Gustave Adolphus Hugo Thureau (1831-1901) and the Bendigo School of Mines
By JAMES A. LERK
Key words: German, Geologist, Consultant, Bendigo School of Mines, California/Nevada, Mines Inspector.
uring the 19th century, a number of German geologists, technologists and scientists came to the Australian Colonies. These immigrants were to have a major influence particularly in the development of our mineral resources.
Among these influential men was Gustave Adolphus Hugo Thureau who had trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Mines, which was attended from 1845 to 1848, at Clausthal, situated in the Harz Mountains in Westphalia.
Thureau was born on 5 July 1831, and mining was one of the mainstays of his home-town’s surroundings, and its Royal Academy of Mines was the pre-eminent one of its kind in the German States.
Thureau became involved in the political unrest sweeping Europe in the late 1840s. At the time, he had been working at an ore crushing facility at the 300- year-old Rosenhof lead copper and silver mine, but because of his involvement in political agitation he spent a short time in prison and was then unable to be re-employed. Consequently, he petitioned the Lower Saxony and Clausthal administration for finance to emigrate to the colony of South Australia. Being successful, Thureau took passage on the George Washington, arriving at Port Adelaide on 2 March 1849,1 after which he settled at Burra where he became an ore dresser.
When gold was discovered in Victoria, Thureau, like so many others joined the rush in 1852, working first at Forest Creek, where for five years he became a mining agent before moving from there to Maryborough, Ararat, and Malmsbury. He was a manager of quartz mines at Taradale, Ballarat, Daylesford and Warrandyte. Thureau also became a popular captain of the Pioneer Silver Mine at St Arnaud, before leaving there in 1869.2 Whilst at Taradale, Thureau married Eleanor Mary King, who bore him four children, two surviving into adulthood.
Financial problems occurred in 1865 when it was reported that G.A.H. Thureau, Mining Engineer of Malmsbury, was declared insolvent, his deficiency of liabilities over assets was to the sum of ₤86 8s 9d.3 Three years after his insolvency he applied for, and was granted, a Certificate of Discharge, this permitted him to trade in the normal manner.4 Determinedly, Thureau improved his English skills and wrote geological reports which
D
Figure 1: Gustav Thureau in Tasmania c. 1882/83.
Source: Collection of Betty May Jackman.
were read by eminent geologist Alfred Selwyn to the Mining Institute of Victoria.5 Thureau became a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, he being recognised for his contribution to the subject of geology.
Conscious of mine safety, as early as 1855, before the subject became more fashionable, he also promoted his ideas to improve safety through various timbering techniques for alluvial and hard rock mines from the time he commenced his Victorian mining career. The type of native timbers best suited to various conditions was one feature high on his agenda. Timbering techniques he had learnt at Clausthal were adapted for local conditions and Thureau recommended the use of Ironbark and Grey Box, with River Red Gum for lining shafts. Mine ventilation was another subject that he tackled, a long time, before its importance was acknowledged. Timbering techniques that he had learnt at Clausthal were adapted to the local conditions.
Even prior to Thureau’s arrival at Bendigo he was already being referred to as a Mining Engineer (M.E.), and was skilled in surveying, which was in demand at the time.
In Bendigo Thureau was being referred to as an ‘inspecting mining manager,’ and he acted in this capacity for a number of companies.6 Arriving as he did at the beginning of the mining company floatation boom, there was plenty of work in drawing plans, writing reports and dispensing advice for those companies that required it. Mines such as the Hustler’s Main Reef, Christmas Reef Tribute, Great Comet Tribute, and at Koch’s Victoria Tribute where he was hailed as a Mining Inspector. Thureau had to report on the Golden Fleece No 3, where he met a kindred spirit, in Henry Cock the mine manager of the Golden Fleece group of mines.7 Cock like Thureau was greatly concerned with mine safety and miner’s welfare, he also was very keen to solve problems associated with treating pyritic ores.
