Developed from a page first published in 1997
Last updated 27th November 2023

Discovery and Early Diggings

Mount Browne was named by Charles Sturt in 1845 for John Harris Browne, surgeon to Sturt’s Central Australian Exploring Expedition. Aspects of that expedition’s story and its links to Mount Browne, Mount Poole and Milparinka will eventually be found in a separate page. For the present, suffice it to say that Mount Browne, Mount Poole and Milparinka are all within 13 or so miles of Sturt’s Depot Glen, where his exploring party was marooned by drought in 1845.

The first gold discovery on the Albert Goldfield was reported very early in November 1880, when “Thompson and party reported the discovery of alluvial gold at Depot Glen, Mount Poole…” (The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 Nov 1880, p5c4) The yield of 1 dwt to the tub of coarse nuggety gold was hardly spectacular, but eight weeks later a yield of 1 oz 1 dwt 9grs from three tubs of washdirt was reported from the prospectors’ claim.(The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 Jan 1881 p5c6) At this time the actual site of the discovery was clarified as being six miles downstream of Mr. Duncan McBryde’s Depot Glen station, so not really on the site of Sturt’s Depot but still on McBryde’s run…

A month later gold was found at Mount Browne, south-west of Mount Poole and Depot Glen. Early reports (according to the Wilcannia Times, 24 February 1881) stated returns of about 1 oz from a load* of stuff were being obtained, and that the presence of gold had been traced in an area four hundred feet long by sixty feet wide on the surface in the prospecting claim. *a load, according to one relatively recent Australian source was a dray load – about 4 tons – but no reference was provided for this definition.

At both Mount Poole and Mount Browne, with one notable exception, it would appear the early diggers were all male. The exception was an Aboriginal woman who was in a relationship with J.T. Evans, the man credited with the Mount Browne gold discovery. E.F. (Edmund Francis) Murphy, who claimed to have been an early visitor to the Mount Browne goldfield, stated that “the workings consisted of Evan’s gin digging up the surface with a yam stick, and as she found an occasional nugget from a pennyweight to an ounce – all rough gold – dropping it into a jam tin”. (They Struck Opal, E.F.Murphy , Associated General Publishers, Sydney 1948, p61) .

Although some might question Murphy’s story, it has a ring of authenticity. He was an experienced prospector closely associated with the west of New South Wales, and with South Australia. He sometimes used the pseudonym “dry blower” and was well known around 1906 for his association with black opal, probably at Lightning Ridge. By 1908 he was in Western Australia (The Northam Advertiser, 31 Oct 1908, p4c4). When They Struck Opal was published in 1948 he would have been around 70 years old.

The Sydney Morning Herald, ( 10 February, 1881, p2c4 ) carried a more measured account of the discovery by Evans at Mount Browne. Perhaps typically, Evans was a little cagey about just where he had made the find …

(Mount Browne is about 11 miles south-south-west of Mount Poole but the newspaper report stated otherwise… )

“It appears that a man named Evans and a party of three have been absent from Wilcannia about two months. In the meantime they have journeyed in the direction of Mount Poole, leaving that place and travelling in a North-Easterly direction they appear to have come upon a likely looking country about twenty miles from Mount Poole and about about two hundred and twenty miles from Wilcannia.

“After getting the colour from various trials of surface earth lying in close proximity to the bed of a creek, the party appear to have struck a lucky spot from which they extracted nearly twenty-four ounces of gold, composed of one piece weighing eight ounces, a beautiful specimen of water-worn gold – and another nugget of two ounces, besides fourteen ounces of shotty small gold. The greatest depth of sinking was six feet and the nuggets were found close to the surface.”

In time a village developed at Mount Browne, consisting of two hotels, a store and several houses as well as the humpies, tents and calico-hessian structures of the less fortunate. The initial site, below Sturt’s Depot Glen, was virtually abandoned, but careful prospectors, tracing the gold upstream from that place, subsequently found the reef gold at Warratta, discussed elsewhere.

For the first few years the only source of water at Mount Browne was in the Gorge Waterhole and in dry times people either moved to Milparinka, or carried water from Milparinka to Mount Browne.

