Mining

Gold on the beaches

The first discovery of payable gold on the beaches of New South Wales was made near the north head of the Richmond River at Ballina in March 1870. On the beach of Shaws Bay, John Sinclair observed gold as small grains in black sand “leads” and over two weeks was able to recover 12 oz. Soon after this discovery the Richmond River district was subjected to a period of severe storms, heavy rain and floods and it was not until fine weather returned in June that the discovery was followed up by further prospecting. The storms and rough seas had cut into the beaches and produced large exposures of heavy black sands, referred to by the prospectors as ‘sniggers’.

The “black-sanders” usually working in groups of three, skimmed or dug black sand from the “leads” until enough was stock-piled for processing. One man then shovelled the black sand into a hopper, one pumped water to wash the sand over mercury-coated, copper plates and down a sluice box, and one removed the black sand “tailings”. It was hard, monotonous, unrelenting, physical work.
The fine gold amalgamated with the mercury on the copper plates to form “amalgam” a putty-like alloy which was scraped from the copper plates. The “amalgam” was placed inside a pumpkin or potato, which was then placed on a shovel and roasted in a fire. The mercury vapour condensed in the outer layers of the burnt vegetable. This was crushed and panned to recover the mercury for re-use. The gold would remain on the shovel as grains or as a “button” if the fire had been hot enough to melt gold.

Additional discoveries were made north and south of the Richmond River mouth and a small gold rush ensued. By August there were fifty claims taken out and by October about 300 miners working on the beaches, doubling the population of Ballina. The local police officer, Senior Constable John Henderson had run out of miners’ rights, so the miners had to be content with a receipt to show they had paid the fee and, amongst themselves, agreed to take out claims of 50 sq. feet.

In May 1871, a group of New Zealanders found a rich patch of gold south of Evans Head on a small beach, later named New Zealand Beach. It was reported that they were producing up to 140-360 oz of amalgam per week. It was the quest for gold that first attracted white men to the Evans Head district, and it was the success of a party of New Zealanders that directed the attention of Captain Paddon, the district’s first settler, to the area. Large numbers of miners were quickly attracted including Chinese prospectors working the adjacent beach, hence named Chinaman’s Beach. The beach prospecting and mining were intermittent activities and typically restricted to periods after heavy storms and strong south-easterly gales. During these storms the high seas disturbed the adjacent dunes to expose and rework the underlying seams of black sand onto the fresh beaches.

In March 1895, Alexander and Angus McAulay discovered a rich ‘run’ of gold in the back-beach of Jerusalem Creek 35km south of Evans Head. This lead to another “rush” but the work was unrelenting. By 1890 the richer deposits had been worked out. Only a few prospectors stayed seeking their fortune. This gold-field was known as the “poor man’s diggings.” Everybody found some gold but no one made a fortune.

By the 1920’s gold mining had mostly petered out but there was a resurgence of interest in mineral sands in the 1950’s with large scale industrial sand-mining all around Evans Head for minerals such as ilmenite, rutile, zirconium and gold. Much of the advanced processing for the minerals occurred at Woodburn.

The main source of information for this historical article comes from Ken McQueen’s excellent and comprehensive paper on mining.

Coal mining

Coal at Bungawalbyn
Courtesy of Trove 1890 – Mr Alex McIntosh reports that he visited the coal field at Bungawalbyn Creek and found that the Coraki people are going into the developing of the measures with spirit. Mr HJ Collaery, who has a practical knowledge of coal mining, has been engaged in opening the ground. There are outcrops of coal on the side of the hill, which is 500 ft. high and in the top seam 8 ft. in thickness, a tunnel is being driven, with good prospect. The carboniferous indications are very promising. The upper seam is about 300 ft. from the top of the hill, 40 ft. lower is the second seam 5 ft. thick and some 60 ft. below a third about 10 ft. thick.   A working party of 20 has been formed for opening up the mine, 5 shares being represented at Grafton and the balance at Coraki. The present workings are from one and a half to two miles from the shipping place at Bungawalbyn Creek and to this there is an easy gradient for a tram line. The work has been properly conducted, rail and trollies being put down for taking out the coal and refuse from the tunnel.

Two years later the announcement in the Richmond River Herald showed a list of dozens of reputable shareholders from the district, including many of the Yabsleys and Capt Storey, L.R. Benaud, store owners and bank managers.

The agreement was to pay landholders a royalty of sixpence per ton on all coal raised and sold, the company’s rights extended over 1200 acres. It also leased from Mrs Eliza Robinson 25 acres for the purpose of above ground facilities, and mining in the Robinson Hill area began in earnest. The company closed down 18 months later.

In June 1921 there were testimonials from various blacksmiths claiming that the coal in the area was as good as any they had used.

In 1922 the mines department turned it’s eye to the Moonem reserves, and in 1923 Mr Morrison (a Government Geologist) questioned using local coal over coal from other fields. He also advised that before establishing a colliery prospecting by boring should be undertaken so that the reserves may be proven.

In 1928 the mine department sunk two bores into the banks of Bungawalbyn Creek which must have been favourable since in 1930 the Moonem Coal Electric Light and Power Company Ltd. published it’s abridged prospectus.

In 1945-48, 12 more bores were sunk throughout the Moonem area. The survey for the coal and water reserves to be adequate, however the recovery and cleaning costs were too high when compared with superior imported coal.

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