1873 - AUSTRALIAN ALMANAC
Country Attorneys
- Johnson, Richard - Mudgee & Gulgong - Agent: H R Way
Newspapers and periodicals published in the colony
- Gulgong Guardian - Saturday
- Mercantile Advertiser - Thursday
- Argus
Banks
- Bank of NSW, C B Cairnes Manager Gulgong Branch
- Australian Joint Stock Bank, Gulgong
Source: The Australian almanac. (1873)
FEB - [COMMERCIAL NEWS]
In the hotel line there are twenty-one licensed houses. Some of these have a sightly exterior appearance, and, although not elegantly furnished inside, are provided with plain articles of household furniture, amply sufficient on a diggings to provide the traveller with comfort. Many of these houses are conducted on a large scale, the table d'hote being on a liberal scale, and the viands of such a character that the most fastidious could not complain of. There are also a number of "publics" on a small scale, the accommodation being exceedingly limited, the proprietors of which are always ready, at a minute's notice, to pick up their "sticks" and fly to any rush likely to turn up trumps. However, taking the licensed houses on the whole, the proprietors fairly conduct them, as they have much to contend with in the shape of "shanty keepers," who have, frequently the impudence to open under the same roof, and dispose of grog with impunity. We have also, some other fine buildings, but space precludes my alluding to them on the present occasion. I must not forget in the meantime to mention that the
shop of Mr. Mace, butcher, carried on under the management of Mr. James Leggate, is not to be excelled in your city. It is fitted up in first-class style, with sausage machine and every requisite to carry on a first-class business. On a Saturday the display at this establishment is nowhere to be surpassed in the colony, for every variety of good wholesome animal food is exhibited for sale, and sold at the lowest possible cash price.
Our population has been considerably unsettled for more than a week on account of the various rushes that have have taken place to localities not very far distant. Notwithstanding several thousand miners have gone to the rushes there is no perceptible difference, as I can see, in our population. Upon every large goldfield there is always a floating element, consisting of men out of luck and out or employment, and these new rushes meet their wants, because they open chances to get claims for those who stand in need of them. I may safely say that the population now departed will not interfere in the slightest degree with the production of gold from the old workings, but rather have a tendency to increase our escorts. The rush to Ford's Creek has resulted in opening an established lead, as there are already fifteen claims upon payable gold. The ground is not rich, but some of the claims give indications of yielding L12 per week per man. It has now been traced into Mr. Rouse's paddock, and it is thought, will prove to be very good as the run is pursued. Quite a little township is springing up, and as it is only five miles distant from Gulgong will probably be a benefit to the business portions of our community. The Pipeclay rush, fourteen miles and near the old Wellington-road, will have a tendency to benefit the Mudgee people more than those of Gulgong, as it is only six miles from the former, place. It bids fair be an extensive gold-field, and will undoubtedly attract a large population from abroad. There are already four claims upon payable gold, and work is being actively promoted.
At the ground known as Fraser's Rush, three miles on the road to Reedy Creek diamond mines, there are several claims upon gold, and the spot is a likely one for extensive finds. Matters upon the Caladonian Lead continue daily to improve. The labour in getting the gold is very difficult but some of the dirt goes as much as 2½oz to the load, and this will compensate for surmounting great difficulties. The Moonlight is also improving, and sanguine hopes are entertained that it will assume an important place amongst the leads of the gold-fields to which it is justly entitled. On the Black lead so new features have been developed, but several new runs or patches have been struck off the main run. Several large heaps of wash-dirt are being carted away to the puddling machines, and others again are being added to. On the new Happy Valley no rational change has been wrought. Billy Nutts and party finished a lot of 135 loads hut week, but the yield was a little less than one ounce to the load. This was very good, but not up to the usual mark. Messrs. Mort and party are working No. 10 old Happy Valley over again, and make a very good thing in washing the xxxings and mullock. They will have a washing this week. All the puddling machines, both near the township and Reedy Creek, are kept in constant work with dirt from the various leads mentioned above. Water is abundant, which is favourable to claimholders as well as the owners of the machines.
