charters towers — mines — chinese — ‘the only’ smith — gilberton — georgetown — etheridge and croydon gold fields
for various reasons we were particularly anxious to see the famous charters towers gold fields. accordingly, at 7.30 on the morning following our ‘dining out,’ we paid our bill, caught the early train for the towers, and plunged inland, bidding ‘goodbye’ to old father ocean, hitherto so much associated with our wanderings.
the line over which we journeyed is an excellent piece of workmanship, solid and enduring, while the scenery along the route is picturesque and thoroughly australian. now and again we halted at tiny roadside stations, not like stations in the east, or even at cairns, but generally galvanised iron abominations, built some distance from the line, and partaking more of the nature of wayside grog shanties than anything else. one by one we dropped all evidences of civilisation behind us, and began to think that at last we were becoming immersed in the fascinations of that mysterious region, the australian bush. every time the train came to a standstill, brown lanky urchins, unmistakably bush children, sauntered out from among the cluster of habitations to stare at us. strange little products these, differing entirely from the children of the towns, being quiet and self-contained, as if they have absorbed something of the silence of the regions in which they live. we tried our wit on them in vain; nothing — not even our brilliant satire on ‘the ends and aims of imperial federation’ — astonished them.
leaving townsville behind us, we wound round the base of mount elliot, an imposing elevation, from which a fine view of the surrounding country may be obtained, and proceeded for many miles in an almost due southerly direction. about half way to the towers, in a galaxy of romantic scenery, we threw off a branch line to ravenswood, a small but important mining township to the southward, boasting its own banks, hospital, etc., and a population of 1,167 souls. a little later the line crossed the burdekin river, by means of what seemed to us a most dangerous bridge, technically termed a ‘jump up.’ the bridge itself is a stout wooden construction, placed for the sake of floods very little above water level. the descent on one side, and the ascent on the other, are very steep; so steep, in fact, that on approaching it steam is shut off altogether, and the impetus the train gathers on the descent is quite sufficient to carry it up to the level country on the other side. the river itself is a dull, muddy-looking stream, with thickly timbered mangrove banks, suggestive of mosquitoes and innumerable horrors. shortly after crossing it we sighted charters towers ahead, and at the end of a most enjoyable journey, brought up in a neat, well-built, commodious station, wearing quite a metropolitan air. so we were not out of civilisation after all!
charters towers is a name of world-wide fame, a name to conjure with. as far as scenic beauty goes, however, the town appeared to us disappointing. it is situated on a vast, almost treeless plain, upon which the sun glares for twelve hours out of every twenty-four with all his might, majesty, dominion, and power. somehow the inhabitants do not seem to mind it at all. and here let me unburden myself of some facts. the population of the municipality itself is 4,597, and that of the district something like 18,825 — all believers in charters towers.
leaving the railway station and passing into the street, the fact was undeniably borne in upon us that we were in a place where men were pushing and alive, a place where everything was working at high pressure.
on all sides we could see evidences of the go-a-head nature of the town. as evidence, let me instance three daily newspapers and one weekly, the latter — ‘the north queensland register’ — a bright, sparkling production quite up to date, five churches, eight banks, numerous schools, and a commodious hospital.
rising above the housetops on every hand are innumerable poppet heads of mines; in fact, everything is mining, even the children in the streets talk and play it. whereas, in other places, the boys and girls amuse themselves burning their fathers and mothers in effigy, or kindred sports, the charters towers kiddies work bogus claims and ‘rig the market.’ they must find it very useful when they come to man’s estate.
the roar of five hundred stampers, grinding quartz, assails the ear continually, shifts of miners thread the streets, and if you see two men talking at a corner, it’s half-a-crown to a farthing that their conversation has something to do with the interminable industry of the place.
in 1892 no less than 211,605 ounces of gold were obtained from this field, and as the best results have been obtained at the lowest levels, a still greater future may be looked forward to.
certainly the chief mine at charters towers, if not one of the greatest in the world, is the famous ‘day dawn,’ which in 1889 was sold to an english company for no less a sum than 640,000l. it is a marvel of engineering, digging, and carpentering skill. the stopes and tunnelling strike one as being endless, and the wealth of the mine itself is only exceeded by the courtesy of the folk connected with it.
