THE TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



259 



and oleanders of the Sydney gardens are absent, but the hawthorne hedges are vigorous, 

 currants and gooseberries come to perfection, and the wheat harvest is later than that 

 of Bathurst. The district was taken up for a cattle-station about the year 1830, and 

 made a great start at the time of the gold fever of 1851. It was at Lewis Ponds, a 

 small tributary of Summer Hill Creek, about three miles from 

 the town, that Mr. E. H. Hargraves made his first discovery of 

 Australian gold, and this set everybody on the alert to look for 





THE LACHLAN RIVER, AM) THE TOWN OF FORBES. 



auriferous indi- 

 cations. Near 

 Lucknow some 

 gravel carted on 

 to a newly-con- 

 structed bridge 

 attracted the 

 attention of a 

 few Cornish - 

 men, who during 



the night carried it down to the Creek, washed it, and in the morning sold the results 

 of their night's labour for sixty pounds a man. Of course there was a wild "rush" to the 

 pit from which the gravel had been taken. Claims were "pegged out" in all directions. 

 Shop-men, shoe-makers and tailors took to digging holes and washing gravel in nail-cans, 

 buckets and tubs. Little fortunes were quickly made and quickly spent. A similar 

 discovery afterwards took place at Ophir, followed by a similar excitement till the 

 alluvial patch was worked out. Orange, as the local centre, grew rapidly during the 

 gold-digging clays, but subsequently had a non-progressive time. The construction of the 

 railway gave a great stimulus to agricultural development ; forests were cleared and 



