BYRON BAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Gold Mining in Byron
BYRON BAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Gold Mining in Byron Bay Area May 2015
Gold Mining • Gold discovered March 1870 - Richmond River mouth/beaches • Fine alluvial gold (flour-salt size) in black sand, one ounce/day • Then at Seven Mile and Tallow Beach by September 1870 • Main Beach later, all coast proclaimed a “Gold Field” • Mined beach slicks and strands, old strand lines and leads • “Black sanders” generally worked in groups of three All collected and transported sand to treatment site One shovelled black sand into hopper at top of sluice One pumped water to wash sand over mercury-coated copper plates and down sluice One shovelled treated black sand away • Hard, monotonous, unrelenting, physical work
Gold Mining Black sand slicks on active strand line – Tallow Beach. (Photo – Main)
Gold Mining Thick black sand “lead” – Seven Mile Beach. (Photo – Main)
Gold Mining Horses carrying black sand to treatment site - 1935. (Photo – Morley)
Gold Mining Three man team (The Danes) sluicing black sand – Seven Mile Beach 1935. (Photo – Morley)
Gold Mining • Mercury-gold amalgam (putty-like) scraped off copper plates • Placed in potato or pumpkin, retorted/roasted on a shovel in fire • Gold remained as grains or “button” on shovel, mercury vapour captured as droplets in charcoaled vegetable, recovered, re-used • Richer workings depleted quickly; most miners gone before 1890 • Known as the “poor mans diggings” as everyone found some gold but no one made a fortune, no big operators • Good earnings were half to one ounce per man per week • Total production unknown – estimate 20 -30, 000 ounces • In hard times (1930’s Depression) miners returned • Ironically the discarded black sand worth more than gold
Gold Mining Fine alluvial gold recovered after retorting. (Photo Main)
Gold Mining GOLDEN BEACHES OF BYRON BAY I dreamt of gold - how I craved it In the rivers of this new land On Byron’s beaches I found it Grains shining there in the sand I panned the gold - how I saved it Sluiced tonnes of black sand ev’ry day Disease or hunger I fought it For an ounce a week was good pay Gone is the gold - how I spent it Years working myself like a slave Gold grips my heart how I hate it Alone at the edge of my grave. Main – 2015.
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