With the plethora of companies requiring the skills of people such as Thureau, he found, that at times, he had to go to Court in order to force the companies to pay him for the work that he had completed for them.8
There was recognition by Thureau that sulphide minerals were a challenge to conventional treatment of auriferous ores, which was undertaken by crushing and amalgamating gold, using mercury. Use of this process resulted in the loss of revenue. He foresaw other methods would need to be applied and utilised for the treatment of these sulphide minerals or pyrites that were also held in the crushed gangue.9 He advocated the use of chlorination as a means of gold retrieval from these ores.
Having a keen eye for detail always stood Thureau in good stead, and whilst busy reporting for companies on the southern portion of the Bendigo Goldfield, he made an interesting discovery. At his office in S. Stewart’s Chambers in Pall Mall, he showed off a piece of antimony ore of good quality that had been found at Specimen Gully, a tributary of Spring Gully. As reported, ‘the ore at present is only six inches thick, continuing on north into neighbouring leases.’10 Although the antimony discovery was of some importance there is no record of it being exploited.
Government geologist and superintendent of the Christchurch Museum, New Zealand, Dr. Julius von Haast sought out Thureau’s assistance when on a visit to Bendigo to inspect the workings and geology of the Hustler’s Line of Reef and the Great Extended Hustlers Mine.11 Thureau’s reputation had been built on the papers and reports that he
had produced, and this work was well recognised by learned men of that time. Apart from all the consulting work being undertaken he applied for a position with the Bendigo School of Mines as a lecturer, and was successful in being appointed:
In 1873 it [BSM] had appointed Gustave Thureau to deliver a course of lectures on mining. In some respects the appointment was one of the most important in the School’s history, marking as it did, its first venture into the field of specific mining education. … Joining the staff of the School at a time when it was struggling to establish an identity Thureau with Marks12 did much to give orientation to its efforts framing courses and devising syllabuses as behoved a mining institute and striving to secure recognition of the School’s courses and awards within the industry and the community.13
Because of Thureau’s broad experience in mining, along with his background training he was able to offer many different courses to his students. He lectured on, Geology, Mineralogy, Electricity and its effect on geology, Practical Mining, Lodes, and their method of working. He also extended his teaching to Shafts and timbering of shafts, Timbering in mines, levels, crosscuts and stopes, Pneumatic Rock Drills, Diamond Drilling, Permanency of quartz lodes, Explosives, Ore Treatment, Engineering, Winding Machinery, Steam Generators and Boilers, Feed Pumps, Mine Pumping, Construction of pumps in shafts, Construction of plungers and calculations, Calculating the power of engines, Mine drainage by adits, systems for working seams of coal or ironstone, Ventilation of mines, Mine Signaling, Surveying, Drawing underground plans and also Drawing Geological Plans.
Reputation was of great importance to Thureau, but over time he had been misrepresented in the Melbourne press. He desired to protect his hard-won reputation and his position as a lecturer at the BSM, so efforts were always made to correct any misreporting.14 As a Fellow of the prestigious Geological Society of London, he was entitled to use the letters F.G.S. after his name. Another honour came from the Royal and Imperial Geological Academy of Austria when appointed their official correspondent.
Thureau felt that this latter appointment would help to promote the Bendigo Goldfield to potential European investors.15
At the BSM, Thureau with the extensive range of subjects of his lectures was many years ahead of any other similar institutions and was quick to convey knowledge of the latest mining developments that were occurring both in North America and Europe.
Among those developments, he lectured on the use of the diamond drill years before its existence was known to many Bendigo mining managers. A lateral thinker he could see great merit in the use of compressed air to raise ore, as happened in some European mines,16 and was very much aware of the development of compressed air powered wheel- cutters used in English coal mines from the late 1860s.17
One thing that troubled Thureau was that the Board of Examiners for Mining Manager’s Certificates did not give him any indication on what were the heads of subjects upon which his candidates would be examined. The lack of direction, and the Board’s refusal to communicate, meant that a number of potential students decided not to undertake his courses, as without an official curriculum as a guide they could not see
themselves gaining the knowledge that they believed would raise their profile and provide them with the knowledge to pass the requisite examinations.18 Correspondence with other institutions revealed that while the Board had communicated with them to provide them with the necessary guidance, Thureau had been ignored by the Board. It is a puzzle as to why Thureau and the BSM had received different treatment? Culturally, Thureau did not quite fit into the Anglo-Saxon mold, he being very disciplined, pedantic and fastidious.
