After spending some days at Peak Hill, I started, with my kind friends, on my return to Nannine, and passed through acres and acres of the finest everlasting flowers I have ever seen. The beautiful cream-coloured starry flowers were as large as a florin; the country looked like a foamy sea. Then, in other parts, bright-coloured flowers surrounded us, like patterns in a huge kaleidoscope.
We came to Abbot’s Find, some miles before reaching Nannine; the locality is very rich; it was near here that last year a lucky prospector, named Campbell, found some splendid specimens. The stone was creamy-white, thickly permeated with gold, and was obtained from near the surface. The place is full of outcrops (likely places for gold), leaders, and reefs, it is wonderful that no rush has yet begun; but the rich spots are so many, and the men comparatively so few, that they cannot prospect them all. There are several important mines at Abbot’s, notably the New Murchison King, White Horse, Abbot’s, and others, which have all given good returns.
Mine at Cue
CHAPTER XXV
Tuckanarra—The Lights of Cue—Surprising Vegetation—Sweet Flowers Again—High Wages—Splendid Meat—The Island—The Mirage—Jolly Faces—Mount Magnet—Donkeys—A Tasteful Camp—The Morning Star—Windsor Castle.
After a good rest at Nannine, which is 50 miles from Cue, we started off for Tuckanarra, where I stayed for a day to see the much-talked-of spot where so rich a find was lately made, my friends going on meanwhile to Cue. The country around here is much broken and there are many large caves. It was at the head of a huge gorge that the big find was made, right on the surface, and many hundredweights of rich specimens were quickly dug out. The lucky prospector communicated with Mr. Zeb. Lane, in Perth, who went up, inspected the find, and took an option of the mine for the British Westralia Syndicate, taking 4 cwt. of the rich stuff home to England with him. However, the find proved to be a pocket, and all the gold had centred there; consequently Mr. Lane surrendered the option, as not being valuable enough for flotation. (He has since floated in England the Anchor Consolidated Group, which includes several good mines at Tuckanarra.) The original owners, Messrs. Taylor and Co., have now retaken the work of opening up the mine with much success, and have recently struck a rich reef, a parcel of 34 tons of stone from which have yielded 138 ounces of gold. Boyd’s Claim is the best one here, over 3000 ounces of gold having been taken out of it by crushing and dollying, while the tailings, concentrates, and blanketings brought the yield up to a considerably larger amount. At present Tuckanarra is a quiet little place, but there is no knowing at what moment the colony may be electrified by more finds. It was Warden Dowley’s blackboy who first discovered gold in the Tuckanarra district. Whilst travelling with the warden to Nannine he showed a piece of gold to his master and pointed out the place where he found it, on which the warden marked the spot and afterwards circulated the news. The usual rush ensued, and many claims were pegged out.
Only 25 miles of Bush travelling now lay between me and the town of Cue. The coach driver favoured me with the box-seat, much to the disgust of a male passenger, who wanted the seat and did not feel inclined to give way to a lady. But the driver of the coach is always the boss (master) of the box-seat, and this one, being fond of ladies’ society, gave me the preference, not resembling in this point the driver in one of the other districts, who said he “didn’t want no women sitting alongside of him.”
At last I saw the lights of Cue. Electric lights in the streets, horses and carts, the shrill whistle of the railway engine, boys calling out the evening papers, and the stopping of the coach to deliver the mails at the brilliantly lighted and splendid post-office, told me that I had emerged from the “back-blocks” and was once more nearing the metropolis.