Merton’s Find, Mertondale
CHAPTER XXI
A New Field—Mertondale—Stupendous Richness—Gold, Gold everywhere—A Lucky Prospector—Garden in the Bush—Murrin! Murrin!—A Welcome Surprise—Western Australian Mount Morgans—Golden Hills—Blackfellows on the Trail—The Lagoon.
My investigations at Mount Malcolm took me some days, so, after a good rest and pleasant time at that very lively little township, I started one Friday, at 7 o’clock, for the new goldfield of Mertondale, to which there was a rush. One morning Malcolm folk woke up to the startling news that a new and phenomenal rush had begun 18 miles off. Soon everybody was on the qui vive to see it. All the vehicles in the township were loaded, and the male population started en masse for the new find. It turned out to be a great one, and many stories have been told me concerning the richness of it. There was nothing of great interest on the road to Mertondale. A bough-shed off the road in the distance, pointed out to me as the place where a prospector had lately chosen to shuffle off this mortal coil by cutting his throat, and that just as his claim had struck gold, was about all that varied the monotony of the journey. The Australian Peer Mine was the first seen on the road. It was the one at which Merton and Gallagher were working when Merton went out one day on his bicycle to look for a lost horse and found the lucky hill which has since yielded so much gold. Mr. Merton said that when he discovered it he did not think it was so good, until he commenced breaking the stone he picked up on it, and found in every instance that it contained gold. After discovering the reef he applied for a lease, and put on two men to work at carrying out the quartz. The stone had to be taken two miles to the Waitekari Battery, but in the short space of two months £3206 worth of gold was crushed. A short time afterwards, Mr. Merton, who was a poor man at the time of the find, purchased a 20-head battery, and now crushes the stone on the spot where it is found. The reef of solid quartz is 100 feet wide, and traverses the whole of Merton’s area of 36 acres. He said that he would want a higher price, cash down, for his holding than has ever been paid for any mining property in Western Australia; so, from a poor man, a few months have made this lucky prospector a millionaire. On arriving at Mertondale the sound of the battery waked the stillness of the morning. The township is very small as yet, merely a few Hessian houses and tents, but I saw before me the hill, with the battery in full work, in which I was interested. So I asked the driver of the coach to take me there, which he did as a very great favour, for he was carrying the mail and had not yet been to the Bush-house post-office. However, as it was a very hot day, gallantry to the fair sex prevailed and the mail had to wait. I got down from the coach at the foot of the hill, and at the battery-house found Mr. Robinson, the manager, who kindly took me round and showed me everything of interest. First he went to the spot where Merton picked up the first rich stone. Plenty of it was still lying about. We went down into the open cut (or quarries) where the men were digging out the stone. I took a pick and dug out a piece myself, striking rich gold at the first stroke. Several other pieces followed, and I keep them as specimens. We then went down the underlay shaft, on the western side of the big quarry. It was 12 feet deep. I got down by means of a rope, two of the men at the bottom holding their spades against the sides of the shaft for me to put my feet on. I managed to make a successful descent and began to use the pick again with much success. I could see the gold running through the rock quite plainly, so, having permission to do so, dug out several nice pieces, after which I essayed to climb the rope to the surface again, and, assisting myself by sticking my feet upon the jutting pieces of rock on the sides of the shaft, I soon got out of the rich hole. I then walked all over the hill and found many pieces of quartz lying about, all containing gold. Mr. Robinson afterwards took me to the battery and showed me the plates into which the gold and amalgam run after being crushed by the mill. I scraped some of the rich stuff off the plates; to my disappointment it looked like silver, but Mr. Robinson explained to me that this colour is caused by the action of the mercury used in the process, and that when smelted pure gold appears. Some idea of the power of the mercury may be given by this fact: I put in paper the piece which I had scraped off and placed it in my purse, in which was a gold ring that I had just put there to take to be repaired. Next morning, when I went to take it out, the gold ring was gone, but a silver one remained. The jeweller had to retort it (put it in fire) to regain its colour. Merton’s Hill is, no doubt, a perfect mine of wealth, and, so far, all on the surface, as the deepest digging then was the 12-foot shaft I have mentioned. Over £40,000 worth of gold had been taken out in the few months since the beginning of the rush, besides fully 20,000 tons of rich stone that will give 7 or 8 ounces to the ton, and as every ounce is worth nearly £4, a nice little sum is looking at lucky Merton out of the stone.[5] There are many other claims on the field, but the one on the hill is the most valuable. It gives gold, gold everywhere. I was so much taken with this wonderful place that I pegged out an 18-acre lease for myself, and am hoping to strike a rich patch on it at some not far distant day. In the Golden West one never knows when luck may come to one.
It was great fun and hard work pegging out that lease. To enable one to do so, in the first place one must be provided with a miner’s right, which costs ten shillings per year; this document enables the holder to take up any ground he or she desires (not previously taken) in mining country; after the lease has been approved by the Warden of the Goldfields, one may start and dig or put men on to dig, and the gold found would be private property; if, however, any one dug and found gold without these preliminaries, the precious metal would have to be handed over to the Warden as the property of the Government.
Behold me then (knowing all this, and having secured a miner’s right before I left Perth) accompanied by some kindly miners and the lady under whose roof (canvas) I was domiciled, with my sleeves tucked up and a spade in my hands digging holes for the pegs to be put in, which must be done personally; as it was an 18-acre lease the distance between the four pegs was considerable, and required some walking to be done in the hot and dusty morning. However, I successfully planted my pegs, marked my number on them, and after paying the fees in the Warden’s Court at Mount Malcolm on my return, I became a leaseholder.
Another rich find had lately been made at Wilson’s Creek, 30 miles from this place, by two prospectors named Paddy Crowley and Dick Donovan. Over twelve months ago they found some alluvial gold there, but until a few months since nothing phenomenal; then they found a lode at a depth of 10 feet, with rich leaders running in all directions. One of the partners went into Malcolm the other day with a bagful of specimens weighing 372 ounces, and the other partner is digging out more as fast as he can. Mr. Hamilton, of the Great Boulder Mine, Kalgoorlie, recently visited Mertondale, and gave it as his opinion that the place would turn out a second Great Boulder and the Flying Pig Mine a second Golden Horseshoe. As yet all the gold obtained has been found near the surface, and if the deposit continues down lower the possibility of incredible wealth lies in this wonderful spot. As yet Western Australia’s surface seems only to have been scratched in a few places. If the bodies of ore prove to go down, Mertondale bids fair to outrival the Boulder, Kalgoorlie.
