland Hills on the 7th August, 1873, but 
 there had been coursing before the club was formed. Some years 
 anterior to the date of the formation of the club Messrs. B. Hep- 
 burn and others had coursed wallaby on Struan Robertson's run 
 at Narracoorte, on the South Australian frontier, and soon after 
 that Messrs. Hepburn, J. Leonard, and David Jones, obtained 
 hares from the Government dep6t in Phillip Island. Since that 
 time there has been regular coursing, the plumpton at Ercildoune 
 being now the club's ordinary trysting place. The present officers 
 of the club are Sir S. Wilson, president ; Messrs. R. Chirnside 
 and B. Hepburn, vice-presidents ; J. Lombard, treasurer ; S. 
 Cadden, secretary. 
 
 The present Gun Club is the successor to the Pigeon Shoot- 
 ing Club established in 1861, with G. C. Tuckett, president ; R. 
 U. Nicholls, secretary and treasurer ; and W. Bignell, J. White- 
 house, C. Winsor, J. R. Torbitt, W. H. Ford, T. R. Hewet, and J. 
 White, committeemen. In 1864 the club reported that it "attained 
 the object for which it was established, viz., sport, recreation, and 
 the scientific use of the gun." A year or two after that it died, 
 and from its ashes sprang up in 1872 the present Gun Club, 
 whose aim, amongst other things, was and is "to demonstrate 
 the shooting qualities of guns with various methods of charging, 
 such trials to be registered." The club's " amended rules" of 1879 
 do not recite that scientific aim ; but the secretary assures the 
 author that the club pursues its original purpose in tliat regard. 
 In 1872 the club started with Colonel Rede president, F. Peyton 
 secretary, and T. Eyres, E. Rowlands, R. U. Nicholls, and H. D. 
 Cave committeemen. The present oflicers are — Norman Wilson,
 
 306 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 president ; "W. D. Clarke, vice-president ; C. H. F. Walker, trea- 
 surer ; T. W. Purdue, secretary : and J. Allender, D. M'Donald, 
 J. (Jr. Robertson, J. Stout, junior, T. Tindale, C. Whitpaine, and 
 R. MofFatt, committeemen. The club has its own freehold of 
 eight acres, and a pavilion near the old Essex mine, between the 
 Creswick road and the Learmonth road, tlie cost of which was 
 £700. Large prizes are given annually, the amount last year 
 being £325, including a <£17o handicap, open to all the colonies. 
 The Ballarat Acclimatisation Society, formed in 1870, has 
 done good work in stocking lakes and streams in the district with 
 fish ; ova of trout, perch, carp, and other fish having been pro- 
 cured for the purpose, and the society has been the means of 
 distributing fish over many parts of the colony. One importa- 
 tion of American white fish did not succeed, and since then 
 one of grayling ova proved to be a failure, but the society does 
 not on that account lose heart, and fresh efforts will be made, 
 amply warranted by the laige successes which have made earlier 
 experiments fruitful. Sonu; .Vmerican brook trout ova \\ii\e very 
 recently been received. Tlie society's officers are Messrs. Dr. W. 
 P. Whitcombe, president ; C. Taylor, secretary ; G. Periy, 
 treasurer; Alex. White, W. T. Thompson, C. Salter, F. M. 
 Claxton, J. N. Wilson, J. Hickman, committeemen. Other ac- 
 climatisers, nota])ly Mr. C H. J. Walker, gave us the blackbird, 
 thrush, and other welcome singing birds. Still there were 
 others, who, moved by less happy inspiration, introduced the stag, 
 hare, rabbit, fox, and sparrow, and the last three have become 
 general pests. I'iSpecially is it thus with the rabbit. He has 
 multiplied and subdued the country. He has devastated millions 
 of acres of grass and grain lands, robbed the farmers of their 
 harvests, lowered tlu; value of land, and the Legislature has in- 
 tervened with special laws for the lessening of the plague, wliich 
 still prevails, however, to an alarming extent in some parts of the 
 colony. 
 
 Rolkn' skating lias been practised in Ballarat on several 
 occasions, notal)ly for a time on the ffoor of the Academy of 
 Music, but tlie first place devoted specially to the pastime was 
 the link in Dawson stniet, which was op(Mied on tjie 13th of last
 
 CALEDONIAN AND IIIBKRNIAN SOCIETIES. 307 
 
 April. That rink occupies a quartfr acre, less a surrounding 
 platform some live or six feet wide. It was built for Mr. A. W. 
 Ridgley, the lessee, at a cost of about £1,500, the site being 
 leased for five years from Mr. Robert Sim. American and other 
 modes of skating are taught in Kidgley's arena. Rinks have 
 since been opened in Grenville and Skipton streets by local pro- 
 prietors. 
 
 The Caledonian Society was formed in November, 1858, and 
 the first sports were held on New- Year's Day, 1859, on what is 
 now known as the Eastern Oval. Mr. Hugh Gray was the first 
 president, and with him as judges on that day were Charles Roy, 
 Donald M'Donald, and Donald Gunn, the pipers being Andrew 
 Wattie and Donald Rowan. There had been two annual gather- 
 ings before this, the first being held on the ground between the 
 sites now occupied by the villas of Mr. E. W. Stephens and 
 Mr. F. W. Niven, in Webster street. At this first gather- 
 ing Edward Dufi'erin Allison, M.D., pi-esided. The Bunin- 
 yong Highland Society was formed about this time also. The 
 Copenhagen Grounds, near the Royal Park, were for some 
 years the Rallarat Society's trysting place, and then the gather- 
 ings were held in the Recreation Reserve in Eyre street, but 
 they have been discontinued for some years. A wrestling club 
 was formed in 1850, and some accomplished athletes exhibited 
 feats in the Cumberland and Westmorland styles, as well as in the 
 Devon and Cornish kinds of wrestling. These feats wei^e first 
 performed in the Chai'lie Napier Theatre, and they afterwards 
 formed a portion of the programme of events at several of the 
 Caledonian Society's New- Year gatherings. 
 
 The Hibernian Society, formed in Ballarat on the 7th July, 
 1868, is now called the Hibernian Australian Catholic Benefit 
 Society. The first president was Mark Young ; vice-president, 
 Michael O'Grady ; secretary, Michael Deegan ; treasurer, John 
 Berry. In November last there were 137 members. St. Patrick's 
 Day is the society's great festival time ; sports are held under 
 its auspices annually, and since their conmiencement some £600 
 have been divided by the society between the Hospital, and the 
 Benevolent and Orphan Asylums of Ballarat. The present
 
 308 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 officers are : — President, Martin Ryan ; vice-president, J. H. 
 Knight ; treasurer, Charles Fitzgerald ; secretary, D. J. Doyle. 
 The place of ordinary meeting is the belfry-house in the Cathe- 
 dral reserve of St. Patrick, and the society is under the patronage 
 of the resident Catholic clergy. There are branches now all over 
 Australia, and the members wear green scarves and other decora- 
 tions. 
 
 On the north-west of the Botanic Gardens is the Reforma- 
 tory for boys, originally an Industrial School, for neglected boys 
 not convicted of crime. During 1886 there were 87 boys ad- 
 mitted to the Reformatory, of whom 58 have been newly com- 
 mitted. The superintendent was Captain Evans, an expert of 
 some repute, to whom succeeded Mr. E. Charles Connor, and 
 under his care the tendency to abscond seems to be notably 
 declining. In 1884 the percentage of absconders was 13-06, but 
 in 1885 only 2-81, and in 1886 2-56. 
 
 The Rev. Lockhart Morton, of the Ebenezer Presbyterian 
 Church, established, in June, 1886, a "Hope Lodge," where 
 drunkards have found a refuge from themselves and their 
 temptations. The Lodge is supported by voluntary aid, takes no 
 note of creed or nationality, and has been a blessing to many a 
 poor wretch unable to say "no" to the tempter from witliin or 
 without. 
 
 Ballarat history includes a record of the foundation of the 
 road boards and their successors, the shire councils of Ballarat, 
 Buninyong, Bungaree, Creswick, and Grenville, wliich have local 
 jurisdiction in the rural territories surrounding the city and its 
 sul)urbs, but there is no space liere for notice of their origins and 
 internal liistories. The same remark applies to the local 
 origins and developments of the originals or branches of the 
 several banking establishments, the Australian Natives' Associa- 
 tion, Miners' Association, Amalgamated Miners' Association, 
 Mine Managers' Association, Mine Owners' Association, Master 
 Tradesmen's Association, Ironworkers' Association, Young Men's 
 Christian Association, the Mutual Iniproveuient Associations, 
 the dead Eclectic and the not yet dead Psychological Associations, 
 the Medical, Medical Benefit, Debuting, Building, Temperance,
 
 RAILWA\S AND TKAMWAYS. 309 
 
 and St. Andrew's Societies, divers Trades' Unions, the Field 
 Club, the Friendly Societies, their lodges and dispensary, the 
 potteries and bricklields, and other things, in respect of which 
 the author has, sorrowfully, to be content with their mere 
 enumeration here. 
 
 The railway from Geelong to Ballarat was opened on the 
 11th April, 1862, and since then extensions have been made from 
 Ballarat through Creswick to the lines northward ; through the 
 Learmonth country to Ararat, Stawell, and the Wimmera dis- 
 trict, to the South Australian frontier, joining with the line to 
 Adelaide ; through Haddon to Smythesdale and Scarsdale ; and 
 through Warrenheip to Ballan as part of the direct line to Mel- 
 bourne. Short lines have also been run off to the Dowling 
 Forest Racecourse, to the City Cattle-yards, and to the City Pro- 
 duce Market. 
 
 In 1885 the City Council obtained leave to construct tram- 
 ways, but the Goveriiraent took ample time in making the 
 concession, as the council's application was the first outside the 
 metropolis, and the concession involved, in fact, the determina- 
 tion of the basis for future concessions or " orders" to provincial 
 bodies. Having obtained leave, the council leased to Mr. Edward 
 Thompson, of Adelaide, for a term of 30 years, the right to 
 construct and work the tramways, the conditions being as 
 follow : — 
 
 1. Commencing at the bottom of Stnrt street, near CJrenville street, or at 
 Lydiai'd street (at option), and thence with a line on each side of the central 
 plantation as far as Ripon street ; thence by a single line on south side of 
 Start street, as far as the street by tlie Convent ground to Wendouree 
 parade and the Botanic Gardens, to a point near the rotunda. 2. Com- 
 mencing at junction of Lydiard and Stiirt streets, and going north along 
 Lydiard street to Macarthur street ; thence to Wendouree parade and 
 round the north part thereof to Botanic Gardens to the point before men- 
 tioned, near the rotunda. 3. Commencing at a point in Sturt street, at 
 junction with Ripon street, and thence north along Ripon and Fra«er 
 streets to Wendouree parade, going north as far as Macartliur street. 4. 
 Commencing at junction of Armstrong street south and Sturt street; 
 thence along Armstrong street and Sliipton street to the city boundary. 
 5. (And when deemed necessary). From intersection of Skipton and 
 Drummond streets, along the latter to Sturt street. Horse traction.
 
 310 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Routes — As required by the council. Conditions — As published by the 
 council. Time for construction — Nine months to the lake ; one year 
 for the whole, with right to complete earlier and start running 
 the cars. Option of purchase by council — During the first 10 years, 
 £70,000, exclusive of freeholds (if any). At expiration of 30 years 
 the whole concern, plant, &c., to be given over to the council without cost. 
 Terms offered — £1.375 per annum when lines are laid down, or £150 per 
 mile per annum directly cars are allowed to run on any finished portion, 
 such terms to be irrespective of profit on investment. The fares to be 
 charged shall not exceed 3d. for three miles, and for shorter distances at the 
 basis of Id. per mile between certain points to be tabulated and agreed on 
 between the council and the promoter. The tram cars shall commence 
 running not later than 8 o'clock a.m., and shall continue running until 11 
 o'clock p.m., at intervals of 15 and 30 minutes. Cars may I'un earlier or 
 later than above at such times and fares as may from time to time be ar- 
 ranged between the council and the promoter. 
 
 Early in 1887 the contractor let his contract to a company 
 floated in Melbourne. This company was in 32,000 shares of £2 
 each, of which 17,000 were at once given out for allottal to the 
 public, and were taken up. Wliilst this chapter is going through 
 the press, the company is laying down materials and taking steps 
 for the erection of the houses necessary for stables and workmen 
 in connection with the formation of the works. 
 
 Tlie iii-st part of the jiresent Post Office, erected in 1863, 
 at th(! north-east corner of Hturt and Lydiard streets, was the sixth 
 one erected since Ballarat became the resort of the gold-seeker. 
 At tii'st tliere was a tent near what is now tlie corner of Sturt 
 and Camp streets ; then tliere were " shanties" on Old Post Office 
 Hill, as the top of Golden Point was named, and at Brown Hill ; 
 then a wooden building at the south-west corner of Lydiard and 
 Mair streets, where the Royal George hotel now stands. No 
 street delivei-y of letters was granted till 18.')6, and old residents 
 remember still the crowding and quarrelling to get at the old 
 post-office window, the |)()lifc li;i,\ing sometimes to interfere for the 
 maintenance of the peace. In 1 '^r)8 the pi'esent site was .selected, 
 and an ugly office erected, wliidi was opened on the lOtli of 
 SeptcMiibei", 1858, the first night niail to Mrlljouiiic having been 
 despatched from Ballarat on tiu; 1st of July in tiic piovious year. 
 In November, 1859, the post-office, opened in September, 1858, 
 was taken down and another l)uilt, wliicli in its turn was removed
 
 GAOL — CAMP — EXPLORERS. 311 
 
 Offices, in continuation of the post-office, have been built in 
 Lydiard street for the Treasury, Electric Telegraph, Lands, Public 
 "Works, Police, Mining, and Vital Statistics Registry depart- 
 ments of the Government hei'e. 
 
 The Gaol, at the southern end of Lydiard street, was com- 
 menced in 1856 by Gray, a builder, whose conti'act was for .£9000. 
 In 1857 a wooden stockade, surrounding the site, was blown 
 down during a gale ; another was erected and then removed as 
 useless. New extended plans for the gaol were prepared in 1858, 
 and a second contract was begun in December of that year by 
 Evans and Barker, builders, the contract being for ,£4000. 
 Then, such is the genius of Government architects for blundering, 
 the plan was condemned, and Evans and Bai-ker contracted for 
 £9000 more to alter what had been done, so as to make the gaol 
 plan radiating. Then there was a contract let to Williams and 
 Young at £9000 for the erection of boundary walls and certain 
 offices, the establishment as it now stands being completed early 
 in 1862, at a total cost of between £40,000 and £50,000. The 
 present Court-house, south of the gaol, was opened in 1868 ; the 
 older Court-house, injured by subsidence of the site, being now 
 the School of Mines. 
 
 The Police quarters are, as they have been ever since the re- 
 moval from Old Post Office Hill, on the Camp Hill, now no longer 
 a green mound, but cut up by streets and neai-ly covered with 
 buildings. The pi-esent warden is Mr. Thomson, who is also the 
 police magistrate. The old wooden military barracks — where a 
 remnant of the 40th Regiment remained until October, 1857, 
 when that symbol of empire vanished from Ballarat, as it did 
 soon thereafter from Melbourne — has disappeared, and the site is 
 now occupied by more sightly and more permanent buildings. 
 
