Howqua Hills Goldfields
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At this time, the Government was paying rewards for new discoveries of gold.
Encouraged by this Vicomte de la Chappelle led a prospecting party of four to
the head of the Devil's or Delatite River in 1860. He supposedly found gold and
submitted a claim. The Board considered it in 1864 but found the application
and documentation insufficient to further investigate or recommend a reward.
It is possible that there may have been prospectors on the Howqua River five years earlier than the Chappelle expedition. The Argus of August 2 1860 noted that 'ln the spring of 1855, 300 people... rushed Jamieson Flat... The gold was patchy and at best yielded £4 per week.' The miners only remained a few weeks but there is an interesting sequel. Mr Martin, the storekeeper of the Howqua lost £200 supplying the starving diggers at the rush. This could only be the John Martin who at one time owned the Howqua Run before its subdivision. The fact that he remained on the Howqua and operated a store seems to indicate that there may have been a few prospectors along the river as early as 1855. 
Cam shaft and flywheel at Howqua. Click on image to enlarge Those who did prospect the district were not committed miners, the Ovens Constitution commented in 1861 that the original diggers were of the shearer or rouseabout type.' He worked a little each day until he struck a patch, then he paid his debts and went down to Mansfield... When his money was finished he either took a job on a station, or even perhaps returned to his old claim.' The diggers only went to Mansfield for a spree, most of their everyday supplies were purchased on the Howqua as is evidenced by the newspaper comment which stated that the Goulburn digger ... was kept between starvation and semi starvation by a storekeeper on the Howqua.' The township of Jamieson had not yet come into existence, the flat being inhabited by a' beery settlers, log sided, tarpaulin covered store, alone in its glory.' Alfred Chenery was responsible for the first acknowledged discovery on the River. His discovery in 1863 was not of alluvial gold though, but of quartz gold. |
Chenery along with two partners, Turnbull and Nixon formed a syndicate to work
the reef which was in later years to be known as the Mountain Chief and Great
Rand Mine. £3000 was spent on a water wheel and six head battery, water was
supplied by means of a two kilometre water race.
Work began with a flurry of optimism as machinery and huts sprang up along the flats. Chenery found that treatment of the ore was difficult as the gold was heavily mixed with other minerals making it very hard to extract. Because of the difficulty in separating the gold from the mineral the venture failed. The first officially recognized discovery of gold on the river, for which a reward was paid took place in January 1866. George Withers, a Mansfield farmer, E. Cameron and J. Bruce each received a reward of £30 for their efforts. This time it was an alluvial discovery in Cameron's Creek, a tributary of Lickhole Creek. A small rush followed and further alluvial discoveries were made on Lickhole, Barneys and later Stockyard Creeks. Some quite good specimens of nuggetty gold were found. At Camerons Creek in 1867 a party of miners found an eight ounce nugget but no major rush eventuated. In 1869 James McDonald conducted a survey throughout the area and into the high country which inspired others to go out prospecting. The Mansfield Guardian of 1872 reported that Egerton and party had uncovered a nugget weighing 40 ounces and that Smith and party had found one weighing 26 ounces. Whether or not these reports are accurate cannot be ascertained; if they were then they received very little publicity and no rush followed. The track leading into the Howqua, cut by McDonald, crossed the river thirty - five times in twenty miles. At this time no centre of population had been established on the river so most supplies had to be either brought in or purchased in Mansfield. Miners tended to work on the rivers and then drift into town for supplies and a bit of extra work. The landowners in and about Mansfield were not happy with these arrangements, for it meant that their labourers who were also part time prospectors had a tendency to head off into the scrub whenever they heard of a good prospect. In February of 1872, just as the harvest was about to be gathered, a public meeting was convened by some of the leading landowners. They agreed that prospecting would not commence until after the harvest was in. From this it appears that the prospectors were certainly amateurs and that the rewards cannot have been too great as they continued working for wages. 
Detail map made by Surveyor Lavery in 1883. Click on image to enlarge |
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