Tom Saunders, ca 1910
Source: Mike Richards
Susan Emily Saunders, ca 1910
Source: Mike Richards
Tom Saunders
Source: Gulgong Pioneers Museum
Tom Saunders was shepherding sheep on Red Hill when he made the find that resulted in the Foundation of Gulgong township in 1870.
John Thomas Saunders married Susan Emily Mayberry in Mudgee in 1872. They had 4 sons and 4 daughters. They included:
- ERNEST PAGE R - 1873
- EMILY ETHEL - 1874
- WALTER N A - 1877
- WILLIAM R F - 1880
- MARY SARAH E - 1882
- SYDNEY CHARLES M - born 23 February 1885; died aged 33 on 3 January 1919.
- ELMA E - 1888
From left: AW (Wal) Saunders, Con Ashton, Tom Saunders, Bolger Brooks and friend
Photo taken at the back to the Post Office Hotel (licence held by Wal Saunders)
Tom Saunders, Henry Lawson and others, year unknown
Source: Mike Richards
Tom Saunders
Source: Gulgong Pioneers Museum
NEWS ITEMS
1910 - BILLIARD LICENCE
In 1910, Thomas Saunders held a Billiard Licence for Herbert Street. Gulgong.
1928 - PIONEER'S DEATH. - GULGONG, Wednesday.A pioneer of Gulgong, Mr. Tom Saunders, has died, aged 80. He was the first to discover payable gold in Gulgong.Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Thu 5 Jul 1928 Page 12
1928 - EARLY DAYS OF GULGONG(For the 'Windsor and Richmond Gazette')THE death occurred recently at Gulgong of an old Windsor native in the person of Mr. Thomas Saunders, at the ripe old age of 80 years. He was the first man to discover payable gold at Gulgong — in the year 1870. The discovery caused the biggest gold rush in the history of New South Wales, and gave employment to thousands of people for a number of years. It also paved the way for numerous business men and lucky miners to make small fortunes.The late Mr Saunders did very little mining after he made the discovery. He built the first hotel on the goldfield, and later as many as 38 public houses did a roaring trade, in the township. Mr. Saunders certainly got his share of gold in the finished article.In the 'Gazette'' of March last, Mr. J. C. L. Fitzpatrick referred to Mr. Saunders as the 'grand old man of Gulgong.' I can quite understand Tom Saunders making a 'grand old man,' for he was a fine fellow as a young man. I first met him in Gulgong during the year 1870 — just when the big rush set in — and lived near him for three and a half years. I knew him to be a good citizen, and he was always ready and willing to give his services; for the betterment of the people and the town wherein he resided.He first found the gold near the surface, of the Red Hill, and it was traced from there to what was known as Adam's Lead—the only shallow workings on the field. Later it was traced into deep ground to the famous Black Lead and Happy Valley — the two richest leads on the field. The best of all claims was No. 5 on Happy Valley, from which its six shareholders obtained £6,500 a man for 18 months' work.
Speaking of Gulgong, it was a wonderful place in those days. The streets were laid out, business houses erected by the leases, and remarkable business was done. There were scores of large trees and stumps in the main streets, and no roads or footpaths were formed for quite 12 months after the township was established. I have seen the time, in the early days of Gulgong, when it was impossible for two people to walk abreast up the two main streets between the streets was just one moving mass of humanity. The absence of crime was remarkable, considering that every nation in the world was represented there.
There was one big roll-up on the Red Hill when about 3,000 miners took part. The cause was a dispute between the miners and the late Mr George Rouse, of Guntawang estate, near Gulgong. Considerable mining went on on his property, and the miners disputed the conditions Mr. Rouse imposed on them. The Commissioner for Goldfields at the time was Mr Thomas Brown, and he acted as arbitrator and decided in favour of Mr. Rouse. This raised the ire of the miners, who held a mock trial with Mr. Rouse as the prisoner, but nothing serious happened. Subsequently the miners settled the dispute satisfactorily with Mr. Rouse, and no further trouble arose. I might mention that Mr. Brown was the man who wrote the book entitled "Robbery Under Arms," under the assumed name of "Rolph Boldrewood."
I omitted to mention that it is on record that over 19 tons of gold was obtained from, the various leads at Gulgong.J. J. BROWN.Eastwood, N.S.W.
Source: Windsor and Richmond Gazette (NSW : 1888 - 1965) Fri 17 Aug 1928 Page 2
1928 - DAYS OF GULGONG. - Death of Veteran Miner.Gulgong's best-known identity, Mr. Tom Saunders, died there last week, in the District Hospital. Mr. Saunders was the man who first discovered gold at Gulgong, which afterwards developed into one of the biggest rushes in the State, and the field was knows as "the poor man's diggings."Gold was found right on the surface, and on the Red Hill, on the site of the present-day town. Even the earth around the tussocks of grass was impregnated with the precious metal. At one period of the rush there were 69 hotels on the field, all doing a roaring business, and Gold Commissioner Browne, who wrote "Robbery Under Arm," "A Sydney-side Saxon," "A Colonial Reformer," and other well-known books, depicting Australian bush life, was in charge for a time.It was in Gulgong that the late John Hunter, the well-known bootman, made his start, and his little shop in Herbert-street was still standing a few years ago. Not many fortunes were made on the field, but every alluvial miner there was on good pay dirt.