In reefing, considerable progress is also being made. Messrs. Hobelman and party are sinking in a very likely spot for a golden reef. This is upon the slope of Surface Hill, from which it's believed the gold in new Happy Valley comes. Messrs. Kearney and party are now down about 30 feet in the underlay of a reef at the head of Happy Valley, on the southerly side of the road leading to the Home Rule. The location and the indications are promising, but I am informed that the manager, adopting the suggestion I made in your columns a few weeks ago— that is, that a tunnel put into the base of the hill from west to east would cut, at a low level, all the riches contained in the hill—will take measures to introduce the subject to capitalise. As yet this gold field has been worked by local capital. We have had no aid from abroad. This capital has consisted almost exclusively of the labour of the miners. There is no doubt but outside capital may be profitably introduced here, and I hope to see it done. Up on the old Gulgong Reef everything is assuming an air of permanence and prosperity that cannot be mistaken in its final results. There is no doubt but the reef is rich, and when efficient machinery is brought upon the ground, this and the surrounding reefs will be fully developed. I regret to learn that the shareholders in No. 1 Louisiana Reef, near the Old Gulgong, have lost their shaft through sinkage from the recent heavy rains. Work in the various reefs upon Red Hill is being prosecuted with vigour, but nothing new is to be said of them.
APRIL - COMMERCIAL.
It is a matter of surprise to a great many upon this goldfield that the most ordinary kind of bacon and cheese should remain at one shilling a pound throughout a whole season. In a country where it costs nothing to find milking cows and to fatten pigs it may well be considered somewhat remarkable, particularly where the population is so sparse and the demand for such articles so slight. At the prices named a moderate sized dairy farm would, in skilfull hands, prove a fortune in a very few years. Upon a goldfield like this there is always a demand for these articles, and yet they are not to be obtained except at an exorbitant price.
There is some improvement in the meat market, and more cattle and sheep are offered for sale than formerly. The prices realised are not so extravagently high as formerly, but still they remain at such prices as do not seem to warrant the butchers in declaring a reduction in the price of meat. Best bullocks to £9 10s. ordinary from £6 to £7 10s. Sheep 9s to 12s 6d and not in good condition. Pigs very scarce and sold according to weight and condition. Poultry of every description very scarce. A good demand for fowls, ducks, turkeys, and geese. Common sized fowls, 6s per couple; ducks, 8s; turkeys from 8s to 12s each, and geese from 6s to 9s; flour, Orange, L17 10s, other brands from L15 to L16; corn, 6s ; oats, 6s ; hay, L8 ; chuff L8; butter, 1s 3d; cheese, 1s; bacon, 1s ; eggs, 2s 3d ; potatoes, L7 per ton; onions, L7. Grapes retail at 9d per lb; peaches, ls per dozen; apples, from ls to 4s per dozen. Pumpkins are cheap, and abundant which reflects great credit upon those who be lieve in growing things that cost no care or labour. Unbroken draught colts and good quiet draught horses realize high prices. Hacks, broken and unbroken, but of a poor quality, are offered in abundance, and prices have declined. Really good and well broken hacks command a good round price. If the winter rains should come early and severe, there will certainly be a material advance in the prices of all the necessaries of life, and thrifty people will lay in a stock before the rise.
MAY - GULGONG ANNUAL RACES
I found Gulgong proper, much changed since last year. Where all the excitement was then,—The Black Lead and thereabout—there's hardly a soul to be seen; and so many people have gone to Home Rule, and other new rushes, that the population of Gulgong itself has much decreased, and I missed many old faces. Still, the town is lively, the business people not complaining, and buildings of all sorts going up.
Since I was there, twelve months ago, three new hotels have been built close to the Cross, at the corner of Queen and Herbert streets; and one of them, the Albion, lately built by Mr. John Hunter, of Hunter and Co., the large boot and shoe establishment, was opened on the Tuesday night before the races. Mr. Hunter has spared no pains to make his bar and parlour justly popular; and for fittings and furniture, they certainly eclipse all others in the town. The house is lit throughout with gas manufactured on the establishment; and within and without, that very necessary adjunct to every hotel, good light, gives this a most imposing appearance. The house was well patronised every night during my stay at Gulgong; and from what I saw and tasted, I should say the proprietor will secure plenty of custom, as he goes on.
Then there's Angove's Hotel next the Bank of New South Wales, and another a few doors lower down Queen Street, also new, of which I discovered the landlord to be Mr. Hopkins, formerly of the Haymarket Hotel, in George-street, South, Sydney. These new houses show that the townspeople have still lots of confidence in the stability of Gulgong, a confidence fully justified by the escorts, which keep up to their satisfactory average, fortnight after fortnight, as they have done since first the Black Lead and Happy Valley commenced to turn out their gold; and I feel perfectly confident that this great gold-field will still keep up its prestige, there being plenty of equally good country to that already proved auriferous, which has never as yet had a pick put into it.