 At the intersection of Sturt and Lydiard streets is a monu- 
 ment commemorative of the tragical exploration expedition of 
 Burke and Wills in 1861. Plans for a monument were prepared 
 as early as February, 1862, by Canute Andersen, at the instance 
 of a committee of townsfolk, but the project slept till February, 
 1863, on the 7th of which month the foundation stone was laid 
 by his Excellency Governor Barkly, with accompaniment of much
 
 312 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 display of processions of public bodies, benefit societies, parading 
 of volunteers, flags, music, and addresses. The commemoration 
 was a special duty for this city, for Wills, the ardent and 
 chivalrous youth who was brave Burke's second, had lived in Bal- 
 larat, where his father practised medicine for some years. To do 
 this duty well had been honorable, but with the picturesque cele- 
 bration of the foundation-laying the enthusiasm of the committee 
 and the public died. The money collected only sufliced to raise 
 a sombre block of bluestone as the base of the pi'ojected monu- 
 ment, and the unsightly mass lay there, a mark for the gibes of 
 visitors, until March, 1866, when another committee was formed, 
 and the work of discussing ways and means of finishing the 
 structure re-commenced. Money could not be collected to carry 
 out the first and better design, and after more than a year's delay 
 the present monument was decided on, the borough council voting 
 money in aid of the work. Mr. Andersen again prepared plans, 
 and again gratuitously. The bottle with coins and documents 
 deposited by Governor Barkly was exhumed, the original stone- 
 work having been removed, and on the 26th August, 1867, 
 Thomas Davey, mayor of the borough, re-laid the bottle, and the 
 present structure was thereafter erected. The monument now con- 
 sists of an octangular stone reservoir, with a square pier in the 
 centre, surmounted l)y a cast-iron basin and a lluted column of 
 iron bearing four gas lamps, and an urn as a finial. An iron 
 railing round the top of the octagon has recently been erected. 
 Water used to be laid on from jets above the iron basin whence 
 it flowed, as from a huge inverted umbrella, into the stone recep- 
 tacle beneath. In the masonry rising from the stone basin and 
 supporting the iron superstructure, marble slabs are inlaid, on 
 which are the following inscriptions : — 
 
 North side : In memory of tlic explorers wlio perished while crossing 
 the Avi.stralian continent in tlie year 1861. East side: Robert O'Hara 
 Burke, leader, died 3Utii June, ItJGl ; W'illiam John Wills, second, died 
 30tli June, 1861 ; Ludwig liecker, naturalist, died 29th April, 1861 ; 
 Charles (jrey, assistant, died ITtii April, 1861. South side: Erected by 
 the inhabitants of liallarat. 
 
 The Queen's Jul)ih;(! was celebrated right royally in Ballarat 
 on the l!lst of June, and from tliirty to forty thousand people
 
 THE queen's jubilee. 313 
 
 heroically paced for hours through the mud in 8turt street and 
 Bridge street to witness the illuminations. New Testaments, 
 bearing each a fac-simile of the Queen's autograph of the text, 
 " Peace on earth — good will to men," followed by Her Majesty's 
 signature, were given to large numbers of State scholars. Jubilee 
 medals were distributed in some places, half-crowns were given 
 by the Hon. P. Russell to the children in his district, and many 
 people gave gifts to the poor instead of spending money in gas, 
 A worthy method this last, surely, of celebrating the Jubilee, 
 save where the method was motived less by sympathy for the 
 poor than by antipathy to the British connection, and by dis- 
 loyalty to the Queen as the Imperial symbol and centre of that 
 connection. Among the moi'e notable events of the day in 
 Ballarat were a great procession of friendly societies, tire 
 brigades, old colonists, and others ; and the ceremonial laying of 
 foundation-stones; that of the Art Gallery by Sir W.J. Clarke, that 
 of the new Stock Exchange by Mr. Thomas Stoddart,and that of the 
 Old Colonists' Hall by President John Murray. A banquet was 
 given to those three gentlemen in the afternoon. Apropos of the 
 Old Colonists, there is only space to say here that they repre- 
 sent the Old Pioneers who hobnobbed with Old Bendigonians a 
 decade or more ago, and are some of the remains of the gallant 
 host of gold discoverers and gold-hunters of the early fifties. 
 Their secretary is the Mr. Prazer, whose graphic story of Vern's 
 hiding in the stockade days is given in a former chapter of this 
 work. 
 
 Mr. C. D. Figgis, the architect of the Mining Exchange, 
 gives the following description of the building that is to be com- 
 pleted early in 1888 : — 
 
 The site has a frontage of 66 feet to Lydiard street, by a depth of 180 
 feet towe.rds Camp street, and being irregular in plan will have a I'ear 
 frontage of 99 feet. The building will be two story in height to Lydiard 
 street for a depth of 35 feet, behind which portion the building is one 
 story, and consists of a main exchange hall surrounded by offices, branching 
 off which is a large room for meetings of the exchange. The Lydiard 
 street fa9ade upon the ground floor has four shops or office fronts, and a 
 broad central entrance under semicii'cular and elliptic arches. A plain 
 Tuscan cornice divides the ground from the first floor which is pierced by 
 nine windows in three compartments separated with plam brick pilasters.
 
 314 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 The architrave, cornice, and window moulds will be in stucco, and between 
 the balustrading of the windows and the top of the pilasters black polished 
 bricks will be used, tuckpointed with white joints. The style is adapted 
 modern Italian, and the upper portion of the fa9ade is simple in character 
 and surmounted with a bold cornice and open balustrading. A paved 
 vestibule leads from Lydiard street to the Exchange, which measures 126 
 by 31 7s feet. There will also be an entrance from Camp street, and another 
 from the Police Camp lane. The roof will be of iron, elliptical, and there 
 will be semi-circular cleristory liglits on three sides. The floor will be of 
 asphalt. Mr. W. Robertson is the contractor, and the tender for £4007 
 does not include lime and other things, whose cost will probably bring the 
 total near £5000. Mr. Trembatli is clerk of works. 
 
 Some of the members of the Stock Exchange have helped to 
 make history in the Ballarat district. The fancies of dealers in 
 scrip are lively, and it may be pleasant to them to be reminded 
 that their new home now building will cover historical ground. 
 The Exchange site includes that of RafFaello's " lousy logs," 
 and also the yard where Captain Thomas mustered his little army 
 soon after midnight for the march upon the Eureka Stockade at 
 the following dawn. Meditations among the tombs of the dead 
 past, however, will not be so fascinating to the mercurial manipu- 
 lators of scrip as the golden light about a spot in the heart of 
 oldest Ballarat, midway between their new home now building 
 and the Stockade site. For, at the bright spot in question, the 
 Sulieman Pasha Company has just (1th July) proved a new lode 
 to be worth near 3oz. to the ton, and the stock has " boomed" the 
 market for an aggregate advance of over £30,000 in one week. 
 
 Electric telegraph communication was first had between Bal- 
 hirat and Melbourne on the second anniversary of the Eureka 
 Stockade action. Tlie Ballarat Star of Tuesday, tlu> 4th of 
 December, 1856, contained tlie following announcement :— 
 
 The first telegraphic communication l)ctween Ballarat and Melbourne, 
 and vice veraa, took place yesterday afternoon at twenty minutes past three 
 o'clock, l^ast evening, about ciglit <>'cloi:k, the representatives of tlie Press 
 on Ballarat were invited by Mr. M'Gowan to witness the working of the 
 telegraph. "^Pherc being no office accommodation ready at present, the spot 
 selected was tlic last post near the Unicorn hotel on tlie Townsliip. A wire 
 was carried from the post to a small testing machine placed on a stump at 
 its Ijase, and thence, to secure moisture, carried to the stream adjoining, 
 whicli runs from Batli's claim [now (Jolib's corncrj. Mr. HumllVay, who
 
 POST — TELEGRAPH — TELEPHONE. 
 
 315 
 
 was at the Melbourne station, transmitted the following remarks to Mr. 
 IM'Ciowan — "The establishment of electric telegraph communication be- 
 tween Ballarat and Melbourne is a far more pleasing event to celebrate on 
 the anniversary of the 3rd of December than stockades and massacres. " 
 
 Intelligence of the bestowal of knighthood upon Mr. Ronalds, the in- 
 ventor of the telegraph in England, led to the pulilication of the fact that 
 the Mr. Ronalds referred to was the In-other of Mr. Ronalds, who once had 
 the ^^'endouree Nursery, in Ballarat, and who was also a man of consider- 
 able attainments. Several nephews of the inventor were lately in the 
 colony. 
 
 The following table will show how post and telegraph office 
 money matters stood as between the three leading inland towns of 
 Victoria, for the year 1885, and the letters, etc., passed in 1886 : — ■ 
 
 
 Orders 
 Issued. 
 
 Savings Bk. 
 Deposits. 
 
 Telegrams. 
 
 Letters. 
 
 Packets. 
 
 Papers. 
 
 Ballarat 
 
 Sandhurst 
 
 Geelong- 
 
 £23,162 
 17,040 
 11,931 
 
 £33,113 
 19,377 
 53,644 
 
 £4,030 
 2,788 
 1,979 
 
 3,102,023 
 3,204,992 
 2,136,621 
 
 488,647 
 335,261 
 181,891 
 
 1,157,823 
 844,114 
 708,319 
 
 The number of officers employed in 1885 was, for Ballarat 
 and Sandhurst, 48 each, and for Geelong 42. The decennial 
 march of business in Ballarat, supplied, like the above, by the 
 courtesy of the department, was as below, only that as regards 
 letters, packets, and papers, the three decades end a year later 
 than for the other items of the table : — 
 
 Year. 
 
 Savings Bk. 
 Deposits. 
 
 Moiiej- 
 0. Issued. 
 
 TELEGRAPH BUSINESS. 
 
 Letters. 
 
 Packets. 
 
 Newspapers. 
 
 
 Messages. Cash. 
 
 1865 
 
 1875 
 1885 
 
 £791 
 22,308 
 33,113 
 
 £19,461 
 19,856 
 23,162 
 
 25,079 £3006 
 
 41,487 2572 
 82,708 4036 
 
 1,330,250 
 1,742,370 
 3,102,023 
 
 39,298 
 169,772 
 
 488,647 
 
 337,144 
 
 464,671 
 
 1,157,823 
 
 The official records of the Ballarat Lands Office give 26 '66 
 inches as the average local rainfall for the 26 years, 1857-1884. 
 The mean temperature, calculated over the same period, was, for 
 January, 65-3; February, 64-4; March, 61-8; April, 55-1; 
 May, 49-2 ; June, 45-5 ; July, 43-1 ; August, 46-3 ; KSeptember, 
 48-7 ; October, 55-7 ; November, 57'9 ; December, 61-6. 
 
 The telephone was introduced in Ballarat by the Victorian 
 Telephone Exchange Company, Limited, in February, 1883. The 
 office is in Lydiard street, and there was at the end of June, 1887, 
 a subscription roll of 176, Mr. James Oddie having been the 
 first subscriber enrolled. This roll involves an apparatus of 200
 
 316 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 lines, each subscriber paying £10 a year for a service extending 
 within a radius of one mile from the Post-office. The company 
 was at first known as the Melbourne Company, and began work 
 in Melbourne in 1880, a branch having been opened in Sand- 
 hurst soon after the BaUarat one was started. 
 
 In the realm of science Ballarat has become of world-wide fame 
 through the inventions by Mr. Henry Sutton, a native of the place. 
 His skill and acquirements in electricity, telegraphy, telephony, 
 photography, and also in astronomical and microscopical studies 
 have won for him a high position as a practical scientist, and the 
 credit is the greater as he is a self-taught student. But, doubt- 
 less, the scientist is born as well as made, and if Mr. Sutton did 
 not in the succulent days of infancy actually lisp in occult phrases 
 of science, it is clear that his genius for experiment developed 
 early, and that it was fostered by still earlier and persistent 
 study. Gifted with a good memory, and the stimulus of the 
 fervid spirit of science, Mr. Sutton, before he was 14 years old, 
 had read every book on science to be found in tlie library of the 
 Ballarat Mechanics' Institute, and since then he has kept up the 
 perusal of all the prominent scientific journals, and all tlie patent 
 records in Engineer and Engineering. Besides tliis, he won a 
 silver medal and 30 other prizes for drawing in the School of 
 Design. At the ago of 14 lie designed completely what is now 
 known as the Gramme dynamo electric machine. That machine 
 caused the first revolution in the generation of electricity, and if 
 Mr. Sutton had then had the means he would have forestalled 
 Gramme in the publication of the invention. When Bell an- 
 nounced the invention of the telephone, Mr. Sutton devised in 
 the first year tlu^reafter no fewer than 20 odd different telephones, 
 16 of which were patented by other people after the date of his in- 
 ventions ; and there was only a space of 1(5 days between Sutton's 
 discovery of carton filament, as used in the present electric lamps, 
 and the discovery by Edison, as Mr. Ellery, the Victoiian 
 Astronomer Royal, can testify. Then, tiu; Sutton air pump is 
 thus referred to by the English Mccluinic of the 21st July, 1882 : — 
 
 On page 3i will hu foiunl one of Liu' .simplest tuul hust of mercurial air 
 pumps, not only for tliu purpo.sc.s of the electrical lamp maker, ))ut also for all
 
 HENRY SUTTON. 317 
 
 purposes where a high degree of vaciuim is required to be produced. A re- 
 ference to page ;U, No. SSO, will give the jeader a good idea of the principle 
 of all mercurial air pumps, and will introduce him to one of the simplest, 
 and, we l)elieve, the most efficient. In Mr. Sutton's air pump, there illus- 
 trated, the mercury is caused to rise into the globe by the action of a force 
 pump, and it is obvious that the operations can be performed very rapidly. 
 
 Mr. Sutton devised also a vacuum pump, worked by a water 
 jet, and it is in daily use now at the Ballarat School of Mines for 
 chemical purposes. In 1877, at the invitation of the secretary of 
 ^ronautical Society of Great Britain, he wrote two papers on the 
 flight of birds, detailing experiments and deductions in that 
 branch of study, and the secretary acknowledged that Mr. Sutton 
 had discovered the true theory. Some 70 pages of the society's 
 report for 1878 are occupied with the Sutton papers and drawings 
 as designed by the writer of the papers. INIr. Sutton has contri- 
 buted articles to the Royal Societies of London and Victoria, and 
 has several times been invited to write papers for the Society of 
 Telegraph Engineers and Electricians of London. He is an 
 associate of that society, and a member of the Royal Society of 
 Victoria, and he has been invited by M. Clocheary, a member of 
 the French Government, to become a member of the Socicte 
 Internationalle, whose roll of members includes the most dis- 
 tinguished electricians in the world. But that which has been, 
 perhaps, more gratifying than anything else to this gifted and 
 indefatigable young Ballarat scientist, is the appreciatory recep- 
 tion given by the Royal Society of England to his new electrical 
 storage battery. The proceedings of that body, No. 217, for the 
 year 1881, contains a paper by Mr. Sutton, describing his inven- 
 tion as a mode of storing electric force so that " it may be drawn 
 off equally and regularly, and this whether the generator be on 
 or off." The description is too elaborate and too abstruse for a 
 place in these pages, but we may make the following brief 
 extract : — 
 
 The cell, having a negative electrode of copper, a positive electrode of 
 lead amalgamated with mercury, and a solution of cupric sulphate, I have 
 adopted as a thoroughly economical, lasting, and practical form of storage 
 reservoir. The chemical changes in this cell are exceedingly interesting 
 and beautiful. * * * xhe power of this cell is very great and very con- 
 stant ; it can be made to last for hours, the time being dependent on the
 
 318 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 quantity of cupi'ic sulphate decomposed. * * * It will be seen from 
 the foregoing that this method of conserving energy has a wide field before 
 it, and as it will Itenefit fellow workers in science, placing in their hands a 
 means of experimenting with powerful electric currents, I give it without 
 reservation, freely and untrammelled by patent rights, for their use. 
 
