The rain had washed absolutely everything away, but the nugget, being heavy, just sat there, and was perhaps exposed for the first time ever.
#Gold rush cast australia free
Lo and behold, a 4-gram nugget was sitting in the clay gutter, completely free of any sand or stones. The thought of gold immediately crossed my mind and I kept my eyes peeled as there were several little mine heaps only metres away, right on the road reserve. It had rained that morning, exceptionally heavy rain, the heaviest in my memory, and I was shocked to see that every pebble and grain of sand had been washed clearn away, leaving a smooth, clay road, bereft of any covering. Then again…one day I was walking my dog on the dirt track just a few metres short of the forest. The word is that detectors are finding a few subgram bits there on occasions – very rare occasions I suspect. But this was never a big producer like Golden Point or Canadian Gully, and old newspaper references to gold mining in the Canadian Forest are rare. A storage dam and head race hint at past ground sluicing, which is also clearly evident. There is still plenty of evidence of mining there, with many shallow shafts near the Pax Hill scout camp. It is so named because it adjoins the suburb of Canadian, but on the other side of the suburb, and nearly 2km from Canadian Gully. The Canadian Forest is another story however, and people certainly detect there. It is parallel, and near to, Elsworth Street and while you won’t be doing any metal detecting there, you can still pan specks in Canadian Creek. Today, if you’re looking for the historical location of Canadian Gully, you’ll find it behind the fence of the Sovereign Hill Park, at the Park’s southernmost end, where their horses graze and the light show is held. The Sarah Sands nugget remains the fourth largest ever found in Australia, a delirious dream for the four relative new chums who took it back home to England with them on the good ship Sarah Sands, the inspiration for its name. This nugget and the three monsters already mentioned, would soon be eclipsed by the “Welcome” and the “Welcome Stranger” nuggets.
And a little further north, where the Canadian Lead entered Dalton’s Flat, another monster nugget of 1,177 ounces, called “The Lady Hotham Nugget”, was found. No wonder the name “Canadian” became famous throughout Europe. I would be interested to hear of any rivals. I suspect it was possibly the richest small claim worked by a windlass in the history of the world. Remember, this was a small-area claim worked by a windlass and eight men, with only limited short drives. When the Canadian Lead amalgamated with the Prince Regent Lead, a small claim on this site called the Blacksmith’s Hole produced an incredible one ton of gold. It took a sharp 90-degree turn to the left (north) and the claims were now paying an unbelievable £2,000 per man.īut the best was yet to come. As the gully reached the flat below, the golden rock bottom was now so deep it started being referred to as the Canadian Deep Lead. The three monsters weighed 1,619 ounces 1,117 ounces and 1,011 ounces, the last two being found in the same claim! All the other claims in the gully averaged 420 ounces. The largest, named the “Sarah Sands”, was at that time the heaviest nugget anyone in the world had ever laid eyes on. But what fabulous gold awaited them! In the short space of 11 days in January 1853, not one, but three monster nuggets, the likes of which the world had never seen, were found in quick succession.
Harrie Wood’s authoritative Notes on the Ballarat Goldfield informs us that by February 1853, the miners, sinking down to rock bottom (or pipeclay) in the Canadian Gully, started tracing their way down the gully, finding that they had to go to ever greater depths to find rock bottom and the gold.
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