The old houses in the town seem doing well, and this time were all full. Selfe's where I was quartered, has certainly no superior on that line of road, for anxiety on the part of the landlord and his family to make their visitors comfortable; and great popularity attaches also to Mr. and Mrs. Ward, to whose commodious hotel is attached the largest theatre in the place. The sporting men were scattered about among different, hostelries, and gave good accounts of Tarrant's, Driscoll's, Tuckernan's old house, and others, the names of which I don't know.
Then, since I was there, a new Joint Stock Bank has been built, opposite the Telegraph Office; and there is a Mechanics' Institute established below Ward's Hotel, in Queen-street, where I found a capital collection of newspapers, and amusing as well as instructive serials; so that I think it is a fair thing to say that although the population are scattered over a larger surface, there is no actual falling off in the real prosperity of Gulgong, nor is there likely to be, so long as the escort returns tell their hitherto tale of superiority.
The theatrical company of Messrs. Holloway and Power being at Home Rule on the Monday and Tuesday nights, there was no house open in Gulgong, and things were pretty dull, the sporting fraternity having enough with their Home Rule trip; but what with the opening scenes of Mr. Hunter's new hotel, and other little episodes belonging only to life on the gold fields, we managed to kill time well enough till bed time, and awoke in the morning very fit to commence the three days races.
... It was a most sensible thing not to have a fourth day's racing, as I believe was proposed. During the races the theatre (not Ward's) was opened by the Holloway and Power's company, with Mr. and Mrs. Braham (Miss Lizzie Watson) as stars, and crowded houses were the reward of very zealous efforts to please.
Having had a pretty long acquaintance with goldfields and their
inhabitants, I have years ago came to the conclusion that there are no such
orderly people to be found collected together anywhere, and the Gulgong race
course always affords me another proof that I am right. It has each year been
the wonder of visitors how such a large crowd of men can be kept in order by a handful
of police; but the fact is that such a sensible lot of men want no keeping in
order, and are always ready to assist the police when black sheep require
drafting out. The police however, of the Mudgee district, under the command of
Mr. Medley, have long been famed for their active, as well as their
unostentatious way of doing their business; and were it not that offenders are
speedily brought to justice, and that whenever a policeman is wanted one is
always to be found, so little fuss is made by Sergeants Webb and O'Donnell, who
preside at Mudgee and Gulgong, that a stranger would hardly think that there
were any police knocking about. The D division, consisting of Powell and Hatton,
are always on the alert; and their intimate acquaintance with the people all
through the district, has much to do with preventing crime.
The streets of
Gulgong are still remarkable, as I have before had to notice, for their
excellent stores and places of business; and Mr. Booth's establishment in
Queen-street, which is just about to undergo many improvements, would be a
credit to any town in the colony. In Herbert-street are some very extensive
Chinese merchants, doing a tremendous trade; and I was through the store of one
On Hing, which for extensive stock, and evidently large trade, quite astonished
me. Moreover, the prices they sell at are astoundingly cheap, considering that
the goods are first-class.
Then, in the matter of butcher's meat there has
been no falling off since my first visit, two years ago; and Leggatt's old shop
had this time as fine a show of beef as could be seen anywhere. The hard fat,
and quality unimpaired by driving, plainly marking those cattle just fresh from
the paddocks of Guntawang, or Biraganbil, that die so well for the butcher,
losing nothing of their inside fat, and preserving the marble, appearance and
good colour of the beef and fat.
As I have already said, there is no valid reason for prognosticating the impending downfall of Gulgong, but on the contrary, it seems most likely for the town to become the lively and prosperous commercial depot of a large auriferous district which will continue for years to furnish labour to the working miner at good wages, and to the capitalist employment for his money, at a satisfactory rate of interest. There is not the slightest step being taken towards improving the township of Home Rule, and I must say for it that I never was on a rougher goldfield in my experience, or among a rougher crowd than here. I say this, even including Fryer's Creek, in the days of Black Douglas, and before licensed houses were allowed on the gold-fields: and it appears that while the rougher portion of Gulgong's original denizens have betaken themselves to the offshoots, the town itself still retains a goodly crowd of good and true men, both in the mining and commercial interests, forming a capital foundation for a prosperous and permanent commercial and mining centre.
SEPTEMBER - ALLEGED WHOLESALE DOUBLE VOTING AT GULGONG
The Mudgee Times states that two persons arrested at Gulgong, and charged with double voting at the late election, have been remanded.
It is said that about three hundred fictitious votes were registered at Gulgong, and that about thirty of the culprits will be brought up. The maximum penalty for the offence is two years' imprisonment.