 This is large liberality, and bespeaks the disinterested en- 
 thusiast in science. The president of the Royal Society, Mr. W. 
 Spottiswoode, writing to Mr. Sutton on the 4th January, 1882, 
 acknowledges a second paper with diagram of the cell, and says, 
 " Your former communication created much interest among our 
 fellows. I hope soon to send you printed copies of it." The 
 Mechanic says, " The methods named as those of Monsieur J 
 Rousse are all embraced in Mr. Sutton's, but the great advantage 
 in Mr. Sutton's storage battery is that the speed of the discharge 
 can be regulated at will, a quality which none other known 
 possesses. Mr. Sutton's inventions are appreciated in the very 
 home of scientists, and this is proof positive of their value." 
 Iivn, another English journal, says, " Mr. Sutton's invention is 
 pronounced invaluable, and on no less an authority than Mr. J. 
 W. Swan, of electric lighting fame." Ij-on thus cites Mr. Swan in 
 evidence as follows : — " I can fully confirm Mr. Sutton's state- 
 ment as to the facility with which a thick crust of peroxide 
 formed on the mercurialised lead in his cell, giving it a greater 
 capacity for storage. The discovery of this means of rapidly 
 forming a thick coating of peroxide is invalual)le." 
 
 This Ballarat scientist, then, born in Ballarat on the 3rd 
 September, 185G, has, by his own unaided studies, won the re- 
 cognition of the first men of science in the world. But, nihil sine 
 labore. It is the enthusiast who wins — if he have the necessary 
 otlier gifts. And tliis is no celibate ascetic, scorning social 
 delights, for, though a tireless worker, Mr. Sutton is a benedict, 
 and it is to be devoutly hoped that his wife shares adequately in 
 the entliusiasm of scientific researcli. lie is to-day working in 
 original paths as zealously as ever, and seldom retires before '1 
 o'clock a.m., very often not till 3 o'clock, daylight sometimes sur- 
 prising him cvciry morning for a week Ix'forc Ik* can cry, " Hold, 
 enough ! " and he therefore! proclaims tlu^ theory that " eight 
 hours' work won't lift a man in this world." ll(! has lately been
 
 HENRY SUTTON. 319 
 
 engaged in perfecting wliat promises to l)e a very valuable process 
 of engraving by the aid of photograpliy, l)ut the results will not be 
 published until the process is perfected. Another series of ex- 
 periments is in course of making for the production of photo- 
 graphs in colors. But, gi-eater marvel still, in some sense, Mr_ 
 Sutton has designed, but not yet constructed, an apparatus by 
 which he hopes to be able to see here in Ballarat, by the aid of 
 electricity, the race for the Melbourne Cup. The author con- 
 gratulates Mr. Sutton on his being a native of Ballarat in these 
 years of grace, for such startling commerce with the occult arts as 
 the things done and doing reveal would, surely, have won for the 
 worker a very different fame " in the ages of faith." That a young 
 man, who left school at 12, should, before he was 30, have won 
 such fame as a student and inventor, and mirabile dictii, be 
 acknowledged here in his own home by such men as Professor 
 Andrews and Mr. Ellery as one of the best lecturers at the 
 School of Mines, is a proof that genius is above the restrictions 
 of relatively narrow circumstances, and does not wait upon 
 universities or professional chairs for leave to conquer the re- 
 condite secrets of science and make a place for itself in the fore- 
 most ranks of the scientifically illustrious. Such a worker as 
 Henry Sutton is, may plead on virtue's side against a vicious 
 mass of base and brutal " larrikin" lust and indolence — against a 
 city full of vain inanities and the growing passion for endless 
 amusement, and strident, unmannerly irreverence and display. 
 This reverent student of nature is so quiet and so modest, as well 
 as so laborious and so gifted, that he will be almost angry with 
 the author for thus setting him out in these pages as a reproach 
 to the idle, the ignorant, and the rude ; and as an example to 
 encourage other of our native youth to rise to similar levels of 
 serene and lofty pleasures, pregnant with practical blessing to the 
 world. 
 
 Ballarat journalism, through all the changes of the place, 
 has borne its full share in the expression and direction of public 
 opinion in the colony, and in that respect has been representa- 
 tive of the political activity of the local electorates. If the 
 common editorial omniscience in attacking all questions, earthly
 
 320 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 and heavenly, has not been gifted with the creative and evolvino; 
 touch of genius, and if recent editorials have lacked some of the 
 scholarly touches of earlier days, they have also been free from 
 the incoherent hysterics which were, sometimes, the wonder of 
 the early fifties, and they have had none of the approaches to 
 Eatanswill personalities which marked, upon occasion, the sixties 
 and seventies. The acuter and better reasoned criticisms of things, 
 dramatic and literary, which now and then adorned the columns 
 of the late fifties and sixties, have now no equal. Such essays are 
 not now attempted. In their place have come benevolent or 
 merely formal notices, and, for the most part, they are of mono- 
 tonous pattern. There are also depressing copies of paragraphed 
 American humor, and, l)y way of corruption of pure English, the 
 regular use of the slang of police lockups and other places. The old 
 order gives place to the new, and new readers and new writers have 
 entered the arena|]of affairs. They are, or will be, for the most 
 part Australian born, racy or rancid of the soil, and, no doubt, 
 reciprocally interpretative. But, for the present, whether it be 
 that editorial writers have grown mellower, wiser, or more care- 
 less, it is certain that Mr. Westgarth would not now find his old 
 entertainment in local editorials ; and though the quondam 
 lecturer, now Sir Archibald Michie, Q.C., might still find in 
 local press work proofs of his tlieory that press writers are generally 
 gentlemen of defective education, the Swinburnian verdict on 
 some other offenders, that their pi'oducts are examples of the 
 " blatant audacity of immedicable ignorance," will seldom be 
 applicable to Ballarat journalists. 
 
 Since Prince Alfred, then captain of the Galatea, made his 
 joyous entry on the 9th of December, 1 867, and had three days 
 of levees, f(;asts, dances, visits, processions, addresses, and what 
 not, there came in July, 1881, tlic royal lads, Albert Victor and 
 George of Wales, midshipmen under the care of Admiral Earl 
 Clanwilliam, his Excellency the Marquis of Normanby being 
 also of the party. The visitors were duly banqueted by Mayor 
 Robert Lewis, of tlie city, and Mayor William Robertson, of the 
 town, and saw the more notable sights. Besides these Royal and 
 Vice-royal people, there have come peers and commoners, more or
 
 DISTINGUISHED VISITORS. 321 
 
 less illustrious, from the old world. To wit, Anthony Trollopo, 
 the novelist ; Froude, the historian ; Proctor, tlie astronomer ; 
 Gerald Massey, the poet ; one of the American generals Sheri- 
 dan ; Forbes, Sala, and Phil. Robinson, the war correspondents ; 
 and Dr. Cameron Lees, with his Balmoral order of the Thistle, as 
 a I'oyal chaplain and a representative Scottish Presbyterian. 
 Proctor, Massey, Sheridan, Forbes, Sala and Robinson all delivered 
 lectures in Ballarat, on the several matters in which they had won 
 fame. Of peers there were many. Lord and Lady Brassey, of 
 the " Sunbeam," who came with their children in June last, 
 being the latest of that order. The Duke of IVLanchester 
 was one of the first. After him, in June, 188-5, came Lord 
 Lymington, eldest son of the Earl of Portsmouth, and on the 
 30th March last the Earl and Countess Aberdeen and Lord 
 Sandhurst, and with Lord Sandhurst came Sir Henry Wren- 
 fordsly, ex-Chief Justice of "West Australia and Fiji. On the 
 1st April last he was admitted to practise at the Victorian bar. 
 These last two came as guests of Sir W. J. Clarke, on a visit to 
 his Dowling Forest Estate, where they were all entertained by 
 Mr. G. G. Morton, of Labona, and very complimentary things 
 were exchanged between landlord, visitors, and tenants. For the 
 latter, the spokesman was James M'Intosh, of Myrtle Grove 
 Farm, who propounded as a cure for Irish disorder the giving of 
 an estate in Tipperary to Sir W. J. Clarke, who should deal with 
 tenants there as at Dowling Forest, and that the Government 
 should deport all disloyal prelates, priests, and laymen to Siberia 
 " to learn moderation and toleration." Whilst these happy inter- 
 changes were going on at Dowling Forest amid plentiful hospi- 
 talities, some leading Home Rule Irishmen were presenting an 
 address of welcome to Lord and Lady Aberdeen at Craig's hotel, 
 after the Earl and Countess had been to see the mine and works 
 of the Band and Albion Consols Company. The address ex- 
 pressed gratitude for the manner in which the Earl and Countess 
 had shown their interest in the welfare of Ireland during the 
 Earl's Lord-Lieutenancy, and asked the Countess to accept a 
 4oz. nugget of Ballarat (Carngham alluvial) gold. One of the 
 peculiarities of the presentation was that Father Rogers
 
 322 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 (who took a leading part in the welcome, and hoped for Home 
 Rule for Ireland and a second term of office for the Earl), and W. 
 M. Acheson, who read the address, as well as some others of the 
 welcomers, came within the category of those of whom Michael 
 Davitt said last year, according to a statement in the Pall Mall 
 Gazette — "They are not Irish, they are only English and Scotch 
 who are settled among us." But Davitt referred specially to 
 Ulster Orangemen, and Father Rogers and some co-" settlers" were 
 hardly of that clan at any rate. The Earl's reception was very 
 cordial, and his responses to the honors paid to him and his 
 Countess were at once manly and modest. It is rememberable 
 that though this Scotch Earl, as one of Mr. Gladstone's subal- 
 terns, received these courtesies, the English Lord Lymington, 
 whose papers in one of the London fortnightly reviews a year or 
 two before on " Tlie Portsmouth System" in Ireland, showed that 
 the M'Intosh theory of cure had in part been successfully antici- 
 pated and applied there, came and went without any recognition 
 by either Irishmen or Davitt "settlers." But then the English- 
 man had held no office, and was here but a private visitor. He 
 was only a Wallop, whose ancestors before the Heptarchy, mayhap, " 
 drank potent waes haels at Celtic Caergwent, killed and ate boars 
 in the beech and oak forests about Upper and Nether Wallop, 
 and took speckled trout from the little streamsof theHurstbournes, 
 Tarrant and Priors, whose head waters run among the chalk 
 slopes towards the Vale of White Horse on the one hand, while 
 on the other the sister rivulet took its way down the fat vales, 
 chalk-bounded, of north-eastern Hants. His, and his ancestors' 
 home, was in old Wessex. An Englishman of the English he, 
 with his tall, gaunt form, and his Saxon hair. As were English- 
 men, too — pace Michael Davitt — Wolesley, Wesley — Wellesley — 
 Wellington, this last a very typical Englislnnan even, as was liis 
 great or greater namesake, John Wesley. As were, and are also, 
 perchance, the Wasleys, who discovered the Al lead here in Bal- 
 larat, and the younger Australian born one who, the other day, 
 son of a mining manager liere, won the top and final honor in 
 laws at the Melbourne University, coming o(i" witli his B.A. and 
 his LL.B., and a scholarship of .£75. How the links of race,
 
 DIGGING UP THE BURIED PAST, 323 
 
 geography, history, development, touch us as we go along, and how- 
 small the globe seems. Doubtless Davitt, from an aboriginal Irish 
 point of view, was theoretically and racially right in marking 
 the bar immigrant in the Irish escutcheons he pointed at. Here, 
 too, at the antipodes we are brought face to face with the facts of 
 difference and commixture. Here we mix more and more into 
 one indivisible people; but the process began ages ago on the other 
 side of the world. Those Wallops touched, territorially, on the 
 west the Celtic and prehistoric Stonehenge and the Vale of 
 White Horse. On the east they hunted towards the Strathfield- 
 saye won by Wellington from the grateful empire he had served or 
 saved, and his domain hedged the vanished Romans' buried 
 Silchester. The centuries with their changes have been weaving us 
 all together — Celt, Roman, Dane, Saxon, Norman — have woven us 
 in part together, and which is warp and which woof who will say ? 
 Surely it is better to respect the web thus woven and weaving 
 than to rip it in pieces with our paltry Popkins questions of 
 dividing peoples. 
 
 In the fragments of hours which the writer has spent amongst 
 old newspaper files he has felt as if making a pilgrimage, after a 
 long absence, through an old burial ground. " The years that 
 are fled knock at the door and enter." The local dead have been 
 continually before him, but speaking or acting in some of the 
 many affairs of life. The vehemence of speech and intense in- 
 terest and vitality of action over what, seen in the present dis- 
 tance, seem to be matters narrow and trivial, contrast strangely 
 and instructively with the silence of the now departed actors and 
 talkers. Names forgotten — names even of acquaintances and 
 friends — are recorded on these yellowing and fragile sheets, and 
 as they re-appear, one by one, they almost startle sometimes by 
 the rush of many memories which they produce. To a newspaper 
 writer it is similar, but more solemn, less merely curious, than the 
 sudden meeting, in some strange journal printed, it may be, 
 thousands of miles away, a paragraph from his own pen, and 
 quoted from paper to paper till it has reached the far distance 
 and comes back again upon him by some chance of affairs as an 
 old but forgotten face, with features sometimes distorted by
 
 324 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 violent handling or worn by attrition of time and change. This 
 is like a sudden note of music or odor of a flower recalling a past 
 hour : the other is like the loud re echoing of thunder among the 
 hills when the listener had thought the last far-oft' reverberation 
 had for ever died away. The first sonorous burst which awed him 
 by its grandeur seems then to be heard again, and the first emo- 
 tions are re-awakened. Such is the power that lies in these dry 
 records which the printer's art has preserved, and such the seem- 
 ing remoteness of the yet near past in the swift evolutions of 
 events in a young and growing and active colonial settlement. 
 
 The great spectacle presented to the eye of the visitor in these 
 days is marked, to the inner eye of the old resident, with many 
 deeply graved lines of toil and trouble. Many a man has fought 
 on bravely, year after year, against rocks, drifts, floodings, 
 poverty, and almost despair. Not quite despair, however, for else 
 all had been lost. There was still hope that at last gold 
 would be reached, and that hope and his own native courage and 
 independence have made to the miner the dry crust, the drink 
 from the often-watered tea-leaves, the narrow cheerless tent, 
 general privations, and sometimes sickness, the experience of 
 long periods. Such were some of the men, such the pluck that 
 created this city. Many of them obtained industrial victory, but 
 many more only had " the consciousness of battle, and the re- 
 solve to persevere therein while life or faculty is left." And 
 many fell, as is the miner's too frequent lot, victims to foul air, 
 treacherous earth-slips, water-burst?, personal recklessness, and 
 mine-engendered diseases. 
 
