Dargo - Crooked River Goldfields
 The party travelled well past Wilkinson's final survey point on the Wongungarra and found the river branched again. This he named the Crooked River, in disgust at travelling up it zig zag fashion for several days. Howitt's efforts were rewarded however at what he called Good Luck Creek where several pennyweight nuggets were discovered and in one days work £7/6/- of gold was washed. Most of the party resigned to take up claims leaving Howitt to finish the work on his own. Within two months 450 men were at work there and by April 1861 seven hundred had reached the field. The GippsIand Guardian wrote, ... the Crooked River is not only remunerative but paying much above the average returns for the old fields.' Those who had equipment were doing well washing three or four ounces of gold per day - there was one report of Sixtyone ounces being washed from the corner of a creek in a few hours. As a Mining Warden Howitt travelled through the area in 1861 and commented '-there are shops, houses and hotels in the course of erection as well as a butchery and blacksmiths shop. The settlement has been given the inglorious title of Bull Town.' A post office was established there in 1861 and a police station was set up on the Dargo River some miles away. Before the establishment of a police station at Dargo regulation of law and order was left up to the miners. If thefts or disturbances occurred, the diggers expelled the offenders from the field. In May 1861, a committee was set up by the populace for the prevention of crime and the preservation of peace. The need for a police station was evidently not great for it was disbanded in August 1862 as there was so little work to be done.' The post office was more of a success serving the populace for the next thirty years. Few of the arrivals were well experienced miners and many found their labours washed away with the first of the winter floods; discouraged they moved on. By mid 1862 a harsh winter, coupled with a big strike in New Zealand saw the field reduced to about two hundred working miners. New finds on the Jordan and in the head of the Dargo River in 1863 resulted in a further reduction of the populace. The district although depleted, was well established and looked set to continue on without showing any signs of further development, those remaining making a satisfactory living. The Crooked River was nevertheless one of the three main goldfields in GippsIand, the other two being Omeo to the north cast and the Jordan to the west. Communications between the three fields were poor, there being no direct road. This was an important factor for what was proposed bearing in mind the transitory nature of the miner, particularly the alluvial miner |
The government decided to cut a track that would link all three fields and so
facilitate travel. Angus McMillan was appointed to lead the Alpine Expedition
commencing at the Dargo Inn in March 1864. Between March 10 and May 21 220
miles of track were cut linking the three fields.
One road was cleared to the Upper Dargo Diggings and then across to Omeo. The other dropped down into the Crooked River and then made its way across to the Jordan Goldfield a short distance from Wood's Point. The work was often carried out under appalling conditions. Most of the work was completed uneventfully, however, on April 11, as Neils Jorgensen and Alexander Beecher were walking down a spur dividing the Wongungarra from the Crooked River, they picked up a piece of quartz and found it to be impregnated with gold. The party quickly pegged out the surrounding countryside and McMillan like Howitt was left to recruit new workmen to continue on. The new reef was named the Pioneer after McMillans favourite horse. In July more reefs were uncovered on Isaac's Shanty or Mt Pleasant. The Union, Italian, Mathieson and jolly Sailor all showed rich surface stone. It was ironic that these reefs had not been discovered earlier for the very road along which they were found had been traversed by many hundreds of feet on their way to the original Crooked River diggings. 
New Hope Audit circa 1900. Horse drawn ore trucks Click on image to enlarge
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