Afterwards, when big companies got to work it the Deep Lead, such mines as 44, Happy Valley and others yielded big dividends. The late Mr. Saunders, like many other discoverers of goldfields, did not profit by his finds to any great extent, those coming afterwards obtaining most of the spoil.Gulgong to-day, although a snug little town, is only a shadow of its one time prosperity, but old miners there still cling to the idea that, somewhere in the vicinity, there is gold enough to purchase the King's navy.Source: Dubbo Dispatch and Wellington Independent (NSW : 1887 - 1932) Fri 13 Jul 1928 Page 1
1928 - Last of The Old Brigade - Late Mr. Tom Saunders - Gulgong as a Goldfield - Town That Grew in a NightTom Saunders, who found the first good gold at Gulgong in January, 1870, and died there in July, 1928, was the last of the goldfield-finders of Australia (1870-1892). As in many instances, the man who opened the field did not peg on the rich values. Tom Saunders was unlucky. He located the profits that others gathered ploughed the first furrow in the golden field from which they, not he, took the abundant harvest. In the canvas town that grew in a night on the site of his strike, the population, at its peak, was 30,000 men, for whose necessities 80 hotelkeepers catered. There were dance halls, gambling houses, dancing saloons, and all the allurements. Gulgong was one of the great camps of its time. In six years 16 tons of gold was removed from the shallow and deep ground, and over £1,250,000 was liberated for circulation among the businesses of N.S.W.The discoverer of the field died an invalid pensioner. Saunders was born on the Hawkesbury in 1848, and was a prospector, in the atmosphere of gold production, from his sixth year, when his parents went to the Ophir diggings. There the youngster, a baby-gold-getter, washed his first prospect in his mother's baking dish and won for himself the values that incited him to pursuit of the elusive profit. The spirit of the chase was bred in him. In the dry times on the Bell, the Meroo and the Cudgegong when water for dirt-washing was scarce, and far from the scene of recovery of the gravel, Saunders senior, packed the rubble on his back for miles, and his wife cradled it at the waterhole.At 12 years Tom broke out of the domestic party and became a prosector proper. Had his later luck been as good as his first fortunes were be would have piled a large stack of the dross that no man is permitted to carry on his trip to the undiscovered country. He was with the first rushers to the find at Biragambil, where he and his mates took 1200ozs. from a 84ft. claim. His share of this was his first acquisition of big profit from prospecting, and he followed gold for ten years with the measure of success and failure that are the allotment of men looking for it where it ought to be, and finding it, often where it ought not to be.In the possession of his father was a plan on which the hill east of the junction of Reedy Creek and the Cudgegong was marked as a place where gold might be. He pottered round this area for months, encouraged by signs that were not to be neglected but not connecting with anything good enough to rattle the dish and sound the roll-up over. The plan had claimed his keen interest, for the spot marked with a cross, to indicate where the slugs should be, had been pencilled round by a man who knew much of the theory of gold mining. He relied on it. If the values were not precisely on the pencil-marked spot they were somewhere, and he persisted in his quest.In January, 1870, he struck his patch. He uncovered a run of alluvial from which he washed 1lb of gold in a fortnight. This was good enough and he reported the find to the warden at Mudgee. A rush followed the proclamation of a new field, but water for the purposes of the prospectors was very scarce and, one by one, the newcomers pulled out, leaving the discoverer in sole possession. For three months he had the whole golden area to himself, but, even in such favoring conditions, did not make any rich recoveries. In March there was a good fall of rain and the diggers returned. They knew the values were there, and, the means of recovering them having been furnished, went after the proceeds. Took the profits, too.Then set in the biggest rush of the decade. News of the wonderful yields was passed to every camp in Australia. Men rushed from the older diggings and from New Zealand, and before the end of the year Gulgong was the Mecca of every pilgrim on the gold-path. The rush was justified. In the recollections of Saunders is the pathetic line: "I saw 80lb weight of gold washed from one bucket of stuff." Not his to handle any of that.Ballarat in its best days showed no thing better than the richest outputtings of Gulgong. From No. 7 claim on the Happy Valley lead the shareholders took £8000 a man. Claims that cleaned up for £3000 and £4000 were not uncommon. These profits were won inside the first year. In the worst periods of water shortage wash had to be carted 2½ miles to Reedy Creek. The journey was trying in the heat the load was burdensome, and sometimes part of the poundage was jettisoned by the trackside. One such discarding of weight was unfortunate for the digger. He had thrown out a 7oz. slug, which the party behind specked as it showed in the sunlight.Luck played with Saunders. His name was a very hard one for the gods of chance to write on anything. He did not get on decent profit — compared with what was being won by later comers — and even when a good thing was dangled before him his ill, fortune was to decline it. He was offered, for £6 a share in a prospect, near one of the rich runs on the main lead, and was inclined to stake the fiver, but took advice. He