 Any one of the diggers of 1851 or 1852 who looks now upon 
 this city cannot fail to reflect on the contrast of the present and 
 the past. To those who liave remained hei'e dui'ing all the inter- 
 vening years the growtli and transformation of the place have 
 seemed less magical than to others, for they have been like tliose 
 who witness the progn^ss of their children from infancy to youth 
 and manhood. The progr(!SS has been seen, but it has been only 
 at special mojnents that the mind has grasped the fact that the 
 child has disappeared and a man has taken the vacated place. 
 There lias come a day when the mind has, by some quick process
 
 THE OLD AND THE NEW, 325 
 
 of projection upon the past, brought it into line with the present, 
 and then the little child looks out from the larger, soberer, 
 countenance of the man. It is only for a moment, and then the 
 younger vision disappears, save to the peering sight of memory 
 that follows sadly, and clings lovingly to the fairer and fresher 
 form that will not stay but retreats, with ever increasing velocity, 
 as the new realities and duller cares of the present crowd in upon 
 the mind. So with the old digger now as he walks about these 
 spacious gas-lit streets, where he no longer needs the candle in the 
 broken bottle as a lantern after dark, but where every thorough- 
 fare is adorned with crowding edifices, and is glittering with the 
 blaze of a more artificial life, and the results of accumulated 
 wealth. As he looks, there come moments when all the scene dis- 
 solves into its original elements. Through all the rattle of street 
 strife, over all the display of churches, towers, halls, and noisy 
 warehouses, his eyes see something and his ears hear something 
 invisible and inaudible to others. Over all the array of aggre- 
 gated civic opulence and beauty, and its dark shadows of want 
 and haggard strife for bread, there steal to him the silence of the 
 beginning, a few white tents among the forest trees that are no 
 more, the half-dozen columns of curling smoke from the camp 
 fires, the round, oval, and square pits of the shallow-ground 
 digger, the scanty patches of newly turned up golden soil. 
 The fresh breeze, that came over the old silent odorous bush and 
 its reaches of grass-land, breathes upon him again instead of 
 the noisome exhalations from the gutters and sewers and by-ways 
 of the thickly peopled town. In another moment that scene, 
 too, glides past. He is in an absorbing series of mutations. 
 The past moves along before him like a panorama in which every 
 scene quickens the vision with the light of familiar sights and 
 the warmth of pleasant memories. Streets of tents and shingle 
 houses now stretch out in sinuous lines. They wind among 
 hillocks of dirt and scant bush, upon the slopes and the flats and 
 the hill-tops. Merry crowds of men work briskly at windlass 
 and cradle and puddling-tub, and others ply the many trades and 
 callings which the increased multitude have demanded with their 
 gold, their fancies, and their necessities. Then night comes with
 
 326 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 its glittering camp tires, the crashing of felled trees, the dis- 
 charges of multitudinous firearms, the song from tent and windlass 
 the laughter of the lucky or the careless, the music from the dancing 
 saloon, the oath of the profane, the ribaldry of the drunken, the 
 solemn, or jubilant, but sacred hymn of those who in that way 
 worship God. As he sits by the lessening light of his fire, witli 
 the pungent aroma of the grass-tree and the peppermint in the 
 air about him, the gazer sees still other visions. In such 
 moments, as our Australian Kendall has said — 
 
 The phantom of his youth is apt to come, 
 
 And flit before him as he sits alone, 
 
 And float about him hke a fitful dream, 
 
 A sweet sad light amidst the gathering gloom. 
 
 He wearies at last and enters his tent. By the flickering light of 
 the decaying embers of the open-air fire he fastens his canvas 
 door, lies down upon his mattrass of gum-leaves, or grass, or straw, 
 and is soon in dreamland. He awakes to find it was, indeed, but 
 a passing vision of what once was where this wide-reaching city 
 now spreads out its arms and rears its " tower-encircled head." 
 All is changed, save the " everlasting hills" by day and the 
 eternal procession of the stars by night, and all has come about 
 by the enterprising industry evoked by the unconquerable love of 
 gold. 
 
 The same power operates now as in tl»e earlier days. The 
 working minei', with his pinched, weary, wan visage, his little 
 bundle of food, and his billy of tea, going along the paved streets 
 at midnight, past stately houses of business and luxury, to his 
 dreary dirty labor below ground, and the jovial cigar-smoking 
 well-fed speculator at the Corner in the broad noon-time are aim- 
 ing at similar ends, though both, by sore stress of changed con- 
 ditions, are now forced to indulge in less brilliant expectations. 
 Botli men aim at tliat which eveiy shaft, every engine, every 
 pile of stones or waste of mullock and sludge, as well as every 
 office and shop and tiehl r(!V(!als — tlie desire of domestic comfort, 
 the means of personal gratification, or the ability to give happi- 
 ness to others. Amidst all the mutations of the outward and 
 visible the inward and invisi])le impulse remains the same.
 
 THE gold-finders' WORK. 327 
 
 Everything indicates one resistless force and points to one humble 
 pioneer. 
 
 It is not our purpose to enquire what might have been the 
 future of this locality, or of the colony, had the quiet and com- 
 parative solitude of pastoral settlement not been broken in upon 
 by the gold discovery with its sequent hordes of population, 
 and all their busy and creative industry. To those who come 
 after us we shall appear as pioneers. We, looking back to that 
 which, in the swift evolution of events in this place, seems to us 
 a distant past, think of the still earlier pioneers whom we followed 
 hither. And as we look we connect what they did with the yet 
 unrevealed future of the colony. The gold-digger's work must 
 ever be a factor in the great sum of Australian history. It is 
 not all, certainly, and its relative value must decline. But, across 
 the many-threaded tissue of our young national life, the wealth, 
 and enterprise, and influence of the gold-tields run in a bright 
 broad band of gold ; and, in the far-ofl[" future, the historical 
 student, when he searches among the foundation-stones of empire 
 here, will hud the base of one of the strongest columns of national 
 greatness inscribed with the names of the golden cities of Victoria, 
 and, first of all, the name of the first and the richest — Ballarat. 
 
 In looking at these wide-spreading streets and thickly cluster- 
 ing dwellings, at these green and beautiful oases of flowers and trees, 
 at the far-reaching, well-tilled fertile lands, that lend their ornamen- 
 tation to the general landscape, the thoughtful spectator naturally 
 asks what it all signifies. Truly it is the outcome of the plodding 
 thought of Esmond as he walked among the sierras of California 
 and remembered the home he had left in Victoria. This three- 
 boroughed city means, reflectively, a reminiscence and a hope 
 lighting up the mind of that quiet gold hunter, and, more 
 remotely, of alcadi Hargreaves also, as he sat in judgment upon 
 delinquent diggers, or peered with questioning eye through the 
 Golden Gate of the Pacific, Australia ward, and saw as in a ^^sion 
 the golden glory of his late home insing like Aurora, radiant with 
 light and beauty. It is but true that every field of yellow 
 grain, every tree in our orchards that bends beneath its 
 golden fruitage, every flower that waves its odorous beauty
 
 328 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 in our gardens, every line of grace and elegance in our 
 stately piles of architecture, speaks of one pioneer. Every 
 demonstration of our civilisation, from the tall temples of 
 religion to the costly shrines of literature and art and the richly 
 stored houses of commerce, from the glittering carriages and the 
 rustling silks of the luxurious rich to the crowding hosts that 
 figlit the daily battle of life's hard labor for bread, all is but a 
 homage to the enterprise of Esmond, of Clunes, and his immediate 
 followers, the discoverers of tliis the first and the richest of the 
 gold-fields, and the battle ground of the political freedom of 
 Victoria.
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT FOR BALLARAT FROM 
 THE FIRST ELECTION IN 1855 TO THE YEAR 1886. 
 1855. BALLARAT. 
 
 November 10. Peter Lalor, John Basson Humffray, nominated to 
 a seat in the old Legislative Council before the 
 Constitution Act came into force. 
 
 BALLARAT WEST, 
 
 INCLUDED IN NORTH GRENVILLE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION ACT OF 16TH JULY 
 1856. 1855, ONE MEMBER. 
 
 October 3. Peter Lalor returned unopposed. 
 
 BALLARAT WEST, 
 
 proclaimed an electoral district in 1859, with two members to 
 
 represent it in the legislative as.sembly. 
 
 General Election. 
 
 John Robinson Bailey ... ... ... 1502 
 
 Robert Malachy Serjeant ... ... ... 1341 
 
 Duncan Gillies ... ... ... ... 963 
 
 William Frazer ... ... ... ... 878 
 
 1859. 
 August 26. 
 
 1859. 
 
 
 
 November 5. 
 
 J. R. Bailey returned unopposed, having accepted 
 office as Postmaster-General in the Nicholson 
 Ministry. 
 
 
 1860. 
 
 
 
 November 12. 
 
 J. R. Bailey 
 
 1402 
 
 
 D. Gillies 
 Mr. Bailey had changed the office of Postmaster- 
 General for that of Commissioner of Trade and 
 Customs, and was again elected. 
 
 1138 
 
 1861. 
 
 General Election. 
 
 
 August 2. 
 
 D. Gillies 
 
 1209 
 
 
 Wm. Collard Smith 
 
 969 
 
 
 John Phillips 
 
 790 
 
 1864. 
 
 
 
 February 4. 
 
 Robert Lewis 
 
 1092 
 
 
 Wm. M. K. Vale... 
 
 952 
 
 This was to fill the vacancy created by the retire- 
 ment of Mr, W. C. Smith, January 18, 1864.
 
 330 
 
 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 1864. 
 November 3. 
 
 1865. 
 September 11. 
 
 1866. 
 January 29. 
 
 1866. 
 August 6. 
 
 1868. 
 February 20. 
 
 1868. 
 
 May 7. 
 
 1868. 
 July 30. 
 
 1869. 
 March 27. 
 
 General Election. 
 
 D. Gillies 
 
 W. M. K. Vale 
 
 Geo. G. Moj'ton ... 
 
 W. M. K. Vale ... 
 
 James Service 
 Mr. Vale resigned his seat with a view of testing 
 the feeling of the constituency on what was 
 known as "The Constitutional Question," or 
 "The Tack," and was re-elected. 
 General Election. 
 
 W. M. K. 
 D. Gillies 
 T. Cooper 
 
 Vale 
 
 C. E. Jonos 
 
 J. A. Doanc 
 Mr. Jones resigned liis seat and his oHicc of Com- 
 niissioncr of Railways, and presentctl himself for 
 re-election to test the feeling of the constituency 
 on certain public charges which seriously affected 
 his character as a member of Parliament. He 
 waa re-elected. 
 
 1443 
 
 1435 
 
 929 
 
 1450 
 1070 
 
 W. M. K. Vale 
 
 Thos. Carpenter ... 
 Mr. Vale, having accepted office in the M'CuUoch 
 MinistryasCommissionerof Roads, was re-elected. 
 General Election. 
 W. M. K. Vale ... 
 D. Gillies 
 H. B. Chalmers ... 
 
 Chas. Edwin Jones 
 
 D. Gillies 
 Mr. Gillies accepted office as Minister of Lands 
 and Survey in the Sladen Ministry, and was 
 defeated on presenting himself for re-election. 
 
 C.E.Jones ... ... ... ... 2383 
 
 VV. M. K. Vale 2325 
 
 Joseph Att wood Doane ... ... ... 1750 
 
 Messrs. Jones and Vale had accepted office in the 
 second M'CulIoch Ministry, and were re-elected. 
 
 1443 
 1383 
 1316 
 
 1099 
 
 558 
 
 2251 
 2217 
 2021 
 
 2663 
 2363 
 
 2442 
 1082
 
 REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 331 
 
 1869. 
 May 10. 
 
 1869. 
 May 22. 
 
 1870. 
 April 25. 
 
 1875. 
 
 1875. 
 November 6. 
 
 1877. 
 May 11. 
 
 C. E. Jones 
 
 W. M. K. Vale ... 
 Mr. Jones had been expelled the House of Assembly 
 for " corrupt i)ractices." Mr. Vale resigned his 
 office as Commissioner of Customs and his seat in 
 the Assembly, to contest the election with Mr. 
 Jones, " in the interests of political honesty," and 
 was defeated. 
 
 John James 
 
 D. Gillies 
 
 James Eddy 
 
 This was a contest for the seat vacated by Mr. Vale. 
 
 Archibald Michie elected without opposition. 
 Mr. James resigned to give Mr. Michie the chance 
 of a seat in the Assembly, Mr. Michie having 
 accepted office as Attorney-General in the third 
 M'Culloch Ministry without having a seat in 
 Parliament. 
 
 ±OI 1. 
 
 March 16. 
 
 W. C. Smith 
 
 
 Joseph Jones 
 
 
 C. E. Jones 
 
 
 J. W. Gray 
 
 
 H. B. Chalmers 
 
 1874. 
 
 
 April 22. 
 
 W. C. Smith 
 
 Joseph Jones 
 Henry Bell 
 R. M. Serjeant ... 
 W. C. Smith was returned unopposed on his 
 accepting office in the first Berry Ministry. 
 
 W. C. Smith 
 G. R. Fincham 
 Henry Bell 
 James Campbell 
 
 2605 
 2046 
 
 2368 
 
 2201 
 
 97 
 
 2418 
 2262 
 2179 
 2108 
 395 
 
 2526 
 2064 
 1487 
 1020 
 
 G. R. Fincham ... ... ... ... 2678 
 
 Joseph Jones ... ... ... ... 1703 
 
 An Act to amend the Electoral Act 1865 was passed 
 
 on the 2nd November, 1876, and gave a third 
 
 member to Ballarat West. 
 
 2431 
 2304 
 1979 
 1864
 
 332 
 
 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 1877. 
 
 
 
 
 
 June 1. 
 
 
 W. C. Smith was returned unopposed on 
 taking office as Minister of Mines and Edu- 
 
 
 
 
 cation in the second 
 
 Berry Ministry. 
 
 
 1880. 
 
 
 
 
 
 February 
 
 28. 
 
 W. C. Smith 
 Henry Bell 
 G. R. Finch am ... 
 James Campbell ... 
 C. B. Finlayson ... 
 
 
 3014 
 2698 
 2685 
 1801 
 1649 
 
 1880. 
 
 
 
 
 
 July 14. 
 
 
 W. C. Smith 
 Henry Bell 
 G. R. Fincham ... 
 R. M. Serjeant 
 
 
 2644 
 2531 
 2518 
 1460 
 
 1880. 
 
 
 
 
 
 August. 
 
 
 W. C. Smith was returned unopposed on taking 
 
 
 
 
 office as Minister of 
 
 Education in the third 
 
 
 
 
 Berry Ministry. 
 
 
 
 188.3. 
 
 
 
 
 
 February 
 
 22. 
 
 W. C. Smith 
 Henry Bell 
 G. R. Fincham ... 
 C. E. Jones 
 Charles Salter 
 R. T. Vale 
 W. T.C.Kelly ... 
 This was C. E. Jones' first 
 
 appearance as a candi- 
 
 2770 
 2565 
 1743 
 1742 
 1689 
 1113 
 569 
 
 date on his return from a purgatorial sojourn of 
 several years in the United States. Fincham 
 and he polled equally, and the returning officer 
 gave the seat to Fincham. 
 
 1886. 
 
 
 
 March 5. 
 
 W. C. Smith 
 
 ... 3164 
 
 
 C. E. Jones 
 
 ... 2478 
 
 
 R. T. Vale 
 
 ... 2066 
 
 
 G. R. Fincham ... 
 
 ... 1927 
 
 
 Henry Bell 
 
 ... 1814 
 
 
 BALLARAT EAST, 
 
 
 1856, 
 
 INCLUDKD IN NORTH (!RANT. 
 
 
 October 10. 
 
 J. B. Humffray (elected) ... 
 
 ... 690 
 
 
 Thos. Loader 
 
 ... 255 
 
 
 George Black 
 
 24
 
 REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 333 
 
 BALLARAT EAST, 
 
 PROCLAIM KJi 
 
 AN ELECTORAL DISTRICT IN 1859, WITH TWO MEIV 
 REPRESENT IT IN THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 
 
 BKRS TO 
 
 1859, 
 
 General Election. 
 
