The Northern Territory's historic gold rush of 1872
By Dominic Carr
The story of the Northern Territories gold rush begins with the sixth great expedition of John McDouall Stuart in 1862. Stuart was a Scottish born explorer who, during a time when very little was known of inland Australia, successfully crossed the country from Adelaide to a spot 100km East of Darwin.
The achievement was considered one of the greatest feats of exploration completed by anyone of the time and in the previous year an expedition by Burke and Wills attempting a similar journey had perished except for one soul.
The South Australian government of the time had funded Stuart’s expedition in a bid to establish a telegraph line all the way from England through the Northern Territory to South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria along the shortest route possible.
Pictured: Scottish born Australian explorer John McDouall Stuart.
After the expedition, the South Australian government took charge of what is now known as the Northern Territory and after several failed attempts managed to establish the permanent settlement of Palmerston (modern day Darwin) and government for the area could then also be established.
Soon after in 1870 the construction of the overland telegraph line began, and some of the first gold finds were made just 100 miles South of Darwin when telegraph workers were digging post holes.
More gold was found as construction of the line continued South but none of the telegraph workers were able to make an official claim as they would have to travel to Adelaide and even then, there was no suitable government legislature to make a claim on land for mining purposes in the Northern Territory.
Pictured: Planting the first telegraph pole, 15 September 1870. White, Samuel Sweet, Northern Territory Library, Peter Spillett Collection.
Although no claim could be made on the findings, this discovery began the inevitable draw of gold upon the population. The SA government soon had a draft of “the Northern Territory Goldmining Regulations” a deeply inadequate bill that later caused many issues for miners and claim owners. As well as employing the first warden, George McLachlan, of the Northern Territory gold fields around 1871 to administer mining operations.
McLachlan a senior surveyor led a prospecting party, at the behest of the government resident William Bloomfield Douglas, from Palmerston as far south as Pine Creek. Upon returning McLachlan reported that he believed that there was indeed gold to be found but that a more experienced prospecting party should be sent with better equipment and better supplies. He also warned that, due to extremely hazardous conditions, no party or expedition should attempt the challenge without twelve to eighteen months provisions.
This report, after reaching Adelaide, led to the formation of the Northern Territory Gold Prospecting Company who dispatched a party who arrived the following year in 1872. After some searching, the party discovered the first significant gold find for the Territory at Yam Creek. Named “Priscilla” a gold reef that was some two miles long and that witnesses reported as having "gold that was visible to the naked for some two hundred yards".
Pictured: Miners' Hospital, Yam Creek, Approximately 1879
With this monumental find, word quickly spread and the allure of gold began what is formally known as the Northern Territories gold rush. Subsequent gold reefs were soon discovered by other prospecting parties, and thousands of people flocked to the area with the financial backing of well-off businessmen from around the globe.
News travelled all that much faster as the overland telegraph line was completed in the same year allowing for near instant communication where previous messages had to be passed over several months.
Gold fever had struck. Fortunes, careers and legends were about to be made as the gold flowed for forty years until World War one and the following great depression in 1919 when the price of gold greatly diminished along with the demand for the precious metal.
Over that time, while it is impossible to say exactly how much gold was found, several hundred thousand ounces of gold were reported to be mined, possibly valued somewhere around a billion dollars by todays standards.
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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