The very early reports indicate the field was all surface working. The process at Mount Poole was described as picking up specs and small nuggets from the surface after scratching around with a stick…  However, at Mount Browne the gold was eventually found to be concentrated in an ancient gravelly watercourse overlain by six to twelve feet of overburden. Underneath the loose gravel was a cemented layer made up from the gravel and various minerals that had leeched from the surrounding soil. The cemented layer also contained gold and was referred to as the ‘conglomerate’.

As the field developed numerous shallow shafts were sunk to reach the gravel mentioned above. It would perhaps be more accurate to refer these shallow shafts as deep holes given that they had little or no shoring to prevent collapse. Most of the holes were still there in 1987. Each had a pale mullock heap alongside giving the place an unworldly appearance… The header to this page shows some of those mullock heaps.

Although simple washing for gold using a gold pan, rocker or puddling machine was employed, necessity brought on by the lack of water soon led to the development of an extremely inefficient extraction process – “Dry Blowing”. The most sophisticated evolution of this process involved use of a blacksmith’s bellows to force a draught of air through the gold-bearing material, thus blowing away the lighter particles of dust and sand. The process was aided by a system of levers to produce the mechanical agitation of a series of sieves and screens, together with the removal by hand of small rocks and other detritus. In theory the heavier particles – gold – remained sitting on one of the sieves. Less sophisticated and even less efficient adaptations of the process involved tin dishes with holes poked through their base, together with the gold-seeker’s exhalations… Dry-blowing was not much fun, nor was it a particularly reliable way to extract gold.

After the first flush of gold-fever, individual groups started to cooperate and pool their efforts. One of the cooperatives formed was the Golden Lake Company which dug a shaft just east of Billy Goat Hill in the hope of finding a “deep lead”. The story of this shaft is unclear, but it seems they did not strike gold and the shaft was abandoned.

The Mount Browne Prospecting Gold Mining Company Limited

The “Prospecting ” company was a New South Wales registered company, formed primarily of local interests, with Mount Browne storekeeper Arthur Leigh Chambers, son of Thomas Wakefield Chambers, as manager. The objective of this company was to continue the work of the Golden Lake Company in seeking a deep lead. More details of its structure and shareholders are included in the separate page that primarily outlines the complex history of the Mount Browne Company- the name by which it was generally referred, even in official reports.

In 1888 the “Mount Browne Company” commenced sinking another shaft on Billy Goat Hill after installing a horse whim to lift water that flowed into their new workings. Besides sinking to the level of the “wash” that had been identified elsewhere at Mount Browne they had also intended to drive towards and drain the old Golden Lake workings. However, an inflow of water was encountered that became so great that their horse-powered system was unable to overcome the problem and the company appears to have ordered more adequate equipment.

On 24 July 1890 an article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald (p7) reporting that the mining warden at Milparinka had inspected the works of the Prospecting company. He reported that the wash in the main shaft at the 247 ft level was 12 inches deep, but carrying only 5 dwt to the load. The shaft had been sunk another 30 feet to 277 feet at which level a drive had been commenced towards the old All Nations claim. Note that the “Golden Lake Company” is here suddenly referred to the “All Nations Claim”. No indication has been found that the two are not one and the same, but it does raise another question as to what was really going on.

The warden’s report also notes that the wash was touched at 30 ft and 50 ft along this drive towards the “All Nations Claim” with payable prospects at both locations. Eventually the old working were reached with the maximum depth of wash encountered being 5 ft with assays of 1/2 oz to 1 oz to the load.

He also reported that “when the company recommenced work in January last the quantity of water pumped was 3,000 gallons per hour, which quantity reduced to 2,000 gallons per hour after six weeks of pumping”. He concluded that “either a lode exists or there is an immense area of lake wash, but that in either case suggesting there was a “most valuable deposit”.

Although the warden reported that he had inspected the Prospecting company’s workings, at this point the record becomes less clear. Shortly before the Prospecting company recommenced operations, a company that had been formed in Melbourne – The Mount Browne Amalgamated Gold Mining Company (No Liability) – appears to have become involved. While the local people may have thought their Prospecting company was financing the expenditure, other sources of information suggest this was not the case.