 
 August 26. 
 
 John Cathie 
 
 ... 1136 
 
 
 J. B. Humffray ... 
 
 .. 1112 
 
 
 Richd. Belford ... 
 
 .. 556 
 
 1860. 
 
 
 
 December 7. 
 
 J. B. Humffray returned unopposed. 
 
 
 
 Mr. Humffray had accepted office as Minister 
 
 of 
 
 
 Mines in the Heales Ministry. 
 
 
 1861. 
 
 General Election. 
 
 
 August 2. 
 
 J. B. Humffray ... 
 
 .. 1245 
 
 
 Jno. Cathie 
 
 .. 851 
 
 
 Andrew Semple ... 
 
 .. 706 
 
 
 J. Christian Lyon 
 
 20 
 
 1864. 
 
 General Election. 
 
 
 November 3. 
 
 C. E. Jones 
 
 .. 702 
 
 
 Charles Dyte 
 
 .. 521 
 
 
 T. Corcoran 
 
 .. 437 
 
 
 J. B. Humffray ... 
 
 .. 332 
 
 
 A. Semple 
 
 .. 242 
 
 
 Samuel Deeble 
 
 .. 107 
 
 1866. 
 
 General Election. 
 
 
 January 29. 
 
 C. E. Jones 
 
 .. 954 
 
 
 C. Dyte .. 
 
 .. 939 
 
 
 T. Corcoran 
 
 .. 670 
 
 1868. 
 
 General Election. 
 
 
 February 29. 
 
 C. Dyte... 
 
 .. 1042 
 
 
 J. B. Humffray ... 
 
 836 
 
 
 C. E. Jones 
 
 .. 826 
 
 
 James Eddy 
 
 .-. 777 
 
 1871. 
 
 
 
 March 16. 
 
 John James 
 
 .. 607 
 
 
 Robert Walsh 
 
 .. 582 
 
 
 E. Steinfeld 
 
 .. 551 
 
 , 
 
 G. R. Fincham ... 
 
 .. 482 
 
 
 T. M'Dermott ... 
 
 .. 352 
 
 
 C. Dyte ... 
 
 348 
 
 
 W. B. Rodier 
 
 .. 338 
 
 
 S. Deeble 
 
 147 
 
 1874. 
 
 
 
 April 22. 
 
 Townsend M'Dermott 
 
 .. 1046 
 
 
 John James 
 
 .. 742 
 
 
 E. Steinfeld 
 
 .. 586
 
 334 
 
 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 
 J. B. Humffray 
 
 
 C. Dyte ... 
 
 1877. 
 
 
 May 11. 
 
 D. Brophy 
 
 
 J. James 
 
 
 J. Russell 
 
 
 T. M'Dermott 
 
 
 VV. T. C. Kelly 
 
 1880. 
 
 
 February 28. 
 
 J. James... 
 
 
 J, Russell 
 
 
 D. Brophy 
 
 1880. 
 
 
 July 14. 
 
 D. Brophy 
 
 
 J. James 
 
 
 J. Russell 
 
 188.3. 
 
 
 February 22. 
 
 J. Russell 
 
 
 J. James 
 
 
 D. Brophy 
 
 1886. 
 
 
 March 5. 
 
 J. Russell 
 
 1882. 
 November G. 
 
 1883. 
 April 10. 
 
 1884. 
 August 20. 
 
 E. Murphy 
 
 J, James 
 
 C. Dyte ... 
 
 Mr. James had accepted office as Minister of Mines 
 in the Gillies-Deakin Coalition Cabinet, but his 
 manner of taking office, and the Coalition he 
 joined, were both unpopular in Ballarat East, 
 and hence his rejection. 
 
 238 
 
 174 
 
 1328 
 
 1325 
 
 1019 
 
 505 
 
 221 
 
 1795 
 1756 
 1742 
 
 1817 
 1644 
 1631 
 
 1981 
 1826 
 1724 
 
 2068 
 
 1728 
 
 1694 
 
 1.^ 
 
 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. 
 WELLINGTON PROVINCE. 
 James Campl)ell. 
 Returned luiopposcd in place of the Hon. V. Ormond, 
 assigned to the Wellington Province by Act 702. 
 
 James Campbell. 
 Returned unopposed on iii-s acceptance of office as 
 Postii iaster-( ! eneral in the Service-Berry M iniatry. 
 
 Henry Cuthbert ... ... ... ... 25.35 
 
 Jamea Long ... ... ... ... 2126 
 
 Mr. Cutlibert had retired by rotation when thus re- 
 elected.
 
 REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 335 
 
 1886. 
 February 22. 
 
 1886. 
 June 30. 
 
 1886. 
 August 17. 
 
 Henry Cuthbert. 
 Returned unopposed on acceptance of office as 
 Minister of Justice in the Gillies-Deakin 
 Ministry. 
 
 David Ham ... ... ... ... 2832 
 
 Thomas Drummond \Vanliss ... ... 1958 
 
 This election was caused by the retirement of the 
 Hon. J. Campbell. 
 
 Henry Gore ... ... ... ... 2512 
 
 Thomas Drummond Wanliss ... ... 2511 
 
 This election ensued on the Hon. G. F. BelcJier's 
 
 retirement by rotation. Mr. Wanliss petitioned 
 
 against Mr. Gore's return.
 
 F. W. NIVEN AND CO., PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, BALLARAT.
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 In tlie last chapter of tliis book reference is made to a " boom " 
 in the share market with regard to tlie Sulieman Pasha Co.'s 
 stock. Since the printers worked off that chapter, and whilst 
 the engravers have been busily putting finishing touches to the 
 illustrations of the volume, a general revival in mining business 
 has arisen, which promises much good for this city and district. 
 Mr. Allan's map, which is, really, one of the most striking illus- 
 trations of the book, is also a very opportune pictorial record of 
 the present physical aspect of mining here. It is the completest 
 map of the Ballarat mines ever prepared. Close upon forty-five 
 square miles of ground are there depicted, ground industrially 
 famous in the annals of Australian mining ; for it includes the 
 first and richest of all great alluvial centres on this continent, 
 and the site of the younger and now important quartz mines of 
 the Ballarat and Buninyong divisions of the district. The inap 
 is, also, a proof of the complete revolution which has taken place 
 in local mining. More than a hundred claims are shown by Mr. 
 Allan, spread over the very centre and borders of the famous 
 alluvial territory of the Ballarat basin and its contiguous valleys, 
 but there is not a single alluvial claim in all this carefully 
 measured and recorded series of mines. Thus completely has 
 vanished the original form of Ballarat mining, and the one which 
 roused the whole of these colonies from their antecedent dullness 
 to a new life, and drew from all parts of the world the sturdy 
 gold-hunters whose doings have in part been noted in the body 
 of this book. The Ballarat basin, into which and out of which 
 flowed the ancient auriferous gutters, is a hollow in the Great 
 Divide, which stretches irregularly west by north across the 
 colony from the greater Coi'dillera, which is the backbone of the 
 continent, and reaches from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Cape 
 Howe. The schistose rocks of the Divide are interlaced with 
 lodes of gold-bearing quartz, and the alluvial gutters and reef-
 
 338 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 washes which the earlier diggers worked were parts of the debris 
 of the denuded rocks that once towered high above the highest 
 of existing levels on the ranges of to-day. Successive denudations 
 and successive volcanic overflows during incalculable ages have 
 respectively created and covered the various alluvial deposits 
 during what geologists tell us were the pliocene and miocene 
 periods ; and the peculiarity of the Ballarat basin and its con- 
 tiguous deposits is the fact that they occur where the forces of 
 those geologic times broke down a portion of the western face of 
 the ranges, and made a clean gap in the mountain spur. The 
 volume of golden detritus was thus immense, and the deposits of 
 the precious metal answerably large and rich. But all these 
 auriferous deposits were the product of the quartz lodes which 
 lay in the silurian rocks of the ranges, and thereby hangs the 
 golden and industrial tale of to-day's quartz mining in this gold- 
 field. 
 
 A glance at the map will discover a multiplicity of short red 
 lines, black-edged, and all running in a similar direction, namely, 
 from north to south. Those lines indicate the known quartz 
 lodes, and the strike of them all is, roughly stated, from a little 
 west of north to a little east of south. That is the feature of the 
 main lodes, and their underlie is to the west, but spurs, shoots, 
 droppers, and so forth, occur in all directions ; those of them 
 which are found on the east side of the lode-walls being in- 
 variably the richer in tlie precious metal, the bulk of the gold in 
 many cases being obtained from relatively small masses of quartz. 
 A width of country four or five miles broad is thus gridironed 
 with lodes, the matrices of the gold wliich filled our gutters, 
 spread nuggets and reef-waslies over the sides of the ancient 
 valleys, or still awaits tlie extracting arts of the modern quartz 
 miner. 
 
 Very early after the gold discovery in 1851, there were 
 rude and isolated essays in quartz mining, but it was not till 
 the bulk of the alluvial deposits had been exhausted that any- 
 thing like systematic quartz mining set in. The alluvial digger 
 had now and then broken through gold-bearing quartz lodes 
 whilst following or searching after the gutters, but the first
 
 FIRST QUARTZ VENTURES. 339 
 
 attempts at quartz mining were made where the quartz out- 
 cropped in tlie ranges, and thus Dr. Otway and the Port Phillip 
 Co. at the Black Hill, some others about the Little Bendigo and 
 adjacent gullies, and Kaulbach on Old Post Office Hill, began 
 to demonstrate the important fact that the cataclysms or the 
 slower action of the geologic ages had not robbed the rocks of all 
 their gold. The author well remembers seeing, some thirty years 
 ago, Kaulbach's little party knocking out bright specimens of 
 virgin gold in quartz as the men were opening their first shaft. 
 They were only down about three feet then where now there is 
 a great chasm formed by the subsidences of the mining of the 
 after years. The recent brilliant finds along the deeper depths 
 of the Indicator line were more valuable, but n( t purer or 
 brighter than those all but surface specimens from Kaulbach's 
 shaft. The deeper discoveries of the more modern workers have 
 been in larger bulk, hundreds of ounces of virgin gold being 
 found in bunches of quartz hinged together, as it were, by the 
 pure, precious metal. There were discouraging theories set about 
 by some of the geological savants at first, to the efi'ect that most, 
 if not all, the gold was in the upper portions of the lodes, that the 
 rich alluvial gutters were an indication of that fact, and that it 
 would not pay to go to the expense of seeking profitable results 
 in deep quartz mining. But that theory is now pretty well ex- 
 ploded. The splendid discoveries made at Sandhurst at deeper 
 levels than the deepest yet reached in Ballarat, as well as some 
 finds at Stawell, have proved that the lodes do pay at great 
 depths, and have raised the question whether or not still deeper 
 levels will yield still richer results. 
 
 Ballarat, whose larger and richer alluvial deposits took a 
 longer time to exhaust than those of other fields, is only a young 
 beginner, so to speak, in quartz mining as a systematised industry, 
 Clunes, Sandhurst, Stawell, were all earlier at work in that 
 sense, but this centre is now a quartz centre, and it is steadily 
 testing the issue — will deep quartz mining pay, or will it not pay 1 
 For some years quartz mines have been paying along the belt of 
 lodes which traverse the eastern portion of Ballai-at, and more 
 recently the western belt beneath the plateau of West Ballarat
 
 340 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 and Sebastopol has been invested, and with gratifying success. 
 This later success is the more notable, as deeper levels have been 
 reached there than in the east, and the richest quartz has, in 
 some instances, been found at the lowest depths. But this success 
 on the western plateau is also an incentive to renewed enterprise 
 in the east, or might have been, had there not occurred along the 
 eastern belt of lodes successes enough to stimulate to fresh 
 exertions and create a stronger faith in the value and perma- 
 nency of the lodes there. The mining revival here is, doubtless, 
 due to a variety of concurring causes, in which the reduction of 
 the bank rates of interest on deposits may count for one, and 
 may help to prolong the renewed output of mining energy ; but 
 the substantial discoveries along the strike of the Indicator, the 
 better fortunes of the Sulieman Pasha in discovering good gold 
 in the Pasha or Danish lode, and the excellent promise in 
 the mines on the plateau, must be taken to be the more 
 positive causes in operation. The rise of £36,000 in the 
 aggregate value of the Sulieman Pasha stock in a space 
 of 14 days in August has not, indeed, been sustained, but 
 a substantial advance has been maintained, and in the same 
 period some nine or ten stocks in Ballarat rose near £70,000 
 in aggregate value ; whilst a host of other stocks in this and 
 adjacent districts, but mostly held and managed here, have par- 
 taken in tlie general advance. It is always the case in the his- 
 tory of our mining revivals, that the rush of speculators to the 
 sliare market prompts to a rush of promoters of new ventures, 
 and the market soon gets flooded with new stocks, good, bad, and 
 indifferent, till the supply exceeds the demand, and a lull ensues. 
 This has already come in the current revival, and that it has 
 come thus early is a matter of satisfaction, inasmuch as it will 
 tend to arrest the launching of new claims, prevent the accumula- 
 tion of merely bogus prospectuses, hold the fervor of speculation 
 within safer limits, and so far save the district from a recurrence 
 of those disastrous collapses which haves too oft(!n been tlie bane 
 of mining revivals on the goklfields. In the meantime good is 
 done. The revival itself is not without solid cause at the start, 
 for the actual discovery of fresh gold, or the immediate prospect
 
 THE TWO LODE BELTS. 341 
 
 of it, gives the initial impulse ; and thougli, as the movement 
 gathers force, excesses may be committed, there is bound to be 
 some solid residuum of profit in the development of mines already 
 in existence, and in the opening of fresh ground to the pick of 
 the miner. 
 
 The accompanying map of the Ballarat mines gives at a 
 glance a view of a large field already in active work, and the 
 work done is but as the mere scratching of the surface compared 
 with what remains to be achieved. For although on the western 
 belt of lodes the Band and Albion Consols Company has reached 
 a level of 1400 feet below the surface, and the Star of the East 
 Company a level of 1280 feet, both in paying ground, the bulk 
 of the mines on the eastern belt of lodes have not reached a 
 depth of 500 feet, and this in spite of the greater nearness of 
 that belt to the centre of the auriferous formation, and of the 
 sources of the grand alluvial gutters of the early days of mining 
 in Ballarat. True, as to levels, the difierence between the 
 eastern and western mines is not so great in relation to sea level 
 as appears in the figures stated, since a large number of the 
 eastern mines have their surface below that of the western ones ] 
 but after making allowance for that, the fact remains that the 
 eastern mines generally liave only reached shallower depths, and 
 have, in all probability, as have also the western ones, golden re- 
 sources whose profitable exploration will be the work of many 
 generations of miners. No fewer than between 30 and 40 lodes 
 strike through the two belts — as many as that have already been 
 discovered — and the diamond drill has proved gold in Ballarat 
 East at more than double the depth yet reached in any mine on 
 that belt of lodes. The more famous, because most proved, of 
 the eastern lodes are the Indicator 1 and 2, Majestic, Scandi- 
 navian, Western Slates, Rothschild, Danish, Ribbon Slates, 
 Sulieman Pasha, Pug, Fire Brigade, Oregon, Yorkshire, Old Post 
 Ofiice, Llanberris, Promised Land, Temperance, Monte Christo. 
 The Temperance, at Little Bendigo, is said to be probably the 
 most true and pei'fect lode in Victoria, as to its solid regularity 
 and continuity of strike and underlie, barring, of course, the 
 occurrence of ci'osscourses. But even they only shift the site of
 
 342 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 the lode ; they do not change its quality of permanence and 
 regularity. Looking, then, at the fact that the relatively 
 deep mines of the western plateau are proving good gold-bearing 
 lodes, that the older and shallower mines on the eastern belt are 
 now paying better as they go deeper, and that the diamond drill 
 has brought gold from depths below the deepest yet reached by 
 the miner with his pick on either belt of lodes, it is clear that good 
 warrant exists for a revival of enterprise that shall be not a mere 
 spurt of transient market speculation, but a steady, and lasting, 
 and increasingly profitable development of local resources. 
 
