Hill End.
by Peter Clarke
The next few months had all the usual highs and lows of the gold field. They sank four holes in the first two weeks. It took longer than Anthony had thought it would, because they’d run into big boulders and had to either break them up or work around them. Anthony was excited when they found them.
“They’ll only be here because the creek water pushed them here,” he admonished the others when they complained.
He was right. They found good gold in two of the holes, water worn nuggets gathered in pockets. Once more, William relived the excitement he’d first had when looking for gold with Tom outside Ballarat. Anthony tried to work out how the creek might have flowed, so they could follow it and find more pockets. It was fruitless but didn’t dampen their spirits. They’d established there was gold to be found and the team was ready to find more of it.
It took another two weeks to find more.
“I don’t understand it,” said Anthony. “If we dig where we expect to find gold, we find nothin’. I never expected to find gold in the three holes where we found it.”
“Then, you pick a spot where you expect to find gold and we’ll dig somewhere else,” said Nicholas.
“We could go further away from the creek,” said William.
“I’ve been thinkin’ that,” said Anthony.
“Then let’s not do it,” said Nicholas. William looked at him. He was serious.
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do. Let’s keep our two teams goin’, one will dig holes and the other will dig a shaft.”
“A shaft?” said John, doubt in his voice.
“Yes. The Star of Peace gets all their gold from a vein in the side of Hawkins Hill.”
“But I heard they went down one hundred and twenty feet before they found it, and they’ve followed it down for hundreds more!” exclaimed John. “We can’t do that with two men.”
“We’re further down the hill. We won’t have to go so deep before we find it.”
“Can’t we just keep digging the holes?” said Frank.
“We can, but we’re not makin’ much and it’s all hard work.”
“We can’t go under the other claims, can we?” asked William.
“No, we can’t. We have to find a vein under our claim.”
“How far up Hawkins Hill does our claim go?” asked Nicholas.
“Like I said,” said Anthony, “to those boulders. Maybe a hundred feet or so.”
“And we’ll have to shore it up with timber,” said Frank.
“Yes, we will.”
“How much money do we have left?” asked Nicholas.
“I don’t know – maybe one hundred and fifty pounds.”
“Is that enough?”
“I don’t know.”
“How much did we get for the gold we found?”
“One hundred and twenty-three pounds.”
“Shall we take a vote?” said John.