A transcript of an early gold miners journey
By Dominic Carr
Even today with the luxuries that are afforded to us by modern technology the Northern Territory can be a very inhospitable place to live. Air conditioning can help but still the heat can be unbearable, travelling by car can feel like it takes an eternity if you want to go anywhere, and it takes a certain level of gumption for anyone to live up in the top end even today. It's definately not for the fient of heart.
But spare a thought for the early miners of the NT. The life of an early gold miner in the Northern Territory was not an easy one. Often not very well equipped or supplied, with barely a plan in place or any idea of the troubles that they’d face. Miners in those days were sent off with only the promise of riches from gold that may or may not be there when they arrived.
The early days of mining in the Northern Territory were incredibly dangerous and only the toughest and luckiest made their fortunes. Of course, the territory is the home of crocodiles, poisonous snakes, spiders, and myriad of other less dangerous creatures not to mention the infinite mosquitoes, flies and other creepy crawlies.
As the following story and transcript shows there was more than just the obvious problems for NT miners in those days.
Main Survey Camp with the Gulnare at anchor. Northern Territory Library, Peter Spillett Collection
Diary of Hugh May, early gold miner in the NT
Story is a direct copy from “Pegging the Northern Territory, The history of mining in the Northern Territory of Australia, 1873-1946”
Hugh May's diary, held by the South Australian Archives, gives a good description of a journey to the goldfields at the end of 1872. Little is known of May's background, other than that he was a South Australian miner who left Adelaide on 9 October 1872 under a six months' contract to the Palmerston Gold Mining Company, which had leases at Howley.
The party was well-equipped with six months' provisions, machinery, stores and sixteen horses, but on the voyage the ship ran into a severe storm and narrowly escaped foundering. Twelve of the horses were so badly maimed that they had to be put overboard. They reached Port Darwin after nine weeks at sea and then had to unload into small boats.
Port Darwin Harbour was crowded with two steamers and four large vessels with some thousands of tons of goods and heavy machinery, each awaiting its turn to unload into the very few small boats and lighters that were available.
Wilson, manager of May's company, joined with the manager of the Yam Creek Company and hired a boat to take their supplies to Southport, an arm of Darwin Harbour some twenty-five miles distant, but much further and more difficult of access by land. The boat was powered by oars and the men found the work most exhausting - and at times frightening, as the waters were infested with crocodiles and trips were made at night as well as day.
The darkness was accompanied by the sound of crocodiles barking in close proximity to the boats.
The total task took three weeks and during this time the manager tried to buy horses. Few were available and, of those that were, small ones in rather poor condition cost £20 each. At Southport the only accommodation was in tents. Sandflies and mosquitoes nearly drove the men and horses mad and hammocks had to be slung between trees because after a storm there was up to six inches of water on the ground.
Christmas Day was celebrated with fried bacon and damper and next day Warden Connor started for the goldfields, expecting to take seven days to cover the eighty miles or so involved. Meanwhile May and his fellow-workers were busy hewing timber to erect a log hut to protect the stores whilst their manager went on ahead to the Howley claims with pack-horses.
Soon after, the party experienced the Northern Territory "wet" in earnest: a violent thunderstorm and two inches of rain in a little less than half an hour. The country became wet and soggy, and the tracks to the goldfields, rough at the best of times, were muddy nightmares crossed frequently by dangerously flooded creeks.
With the arrival of additional horses, the party set out and soon found that the horses could barely cope with the heavy loads and soft going. The first day the horses bogged badly twice and the men had to lighten the drays by carrying most of the supplies on their backs, reaching Tumbling Waters, only a few miles from Southport, at dusk.
That night the horses wandered and were eventually located almost back at Southport. Next day the party covered a whole three miles, and on the way were menaced by a number of Aboriginals. who moved only when threatened with revolvers. Another two diggers, carrying their swags on their backs, caught up with the party and decided to travel with it, whilst two men with a handcart, returning to Southport, gave the party the depressing news that the road ahead was shocking, and impossible for drays.