 This is how the author regards the present revival, in spite 
 of its share in the customary alloy of febrile speculation, and its 
 occasional symptoms of bogus enterprise. And there is this great 
 consolation to local observers of the movement, that the revival 
 is mainly one of purely local application. In past times Ballarat 
 adventure has too often spent its capital like rain upon distant 
 places, and met with no adequate I'eturn, and often with only 
 disastrous loss ; but now we have a revival at our own doors, open 
 to local criticism and, best thing of all, inspired by local suc- 
 cesses. Happily, too, this has come about whilst there remains 
 most of the well-proven band of enterprising capitalists and 
 mining experts, to whose spirit of adventure and plucky disdain 
 of large risks this and other mining centres owe so much of their 
 successful development. This current revival will see prospecting 
 work done here where all, or the great bulk, of the fertilising 
 capital is found for the enterprise. The wage-fund will be dis- 
 tributed at our own doors, will employ our own people, give cus- 
 tomers to our own tradesmen, create a multiplicity of wholesome 
 demands, and, let us be permitted to hope, furnish resultant 
 demonstration of practically inexhaustible resources in auriferous 
 lodes on both sides of the Yarrowee. 
 
 We will now make some brief reference to the several lines 
 of claims shown on the map before us, individualising their his- 
 tory and prospects, and mentioning the more prominent of the 
 promoters of the various mining operations extant to-day. Com. 
 paring what follows here with the text of tho mining chapter in 
 this book, one or two seeming discrepancies in dates may be
 
 THE LLANBERRIS COMPANY. 343 
 
 noticed, but they are in reality consistent with each other for the 
 most part, as referring to different stages of organic development. 
 Looking along the eastern belt of lodes, where local quartz mining had 
 its beginning, we see the Llanberris claim. It is on the southern 
 edge of the alluvial basin, whose opening through the gap in the 
 Divide stretches from Golden Point to the Black Hill, and we 
 make it our starting point, because the Llanberris Company is 
 the oldest living quartz company on the whole line. As we have 
 said. Dr. Otway, the Port Phillip Company, and others were the 
 first essayists in quartz mining on the Ballarat East lodes, and it 
 was Mr. Thompson, an officer of the Port Phillip Company, who 
 first, in a report to his directors, propounded the, at that time, 
 incredible theory that the alluvial leads would flow from the 
 eastern basin out westward beneath the basaltic plateau of Bal- 
 larat and Sebastopol. But all those earlier ventures died out, and 
 the Llanberris Company, formed in 1857, is now the oldest ex- 
 isting organisation. Thomas Jones, of Llanbei'is, in old Wales, 
 had worked the alluvial where the quartz claim is now, and he 
 and others had noticed that the gutter encountered a thick high 
 wall of quartz there, so when the alluvial was worked out the 
 quartz claim was taken up. The New Enterpi'ise Company took 
 up the ground next south, and won 4000oz. of gold the first year, 
 or £16,000 worth — not 16,000oz. as is inadvertently stated in the 
 chapter on mining. That company then failed, the Messrs. Lear- 
 month taking the claim and erectinga battery and other plant. They 
 failed, and sold to the Llanberris Company, who removed theirwork- 
 ing staff" to the Enterprise shaft. Jones, whose native place, plus an 
 extra r inserted by some official blunderer, gave the name to the 
 claim, had six shares for furnishing an engine and other plant. 
 Messrs. Rowlands and Lewis long held shares in the mine, and the 
 management was famous for its economy. The winnings were 
 not brilliant for years, and yet on averages of from Idwt. to 4dwt. 
 per ton paid expenses, cleared off" debts, and even paid occasional 
 dividends. But lately the company has shared in the richer stone 
 of that comparatively modern discovery, the Indicator, and has 
 been able to pay regular monthly dividends. The company's 
 capital is £24,000, in 2000 shares. Mr. Theophilus Williams is
 
 344 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 the manager, Mr. W. Gale is chairman, and liis co-directors are 
 Messrs. T. Humphrys, H. Jones, T. Osborne, J. Hicks, O. 
 Thomas, and the Hon. D. Ham, M.L.C. The new impetus born 
 of the re\dval has touched this company also, and larger opera- 
 tions have been decided on, involving a partition of the claim 
 with a view to its being more thoroughly explored. These parti- 
 tions, as West Llanberris and Llanberris No. 1, but, yesterday, 
 inchoate formations, are now duly organised, and will, no doubt, 
 be soon in active operation. 
 
 The Indicator is a black pyritous vertical line in the slate 
 x'ock, striking, like the other lodes, north and south, thin as the 
 edge of a knife at times, at others thickening to some inches ; 
 sometimes lost by crosscourse throws east or west, as all the lodes 
 are, but always rich in itself in gold or indicating golden riches 
 in the contiguous quartz, and always keeping, as do the lodes as a 
 whole, the north and south strike. Other lines rich in pyrites and 
 of similar features indicative of the presence of gold, exist both 
 in the eastern and western belt of lodes, but the one specially 
 known as The Indicator passes through the eastern half of the 
 Llanberris mine, and thence north and south through the spur of 
 the Divide to as yet unknown distances. It has been traced in 
 many claims on either hand, is specially rich in nuggety virgin 
 gold, and to its denudation in the vanished portions of the rocks 
 is attributed much of the richness of the alluvial gutters of the 
 basin. 
 
 The Last Chance Company, manager Mr. J. M'Whae, chair- 
 man L. L. Meanowski, co-directors Hon. H. Gore, M.L.C, E. 
 Morey, Hon. D. Ham, M.L.C, and W. Irwin, was organised on 
 the 2nd May, 1882, capital 20,000 shares of 10s., as the suc- 
 cessor of the older Endeavor Company, wliose venture was in 
 the hands of Messrs. Balhausen and Goller. They sold to a 
 band of tributors, and with them the existing company was 
 formed. 
 
 The Britannia United Company, manager Mr. J. M. Bickett, 
 capital £12,000, in 24,000 shares, was organised on the 7th March, 
 1887, and is the old Britannia and Major combined. The direc- 
 tors are Messrs. W. H. Batten (chairman), J. Wittkowski, C M.
 
 THE DKEPE8T EASTERN SHAFT. 345 
 
 Watson, R. Tliurling, and L. L. Roberts. The company is 
 adding to its plant, and is preparing to sink deeper and generally 
 to enter upon a completer style of operations. 
 
 The Victoria United is the nucleus of a newly-formed 
 mining combination of ventures, all the interests in which belong 
 to a company in whose projection Miss Alice Cornwell had a 
 leading part. This lady's name has been mentioned in the body 
 of this book, and reference will be made further on to her enter- 
 prise in connection with this and other mining undertakings in 
 and around Ballarat. 
 
 The Sulieman and Indicator Company, capital £10,000, in 
 20,000 shares, is a new organisation for working the Black Hill 
 United mine. The manager is Mr. G. Ruffle, and the directors 
 are Messrs. Alex. Gilpin, W. H. Batten, J. Hardy, J. Mager, and 
 P. M'Whae. 
 
 The Queen's Jubilee Company, capital £20,000, in £1 
 shares, manager Mr. E. H. L. Swifte, directors the Hon. Colonel 
 Smith, M.L.A. (chairman), and Messrs. Alex. Gilpin, E. Morey, 
 T. Stocldart, Hon. J. Williamson, M.L.C., C. Seal, and D. 
 M'Phail, was organised on the 1st November, 1886. This com- 
 pany has the deepest shaft yet sunk on the belt. It is down 
 782 feet now, and the company proposes to carry it down to a 
 depth of 1250 feet, pent-houses and other proper safety arrange- 
 ments being in use, so as to allow of shaft sinking below the 782 
 feet level, whilst stoping operations are in progi-ess in the levels 
 above. The company's resolve to sink so deep is due in part to 
 the revelations made by the diamond drill in adjacent ground, 
 the No. 1 bore having proved likely rock at 1000 feet, and the 
 No. 2 bore having cut gold-bearing quartz at over 1500 feet. 
 
 The Black Hill Company is the prolific parent of a large 
 family of claims, for that company's original territory and its sub- 
 sequent accretions have at various dates been parcelled out in 
 divers new ventures. The Sulieman and Indicator, born Black 
 Hill United, is one ; Queen's Jubilee another. North and South 
 Sulieman, Nos. 2 and 3 Queen others. All these are not the off- 
 spring of the present revival, but most of them share in its 
 advantages, and owe to it a fresh accession of energy, if uot of
 
 346 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 solid capital. The Black Hill Company, after some preliminary 
 operations, decided to register in 1862, with a capital of £37,200, 
 in £15 shares, and on the 21st January, 1881, the present No 
 Liability Company was completed, with a capital of £44,640, in 
 14,880 shares of £3 each, of which £1 was paid-up. The 
 manager is Mr. J. F. Smith, and the directors are Messrs. C. 
 Seal (chairman), J, Hardy, E. A. and A. Wynne, and D. 
 Cameron. This company did most of the work in rending the 
 Black Hill in two, and in tunnelling its deeper levels, and its 
 large works and its fine battery of 60 heads made it for years the 
 model as well as show quartz mine of this centre. Some statistics 
 in connection with the company will be found in the chapter on 
 local mining development. 
 
 The claims mentioned so far all lie on the strike of the In- 
 dicator, and the same line is presumed to exist in the Garden 
 Gully claim on the furthest north of the map, or, if not in it, 
 then the brood of new ventures mapped immediately west may 
 have it, though all that is conjecture at present. Turning back 
 southward and westward through the brood of new things, still 
 callow, but promising to be soon well feathered, we come to 
 
 The Sulieman Pasha Company's claim, within whose ground, 
 on the bank of the alluvial lead there, was discovered the famous 
 Welcome Nugget tabled in the mining chapter of this book. 
 That enormous mass of gold, and the rich gutter and reef-washes 
 which were found there, were all so many proofs of the auriferous 
 value of the denuded quartz lodes that once existed in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and the company's success has shown that the lodes 
 remaining are worth working. The Sulieman Pasha and the 
 Danish are the main lodes of the claim, and tlie recent " boom" 
 in the company's stock was caused by the striking of stone at a 
 low level in the Danish lode that produced from two to three 
 ounces of gold to the ton. This discovery was doubly encouraging, 
 inasmuch as it was at a deeper level than usual in the company's 
 workings, and as it showed that Ijesides the Indicator there 
 existed a valuable line of lode whose future working would in all 
 likelihood be a permanently profitable industry. The result, so 
 far, has been a great change in the status of the company. In
 
 SULIEMAN PASHA COMPANY. 347 
 
 the opening week of this year the company's stock was in 12,000 
 shares, and was offered at 6s. 3d. per share, without business, but 
 by the middle of August, after the latest of several new hauls of 
 gold, the company's stock, doubled to 24,000 shares, sold as high 
 as 60s. per share, or 120s. per original 12,000th share. This 
 highest rate of 60s. per share has not been sustained, for the 
 phenomenal output of 707oz. for the week at the time of the 
 highest "boom" has not been maintained, and at the time of this 
 writing the stock is sold at 45s., or over 80s. for the share exist- 
 ing at the opening of the year. Still, the altered position of the 
 company is remarkable, even looking at the weekly output of 
 smaller sums since then, namely, 285oz., 306oz., 324oz., as con- 
 trasted with the fortnightly yields of from 37oz. to 83|oz. during 
 the early part of the year. It is not that the mining revival is to 
 be attributed to the revolution in this company's prospects, for 
 the causes of the revival are manifold, and there is always a some- 
 thing in the air, so to speak, in revival times, by means of which 
 speculators are drawn from the four winds of heaven, and the 
 force of the movement is accelerated. The fact is that the Sulie- 
 man Pasha Company's success is but one of many similar suc- 
 cesses ; but it is certain that its good fortune has had a special 
 effect for good upon the whole of the Ballarat East mine prospects, 
 coupled, as it has been, with the heavy nuggetings along the 
 Indicator strike in the Llanberris, Prince Regent, and North 
 Woah Hawp mines. The Sulieman Pasha Company has a good 
 plant, and a new shaft on the edge of Main street, near Humffray 
 street, is being sunk with good speed, and will enable the company 
 to carry on mine operations very effectively. The company's 
 stock is in 24,000 shares of £1 each, and the first dividend this 
 year (Is.) has lately been declared. The first incorporation was 
 on the 3rd January, 1878, with 4000 shares of £1. That capital 
 was in a year or two increased to £12,000, and this year the 
 further increase was made as already stated. The manager is 
 Mr. J. Curthoys, and the directors are Messrs. Isaac Jonas 
 /chairman), E. Murphy, M.L.A, J. Hardy, and J. and M- 
 Wasley. It should be recorded in this company's honor that it 
 repaid a £500 loan from the Government prospecting vote some
 
 348 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 few years ago. The loan was an instance of aid fruitfully ap- 
 plied, and repayment was a phenomenon of corporate honesty. 
 
 A perfect cloud of Suliemans and other ventures has been 
 created within the last few weeks, stretching away north of the 
 Black Hill and away south of the parent company, but we have 
 not space here to refer to them in detail. The map shows their 
 chances in relation to the crack lodes, and the men who are 
 directing the undertakings are generally men at once of means and 
 expert knowledge. A promising discovery in the North Sulieman, 
 one of the Black Hill Company's offshoots, occurs at the time of 
 this writing, to illustrate the probabilities of ultimate success, less 
 or more. So we take, also, as a sample of promoting names in 
 these newer claims, and of public mining confidence, the board of 
 the South Sulieman Company, of which Mr. J. M'Whae is the 
 manager, and the directors Messrs. Isaac Jonas, Alex. Gilpin, J. 
 Murray, M. Butterly, and E. J. Carroll. 
 
 Reverting to the leading mines south of the Llanberris claim, 
 we have before us the Speedwell on the slope of the range between 
 the sources of the Red Hill and Canadian alluvial leads. The 
 ground was taken up for quartz a quarter century ago, and a good 
 deal of gold has been obtained thence at intervals. Not long 
 since the mine fell into the hands of the late Henry Costin, and 
 at his death it was sold to a company — syndicate is the modern 
 phrase — in which Miss Alice Cornwell is a shareholder. The 
 original claim has been added to by the purcliase of adjoining 
 ground, and as the new proprietary will have means to work the 
 mine properly, and as the Indicator line is included in the ground, 
 there is good reason to anticipate for the new adventurers a 
 liberal share of tlie success to wliich their enterprise will entitle 
 them. 
 
