THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 337 



Phillip district began to be revived, and reports that had been 

 received a few months before with sneers and incredulity were 

 suddenly stamped with the importance of a scientific demonstration. 

 There is no doubt that alluvial gold had been found in trifling 

 quantities in widely sundered localities. During the period from 

 1847 to 1850 there were several well-authenticated instances of 

 small lots of gold having been brought into Melbourne, generally 

 from some vaguely denned district, but certainly from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Pyrenees from the Plenty Kanges and from the 

 Loddon Valley. The revival of these old stories now, in the light 

 of the Bathurst discoveries looking so much more like truth, 

 created a widespread vagrant desire to go forth and dig. By the 

 middle of 1851 there were dozens of small parties scouring the 

 creeks and gullies about the Yarra, and scores of shepherds neglect- 

 ing their flocks to prospect anything that appeared to them " likely 

 country ". Some action seemed necessary to bring the community 

 back to settled industry; to ascertain whether the spreading ex- 

 citement had reasonable ground for its existence, or to dissipate 

 the day-dreams by showing the hopelessness of the quest. There 

 was as yet no Parliament to take the initiative, but there were 

 shrewd citizens who knew how to conduct a public meeting, and 

 its value on public opinion. One was duly summoned to consider 

 the situation, and on the 9th of June it appointed a committee of 

 fifteen leading citizens, including such men as Nicholson, West- 

 garth, Greeves, O'Shanassy, Fawkner and McCombie, who promptly 

 decided to offer a reward for the discovery of a profitable gold mine 

 within 200 miles of Melbourne. In less than a month after the 

 meeting the committee published the following announcement : 



" The committee appointed to promote the discovery of a gold- 

 field in the Colony of Victoria have the satisfaction of announcing 

 that unquestionable evidence has been adduced to them, showing 

 the existence of gold, in a considerable quantity, both at the Deep 

 Creek on the Yarra, near Major Newman's Bun, and also at the 

 Deep Creek on the Pyrenees, near Mr. Donald Cameron's house. 

 " WILLIAM NICHOLSON, Mayor, 



" Melbourne, 16th July, 1851." 

 VOL. L 22 



