Touring Montreal Goldfields
Every year my family holidays at Wallaga Lake near Bermagui, NSW. For the last few years I’ve driven past the Montreal Goldfields and every time my inner Gold Bug has been getting triggered. This year I finally dug my heels in and insisted that we check it out and take the tour. After all, I’ve got a blog to write!
The tours cost a modest $7.50 per head and goes for under 2 hours. On this fine day it was Bob who showed a small group of us around. Bob was full of interesting information and stories, he knew his stuff pretty well and you could tell he was passionate about the Goldfields. You could also tell he had a healthy disdain for local government and law enforcement (both from now and in the past) so we got along pretty well.
Back in 1880 when the Montreal Goldrush happened it was well past the Eureka Stockade, but the local authorities were still trying to extract 30 shillings for a Gold mining license and that was a lot of money back in those days. By the sound of it there was a bit of a constant cat and mouse game of miners trying to avoid the authorities and the miners were quite innovative and clever with the mining techniques they used.
The Gold rush actually started on the beach and they used a technique called “Blanketing” which I hadn’t heard of before. According to the tourist information signs :-
On the beach, the method known as blanketing was popular by which miners staked out an old blanket or piece of carpet at low tide on the beach. They then shovelled likely looking material onto the blanket to let the incoming tide do the washing. The blanket was retrieved and washed into a tub and the remaining material panned.
Considering it was 1880 and this was only 1 of 2 places in the entire Southern Hemisphere where Gold has been found on the beach, this is pretty innovative. Good show old timers!
Other than the interesting information and stories, there were also plenty of holes to see as most of the gold was mined from an old river bed about 10-13 metres down. The number of vertical shafts dug, (and still intact today) is quite remarkable. Most of the trees have grown back so it was hard to capture just how many shafts there still are in such a small area, but here is the obligatory hole in the ground photo.
All up it was a pretty interesting tour for any Gold Bug or History Buff. There is obviously still some Gold in these parts though the Montreal Goldfields site is now heritage listed so I doubt anyone will be getting permission to dig it up these days. Then again there is probably Gold under the Lake and even in the National Park toward the mountain and there are a few stories of people finding some shiny stuff after big storms and rain. The closest I got to it though was this little nugget, found at the site.
That's a fair size nugget you've got there! What did you use to find it? I've not heard of this place, I'll have to look it up. The idea of gold on the beach is awesome!!
I recently did a blog on our trip to Dalmorton in NSW where we went and located all the gold mine shafts from the late 1800's to early 1900's. You're right... they're amazing to see and a great part of history. the working conditions those men worked in... they did it tough!
Oh I see it's right near Tilba Tilba, we were hoping to get down there over the Christmas holidays but it didn't eventuate. I'll have to remember this when we do get down there!
Definitely check it out. Wish I pulled that nugget myself, but it was just a display one they had so people could see a real nugget from the field. You won't get any gold from the trip, but it's still very interesting to take the tour.
Oh what I shame, I thought you found it yourself, that's why I'm thinking that's a great sized piece!! I wonder if gold can be still found on any of the areas around the beach?
I doubt it. But I reckon if you were any good at geology and went for a walk up the mountain in the national park you might be able to find some. Probably not legally though....
You are allowed to fossick in some National parks, you've just got to have the right licenses to do so. For it to be found at the beach, there must be a waterway or once being a waterway from the mountains flowing out to the beach... I can't imagine why it would be there otherwise.
Stories of people finding sizable nuggets are occurring every now and again so there's still some gold out there worth finding!!
Great article I would love to try gold panning! I'm in Cornwall in England where the tin miners extracted huge amounts of copper, but they didn't know that the Ore also contained Gold, so the refiners were keeping it for themselves, there was 'offocially' no hold mined here. But in reality many Tonnes were retrieved! Cheers :-)
I'd like to try some real panning, but this was just for demonstration and learning the process. Sound like your Cornwall miners might have done well, but wouldn't get away with that with todays technology! LOL
Great post. Très interessante! Is that Montreal region French or English speaking ?
It's not actually Montreal Canada. It's on the South Coast in New South Wales, Australia.
Where is it ? @buggedout
It's on the South Coast in New South Wales, Australia.
So educating a tour. Take me along next time
You thank Bob for the tour and I thank you for the story.
A journey that brings pleasure in making a study ,amazing @buggedout always success ..
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