The Mount Browne Amalgamated Gold Mining (Alluvial) Company (no liability)

There was something decidedly odd about the Mount Browne Amalgamated and the newspaper reports of the company’s several meetings held in Melbourne do nothing to dispel a feeling that the whole organisation was not quite what it seemed. The most significant pointers in this regard have to do with £914/1/8 included in the value of assets for the half-year to 30 June 1890 but of which the shareholders had no intimation, the highly speculative valuation of the company’s property (£10,000) , the lack of any record that the company had formally adopted articles of association or rules, and the ongoing relevance of a syndicate agreement in connection with the governance of the organisation. As mentioned above, a detailed examination of the scanty information that exists about both the Prospecting company and the Amalgamated company has been set out in a separate page.

Visit The Mount Browne Company page or read on for a more general discussion of events at Mount Browne.

The combined efforts of the Mount Browne Prospecting and the Mount Browne Amalgamated companies.

A useful but slightly misleading summary of the efforts made by the combined companies is found in a 1934 publication documenting sub-surface water …

“As the shallower deposits became exhausted the gravels, or ‘cement’, as the conglomerate is known, were followed down the dip with satisfactory results until water level was reached at depths of 180 to 200 feet below the surface. Attempts were made to mine below water level but without success.

“The most important undertaking of this kind was that of the Mount Browne Prospecting Company, formed in 1887 to test the deep ground at Billy Goat Hill. A shaft was sunk on the south-west flank of the hill to a depth of 241 feet. Heavy water was encountered and as bailing by horse-whim proved unsuccessful, pumps were installed in 1890, which lifted water from the workings at the rate of 45,000 gallons per day. Connection was made to an old shaft – the All Nations – and at a distance of 250 feet from the Company’s shaft 1 to 5 feet of wash was exposed, ranging in value from 3 to 12 dwt of gold per load. Operations ceased in 1891 and the shaft passed into the control of the Government as a public well…No further attempt to test the deep ground at Billy Goat Hill has been made and as the values on the shallow workings became too poor to work, men gradually left the field.” (Mineral Resources No. 36 – West Darling District – A geological reconnaissance with Special Reference to the Resources of SUBSURFACE WATER“, E.J.Kenny, NSW Dept of Mines, 1934)

The initial and least rewarding work – that of sinking the shaft to a depth of 241 feet – was done by the Mount Browne Prospecting Gold Mining Company, the company formed almost exclusively by local interests – during the two years prior to November 1889.

in November or December 1889, when the Mount Browne Amalgamated arrived on the scene the horse-whim was replaced by a steam-driven pump. Dating of this event is based upon Newspaper reports of the day which stated that 40 tons of equipment intended for the Mount Browne Amalgamated Gold Mining Company arrived at Wilcannia on the paddle-steamer Golconda and the barge Leviathan on October 5th 1889. It was being transferred the same day to teams for what was expected to be a three-week journey to Mount Browne. (Argus, Melbourne, Monday 7th October1889, P4). Clearly, given its weight this cargo was more than just pumping equipment but it seems reasonably clear that the pumping equipment was included. Thomas Wakefield Chambers’ Sturt Recorder Milparinka and Mount Browne and Advertiser from a much later date gives a hint as to what else was included – an 8-head stamper battery, high-capacity pumping equipment, steam engine (with boiler) and winding gear all of which later found its way to Warratta. For the details of this refer to the page on the Warratta Battery.

Interestingly, the Mount Browne Amalgamated Gold Mining Company (no liability) had been registered in Victoria barely 6 weeks before the 40 tons of equipment arrived at Wilcannia, having been incorporated on 22nd August 1889. Six weeks is a remarkably short period in which to design, forge, test and ship newly made equipment, tending to the conclusion that the equipment being provided was in a used condition and had previously been used on the Victorian goldfields.

On 28 February 1890, the Evening Journal in Adelaide reported that the company had processed wash bearing 1 oz of gold to the load, but that independently, a nugget weighing 15 oz 5 dwt had been found four miles from Mount Browne by a fossicker. (Evening Journal, Adelaide, 28 Feb 1890, p3) . The Daily Telegraph in Sydney carried the same story, but added that work was to cease for two weeks while the pumping machinery was rearranged. (Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 28 Feb 1891, p7) Just what this entailed is unclear but the mention emphasises that mining operations were always threatened by the water, an ironic fact when considered in conjunction with the general scarcity of water in the far west.

