Newspaper article THE MINERS CHART.

THE MINERS CHART.

(BY AV. A. C.)

"This may seem a strange story," said the prospector, "but it Is a true one, and illustrates our wonderful wealth, and how towns spring up like mushrooms on unthought of places, in this ever-sunlit and thrice blessed land Australia '"
It Is nearly 25 years ago now since two adventurous prospectors started from Lucknow on a prospecting tour. After many vicissitudes they at length found themselves on the great Dividing Range, in the vicinity of Mount Shivering, and from there descended into the great Australian canon known even yet, imperfectly, as The Kowmung
They got little more than tucker In the auriferous drifts of the river, and eventually camped at the mouth of Cedar Creek, where some of the cedars of the New South Wales Lebanon grow. Here they found some coarse jagged gold, even to three-weights to the dish. But at length the hard life and dry tucker played upon their constitutions They both fell ill, and were eventually brought back to civilisation by the kind efforts of a stockman named Seymour One of the men died on the way, and the other only survived him a few weeks. The latter, in an incoherent way, told the stockman about the discovery of gold, and though enfeebled by suffering, drew a rude plan, which he gave him.
For years the stockman visited and revisited the scene, sometimes getting nought but colours, at others getting excellent results, mostly from the interstices in the conglomerate rocks that are bedded near the mouth of the creek He was not a miner, but he was impressed by the semi-delirious utterances of the sick man, but the sample of gold that he had In a perfume bottle, and. above all, by the rude chart, which he could not understand.
At length, after one of his periodic and most barren missions, he confided in me I had had a lot of experience, but the country he described might be the abode of Cyclops I hesitated for some years, but at length I contracted the gold fever from him, and we started for Cedar Creek Here he pointed out the old alluvial workings, and, of course, his own later ones I soon saw that the former were the work of experienced prospectors We got to work, and get some cold as gold, was worth on an average. 4 2s 6 p per ounce, but we could not find a lead of auriferous wash dirt. The gold could not have travelled far, it was too jagged, and bore no traces of wear by water action Hitherto I had not thought of the chart. Somehow, both the stockman and I thought of nothing but alluvial, but we lost the run of it, and after fruitless tunnelling into dangerous ground I began to think the matter out and at length asked for the chart.
Then it dawned on me that the plan represented ground that was pegged out, and. If so, it was on a line of reef, because the markings were more or less oblong Leaving the creek bed we ascended the steep hill sides in search of reefs, and after a hard day s climbing, as the day closed in we found some small pieces of quartz near the head of the creek, one of which contained a spec of gold
The reef must be higher up invigorated by this find we again climbed the hill, and found a moss-flecked quartz. There was no gold in it to the naked eye, but we crushed the softer and fire-scorched specimens, panned them off In the dish, and there was a nice tail of gold. To peg out was now the proper thing, and In doing so I came upon the deceased miners peg there was now no difficulty in following the chart He knew what he was about, and It was quite clear that he bad discovered the reef and had drawn a plan from his own datum peg.
It was now necessary to build a hut, to store provisions explosives, and put another man on to test the line. We obtained enough specimens to get a syndicate going, and commenced to tunnel into the hill in order to cut the reef below the outcrop and tap her on the hanging wall.
We slept in our tents, and cooked and stored all our belongings in the bark hut. One night about midnight I was awakened by the report of firearms I listened, and presently two or three shots went off in quick succession I called out to the others, "Jump up” Someone is attacking the camp " The stockman was the first out, and exclaimed ".The hut is on fire" It was too true The bark chimney was on fire, and the gun and rifle cartridges that were placed on our improvised shelf were going off as the fire crept Close.
"Make a dash and save the guns and the saddles if we can, lads," I exclaimed, leading the way The north end of the hut had not caught yet, and the guns, saddles, and tucker were stored there I got the Winchester and n valuable gift gun The stockman got the saddles, and Peter Jones got something else I was just returning for another dive Into the burning hut, when the stockman called out, "Run The dynamite'" and away he went A packet of dynamite was stuck on the wall-plate of the hut, and the paper it was, ripped an was on fire I turned to run, Jones was making off toward the creek A traffic roar was all I heard and a huge sheet of bark that formed part of the hut struck me on the back broadside on, just as I jumped over a log It toppled me clean over, with the bark on top of me Then there was a dull thud, and I knew I was pinned to the ground Poor Jones was lifted bodily into the air, and thrown, luckily, into a waterhole The stockman who first saw the dynamite reached the alluvial tunnel He was unhurt, but as I lay there pinned to the ground I thought they might be all killed, and I, a prisoner beneath some unknown weight, might be burled alive
Sweet was the sound of human voices I could only groan I heard Jones say, "He's not dead, "noway " When consciousness returned I was laying on the sheet of bark, with my held pillowed on a saddle That sheet of bark saved my life in two ways It first acted as a shield to my body against the awful force of the explosion, and, secondly, when the sapling rider was blown from off the roof of the hut it landed on the bark that was then on top of me Peter Jones was badly bruised, and the shock displaced my heart I have hail to give up prospecting for a while and keep quiet The reef is pegged now for about three miles, and the dust from the drill holes In the tunnel gives a nice tail of gold in the dish We've made a good bridle track too, and machinery is on the way No, there's no chance of finding dynamite stuck in the rafters of the new hut Yes,. I reckon we've struck it at last, and a new page at least will be added to the map of sunny New South Wales.

The Sydney Morning Herald
October 1910
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/