 The southern boundary of the Speedwell mine brings us to 
 the Sovereign Hill, so named from a company that 15 or 20 years 
 ago was subsidised by local subscription for the purpose of sink- 
 ing a shaft 1000 feet to test the value of our lodes at that depth. 
 At that time the experiment was regarded as an almost wonderful 
 efTort, and it certainly was a plucky conception, not to say 
 sagacious withal, for miners hero had not then learnt the profit-
 
 BRILLIANT FINDS ON THE INDICATOR. 349 
 
 ableness of our lodes at even greater depths than that. Financial 
 and other difficulties arrested the Sovereign shaft works after a 
 few hundred feet of sinking had been done, and the project was 
 abandoned, as were a host of other ventures about the same date 
 along the White Horse and Canadian ranges. Meanwhile less 
 ambitious enterprise attacked the lines of lodes in the ranges 
 thereabouts, whence the Canadian, with its " Jewellers Shops," 
 and the Prince Regent and Sailors' Gully leads on the east, and 
 the Nightingale, Milkmaids, Malakoff, Redan, White Horse, 
 Frenchman's, and Cobblers leads on the west, had given to the 
 alluvial miners of the fifties and the sixties such splendid harvests 
 of gold. From 20 years since till now quartz mining has been 
 going on there, both small co-operative parties and public incor- 
 porated companies engaging in the work, and fortunes have been 
 made by the luckier of the adventurers. Some of the largest 
 hauls of gold have been made by co-operative parties, whose 
 winnings have never been disclosed to the public, and it is now 
 known that a very large share of those successes have been along 
 the southern strike of the Indicator line. 
 
 Pearse's Lease is the name of a bundle of areas on the 
 northern side of the Canadian Gully, and several parties are 
 working on the leasehold, Pearse, the lessor, having a battery 
 there for his own and their service. As a rule, the results of 
 operations there are not publicly disclosed, but it is pretty well- 
 known that both the lessor and his sub-tenants have done fairly 
 well. 
 
 The North Woah Hawp claim adjoins Pearse's Lease on the 
 south, the map showing us that the rich Canadian gutter ran be- 
 tween the two areas. This claim, no doubt, owes its dividend- 
 paying power to the gold on the Indicator line, which traverses 
 the ground. The company's stock is in 22,000 shares of 5s. 
 Mr. J. M'Whae is the manager, and the directors are Messrs. J. 
 H. Williams (chairman), W. Irwin, R. T. Blackwell, T. Bailey, 
 H. G. Williams, J. Johnson, and J. Bellinden. 
 
 The Prince Regent Company is one of the lucky ones, for, 
 like the North Woah Hawp, it has come upon some brilliant 
 specimens of rich stone lately on the strike of the Indicator.
 
 350 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 Hundreds of ounces of bright gold in small portions of dazzling 
 white stone have been exhibited at the Corner by those two com- 
 panies lately. The Prince Regent stock is in 20,000 shares of 
 10s. each, the manager is Mr. C. Barker, and the directors are 
 Messrs. T. Lyons (chairman), J. M. Davie, J. Lawrie, R. Don, 
 and Jas. Curtis. 
 
 The southern extension line stretches out with a host of 
 claims, but with only two or three that have any great hold yet 
 on public notice. Midway between the Prince Regent and the 
 Desoza and Buninyong Estate is the Rothschild. A mine near 
 there earlier had that historic name, but did not justify its title. 
 With the favoring gales of the revival, more advancement 
 towards fortune may be made by the new one. Mr. A. J. 
 E. Morey is the manager, and the directors are Messrs. R. M. 
 Serjeant (chairman), B. J. Fink, E. Morey, P. Matthews, and 
 J. F. Levien. Capital £24,000, in 24,000 shares. 
 
 The Desoza is now less famous than it was a few years ago, 
 when its principal proprietor, after whom the mine and one of 
 the lodes in it are named, signalised some rare golden results by 
 taking a trip to Europe, bearing with him a large circlet made of 
 gold from the mine, and destined to be a grateful votive ottering 
 to a venerated friend in the old world. There were preliminary 
 rites of picturesque celebration at the mine, where Desoza's gene- 
 rosity and philanthropy worked other marvels of some note at the 
 time. Unhappily the Desoza lode did not preserve its fame for 
 richness, and the mine has been for a time in shadow. 
 
 The Buninyong Estate Company has the Desoza lode, as 
 well as others, including one called the Estate, and some ex- 
 cellent results have been obtained there, although the returns for 
 some time past have not been satisfactory. Deeper levels are, 
 however, being reached and worked, and it is not unreasonable 
 to liope that before long the mine will be again very protitably 
 worked. Rich alluvial deposits were found in the vicinity, and 
 the lodes which fed them liave their remainders tliere, as have in 
 Ballarat those which made the leads of this held so celebrated all 
 the world over. The Estate stock is in 20,000 £1 shares. Mr. J. 
 A. Chalk is the manager, and the directors are Messrs. P.
 
 THE WESTERN LODE BELT. 351 
 
 Hedrick (chairman), A. M'Donald, D. M'Phail, D. Brophy, and 
 J. Whelan. 
 
 Away in the north-east corner of Mr. Allan's picture are the 
 Temperance and Monte Christo claims. We have mentioned 
 some qualities in the Temperance lode, and may add here that 
 the brave old company which worked it for so many years were 
 only deterred by the want of adequate capital from pursuing the 
 work below the deeper water levels. Now, however, fresh ad- 
 venture there is mooted, and the name of E. Morey on areas on 
 either side is a significant hint that capital is not far off, and will, 
 in all probability, be soon brought to bear in the renewal of 
 larger operations upon one of the most perfect lodes in the colony. 
 The Monte Christo lodes have in times past yielded well, and the 
 present operations are a resumption of work by men who know 
 the ground as a spot of fair promise. 
 
 It is time now to look at the western belt of lodes. That 
 belt traverses an auriferous alluvial tract hardly less notable than 
 that in the eastern basin. The history of the Koh-i-noor, Band 
 and Albion Consols, Prince of Wales, and other companies sup- 
 plies proof of the alluvial wealth of the past, and the lodes which 
 strike through the territory have since become prolific sources of 
 profit to a few companies. That the same field is likely to be 
 equally profitable to other companies cannot be reasonably 
 doubted, and that this is the general belief is shown in the large 
 number of new ventures already organised on the plateau ex- 
 tending southward from Lake Wendouree. The immense amount 
 of gold taken out of the alluvial washes of the plateau supplies 
 the same argument as to the lodes there as was deducible from 
 the relation of the lodes of the eastern belt to the richness of the 
 alluvial gutters on that side, and the validity of the logic has 
 been demonstrated by actual results on both sides. We are now, 
 in fact, seeing a mining revival which is the direct product of the 
 proof of the argument that the remainders of the lodes which fed 
 the gutters and reef-washes will pay for working. As has been 
 said, the lodes of the plateau have been worked here and there 
 for many years past, but it was not till the continuing success of 
 the Band and Albion Consols Company at low levels and, more
 
 352 
 
 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 notably still, the discoveries made by the Star of the East Com- 
 pany had struck the general attention of the public that the 
 actual possibilities of quartz raining on the western belt of lodes 
 were practically realised. The Band and Albion lode and the 
 Guiding Star or Star of the East lode are but two of the western 
 belt, but they are the richer so far as discovery has yet gone, and 
 they are eastward — that is, on the source side of the main body 
 of the alluvial deposits of the plateau — so that the inference is 
 natural that the great richness of those deposits was mainly due 
 to the lodes in question. Nearly six millions sterling worth of 
 gold was obtained from the alluvial fed in part by the detritus 
 from the lodes in question, and now the actual explorations of 
 those lodes hundreds of feet beneath the site of the alluvial bear 
 out the assumption that the continuations of the original matrices 
 of the gold are also rich in the precious metal. The successes of 
 the two leading companies already mentioned have made the 
 drainage of the plateau a more pressing public question, and have 
 led to the taking up the whole available country along the belt. 
 British capital is being sought as a help to development, but, as 
 Mr. William Luplau, in his pamphlet, " The Sebastopol Plateau," 
 reminds us, we have ourselves given evidence of our faith in the 
 legitimacy of the field by organisations actually extant to the 
 tune of a million of capital sterling. Certainly, nowhere 
 else should there be greater faith in the future of local quartz 
 mining than here, where the prodigious alluvial products of the 
 lodes have been raised, and hence the local undertakings to ex- 
 plore the remainders of the lodes themselves. 
 
 Mr. Luplau gives the following table in his pamphlet, but it in- 
 cludes only the larger portion of the ventures actually existing : — 
 
 Companiea. 
 
 Capital. 
 
 No. of Shares. 
 
 Northern Star 
 
 New Koh-i-Noor 
 
 Hand and Albion ConsolH (uncalled caiiital) .. 
 
 Star of tlio Kast 
 
 South Star .. 
 
 North l^lateau 
 
 Central Plateau 
 
 .Sebastoiiol I'lateau 
 
 South I'lateau 
 
 Prince of Wales and Bonshaw .. 
 
 
 .£ 
 48,000 
 24,000 
 11,225 
 34,000 
 12,000 
 24,000 
 25,000 
 24,000 
 24,000 
 48,000 
 
 24,000 
 24,000 
 22,450 
 24,000 
 24,000 
 24,000 
 25,000 
 24,000 
 24,000 
 24,000
 
 FAMOUS MIXING GROUNDS. ?)f)S 
 
 It is not necessary that we should deal with these tabled 
 mines in detail, and tlie two leading ones have been mentioned 
 already ii\ our chapter on mining. The present Band and 
 Albion Consols directors are Messrs. D. Bi'ophy (chairman), J. 
 H. Williams, W. H. Sewell, W. Canning, and J. Whelan. The 
 Star of the East manager is Mr. E. W. Spain, and the office is in 
 Melbourne. The directors are Messrs. G. J. Carroll (chairman), 
 Alex. Gilpin, R. T. Vale, J. Spence, and J. H. Miller. 
 
 The New Koh-i-Noor manager is Mr. J. H. Dill, and the 
 directors are Messrs. J. Embling (chairman), C. Seal, E. Morey, 
 Alex. Gilpin, J. Hicks, G. J. Carroll, and A. Wynne. This is a 
 quartz company, whose mine includes a large portion of the 
 ground held by the alluvial company whose name is revived in the 
 present company, and whose successes are noted in the mining 
 chapter. The new company holds a veiy large area, and it is tra- 
 versed by several lodes, but no large successes have yet been 
 achieved. 
 
 Some dead and some small live ventures are pictured on the 
 map between the Koh-i-Noor and Band and Albion claims, whilst 
 to the west and north are new projects yet to be tested. The 
 Band and Barton mine is one of the smaller areas from which 
 good gold has been taken, and whose resources are not yet fully 
 opened up. Mr. J. A. Chalk is the manager, and the directors 
 are Messrs. M. Butterly (chairman), R. Tolhurst, W. E. Watts, 
 D. Brophy, F. Hamilton, W. Murrell, G. G. Morton, and M. 
 Griffiths, the stock being in 24,667 .£1 shares. Mr. Barton, the 
 mine manager, who has given his name to the mine as well as 
 much shrewd practical energy, laid before the public some 
 little time ago a scheme for raising gigantic sums for pro- 
 specting and drainage purposes, but his financial proposals 
 have not received general support, and so have fallen fruit- 
 less for the present. Of the other companies, one, the Don 
 Company, has its site adjacent to the wonderfully rich reef- 
 washes worked by the dead Sir William Don Alluvial Company, 
 whose heavy gold was, no doubt, the product of the denuded lodes 
 whose remainders exist in the yet untested depths below. Gjiy's 
 Freehold Company has a capital of £24,000, in 24,000 shares.
 
 354 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 The manager is Mr. E. W. Spain, and the directors are Messrs. 
 Gr. J. Carroll (chairman), Alex. Gilpin, R. T. Vale, A. Ramsay, 
 and D. Thompson. Mr. Spain is also the manager of the Carroll 
 Company, whose capital is £52,000, in 26,000 shares. The direc- 
 tors are Messrs. G. J. Carroll (chairman), J. B. Dean, Alex. 
 Gilpin, R. T. Vale, and W. Hicks. The North Plateau Company 
 is managed by Mr. C. W^ilson, and the directors are Messrs. R. 
 Tolhurst (chairman), the Hon. H. Gore, M.L.C., W. Murrell, W. 
 Luplau, Alex. Gilpin, H. Parkin, and G. J. Carroll. The South 
 Plateau Company's manager is Mr. J. P. Roberts, and the direc- 
 tors are Messrs. Alex. Gilpin (chairman), T. Stoddart, W. Luplau, 
 G. King, and W. Irwin. The Northern Star Company's 
 manager is Mr. C. Barker, and the directors are Messrs. Alex. 
 Gilpin (chairman), E. Morey, the Hon. D. Ham, M.L.O., G. J. 
 Carroll, and J. Robb. The South Star Company's manager is 
 Mr. E. W, Stephens, and the directors are Messrs. R. T. Vale 
 (chairman), Alex. Gilpin, G. J. Carroll, J. Mager, and T. Stoddart. 
 The Sebastopol Star Company has a capital of £6000, in 
 24,000 shares. Mr. J. P. Roberts is the manager, and the 
 directors are Messrs. J. Wall (chairman), Alex. Gilpin, L. S. 
 Blair, W. Irwin, and W. Murrell. The Don Company is in the 
 managerial care of Mr. C. Barker, and the capital and the direc- 
 tory are the same as in the Southern Star Company. The capital 
 of companies mentioned in Mr. Luplau's tciblc is not repeated 
 here. 
 
 The Sir Henry Loch Company, next north from the Band and 
 Albion Consols, has a capital of £24,000, in 24,000 shares, is just 
 getting its tirst gold, and has fair promise of success. Mr. W. 
 M. Acheson is tlie manager, and the directors are Messrs. J. 
 Coghlan (chairman), Alex. M'Vitty, J. J. Giiller, J. Donaghy, and 
 W. G. VVilliMms. 
 
 The Sebastopol Plateau manager is M r. J. A. Chalk, and the 
 directors are Messrs. W. H. Barnard (chairman), Alex. Gilpin, 
 R. Wrigley, W. Luplau, D. Fern, J . Curtis, and E. Jefirey. 
 
 The Central Plateau manager is Mr. W, M. Acheson, and the 
 directors nro. Messrs. Vj. O. Withorden (chairmaw), Alex. Gilpin, 
 T. Stoddart, J. Cotter, and H. Goddard.
 
 SOME LAllGE VENTUUES. 355 
 
 The Prince of Wales and Bonshaw Company has an enormous 
 territory, comprising the areas once held liy the alluvial companies 
 of those names, and one or more of the champion lodes of the 
 plateau strike through the claim, besides several others yet to be 
 proved. The manager is Mr. J. A. Chalk, and the directors are 
 Messrs. "W. Bailey (chairman), E. Morey, O. E. Edwards, M. 
 Griffiths, and P. Matthews. 
 
 The Owen's and Band of Hope Freehold and Leasehold 
 manager is Mr. E. W. Spain, and the directors are Messrs. G. J. 
 Carroll, Alex. Gilpin, R. T. Vale, J. B. Dean, and J. Jenkins. 
 
 The Leviathan Syndicate is in Mr. J. A. Chalk's managerial 
 hands, and the tei'ritory, as the map indicates, is the largest of 
 the whole series of mines mapped. The ground includes the once 
 famous alluvial mines held by the Leviathan, Great Gulf, and other 
 companies, which won large amounts of gold. As yet the new 
 venture is waiting registration, and it is probable that its vast 
 possibilities, both for alluvial and quartz exploration of a pro- 
 fitable character, will be undertaken by a mixed English and 
 Australian proprietary. The provisional directors are Messrs. 
 the Hon. H. Gore, M.L.C., Hon. D. Ham, M.L.C., T. Dibdin, 
 Alex. Gilpin, S. Solomon, and P. O'Connor. 
 