Some three months later the mine manager reported that very little wash had been put through the machines, but this was because of development work then taking place. He also reported that the inflow of water was very strong and that this was hampering attempts to recover wash-dirt – and gold… He did, however, advise that the Company had confirmed the existence of a gold-bearing gutter rather than ‘a mere reef wash’ ; that in a few days they would reach the old All Nations workings; and that no time would be lost in commencing work on the faces left by the old company when the flow of water became too heavy for them to continue operations. (Herald, Melbourne, 17 June 1890, p3)

At about this time, gold had been found at “The Reefs” , 14 miles to the North-East. There was talk of floating a company on the English market to develop a combination of claims at this location (Express and Telegraph, Adelaide, 2 Jul 1890, p5) which later became known by its Aboriginal name – Warratta. Meanwhile, the mining warden at Milparinka had visited the Mount Browne Company’s operation and reported :

“I inspected the workings of this company. In the main shaft the wash is 12 in in depth and 5 dwt tot he load was struck at 247 ft. The shaft was sunk 30ft through the reef , making a total depth of 277 ft. The reef drive was then made in the direction of the All Nations Claim. In this drive the wash was touched at 30ft and again at 50ft and in both cases payable prospects were obtained. The drive was continued for a total distance of 170ft when a rise of 12ft to the wash was made. The dirt here is from 3ft to 5ft in depth and is estimated at 1/2 oz to the load. The drive was continued at the new level for 130 ft . IN this distance the wash ran above the roof of the drive , a decrease from 3 ft to 12 in, but showing payable prospects throughout. Another rise to the rise of 14ft has been made , and upon driving 14ft the old workings of the All Nationals Claim were struck. The wash here is 3 ft in depth, and is estimated at an ounce to the load.
The wash is apparently dipping towards the south-west and from the present indications it would appear that the deepest ground is to the west of the company’s shaft.
When the company recommenced work in January last the quantity of water pumped was 3000 gallons per hour. In six weeks this was gradually reduced to 2000 gallons per hour, which is the quantity lifted at the present time. This would seem to prove that either a lode exists, or else there is an immense area of lake wash. In either case there is a most valuable deposit.” (Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 24 Jul 1890 p9 )

At this point, the news from The Mount Browne Company fades away, and only the Department of Mines Annual Reports provide any insight. The report for activities in 1891 has an ominous tone…

…The Mount Browne Company commenced driving operations in February last, but from some unexplained reason the management appears totally without energy. The whole of the work performed at the present time could, if actually pushed on, have been accomplished in less than half the time taken. In the main drive from the Company’s shaft to the AU Nations’ workings, a distance of 350 feet, payable wash (from 3 to 12 dwt. to the load) was cut in several places; but the wash appears very patchy, with no defined lead. However, as there is an immense amount of wash-dirt from 1 to 5 feet thick, with proper management the returns should at least be sufficient to pay working expenses. Drives have been put in towards the east, but with small success, as there appears to be no run of gold in that direction. Recently the manager has put in a drive towards the north-west. This seems to be the deepest ground met with so far, and as both wash-dirt and gold are of a more promising character the manager is sanguine of meeting with more payable stuff in this direction. The water pumped from the mine has averaged, for the past twelve months, 45,000 gallons in the twenty-four hours, and about that quantity is being pumped at the present time. Had it not been for this water the residents of Mount Browne and Stringer’s Hill would have been without water for their stock, and with little for domestic use. As the supply from the mine is apparently inexhaustible at the present output, and fit for domestic use, it has proved of immense benefit to the miners, some of whom have utilised the surplus water for mining purposes… ( Annual Report for the Year 1891,Department of Mines N.S.W., April 1892, p139 )

In November 1891 the Mount Browne Company ceased operations and let the mine to tributors – miners who recover whatever they can from a mine with no particular attention to their impact upon it’s ongoing viability. The mining warden reported the event as follows:

