288 
square. From such claims 13 to 20 oz. was obtained. We remained 
about three months at Red Hill, and then bought horses and started on a 
prospecting trip, and in about four or five weeks reached Omeo, East 
Gippsland, and camped on the swamp on Livingstone Creek, as now known. 
We went out on the plains. There were eight in the party, Miller, Dean, 
Love, Beefy and Little Beefy, Jimmy Bloomfield, Pike, and myself, and 
we saw a bullock and killed him, not knowing that there was any settle¬ 
ment near. While killing the bullock, Tom Sheen and Joe Day rode up, 
and informed us that we were at Omeo. This was in 1853. They would 
not take payment for the beef, but helped us skin the beast, and told us 
to make for their hut and stockyard, up the Morass Creek. We were 
camped on the Morass Creek for some five or six weeks, and prospected 
around, and obtained a little gold, but not payable. We then went over 
and put down a paddock in the swamp by means of a sapling-lined shaft, 
got a little gold, but could not master the water. We went further up 
Livingstone Creek, and started prospecting just below the present town¬ 
ship. The sinking was about 12 to 14 feet, and we obtained about 40 oz. 
of gold per day on an average. Part of the men were always away pro¬ 
curing provisions. We used to go to Port Albert for provisions, such as 
flour. &c., which were brought by a small vessel from Tasmania. This was 
the first gold found at Omeo. 
We built a log cabin, and put up a water-wheel, and cut a tail race, 
and we stayed here for about ten months. Three months after finding 
gold we went to Yackandandah to get provisions, tools, and outfit. On 
our return twenty to thirty miners came back with us, and later on quite a 
rush set in, and from 200 to 300 men were at work there before we left 
for Monaro. Gold brought ^3 12s. per oz. At first the Omeo gold was 
sol'd in Beechworth for £4 per oz., but the storekeepers who got this price 
had to refund. 
On one trip coming back from Port Albert we escaped Tongio Hill by 
coming up Swift’s Creek (now so called), and had a blackfellow for a 
guide. Blacks were numerous at Omeo then. We prospected this creek 
later on. There were three of us, and we set in near the present Tongio 
West township. The sinking was about 14 feet deep, and the washdirt 
from 4 to 5 feet deep. We made about 3 to 4 oz. of gold per man per 
week. Then a rush set in from Omeo. This was the first gold got in 
Gippsland. 
John T. Retd. 
25.6.08. 
Mr. Reid came from California in 1851, and is now 77 vears of age.— 
E.J.D. 
Mining in the Fifties at Spring Creek, Beechworth. 
James Elder McKay, miner, of Hastings, states that he was at Spring 
Cieek, Beechworth. in 1853, and gave the following particulars about 
the field at that time :—The claims ranged from the surface to 40 feet 
in depth, and* the washdirt was from 1 to 3 feet in thickness, with 
sandstone, pipeclay, and granite bottom. The washdirt ranged from 2 oz. 
to 20 oz. of gold per load. Two brothers, named Smith, camped near 
me, obtained 32 oz. of gold to one dish of dirt off the bottom, and 