The party leader, knowing that the horses, let alone the men, were approaching exhaustion, looked critically at his loads. Whilst every item was essential in a situation where the nearest supplies were 2000 miles and three months away, he decided to bury such items as the anvil, iron and keg of lime juice, hoping that they would still be there when they returned for them.
So they slogged on, with the drays often bogged to the axles and the horses so tired that many times the men had to drag the drays through bad patches several hundred yards long. Some days they only covered a mile and a half, it being not unusual to spend two hours digging a horse out of a bad bog. At Adelaide River the party had to spend a lot of time repairing the stream crossing 'and on the plains on the other side of the river they found nothing but knee-deep water.
May did not give details of how they managed to camp for the night. Twenty-nine days out from Southport provisions were very low, so May decided to walk ahead to the Howley, where he hoped to get assistance, but, after going several miles, he came to a flooded creek and had to turn back.
The party waited at the creek for several days until their manager arrived with three men and a hand-truck. The journey was resumed and another four days saw them at Bridge Creek, running high and swift in flood. This crossing was managed by hauling the horses over by ropes and then using the dray as a bridge to carry the loads over.
Eventually the party reached the Howley, forty-one days after leaving Southport, covered in boils and with one man badly stricken with fever. One had died of fever earlier on the journey and another was to live only a few days more. On arrival at the Howley in March 1873, May noted that fever, scurvy and rheumatism were present.
The journey that claimed several lives and took over a month to complete.
His manager quickly found that his own ground did not look promising, so he went to Yam Creek, twenty miles away, to try to find better prospects for his company. By the time he returned to the Howley, the men's rations were down to rice and flour, the roads were still bad and four sick men had to be sent back to Southport.
Later in the month, May had to visit Yam Creek and, as no horses were available, he walked the round trip of forty miles. Whilst there, May had the best dinner he had eaten in the Territory: corned beef and Irish stew.
The manager left for Southport with the teams and this left only May and his mate in the lonely camp. The mate fell so ill that May walked into Yam Creek to organise pack-horses and a man to get the sick man to Southport. May was now alone at the isolated camp and his peace of mind was not helped by the arrival of a tribe of Aboriginals who, in a menacing way, demanded flour.
He had all his firearms, four guns and a revolver, loaded and ready but, realising that they would not be much use against a hail of spears, gave them ten pounds of flour. They were soon back for more, so this time he gave them a little more and managed to get them to clear off by brandishing his rifle.
There was no further sign of them during daylight but that night he did not sleep and kept a light burning. Next day, they appeared again in full war paint, armed with spears and waddies, demanding more flour. This time May refused and threatened to shoot, at the same time putting a rifle to his shoulder.
The Aboriginals vanished into the scrub and were not seen again. However, next morning he found they had stolen stores from the other tent. His loneliness ended with the arrival of the new manager, Butters, with Griffiths as purser and Fotheringham as engineer. The former manager had been dismissed.
In June 1873 May pondered on the living conditions, rations (or lack of them), the Aboriginals, fever, lack of transport and indeed of any form of amenity, let alone female company, He decided that £3 a week and "all found" offered no future and concluded that he should strike out on his own with three others.
He went to Southport for supplies. The roads were good and hard and within five days they returned with pack-horses and a small cart. However, after three months' solid work, May had little to show and, as his resources were low, he went back to work for Butters.
He cut timber, built sheds, sank shafts, costeaned, cooked and dressed logs up to twenty feet long and eighteen inches square.
All this hard work in a hot, humid climate for little pay convinced him that the Territory was not for him, so he sold his claims for £60 each and, in his own words "bade farewell to the land of heat, rain, mosquitoes and sandflies".
Puts things into perspective
While this may have been a rather extreme case of bad luck or poor planning it can be surmised that life in those days was incredibly hard and only the toughest could make a living or stick around long enough to make one in the territory back in the day.
So, as you sit back in the cool of the split system air conditioner and enjoy a chilled drink from the fridge while you watch a movie.
Maybe consider that things aren’t as tough as they could be and that these days, we have it pretty good by comparison.
References
Jones TG, 1987, Pegging the Northern Territory. The history of mining in the Northern
Territory of Australia, 1873-1946, Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development, Darwin
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