Figure 2: Bendigo Mechanics Institute & Free Library.
Source: Photograph by J. E. Andrew, 1892, courtesy D. O'Hoy.
A further development involving Thureau was related to local mining magnate and Quartz King, George Lansell, who having undertaken a world tour, had in 1876 returned to Australia by way of the USA. Stopping off in California and Nevada he had been impressed with the efficiency of mining operations and the equipment being used, especially the diamond drill. Back in Bendigo Lansell approached the BSM to find a suitably qualified delegate to travel to USA and report on the mode of working mines and the mining innovations used. As an incentive, Lansell would contribute £500 towards the cost of sending a person to do this investigation, as he saw it, an essential task for furthering mining in the colony.19 Other donations towards this expedition were being solicited but even though the BSM was strapped for cash it committed itself to the task.
The BSM called for applicants, with nineteen persons replying, six of whom were rejected out of hand, and through elimination, two were short-listed, Richard Parker and Gustave Thureau.
The two men were dispatched to Clunes and Pleasant Creek respectively, to prepare specimen reports, then interviewed and asked to consider undertaking such a tour on an allowance of £400. Parker held out for £500: Thureau accepted the offer.20
Thureau departed on 5 March 1877, on the same ship on which the American Consul was a passenger. Through the Consul he was introduced to the ‘right people’ on arrival in San
Francisco. This, along with Thureau’s own contacts opened many doors and gave access that would otherwise have been denied. Mining companies there guarded with jealousy their mode of operation, their equipment and the treatment processes that were used.
Thureau however managed to gain almost free access, because as a mining engineer he could speak their language. However, it was not an easy road for he travelled around under extremely difficult circumstances, especially as the arranged progress payments failed to reach him. While the notes and drawings he made were detailed and voluminous, covering every aspect of his observations, much of it was achieved under great privation.
Despite this, he conscientiously sent progress reports through to the Argus newspaper.21 Commenting on the diamond drill, he stated:
For prospecting and also for shaft sinking and tunneling the Diamond drill is gradually forging ahead, although the first named operation is performed more frequently with it; and for mining centres where the location and position of ore deposits is doubtful, this rotating perforator is doubtless of inestimable value.22 Although a delegate to the west coast of California, some people in California thought that he was a charlatan and imposter despite his excellent introductions.23 There were also sceptics at home in Australia, as illustrated when one of a number of correspondents took Thureau to task when the first of his progress reports on his observations and findings were printed in the colonial newspapers.
