Adelong Gold Fields

Empire (Sydney)

17 July 1857

The intelligence received from the various gold fields of New South Wales continues on the whole satisfactory.

The newly discovered quartz reef at Adelong Creek, near Tumut, in the Southern Districts, to which we alluded in our last summary, has attracted a good deal of attention.

Favourable accounts of the results of the operations carried on there have from time to time reached Sydney; and a number of specimens of the quartz nuggets have been exhibited. There is at present, we believe, no machinery on the ground for crushing the quartz; so that the real extent of the richness of the new discovery remains to be tested. As it is, however, a considerable quantity of gold has been taken out from the loose earth lying around the quartz.

Some of the gold has already found its way by escort to Sydney; and we may expect soon to see a large increase from this quarter. Our latest intelligence from Adelong is to the 6th instant, and from this we learn that the deepest shaft which had yet been sunk in the reef is about 20 feet deep, is yielding a pound weight of gold to the tub of wash dirt, and the quartz is estimated to be worth from 20 to 30 ounces to the ton. Most of the other claims on the reef are yielding satisfactorily.

There are at present about 300 miners on the reef and its vicinity; there is a number of stores, restaurants, &o., going up, and forming quite a township at the foot of Mount Charcoal, as the quartz range is at present termed. From another source we learn that all the claims so far are paying well, and that the loose soil on sinking through the reef prospects on an average 16 dws. to the tin dish in some claims.

Mr. Mandleson, of Tumut, writing to his father in Sydney, says:- "I have sent you by this day's mail a specimen of quartz; it will clearly, prove to you that there is no mistake; examine it well, and you will see gold all through it; it is a fair sample; and if you were here yourself only to see tons upon tons heaped up, and people cannot make any use of it until somebody rigs a quartz-crusher!

That is not all; the soil is very rich round the quartz, so much so, that I enquired of one party that I saw filling into a dray, what such a dray load would yield? They told me that 6 to 8 ozs. was the average of every load they washed. Those men I know I can rely upon.

Another young man, that I know quite well, assures me of having taken as much as he could comfortably wag under on his back down to the creek, washed it, and turned out 13 dwts. 10 grs. This I can vouch for as being a fact, a I bought it when I was on   the diggings yesterday; in fact, you can hear and see more convincing proof every hour in the day - the further they get down the better it is."  

Another gentleman, writing from Adelong on the 3rd instant, states that "people are going to the reef very   fast now, but not until after the news has reached the Ovens and other Victorian diggings will, there be any marked improvement in population.

Several new claims have been struck, equally as rich as the first. People who were at first doubtful of its success are now sanguine of its turning out first-rate. In about another month, when those claims that are now being sunk have struck the reef, the public will be able to see by our escort that we are doing something heavy. All the miners feel confident of success."  

It will be soon from those statements that this discovery promises to lead to results of much importance.