CHAPTER XCVIII 



ABORIGINAL PROSPECTING 



PLUTO AND THE BATAVIA RIVER, 1910-16 



ABORIGINES WELL QUALIFIED FOR PROSPECTING. PLUTO DISCOVERS ALLUVIAL GOLD 

 AT PLUTOVILLE, BATAVIA RIVER, 1910. SMALL RUSH FOLLOWS. DISCOVERS 

 ALLUVIAL GOLD AT CHOCK-A-BLOCK, 1911. THESE FIELDS YIELDED ONLY NUGGETS 



AND VERY LITTLE FlNE GOLD. PLUTO'S DEATH, 1916. H. WADE ROBINSON, 



O. IN C. OF CAPE YORK TELEGRAPH STATION, GREATLY ASSISTED PROSPECTORS. 



(SEE MAP C.) 



IT is perhaps less singular than it at first appears that a successful 

 prospector should be found among the aborigines, when we 

 take into consideration the highly cultivated powers of 

 observation inherent in the race. It may be mentioned 

 that Ernest Henry, the discoverer of the Cloncurry copper-field, 

 availed himself extensively of the services of aborigines whom he 

 had taught to identify copper ores. 



PLUTO, AN ABORIGINAL from the Rockhampton district, had 

 been prospecting for some time l when he found ALLUVIAL GOLD 

 in the Batavia River, about 5 miles below the infall of Sefton Creek. 

 The discovery was made in October, 1910, and as soon as it leaked 

 out the place was rushed by about 50 diggers from Coen and 

 Ebagoolah. 8 The Warden estimated a yield of 2,500 ounces 

 (.3 I2s. 6d. per ounce) to the end of 1911, the LARGEST NUGGET 

 weighing 74 ounces. 



Pluto took a white mate, named ANDERSON, presumably to 

 enable him legally to hold a prospecting claim, from which they 

 got 213 oz. in nuggets weighing 5, 10, 15 and 19 oz. Other claims 

 yielded nuggets of 15, 25, 53, and 73 oz. (the last may have been 

 the 74~oz. nugget referred to by the warden) ; in all, to August, 

 1911, 1,200 oz. 3 In 1911, E. DOWNS, of Townsville, got 400 oz. 

 of gold from a gully which now bears his name, about 2 miles west 

 of PLUTOVILLE, and GLEESON, WARD and WEISS also found payable 

 gold in other gullies. PLUTO also DISCOVERED GOLD at CHOCK-A- 

 BLOCK, 8 miles NNE. of Plutoville, and from this place Downs 



1 He was with Messrs. Earl, Harry Tuckey and C. Arrol, who made a trip " Through 

 York Peninsula," in 1896. See Basalt (Earl) in Queenslander of igth December, 1896. 



2 Warden O. E. Power, in Annual Report, Department of Mines, for 1911, p. 59- 



Article by James Dick, in Cairns Post of 23rd August, 1911 (written at Pluto- 

 ville). 



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