Travelers see strange things, and are no doubt prepared to see strange things, and to accept as facts the strangest of statements, however contrary to common sense or practical experience; hence it would seem that the delegate from our mining centre is somewhat carried away by this feeling.24
However, he persevered and among other observations noted Pneumatic powered rock drills in use in the mines that he had visited, which struck him as a great saver of labour and able to bring down ore in vast quantities. He compared and reported on the many different types of drills, looking to see which required the least maintenance, concluding these to be the commonly used Ingersoll and National models, with the latter being by far the most cost effective. Blake’s primary stone breakers were in use,25 as the ore then fed by gravity into, ore feeders. These automatic ore feeders were utilised at the crushing batteries with only one person supervising the feeders for 10 or 12 battery boxes. The mortar boxes were lined with silver (mercury) plated copper plates and the screens in front of them were very fine, being from 1,000 to 1,400 holes to the square inch. Blankets used in front of the battery boxes were superior to those utilised back home, these holding back the fine minerals from the crushed material washing from the mortar boxes. All the equipment was belt driven which made the crushing works much quieter.26
He noted their gold was of a lesser value as it contained a small percentage of silver, and its colour was also paler. The deeper levels of the mines were giving higher yields and their reduction processes he noted as being admirable, with continual experimentation taking place in attempts to effect even further improvements.27 A further observation was the frequent assays of the waste that were taken to assess that no sulphurets had escaped.28
Elaborating further Thureau mentioned various additives that were mixed into the finely crushed slurry, these chemicals assisted in making the pyritic ores give up some of the valuable minerals. Diamond Drills he found were far more compact than those originating from Europe and he saw these as being useful if used back in Australia for shaft sinking and tunneling. These drills would be able to reveal the geological strata and they were geared directly to an engine with an upright boiler.29 Boilers in use to power the plants at the surface of the mines were all multitubular, these being far more efficient than the Cornish Flue and Lancashire boilers as extensively used in Australia. They used a lot less fuel, which made for important saving.30
Of particular notice was the scale of sluicing operations in California and the very high water pressures that were used, the water being conveyed by means of sheet iron pipes telescoped one into another, the pipes reducing in size. The large drop for the water head combined with the progressive reduction in the delivery pipe size ensured a very powerful water pressure at the nozzle head. The sluicing nozzles were very well balanced with some embankments of wash being brought down from a face over 340 feet high.
The system of riffles that were used to catch the gold was ingeniously simple, but effective, with 90% of the gold obtained in the first instance.31
An all-encompassing observation made by Thureau was, ‘We are too cautious to introduce anything out of the common’,32
It may be stated here that the American miners look upon manual labor with the greatest possible aversion, and, as they are a very inventive people, machines of various kinds are made to take the place of the laborer, whose functions are much relieved thereby.33
Criticism on the local scene had been forthcoming whilst Thureau was on the US West Coast, but considerable disquiet was expressed in an editorial at the pressure he had been under when he was compelled through financial circumstances to return early from his mission. It was believed that the BSM had not treated Thureau well.34
Mr Thureau has had a hard time of it in California, on one meal a day whilst a pleasant draft was flying about the old and new world in search of him neither the Sandhurst (Bendigo) School of Mines nor Mr Thureau can be held responsible for the unfortunate position in which this gentleman found himself.35
It was further stated ‘the colony itself must suffer from the ill- judged parsimony which placed its representative in California in the awkward fix in which he found himself’.36
The BSM Council had a meeting with Thureau upon his return, where they clearly explained the tragedy of errors that had occurred in relation to the forwarding of drafts and full explanations had been given. Telegrams and other communications were not received by Thureau from the BSM when finally, through a cable the BSM Council had learned that Thureau was already on his way back to Sydney because of lack of funds.37 It has to be noted that he had resigned his lectureship at the BSM in order to become the delegate to California, and another person had been appointed in his stead to the School.
Upon his return he found the School was not in a financial position to re-employ him.
However, there was still the considerable task of completing his report with the diagrams,
drawings and plans that he had so carefully and accurately recorded. A synopsis of Thureau’s findings had been well publicised in newspapers all over the country.