After nearly two years of a struggling existence the Mount Browne Company unexpectedly stopped work at the end of November last without meeting liabilities incurred in this district to the extent of £500 or thereabouts, chiefly for valueless cheques given in payment of wages and wages due. Some cases of great hardship occurred. In one instance two men sent up from Victoria by the company, and to whom £50 or £60 for wages were due, had to beg for sufficient funds to enable them to return to their homes; however, the matter did not come under my jurisdiction of’ Warden, as those who sued the company elected to do so under the Masters’ and Servants’ Act, but the fact of the management of the company being situate in Victoria leaving them without redress show the need of further legislation in such cases. With the stoppage of work the water supply for Mount Browne ceased; but, thanks to the promptness of the Department of Mines in subsidising the work of pumping water for domestic use, and the kindness of the directors in allowing the use of their machinery free of charge, no great inconvenience was felt. The company have since let the mine on tribute to a local party who commenced work on the 1^st January, the whole of them have, at one time or other, worked in the mine and express themselves confidently as to their prospects of success. There is no doubt the management had many drawbacks to contend with, much of the machinery purchased from the old company not being worth the cost of erection, and what with high wages, carriage on materials, and the great cost of timber of all descriptions it can hardly be said the mine had a fair trial.

Once again we have a hint about the nature of the relationship between the Prospecting and the Amalgamated company. If, as stated above, the Amalgamated did purchase the equipment from the old Prospecting company, there is a serious question as to when – was it before the equipment reached Wilcannia, or later? And where did Mr. Charles Fartiere fit into the picture? He was a resident of Wilcannia or somewhere close by, a shareholder in the Prospecting company, and a director of the Amalgamated company. He had been an unsuccessful “free trade” candidate for election as the Wilcannia member to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1889. (Wikipedia – “Candidates of the 1889 New South Wales colonial election” retrieved 24 Apr 2021)

By late 1891 the Mount Browne Company had poured a lot of money into their efforts, but did not manage to make the mine pay and once more the deeper underground workings were abandoned. The stamper battery, winding gear, boiler and pumps manufactured by Vivienne and Company, of Castlemaine, Victoria were sold to the Warratta company and, except for one important change, Mount Browne reverted to the surfacing field it has mostly been.

In theory, when the Mount Browne Gold Prospecting and Mining Company ceased operations all of its assets were “locked up” meaning that, although there was water in the abandoned deep shaft, the people at Mount Browne had no entitlement to use it. Had this position been enforced the community would have become almost totally reliant upon the meagre supply at the Gorge Waterhole which by now was almost entirely silted-up or upon the equally unreliable supply at Milparinka.

Fortuitously, at about this time the State Government commenced the development of Public Watering Places, intended to ensure a supply of water for travelling stock. Although at this time Mount Browne was not on one of the Travelling Stock Routes, the deep shaft at Mount Browne, with its 1000 gallons per hour water inflow, became the Mount Browne Public Well. In time pumping equipment, possibly steam-driven but more probably a windmill, and a large cast-iron tank were installed, conveniently providing Mount Browne with almost permanent water. The water quality was reasonable, later given a formal classification by the Department of Mines of “H1” – “slightly hard water with a content of total solids equivalent to 1/4 to 1/2 oz. per gallon. Suitable for stock watering as well as domestic purposes and human consumption in emergency. In some instances water of this type is harmful when used for irrigation.” (Mineral Resources No. 36 – West Darling District – A geological reconnaissance with Special Reference to the Resources of SUBSURFACE WATER“, E.J.Kenny, NSW Dept of Mines, 1934)

P Glover and Party’s One Mile mine.

P.Glover’s claim was the site of successful operations from 1891 until 1917, although it would seem that after 1911 the scale of operations was reduced and the results were less satisfactory. The group sank a shaft to 230 feet, apparently without being unduly troubled by the influx of water. Perhaps they had limited the depth of their operations with a mind to the fact that the water level in the old Mount Browne Company 300 ft deep shaft rose to 230 ft below the surface when the Company ceased operations.

Imagine what this place was like a hundred and thirty years ago. Dust, sandy-blight, typhus, flies, very little water, no shade, temperature summer ≈ 50℃, winter ≈ -3℃. Try to appreciate the desperation of the people who lived here in the faint hope of ‘striking it rich’, and those who lost everything in the process.