among the 113 mines in the district the most notable are the victory, mills united, brilliant, brilliant and st. george, craven’s caledonia, victoria, golden gate, mosman company’s, brilliant block, and no. 7 n.e. queen, each of which turned out more than 400 ounces of gold in january last. the january yield of 1892 (entire field) for 14,902 tons of quartz was 16,675 ounces of gold, making an increase for 1893 of 224 tons for 2,726 ounces of gold: a remarkable and verified fact.
the following were the dividends paid by different mines for the month of january, 1893:
￡ s. d.
mills united, 2 of 3d. 7,500 0 0
victory, 2s. 5,000 0 0
golden gate, 6d. . 3,750 0 0
victoria, 6d. 3,600 0 0
brilliant, 3d. 3,125 0 0
mosman g. m. co., 2d. 2,312 10 0
brilliant and st. george united, 3d. 1,800 0 0
craven’s caledonia, 3d. 1,250 0 0
28,337 10 0
in 1891 no less than 2,800 miners were employed on the fields. the amount of quartz crushed was 174,486 tons, yielding 222,882 ounces of gold. at present the number of distinct reefs proved to be gold bearing is over 450, while the extent of auriferous ground worked is 120 square miles.
the following are the returns from some of the reefs within the past year:
the brilliant has crushed 21,328 tons, yielding 26,605 ounces, and paid in dividends 75,000l.; the day dawn p.o. has crushed 27,416 tons, yielding 27,479 ounces, and paid in dividends 37,500l.; mills united has crushed 24,002 tons, yielding 21,611 ounces, and paid in dividends 26,250l.; day dawn block has crushed 13,635 tons, yielding 20,414 ounces, and paid in dividends 24,920l,; golden gate has crushed 10,169 tons, yielding 16,059 ounces, and paid in dividends 18,600l.
the value of the machinery alone is estimated at no less a figure than 199,381l.
it is strange how mere association with wealth gives one a feeling of affluence. we were in a place of gigantic fortunes, where men no longer talked in hundreds, but in thousands, tens of thousands — nay, even in millions. this was catching; we developed all the symptoms of the millionaire disease ourselves. we began to feel a wild desire to spend our money, to endow churches, hospitals, etc., to do something to alleviate distress (none of which we saw around us), to make this great world better and purer by our noble actions, to prove that to possess money is not merely a distinction or an honour, but that on the other hand —— but here the reflection that with us money was worse than scarce dawned upon us, and we decided to withhold our ideas on this subject until we were better able to carry them out. it behoved us to devote our attention to the consideration of what we were going to do next!
we wanted to reach normanton, but we had not the very remotest idea how to manage it. we did not like asking strangers, because we had an objection to being taken for new chums. so biding our opportunity, we put the question to a poor unoffending chinaman whom we caught loafing about. we said politely: ‘john, you will excuse the liberty we are taking, but we are desirous of reaching normanton, a town of which you may probably have heard mention made. it has many advantages, and is situated on the shores of the gulf of carpentaria.’ john simply answered, ‘eugh.’ we repeated the question, struggling with our politeness. ‘pardon my not making it sufficiently clear to you; i say we are desirous of transporting ourselves to the town of normanton, situated, so we are led to believe, on the norman river, which flows into the gulf of carpentaria. you, being an itinerant rogue and vagabond of the first water, will probably have journeyed that way; we therefore pray you with accelerated despatch to —’
but that ‘accelerated despatch’ was too much for john; he quivered like an aspen leaf, shook his head violently, snorted, and then, blurting out ‘no savee,’ departed quickly in the direction of the nearest hen-roost.
talking of hen-roosts and chinamen brings me to vigorous journalism. i clip the following from the ‘north queensland register’:
there is no false pride about a chinaman. if he offends against the law, and has the misfortune to be found out, he does not consider that his punishment lowers him in the social scale, and he is even more affable than ever. the present warden of charters towers was once the recipient of a little delicate explanation, for which he was grateful. a gardener, named ah chong, was brought up, charged with stealing fowls from the hospital, and as he was caught in the fowl-house with his booty in a bag, the well-meant exertions of an interpreter and half a dozen of his countrymen were unavailing, and ah chong was sent up for six months’ hard labour. some twelve months after, an important chinese case came on, and among the crowd of witnesses and interested partisans was ah chong, who on going into the box, greeted the p. m. with a friendly smile. on being asked what he did for a living, he appeared to consider the question irrelevant, and turning to the p. m. said, ‘you know me, mr. mowblee; me steal’em fowls.’ friendly relations were at once established between the bench and the witness, and the case proceeded.