Thureau did deliver a series of lectures at the BSM on what he had learnt as the delegate, but there is no mention of any payment. ‘A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the lecturer at the close of his remarks, the mover Mr M. Cohn, saying the public were very much indebted for the valuable information and plans Mr. Thureau had brought with him.’38 During the lecture mention was made of the use of the telephone in mines, this was something followed up soon afterwards in the Adventure and Advance Company’s mine at Bendigo. The comment was made that the telephone was simplicity itself and easy to install, undoubtedly it would be a success.39
Victoria, at the time, depended economically very much on the mining industry, which was keen to see the full findings of Thureau’s report. The BSM was in no financial position to undertake the publication of the information and as a result they helped organise a deputation to wait on the Victorian Treasurer Mr Berry. The deputation consisted of T.J. Connelly, Vice President of the School Council, S.G. Cole representing mining legal managers, Mr Woodward an investor and company director, Mr G. Thureau, Mayor of Bendigo, and mining investor Mr A. Bayne, along with Mr Loridan, another prominent investor and company director. They were all backed up by local parliamentarians, Messrs Mackay, Burrows, Williams, Clark and Davies, all members of the Legislative Assembly. The request was for the publication of Thureau’s Report, as well as finance for the Government to send him back to the USA on a renewed mission.40
They believed a figure of £500 would be sufficient to cover Thureau’s expenses to complete his survey when pointing out the document that he had produced was a very valuable one. W.C. Smith from the mining department mentioned that because of Thureau’s reports the government had already ordered three diamond drills. One portion of Thureau’s report that gained attention related to tunneling techniques, but it was pointed out that: ‘As to machinery for tunnelling purposes, a Victorian invention [by Robert Gray Ford] which was at that very time being successfully used at Walhalla and Beechworth, … would be used in connection with the waterworks at Stawell’.41
Unfortunately, despite the pleadings of the deputation, the government did not see its way clear to sponsor another visit by Thureau to the USA but said it would consider the publication of his report. Although Thureau found himself to be in a state of paucity, there initially was no help forthcoming, the BSM at first being prepared to offer him a further ₤10, however, an amended motion to make it ₤20 was finally passed by the Council. The community sentiment was in favour of a positive reaction by government
‘it would be well if the Council did something for him’.42 One letter writer expressed this strongly:
A man, surely, who commits acts of self denial with the addition of being underpaid, if fairly and deliberately understood, should be the very last man to be imperfectly or partially remunerated. I am really ashamed of the weakness of judgment of my fellow colonists, and really hope that this tribute of appreciation, by no means overstrained, will have the salutary and honest effect of adding to the public avowal of the eminent services of our scientific friend in the consummation of his enterprise.43
It was not until the 1878-79 session of the Victorian Parliament that further consideration was made, when it was passed, ‘that an amended and condensed report from the delegate, be printed’. Again, the heavy hand of bureaucracy was against him, in the printing of his report as most of the diagrams, sketches, &c., were omitted on account of their being too expensive to reproduce.44 A much emasculated version of Thureau’s Report was published in 1879 with very few of his extensive illustrations.
Following his return from California and Nevada, Thureau found difficulty in securing contracts for reports into Bendigo mining companies, this possibly because he accused the local industry ‘as being too cautious to introduce anything out of the ordinary’. Local administrators, directors and mining managers were content to do their mining the way that they themselves had learnt. The conservatism of the majority of Cornish mining managers, who dominated positions on the field cannot be over- emphasised.45
Towards the end of 1878, the rumour mill in Bendigo mining circles had done immense damage to the high reputation of Thureau and his diverse talents. A result of him falling into poverty, a Thureau Testimonial Fund was set up by his loyal friends:
Mr. Thureau has every reason to regret ever having accepted the position of Californian delegate the exceedingly long delay that has occurred in publishing his report … Owing to the delay referred to people have insinuated that the delegate had neglected his duty, and some have gone so far as the throw doubts on his practical knowledge of mining … the single-handed efforts of Mr. Thureau were most energetically supported by Mr. Robert Clark, and the other local members of Parliament. He has now no occupation and being without means his position is a very difficult one. … no doubt the appeal that has been made to the public will meet with a fair response.46
Despite the setbacks, Thureau continued to press on: a ‘Bendigo Mining Court’
was being prepared for display at the 1880 International Exhibition in Melbourne, the design of which was conceived by Thureau, and he was in charge of its construction. The display was, ‘To represent this rich quartz-mining district in a worthy as well as attractive manner. The exhibit will represent a saddle formation 24 feet in height by 23 feet in width, set in concrete.’47 The exhibit was under the sponsorship of the Bendigo School of Mines.
This appears to be the last of any assignments that Thureau was to have in Bendigo, after which he cast his eyes elsewhere.