 The wide field and large promise existing here for the 
 exercise of either home or foreign capital are tolerably evident 
 facts to anyone who takes the trouble to study the history of 
 local mining development during the last 30 years, and to com- 
 pare its outcome with the actual prospects of to-day and the 
 indefinite future. The great amount of gold taken out of the 
 gutters and reef-washes has not exhausted the resources of the 
 field even in alluvial deposits, although it is next to certain that 
 the best portions of them have been discovered and lifted. But 
 it is generally admitted by practical miners here that in the 
 Sebastopol plateau there still exist reaches of alluvial wash, in 
 high and dry levels as well as in lower levels, that will pay for 
 lifting, and this has always been one urgent ground on which the 
 more perfect drainage of the area has been demanded. The alluvial 
 remains, however, are now to be regarded as only accessory to the 
 more important quartz resources now just opening up on the
 
 356 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 plateau, though it is held by some experienced miners that the 
 abandoned Winter's Freehold ground will pay handsomely in its 
 yet unexplored alluvial reaches, if once a shaft were sunk in a 
 situation where the wash could be brought to grass with reason- 
 able economy. It has always been the belief of experts that one 
 cause of the Winter's Freehold failure was the enormous distance 
 whi(^ the wash had to be conveyed from the faces to the shaft, 
 and hence the conclusion as to the probability that a shaft sunk 
 further out would give success instead of failure. If, however, 
 this project needed additional incentive, it may be found in the 
 fact that, as Mr. Allan's map indicates, prodigious masses of 
 quartz exist within the area. One line of reef discovered in the 
 course of the alluvial workings is marked on the map as having a 
 thickness of 60 feet, and it is not likely that that is the only lode 
 existing there. Stretching across, then, from that present western 
 outpost of quartz discovery to the eastern lodes working in the 
 Monte Christo mines, we have, in this mapped area alone, four or 
 five miles of country literally striped with quartz lodes and in- 
 numerable interlacing veins, and traversed by alluvial gutters 
 whose realised wealth is a part of the world's history. The great 
 facts of the ascertained past warrant the recognition of the proba- 
 bilities of tlie future, which point to the promise of golden wealth 
 in the lodes remaining equal to, or greater than, all that which 
 existed in the gutters and gutter banks where the alluvial miners 
 of the last three decades discovered such vast deposits of the pre- 
 cious metal. This fact is so important that wc may be pardoned 
 for reiteration in the matter. And we may also be permitted to 
 point to the reasonable further conclusion that, rich as were those 
 alluvial deposits, it is fair to assume that our miners had not be- 
 fore them all the detritus of the abraded and vanished portions 
 of the ancient matrices. Some, we know not how much, of the 
 gold has, unquestionably, been swept away in the hurly burly of 
 the elements during the periods of denudation. But in the re- 
 maining lodes, still, as Ijefore, tlie only known prolific matrices of 
 gold, we possess all the gold tliat remains in them, possess it, that 
 is, pot(;ntial]y, if we have capital enough and energy enough for 
 its discovery.
 
 GENERALS OF THE ARMY. 357 
 
 And this consideration brings us to consider the debt which 
 the district owes to the spirit of enterprise shown by the more or 
 less wealthy promoters of mining development. It is not our 
 business here to discuss the motives, or the methods, or the 
 mysteries of mining promotion, but simply to point to the fact 
 that the district owes much of its prosperity to the pluck, the 
 calculating intelligence, and the large risks of capital by a com- 
 paratively small number of men, men who, for the most part, have 
 risen from the ranks of practical mining industry. There is a 
 sense, of course, in which every shareholder is a promoter of 
 mining enterprise, but it is the relatively few who take the 
 initiative in large speculations, and are the more conspicuous as 
 the founders of new adventures, the prosecution of which means 
 the opening up of large new fields of mining. The directors of 
 companies, and not a few of the legal and mining managers, are 
 generally men of note as sagacious projectors or wise counsellors, 
 and a host of such names is given in these pages ; but nothing 
 less than a list of the members of the Stock Exchange, and of the 
 shareholders in the several companies on the Exchange list, would 
 be at all exhaustive of the tale of men who have given or are 
 giving valuable assistance in the local development of our 
 auriferous resources. Still, there are always certain names which 
 occur to every local resident when mining undertakings, and 
 especially new ventures of magnitude, are discussed. The Baileys, 
 the Barnards, the Brophys, the Carrolls, the Cornwells, the 
 Emblings, the Edwardses, the Forshaws, the Glores, the Gilpins, 
 the Hams, the Hardys, the Joneses, the Loughlins, the Leish- 
 mans, theMoreys, the Magers, the Millards, the Randalls, the Robbs, 
 the Stoddarts, the Seals, the Smiths, the Vales, the Witherdens, the 
 Williamsons, the Wynnes, are as household words in regard to 
 mining adventure, but they are only samples after all, picked for 
 their special prominence, samples of a larger bulk of energetic 
 enterprise. The interest such leading men hold, and the risks 
 run by them in the conduct of the various undertakings for the 
 opening up of new mines, or the carrying on of mines already in 
 operation, are very large. A striking example of this, and of 
 what one plucky man can do, is before the author now in a com-
 
 358 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 munication he has received in the course of the preparation of 
 these pages. This correspondent says, in reference to the current 
 stir in mining : — 
 
 I may say of my own knowledge that when Mr. A. Gilpin bought into 
 the Sulieman Pasha and owned, I believe, more than a fourth of the company, 
 mining public attention was practically directed to not only this mine, but 
 many others in the east. I also consider that the system he advocated — 
 coming here with a practical and successful Sandhurst reefing experience — 
 has helped largely to the present mining revival in Ballarat, as it was, to a 
 very great extent, his capital and experience that helped the Star of the 
 East Company to surmount its difficulties, and on the success of that mine 
 many others were floated, with every prospect of achieving the same suc- 
 cess. I think most of the practical mining men here will bear me out in 
 these remarks. I do not know how many companies he is interested in, 
 but I should think in at least 30 or 40, and that he is one of the largest share- 
 holders in Ballarat. 
 
 Without adopting this correspondent's views absolutely, the 
 author is bound to say that in the main the above quotation is 
 correct. The promoters of mining make it largely or entirely their 
 business, and to natural shrewdness add long, varied, and expert 
 acquaintance with the practice and theory of mining. They thus 
 possess a special value as advisers, and as they are generally ready 
 to back their own opinions with their own money, their lead is 
 followed, as a rule, by the general body of speculators. Their 
 influence and guidance are always in request for directoral boards, 
 and thus it comes about, as these pages show, that the same names 
 occur over and over again in the list of managing boards. 
 
 We have taken a look at the quartz belts on both sides of 
 the YaiTowee, and have given some details of the ventures there, 
 but the same adventurers who have helped to produce the success 
 which lias led to the revival of mining in ]?allarat proper, have 
 not confined their attention to local mines. In tlie adjoining 
 districts of Maryborough and Ararat there are mines whose 
 starting and working were either entirely or very largely of Bal- 
 larat origin. Many of them have their seat of management here, 
 and others, like them, are largely held by Ballarat investors. 
 The Chalks, the Kong Mcngs, the Napicrs, the Dukes, the Shaws 
 are names of as many series of mincis in Majorca, Carisbrook, 
 Maryborough, and other places in that direction, from so*ne of
 
 THE MIDAS CLAIMS. , 359 
 
 which gold and dividends are being drawn, and for the working 
 of others large monthly sums in calls go out from this centre. 
 Those stocks, whether good or bad time alone can determine, 
 enter largely into the daily business of the Ballarat Stock Ex- 
 change, and make liberal drafts upon local capital. The Beaufort 
 mines on the Ballarat side of the Ararat district are of less im- 
 portance at present, and only one or two are now in the hands of 
 Ballarat directors and managers. 
 
 The alluvial fields of the Ballarat district are now mainly 
 restricted to the Creswick division, and one of the accompanying 
 sensations of the revival has been the discovery of large nuggets 
 in the Midas mine on the western side of the Divide. As has 
 been indicated in the body of this book, the prosecution of mining 
 on that side has been largely due to the energy and enterprise of 
 Miss Cornwell, whose father, Mr. George Corn well, was chairman 
 of the original Dowling Forest Estate Company in the Midas 
 locality. To that lady is also due in part the creation of syndicates 
 for mining the Speedwell and other grounds in Ballarat East, the 
 Speedwell mine yielding from 80oz. to lOOoz. per fortnight to the 
 new owners. The Midas mine, however, is the chief source alike 
 of fame and profit to the Cornwell promoters and their allies. 
 Geological prophecies and bore indications tell of a large area of 
 probably profitable alluvium in the Sulky Gully and Dowling 
 Forest country, and a large number of shafts and bores are at 
 work there, but up to date the Midas is the only mine that is a 
 demonstrated success. The directors, in their report to the July 
 meeting of the company, say " the Midas mine has renewed the 
 exciting era of nuggets," but they little knew that in a week or 
 two thereafter a nugget was to be unearthed that would fairly 
 arouse the public attention of the colony as in the glorious days 
 of the big lumps of gold tabled in Chapter VII. of this work. 
 When Lord and Lady Brassey were here, they visited the mine 
 on the 10th June, and on the 11th a nugget weighing 167oz. was 
 discovered on the gutter banks, and it was named the " Lady 
 Brassey," in honor of that lady. In July smaller lumps weighing 
 39oz., 32oz., and 28oz., besides many still smaller ones, were dis- 
 covered, and on the 23rd August the largest nugget found since
 
 360 HISTORY OP BALLARAT. 
 
 the year 1869 was brought to light. This was a lump of pure 
 gold weighing 617oz., and it was found at a spot about 50 feet 
 distant from the place where the " Lady Brassey" was discovered. 
 When it was brought into Ballarat next day by Manager Robert 
 Bryant and his men, and exhibited in Stoddart and Binnie's 
 window at the Corner, the excitement was a moving reminder of 
 the " good old days." Hundreds of sight-seers flocked to the 
 Corner, and thus the ordinary hundreds of stock dealers were 
 swollen for the time by the rush of as many hundreds more. 
 Next day the nugget was sent to Melbourne, was exliibited at 
 Government House, and there it was named the " Lady Loch," in 
 honor of His Excellency's wife. Miss Cornwell had sailed some 
 days before for London on a financial mission there, and it is un- 
 derstood at the ' ' Lady Loch" nugget will be forwarded intact to 
 London to serve as an illustration of the value of the mining 
 grounds of the Ballarat goldfield. The INIidas claim is an area of 
 close on 1000 acres ; the company has never made a call, has 
 won over 7300oz. of gold, and has two shafts and two well- 
 appointed steam plants, on which £9670 has been spent up to 
 date. 
 
 It will be easily imagined that the splendid fortunes of 
 the Midas Company have given heart to the swarm of ventures 
 around, as the Dowling Forest No. 1, Midas Consols, Midas Ex- 
 tended, Midas East, Midas North, Midas South, Midas King, 
 Midas No. 1, Midas Revival, Midas Mount Cavern, and Madame 
 Midas, and if but half of the mines turn out to be profitable, a 
 great new alluvial field will be added to the wealth of the district 
 and of the colony. On the Creswick side of the Divide the 
 mines of Kingston and Smeaton and their vicinities occupy a 
 high place in public estimation, and at the time of this writing 
 tlie market is enlivened by the news of heavy gold from the 
 famous Madame Berry mine's No. 2 shaft, where the first wash- 
 ings have just taken place. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to state tliat all the mines shown on 
 Mr. Allan's map are not actually now producing gold. Some are 
 only in the initial stage of operations, and, whether on old ground 
 or new, their future is all unknown. In a sense, as much may be
 
 GOLD PRODUCING MINES. 361 
 
 said, of course, of all mines, even gold-producing ones, so great is 
 the uncertainty of mining. But, after all, that is only a relative 
 term. Actual discoveries, and the probabilities based on the 
 known, do make future successes in many cases reasonably cer- 
 tain, although their actual measure is not ascertainable before 
 hand. Of the mines on the eastern belt of lodes, the Monte 
 Christo, Temperance, most of the Black Hill series, Sulieman 
 Pasha, Britannia United, Last Chance, Llanberris, Speedwell, 
 Nortli Woah Hawp, Woah Hawp Canton, Woah Hawp Hong 
 Kong, Prince Regent, Pearse's, and several unnamed co-operative 
 ventures have reached gold. Of the public companies on that 
 belt, the Sulieman Pasha, Llanberris, and North Woah Hawp 
 are paying dividends, and others are approaching, through what 
 miners call dead work, to that happy condition. Large dividends 
 have been secured by co-operative parties, but they do not dis- 
 close actual results. On the western belt of lodes, the Band and 
 Albion Consols, Star of the East, Band and Barton, Koh-i-noor, 
 Serjeant's, Band of Hope, and Sir Henry Loch have been or are 
 producing mines, and the first two are large producers and pay 
 dividends. All of them, indeed, save the Loch, have paid divi- 
 dends, and all may fairly be expected to do so again. All mines 
 \vAve their barren stages of dead work, as well after as before 
 reaching gold, and the more or less near future will probably see 
 at least a score of dividend-paying mines added to the present 
 list of fortunate ventures. 
 
 The current mining revival is not local merely. There is a 
 " boom" over the whole colony, and in all kinds of stock, the 
 aggregate appreciation in which has been estimated by a writer 
 in the Melbourne Argus at some ten millions sterling, including 
 stocks in the silver mines of South Australia. As has been 
 remarked, this greater interest in mining matters is largely due 
 to the reduction of bank interest on deposits from six to four per 
 cent, for yearly, and to three and two per cent, for half-yearly 
 and quarterly terms, thus throwing heavy sums upon the stock 
 and shai"e market for investment. Imported capital, in the 
 shape of public loans and private investments, has also swelled 
 the amount of available money, and its relative cheapness gives
 
 362 HISTORY OF BALLARAT. 
 
 new vigor to all kinds of share market business. There are over 
 a hundred members in the Ballarat Stock Exchange, and the 
 press of business there lately has given them two sittings daily of 
 over an hour's duration each for the most part, whereas in times 
 of duller enterprise half that time has served for the transaction 
 of business. Some surprise was caused a few days ago by an 
 announcement in a Melbourne paper that Mr. Thomas Stoddart, 
 of the Ballarat Exchange, had paid £800 for a seat in the Mel- 
 bourne Exchange, but enquiry proved that the statement was 
 true, and that the purchase was probably a highly beneficial one 
 for the purchaser. Mr. Stoddart's theory is, that the Melbourne 
 Exchange is to be the gi-eat exchange of the Australian colonies, 
 and that it may some day, not far off, rival the San Francisco 
 Exchange, where he saw a seat sold for 40,000 dollars. He paid 
 £600 to Mr. Melhado for the Melbourne seat, and £200 as an 
 entrance fee, but since then the Melbourne Exchange has decided 
 to Hmit its roll to 100 members, and to charge £1000 each for the 
 25 new seats to make up the hundred, the capital thus ac- 
 cumulating to be used in the erection of a new exchange building 
 worthy of the times and the metropolis. This is mentioned as an 
 illustration of the magnitude of the sharebroking and share- 
 dealing interests, and because they are indications of the large 
 amount of attention and capital devoted to the exploration of 
 our gold mines. The Ballarat Exchange bears a prominent pai't 
 in the general sum of mining business, and though, as we write, 
 the local " boom" is not so high in its swing as it was a week or 
 two ago, the impetus given by it to local enterprise is bound to 
 be productive of good, in the greater life imparted to an industry 
 with whose fortunes the prosperity of this city and district must, 
 for generations to come, be intimately connected.
 
 9- '• 
 
 ♦ '? 

 
 Sni,}H!,!li',,!l''^''''^'^'i'liHAHy 
 
 fACKirV 
 
 AA 000 905 224