Puddling Machine on the Black Lead, Gulgong north
This location is on the flat land south of the existing railway line and west of the current road. The house upper left (on the edge of current Happy Valley Lead) is identified as the house of Ted Cross by his grandson Herbert Cross, Previous title: Puddling machine, Gulgong.
Source: Information supplied by Baldwin & Davis, Research Gulgong (Sept 2006)Manager: Mr H Dawson
Others: John Scully, E Allen, C Murkins
NEWS ITEMS
1870 - [EARLY MENTION]
No reliable opinion can be expressed as yet on the development of this lead, which I may here state is called the 'Black Lead,' from the colour of a thick layer of black deposit that overlays the auriferous strata. There is plenty of room for the lead to run for a mile or two, but as at the distance of one mile ahead it will he at least 170 feet, with a probability of water, I fear it will not he tested so far until a radical change in our mining laws takes place. If (and mining readers must not forget this "if") it does become developed for a mile or two, it will permanently on Gulgong as one of our most thriving mining townships.
[There could be some truth to Annie Lyons the discovery of gold in this area by Aboriginal people as described above. An 1871 paper described the most easterly of block claims on the Black Lead as "locally celebrated as the Darkies' claim". Evening News Sat 4 Feb 1871 Page 4. However, in an 1870 news piece, the name was said to have derived from "the colour of a thick layer of black deposit that overlays the auriferous strata".]