was short of fivers at the time and turned the offer down. In three months the men who had the show took £3000 each from their holding. Where the chance of a win was not good he could get in easily, always. He was one of a syndicate, in £250 shares, that went after something that should have been below the surface of what are now Mayne and White Streets. It wasn't there — at any rate not at the depth to which the funds of the syndicate could carry the sinking, 150ft.His party had to abandon the enterprise and for some time the holding was unoccupied. Another syndicate put in more money and the shaft was taken to 220ft of costly sinking in very hard country. Results were not shown, and again the property was thrown up. Now here is an example of the luck of a man who holds the faith but, at the time of need has not the money to back his opinions. Saunders' faith in that proposition never weakened. (He held it till he died). Convinced that gold was there, he made the sinking of the shaft his objective, persevered and saved to the end and in five years had the cash that would haye enabled him to sink another 50ft— where he was sure the profit awaited recovery.He had not kept tab on local political movements. In the period Gulgong had been proclaimed a municipality. The shaft was inside the town boundary, and he was not permitted to enter and work in it. So passed his last hope of winning a big stake. While he could carry on he continued prospecting. Shearing and work on the stations gave him a little bank each year, and in the off times he went out looking for it, without too good result. He was the first man to speck gold on Guntawang, where he did distend a shammy. In a little over a year he and his mates took £1400 each from the show. Saunders' share went back into the ground in prospecting and mining speculation. £1400 was not good enough. He demanded some real money from the earth. It did not come his way. His best reward was in the allotment of £300 for the discovery of the field. Sir Henry Parkes had this sum placed on the Estimates, nominally in the interests of Tom Saunders He got 50 per cent. of it—£150 This was his cut. He was the last of the old brigade of goldfield-finders.Source: Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (NSW : 1890 - 1954) Thu 27 Sep 1928 Page 11
Old Timers We Knew - IN BRAVE DAYS OF OLD - Gulgong Pioneers (By Arthur Croft.)TOM SAUNDERS— DISCOVERERI HAVE always been told of the discovery of the gold at Gulgong thusly: The Saunders party had come along from Two Mile Flat (then in its heyday) and camped just eaat of the railway dam. In time their dray was sent to Biraganbil for provisions. While on the journey a thunderstorm passed over the Red Hill. On returning they saw gold glistening on the surface. The spot pointed out to me was in Robinson street, between Herbert and White streets just about the rear gateway of Hope's bakery. Then the rush started to open up "the last and greatest goldfleld in the Southern Hemisphere." The words in black are not mine; they were spoken in a lecture on Gulgong goldfield by Mr. Leo Jones on his completion of the geological map of Gulgong. As has been usual in prospecting for gold, the discoverers in this case did not get the best of it— in fact, the party responsible for the find did very poorly out of it. But what a sight it must have been— 62,000 men on the goldfleld; 42 licensed hotels in the town! The late Cr. S. B. Rouse once told me that had gold not been found in 1870, the Guntawang estate would have comprised the whole of the land south of Wyaldra Creek from the Perseverance paddock to Combandry. Tom lived on in the old town until the Great Prospector called him West a few years ago. To the last he was a familiar figure in his chair on Egan's verandah; ready for a talk about the old days at any time.And now my time draws near. There are a hundred names I would like to mention among the old timers, but my infirmities compel me to leave it to some abler pen than mine.
Prince of Wales Opera House, Gulgong, ca 1907
Tom Saunders is seen here sitting outside the barbershop of Dominic Rognini.
Source: Edgecliff Film's Souvenir Programme for "Between Wars" World Premiere
THE late Mrs. Susan E. Saunders (mother of Mr. W. A. Saunders, of Gulgong), whose death in Sydney was reported in last issue, was a native of "Babee," Rylstone. Deceased, who was 82 years of age, spent most of her life in the Gulgong district, where she lived a quiet life, but nevertheless had numerous friends. She always enjoved good health up till seven weeks before she passed away.
Her marriage to the late Mr. Thomas Saunders took place in Gulgong in 1872, two years after Mr. Saunders made the first discovery of gold in Gulgong. She was a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Maburry. Mr. Maburry was a bookkeeper at Biraganbil in the late Mr. Richard Rouse's time, and later was bookkeeper for the late Mr. Alfred Blanchard, a business man, of Gulgong.
The following family is left to mourn her loss: Messrs. Ernest Saunders (Sydney), W. A. Saunders (Gulgong), William Saunders (Sydney), Mrs. T. Younger (Sydney), and Miss Ethel Saunders (Sydney). One son, Sid., was killed in the Great War in 1918. A daughter, Mrs. R. Ranger, passed away about four years ago.
The funeral left Mrs. P. Kirby's parlors in Elizabeth street on February 12 for the Botany cemetery, where the Rev. A. E. Morris, of St. Michael's Church of England, Flinders street, Darlinghurst, officiated. There were a large number of wreaths. Those present included Mr aunders (Gulgong), Ald. F. W. Heard (Gulgong), and the Hon. W. F. Dunn and Mrs. Dunn (this latter being a niece of deceased).
Tom Saunders headstone, Gulgong cemetery
Source: Ann Davies