Development of the tin and gold mining industry in Tasmania was the impetus in 1882 to create a Department of Mines in that colony. A year prior to 1882 the need to have a government geologist was already realised as a necessity, and Thureau had been offered an assignment by the government. ‘The Premier and Treasurer (the Hon. W.B.
Giblin) wrote to Thureau in April 1881 offering him the job of making reports of all the goldfields and tinfields in the colony’.48
Thureau’s engagement was an important response to a rapidly changing mining scene.49 The colony certainly needed geological guidance at a professional level, when Giblin appointed him, he was given the very onerous task of geologically mapping the whole of Tasmania, much of which was inaccessible. As a result, Thureau again suffered
considerable privation, particularly on the West Coast.50 Added to an already impossible workload, in 1882 he was also appointed Inspector of Mines, as well as Boiler Inspector.
Thureau arrived at mines quite unannounced and thus helped to reduce the accident rate so that it became almost negligible. The unexpected arrival of Mining Inspector Thureau at a pit site kept all the Tasmanian mine managers on their toes, leading to all aspects of the safety regulations being followed. Roberts noted that, Thureau was the only person in the civil service capable of providing expert guidance but was unpopular with his masters51 because he was controlled by men who had no technical background or knowledge.52
In correspondence with one of his Bendigo friends, the ever-observant Thureau outlined an ingenious mining swindle whereby a quartz claim in Tasmania had been salted to have it sold to unsuspecting investors. Tiny holes had been drilled into the quartz and these had been filled with gold. Upon investigation Thureau found that the origin of the gold was alluvial, the case was then handed over to the police.53
Thureau’s health suffered from exposure which he had endured in Tasmania and thus he was able to obtain a month’s leave of absence in the summer of 1884.
Recuperating at Bendigo, where he stayed at the Victoria Hotel,54 and never one to be idle, Thureau held introductions from the Minister of Lands Tasmania addressed to the Minister of Mines for Victoria, but the nature of the introduction and its exact purpose has not been established.
The lack of assistants and facilities gave a scientifically educated man like Thureau real problems and he was always treated as an outsider. He retired through poor health in May 1889, but in truth, he was requested by the Tasmanian Minister of Mines to resign his Tasmanian positions. Mining companies from numerous colonies recognised his expertise and he continued to do consulting work from his private practice he maintained an office in Collins Street, Melbourne. In 1896 he was elected to membership of the Geological Society of Australasia.55
Gustave Adolphus Hugo Thureau passed away at his North Carlton home on 9 March 1901,56 his wife had predeceased him in 1887 and his spinster daughter who had been living with him was left with the quandary as to how to attend to his debts.57 With the exception of his official reports, and as s far as it is known, the voluminous writings of Thureau are not in any public or private collections.
Endnotes
1 Frank Cusack, Editor, Bendigo the German Chapter, Bendigo German Heritage Society, Bendigo, 1998, p. 212.
2 Ralph W. Birrell, A New Bendigo, The Story of the Gold and Silver Mines of St. Arnaud, St. Arnaud 2008, p. 50.
3 Age, 21 November 1865, p. 6, c. 5.
4 Ibid., 8 August 1868, p. 3, c. 3.
5 Colonial Mining Journal and Railway and Share Gazette, 1, 1859, pp. 160-161.
6 Bendigo Advertiser, 23 December 1878, p. 2, c. 4.
7 See, James A. Lerk, Gold, Blood, Sweat and Fear, Bendigo’s Diamond Hill and its Gullies, Golden Square, 2016, pp. 101, 102.
8 Bendigo Advertiser, 20 June 1874, p. 2, c. 6.
9 Ibid., 13 October 1874, p. 3, c. 4.
10 Ibid., 26 December 1872, p. 2, c. 4.
11 Ibid., 31 March 1875, p 3, c. 2.
12 Edward Lloyd Marks, 1833-1904, was a very competent Chemistry Lecturer, Professor Smith on a visit in 1876 was stunned to find that Marks had far more Chemistry Students than he had enrolled at the University of Sydney.