while on the subject of pithy journalism on ‘the chinese question’ let me give one more clipping, which, to my mind, for general information and picturesque detail stands alone:
the georgetown correspondent of the townsville bulletin says that ‘during the past fortnight ten pig-tailed denizens left that town en route for the flowery land, with coin amounting to 2,000l. mr. —— by means of irrigation is raising vegetables in his town garden far superior in size and quality to those produced by chinamen. rain fell last week to the extent of 0.40 in. within a radius of ten miles, and was local and partial at that.’
but i am wandering from my subject. we wished to reach normanton, and there were only two ways of getting there. one was by continuing our railway journey to hughenden (a township two or three hundred miles further west), and then travelling north about three hundred miles; the other was by going across country via the etheridge, georgetown, and croydon gold fields, and thence by train into norman ton. without doubt the latter was the better way, and we decided, if we could but find the means, to attempt it. it would be necessary for us to have a companion who could act as a guide, and after considerable questioning and hunting about, we were fortunate enough to find the very description of man we wanted. he was due to set out for georgetown the following day: i say due because he had been going for some weeks past. his name was smith — john george smith — and he claimed to have relations of that name in england. he did not tell us this when we first saw him, for obvious reasons, which he afterwards explained quite easily. at the time of our introduction he was lying on the footpath of a side street, with black ants crawling in and out of his ears. ribald boys had painted his nose white, and drawn a skull and crossbones on the top of his bald head.
the first thing next morning he came round to see us, and after he had satisfactorily answered a few questions, we decided to set out on our journey together. he said he knew the track perfectly, and would put us in the way of all the best grog shanties along the road. we were properly grateful, and asked him to name his beverage. ‘gin and brandy,’ he replied; and then, noting our astonishment, went on to inform us that when he had been in the ‘royal bender’ (anglice, ‘drinking bout ‘), ‘he always took’em together — one to see the other by.’
by his advice, that same afternoon we attended a horse sale, and secured four medium horses — two for saddle and two for packs — at fair rates. our companion was graciously pleased to say that they were ‘none too dusty,’ and we felt it was something to have earned even his good opinion.
next morning, with the eyes of all the world upon us, arrayed in spotless moleskin breeches and crimean shirts, we mounted our gallant steeds, and passed out of the stable yard down the street, bound for normanton, ‘the only’ smith in command.
the less said about that journey the better. there never was a greater mistake made than calling it a good track, and no greater fraud ever undertook it than ‘the only’ smith, our guide, philosopher, and supposed friend. the track was in reality no track at all — only a series of bridle paths from drinking ken to drinking ken. we explained this to ‘the only,’ but he laughed and said ‘it was just down to his mark’ (that was his sinful way of putting it), ‘and if we didn’t like it we might clear out and find another for ourselves. he could get on quite well without us.’ as we couldn’t get on without him, we withdrew our opposition, and thereby made ourselves his slaves for ever.
our route lay via dalrymple, eumara, nulla nulla station, craigie, and across the razor back, or great dividing range, to the newcastle river, then skirting mount rous to gilberton, a distance, in and out, of little short of two hundred miles. leaving gilberton (which, by the way, is one of the most promising, though least developed, goldfields of queensland), we headed through terrible country towards georgetown, nearly a hundred miles due north. by this time we were getting accustomed to the monotony of the bush and also to the existence of ‘the only.’ among other disadvantages he was an accomplished though melancholy liar. at times he was past all rousing, took no interest in anything, preferred letting us do all the work, cook, wash, run up the horses in the morning, and on occasion even saddle and pack them, unassisted. there was no pride about ‘the only,’ not enough to cover a button with, but he made up for it all by the brilliance of his imagination. when the stars were shining, and nothing but his voice, the crackling of the camp fire, or the drowsy tinkling of distant horse bells, broke the quiet, he came out of his shell. then, in a voice that never changed, he’d wander half round the world, inventing visits to the uttermost parts, and lying with a consistency that would have been truly admirable, in any other cause. it was his custom to commence the evening with a jovial hail-fellow-well-met sort of air, giving one the impression that he’d been every where, seen everything, and was indeed a desperate dog.
