2S7 
some more gold. The exact site where the gold was found is now occu¬ 
pied by the Imperial battery. On the third day we took milk dishes 
and washed the surface soil from round where the first auriferous quartz 
was found. After washing for some days Mr. Hiscocks and his son 
took the gold (about 2% oz.) to Geelong and sold it to Mr. Patterson, 
goldsmith. Mr. Patterson said this was the first gold sold in Victoria. 
We continued digging, working the ground we chose. There were no 
claims marked out, nor any boundaries to the ground being worked. We 
got a few dwt. per day, and when we obtained pieces of quartz contain¬ 
ing gold we crushed them up. The gold was ,shotty, but not waterworn. 
About three weeks after this, gold was discovered at Ballarat, and the 
diggers soon began to arrive in great numbers. This is an accurate 
account of the incident that led up to the gold discovery in this district. 
• At the Old Eureka Lead there was a party of gentlemen known as the 
Great Britain Party, as most of them came out in the ship Great Britain . 
We were mining on this rush, and this party who were the original 
prospectors washed over 56 lb. weight of gold out of a tub in which 
the dirt had been puddled. The sinking was about 20 feet deep. 
About 1852 or 1853 my brother and myself kept stores in Ballarat, 
at Smythesdale, and other places. The chief store was at Buninyong. 
The prices that ruled were as follows :—Flour, ^20 per bag of 200 lb.; 
sugar, is. per lb. ; bread, 5s. 4-lb. loaf; butter, 6s. per lb. ; eggs, 12s. 
per doz. ; tea, 5s. per lb.; potatoes, 6d. per lb.; oats, 20s. per bushel; 
salt, pd. per lb. Gin was 20s. per bottle, and ale 5s. per bottle. 
John S. Thomas. 
Buninyong. 9.9.09. 
Reminiscences of the Diggings at Beechworth and Omeo in 1853. 
In 1853 I worked at Reid s Creek, Beechworth, with John Strickland, 
Bob Bow, Ash Kaine, and Alan Kaine, Brandy Jack, and the rest. Al¬ 
together there were eight members of the party. It was at the time when 
the man was shot in a paddock through the accidental discharge of a police¬ 
man’s musket. We had a claim above the old crossing, and the claims 
were 12 feet square, with a wall of 2 feet around which was allowed. The 
depth of the ground was about 12 feet, and the wash dirt about 1 foot 
thick on soft granite bottom. From the wash dirt of this claim we obtained 
about 50 lb. weight of gold. The whole claim was worked out in about 
a week. The water was baled out by buckets. There were 400 to 500 
people there. We obtained about ^3 10s. per oz. for the gold. Shovels 
cost each, and picks the same. Flour was £20 per 200-lb. bag. Tea 
was 10s. per lb., and sugar 2s. 6d. per lb. ; matches, is. per box; tobacco, 
1 os. per lb. We stayed for five or six weeks altogether, but could not get 
another good claim. I left my mates and went to Spring Creek in the 
same locality, and was digging at the foot of Red Hill, and commenced 
sluicing there. We employed eight men and paid them per day. We 
made from ^30 to ^40 per man per week by working the old and new 
ground together. Just below Tidyman’s, near the Great Britain store, 
kept by Hempel, in the blue wash very good returns were got, as much as 
2 to 3 lb. weight of gold per load. At Roper’s Hill, near the Chinese 
camp, the sinking was 40 feet deep, and very rich returns were got. As 
much as 30 to 40 oz. was washed out in the morning by Eccles and party. 
This would be for about a couple of loads washed in “ long toms.” Mad¬ 
man’s Gully was shallow, from 4 to 10 feet deep, and claims 12 feet 