13 Frank Cusack, Canvas to Campus, Melbourne 1973, p. 54.
14 Argus, 26 January 1875, p 6, c. 5.
15 Bendigo Advertiser, 29 July 1876, p. 2, c. 4.
16 Ibid., 29 October 1875, p 2, c. 3.
17 britannica.com/technology/coal-mining accessed 19 June 2021.
18 Bendigo Advertiser, 25 June 1875, p. 2, c. 3.
19 Ibid., 19 January 1877, p. 3, c. 2.
20 Gustave A. Thureau, Synopsis of a Report on Mining in California and Nevada, U.S.A. Melbourne, Government Printer, 1879, p. 59.
21 The Argus had contributed £25 for the first publication rights of the delegate’s reports.
22 Ibid., 28 July 1877, p. 9.
23 Bendigo Advertiser, 15 September 1877, p. 2, c. 3.
24 Ibid., 27 July 1877, p. 3, c. 1. The letter writer was comparing local water syphons which were made of very heavy cast iron compared to the much lighter and cheaper ones in use in California, these were however made of riveted steel, something that he did not know or understand how that could be done.
25 Mount Alexander Mail, 31 July 1877, p. 3, c. 3.
26 Argus, 28 July 1877, p. 9, c. 3-4.
27 Ibid., 7 July 1877, p. 4, c. 7.
28 Ibid., 30 July 1877, p. 3, c. 4.
29 Ibid.
30 Thureau, Synopsis of a Report on Mining in California and Nevada, U.S.A., p. 56.
31 Argus, 7 July 1877, p. 4, c. 5, 7.
32 Thureau, Synopsis of a Report on Mining in California and Nevada, U.S.A, p. 38.
33 Ibid., p. 18.
34 Bendigo Advertiser, 15 September 1877, p. 2, c. 3.
35 Herald, (Melbourne), 20 September 1877, p. 2, c. 5.
36 Ibid.
37 Argus, 19 September 1877, p. 6, c. 7. See also, Ballarat Star, 21 September 1877, p. 4, c. 1.
38 Bendigo Advertiser, Supplement, 3 November 1877, p. 1, c. 2.
39 Evening News, Sydney, 3 December 1877, p. 2, c. 7.
40 Ballarat Star, 15 November 1877, p. 3, c. 3.
41 Ibid.; Robert Gray Ford’s drill was slow on the uptake, it had been invented in 1868, see James, A. Lerk, Robert Gray Ford, Colonial Blacksmith, Inventor, Engineer and One Time Bendigonian, Golden Square, 2005.
42 Bendigo Advertiser, 15 December 1877, p. 2, c. 3.
43 Ibid., 14 December 1877, p. 3, c. 2.
44 Thureau, Synopsis of a Report on Mining in California and Nevada, U.S.A., p. 1.
45 Leanne Lloyd, Mine Managers of Bendigo and District, Self-published, Bendigo 1997, & V. 2, 1998.
46 Bendigo Advertiser, 23 December 1878, p. 2, c. 4.
47 Ibid., 20 August 1880, p. 2, c. 4.
48 C.A. Bacon, Tasmanian Geological Survey Record, Mineral Resources Tasmania, Rosny, July 1996, p.
6.
49 Glyn Roberts, Metal Mining in Tasmania 1804 -1914, Launceston, 2007, p. 122.
50 Ibid., p. 123.
51 Ibid., p. 207.
52 Ibid., p. 259.
53 Courier, (Ballarat) 16 October 1882, p. 2, c. 7.
54 Bendigo Advertiser, 5 January 1884, p. 2, c. 6.
55 D.F. Branagan, Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, 23, Pt. 2 June 1976, p. 171.
56 Bendigo Independent, 12 March 1901, p. 2, c. 5.
57 Daily Telegraph, (Launceston) 12 March 1901, p. 2, c. 6.
