PROGRESS OF MUTES' G AND GEOLOGY IN QUEENSLAND. 365 
occupation of the country ; and coal, first discovered and worked at 
Bedbank, was soon afterwards discovered and worked at Moggiil, later 
at Tivoli, and again reopened at Bedbank before the date of our separa- 
tion from the mother colony, at which date the population was chiefly 
concentrated about Brisbane and Ipswich, districts which returned 
one-half of the first elective Legislature, and had much more than one- 
half of the entire population of the new colony. Toowoomba and Mary- 
borough were the only other towns of importance, and pastoralists 
and traders constituted the bulk of the working population, for those 
were the days of pioneering, and in every department of industry 
the owner of the enterprise performed the lion’s share of the work. 
The great length of our coastline— about 2,500 miles — with its 
numerous indentations, bays, harbours, inlets, rivers, and promon- 
tories, afforded facilities for exploration and the occupation of the 
territory, and presented opportunities for commercial enterprise rarely 
equalled by continental lands, and not often surpassed by those which 
are completely insulated, but are wanting in the commodious harbours 
and extent of territory and variety of resources possessed by, and 
gradually being discovered in, the new and rapidly rising colony, 
of which only a small corner had at that time become known to the 
European races. 
The separation of the colony of Queensland from New South 
Wales does not appear to have materially affected the production of 
mineral wealth within the newly enfranchised territory, for, although 
the population increased by leaps and bounds, the production of the 
metals, noble or useful, and of the earthy minerals remained during 
the first few years at a very low standard. A little gold was obtained ; 
about 4,000 oz. during the first year, .1,000 during the second, and 
190 during the third, after which the production of that metal rapidly 
developed into tangible proportions, for during the latter year (1862) 
gold was discovered at Clermont, and from that time forward Queens- 
land has fairly taken rank as a gold-producing colony ; and other 
minerals were discovered, and the mines bearing them developed, so 
that in the first five years gold to the value of £132,421 had been 
obtained. Coal to the value of £68,919, copper ore, beginning with 
one ton during the first year (1860), valued at £50, aggregated in 
the same time £101 ,832 : and the only other item, building stone, a 
total of £21,078, so that the full value of the mineral productions of 
the colony during the first five years of its existence reached an 
aggregate of £324,250, giving an average for every month of that 
time equal to fifteen times the amount for that first month of 
December, 1859, which for coal and gold amounted to £376. 
In addition to the discovery at Clermont, gold had been dis- 
covered at Thane’s Creek, Warwick, and at Calliope, near Gladstone, 
in 1863, from each of which points a considerable quantity of alluvial 
gold was obtained ; but these fields have not greatly developed into 
reefing fields. About the same time gold was discovered at Eidsvold ; 
and although evidence was obtained of rich stone being at hand, the 
enterprise does not appear to have been pursued at that time, and the 
field was allowed to lie dormant for another quarter of a century. 
The large additions to the population during those years do not 
appear to have influenced the production of minerals as much as might 
have been expected, and it was only the complete collapse of 1866 that 