by-and-by he would remember circumstances connected with the time he was on the african diamond fields, or may be piloting cotton boats up and down the mississippi; which would bring him to the days when he was starving in san francisco, or recklessly bloodthirsty with balmaceda, in chili, conducting native states in rajputana, or resisting russian tyranny in the salt mines of siberia. it was all the same to him; he was brilliantly mendacious all over the known universe. it may be interesting to mention here that he was a sydney side native, and had never been out of the colonies in his life.
towards the end of the evening he would usually become sympathetic and repentant, would regret his fall from high estate, and lament that one of his birth and education should ‘come down’ to such a position in the world. then in the hush of night, with the wind sighing softly through the trees overhead, he would whisper the fact that he was none other than the eldest son of the duke of, unlawfully kept out of his property by designing relatives; next night it would probably be the duke of; the next, the marquis of, or perhaps the earl of . it did not matter a farthing who it was; he seemed to have a plurality of fathers, and at least he was consistent in one thing: he never chose any but the highest members of the aristocracy to be the authors of his being. we began to weary of ‘the only’ and his parents; if he’d had a little less pedigree and a little more energy we should have been a great deal better satisfied. but i am wandering off the track again.
georgetown, the centre of the etheridge gold fields, is a strange little township, built on the usual queensland bush pattern, wooden houses with galvanised iron roofs, streets knee deep in dust, abundant public-houses, and a rough and ready population of 1,484 souls, made up of 1,310 europeans and 146 chinese. in spite of the severe droughts and other troubles it has had to contend with, georgetown is a wealthy little place. in 1891, 17,061 tons of stone were crushed there, yielding 17,567 ounces of gold. the gold occurs in quartz veins, and is not unfrequently allied with mundic (pyrites).
twenty-eight crushing mills find good employment, the value of whose machinery is estimated at no less than 166,200l.
we struck the township just at nightfall, and the lights glimmering in the windows and the sounds of revelry issuing from the different drinking places had a very homely air. ‘the only’s’ eyes began to twinkle, and he breathed hard in anticipation of the drunken orgie that lay before him. evidently he knew his way about, for following his directions we found ourselves in what was no doubt intended to be the stable yard of a genuine township hotel. one or two impoverished horses stood forlornly about, and as we entered they looked askance at our animals, as much as to say, ‘where do you come from, and what do you want? if you think you are going to get any of our food you are very much mistaken.’ unshipping our packs we carried them into our rooms, leaving our horses to a shock-headed nigger styled by courtesy ‘the groom.’
it was a long ramshackle wooden building this hotel, and just bristling with trade. every room was crowded, and the bar was a perfect pandemonium. those who had money spent it recklessly and ostentatiously; those who had not, obtained liquor on credit with as little noise as possible.
‘the only’ was in his element, and inside of five minutes was the bosom friend of every man in the room. by midnight he was too drunk even to remember that he was a scion of the aristocracy. they are good wholesome drinkers in georgetown, and he was just the man to take advantage of such an opportunity.
the talk was all of gold, gold, gold, nuggets, crushings, new claims, etc., and from my own experience i am prepared to say that there was not a man in that room who, according to his own account, would not have made my fortune for a five-pound note. sometimes they fought, but it was about some mining matter; sometimes they shed tears, but it was about some mining chance just missed; and when they laughed you might have staked your hat it was at something connected with their interminable employment.
a great deal of the country around georgetown is under cultivation, nearly three hundred acres being market gardens. maize seems in particular to thrive excellently, but when we were there an awful drought had set its finger on the land, and agriculture was for the time being played out.
after a stay of two days we had our horses run in, and, noting that the scarcity of grass and water had not much improved their condition, paid our bill, bade ‘the only’ an impressive and alcoholic farewell, and passed out along the track to croydon.
four days later we were in the latter place offering our horses for sale, and when this was accomplished we placed ourselves and our baggage aboard the train, and set out for normanton, ninety-three miles distant.
