Atlas Page 92
By Sir T. Cockburn-Campbell

NOT for nearly fifteen years after the disastrous attempts to settle Roebuck Bay and Camden Harbour was the attention of Western Australians again turned to the territory now known as Kimberley. Mr. Alexander McRae had made an expedition to the Fitzroy in 1866, and had discovered country of a promising character. But thirteen years elapsed before it was determined to follow up his lead, and to open the banks of that now celebrated stream to pastoral occupation. Early in 1879 Mr. Alexander Forrest, provided with funds by the Legislature, and with horses and equipment by Nor'-western settlers, started with a small party from Messrs. Grant and Anderson's station on the De Grey with a view of proceeding overland to King's Sound and thence of penetrating through the Kimberleys to South Australia. Success of a most gratifying character attended the expedition, during the latter part of which the explorers were subjected to some hardships and privations.

The Fitzroy was traced to its point of emergence from the fastnesses of the Leopold Range, and the rich pasturage of its alluvial flats examined. Following up its affluent, the Margaret, to the watershed dividing the rivers of Western from those of Eastern Kimberley, the party descended upon the valley of the Ord, down which they travelled to the junction of that river with the Negri. Thence they struck for and reached the telegraph line not far from the Katherine station in the Northern Territory of South Australia. Splendid country, well-grassed and watered by numerous streams, was passed through to the southward of the Ord -country free from those inundations which prove a serious drawback to the Fitzroy Plains, and indeed to most of the lands bordering the tropical rivers of the continent. From careful observations made during this journey, Mr. Forrest arrived at the conclusion that the result of this exploratory expedition had been the discovery and opening, up for pastoral and agricultural settlement of twenty-five millions of acres of excellent land. Mr. Fenton W. Hill, mining and land surveyor, accompanied the expedition in the capacity of geologist. In submitting a report of the principal geological features of the country, Mr. Hill expressed regret at his inability to announce the discovery of auriferous deposits, but gave it as his opinion that eventually gold-bearing strata would be found in the country lying at the heads of the Fitzroy and the Ord. In this forecast he was not mistaken.

The result of Mr. Alexander Forrest's travels in the Kimberleys having been spread far and wide, speculators were not slow in leasing the country of which he had given so favourable a description; while our own colonists on the western side of the new district, and stockowners from New South Wales on the eastern, showed their faith in its capabilities by placing upon it flocks of sheep in the one case and herds of cattle in the other. Meantime, further and more extended examination of the pastoral resources of the Kimberleys was considered desirable; surveys also were becoming absolutely requisite, and in 1883 the Hon. John Forrest, who had succeeded Mr. (now Sir) Malcolm Fraser, as surveyor-general, sailed for Derby accompanied by several parties of surveyors, and by Mr. E. T. Hardman, of H.M. Geological Survey, of Ireland. During this expedition the country between the Leopold Range and the coast was examined, its rivers traversed, and its geological features noted. The only metalliferous deposits, however, observed by Mr. Hardman on this occasion were ironstone, a poor hermatite in large quantity; and in the Fitzroy gravels, minute, dark, heavy grains, which had all the appearance of stream tin. Again in 1884 much attention was devoted by the government to the Kimberleys. It had by that time become apparent that settlement on the Ord River and its tributaries must find an outlet at Cambridge Gulf, rather than at Derby, the shipping port for the squatters on the Fitzroy, the Lennard, and the Meda; and to Cambridge Gulf Staff-Commander Coghlan, of the Admiralty Survey, accordingly proceeded, and reported favourably upon its capabilities for meeting the requirements of shipping. Meanwhile, Mr. Surveyor Johnstone had been despatched to Derby, accompanied by an efficient staff, Mr. Hardman being again included in the party. Upon this expedition Mr. Johnstone, crossing the watershed of the Fitzroy, passed Mount Barrett, the headquarters of the miners during the recent rush, and followed the Elvire and the Ord to the junction of the latter river with the Negri. During the course of this exploratory survey, the geologist found good specimens of copper ore on the Margaret River, and of tin stone in the black sands of several of the streams. Lead also was noticed in limestone rocks in the form of galena, associated with zinc blende, and showing small traces of silver. Of non-metalliferous minerals, gypsum, agate, chalcedony, garnet, amethyst, opal, pink and yellow topaz, and others were discovered; but the chief interest of Mr. Hardman's report of his researches centred in his statements of the gold indications he had found, and of the prospects of unearthing that metal in payable quantities.

Two thousand square miles of the country through which he had passed he declared to be in his opinion auriferous in a payable degree. The formation of this area, lying for the most part east of the high plateau dividing the two Kimberleys, and watered by the Margaret, the Elvire, the Panton, and the Ord, was principally lower silurian, slate and schist, traversed by quartz reefs in enormous number. The stone was of a promising description, dull, yellowish, and grey, cellular, and vuggy. Minute specks of gold were noticed in many instances, and Mr. Hardman expressed his firm conviction that these reefs would prove auriferous, and were in all probability a continuation of the metaphoric gold-bearing rocks of the Northern Territory of South Australia. The river flats he frequently found covered with extensive deposits of quartz gravel, derived from denudation. These gravels Mr. Hardman prospected over many miles of country, rarely failing to obtain from them good colours of gold, often at considerable distances from the matrix. He concluded his report by stating that, on the whole, he indications he had met with pointed to the almost certainty of the Kimberleys eventually justifying that name of "Terra Aurifera," given them centuries ago by the navigators who first touched upon their rock-bound shores.

MR. HARDMAN cannot be said to have been the original discoverer of gold in the Kimberley districts, for shortly before his geological researches were undertaken some wandering prospectors had satisfied themselves of the auriferous character of the country at the heads of the Margaret and Ord. His work, however, was invaluable, the directions he gave for the guidance of gold-seekers having invariably proved of much assistance, never betraying those who followed them into error nor leading them to waste their labour. On the return of Mr. Hardman from his second expedition, and the publication of his preliminary report, much interest was excited in the goldfields, of the existence of which he announced himself as confident, and prospecting was undertaken with some energy. Eventually, towards the end of 1885, specimens of gold were brought in to the Derby from the neighbourhood of Mount Barrett by several lucky finders, and the extravagant rumours subsequently circulated led to the ill-judged and disastrous rush of 1886. That any large influx of gold-diggers on a field situated at so great a distance as Mount Barrett from sources of supply would be productive of serious results was from the first self-evident. The headquarters of those whose luck had fired adventurous spirits in every colony of the group with ambition to share and plunder the richness of which had by persistent rumour been proclaimed as fabulous, was over three hundred miles distant from the port of Derby and only fifty miles nearer that of Wyndham, newly opened in Cambridge Gulf Beaten tracks did not exist, and there was every prospect that with the advent of the rainy season the diggings would be completely cut off from the coast. When, therefore, men in hundreds poured into Wyndham, making for Mount Barrett, the greatest anxiety was occasioned, every effort being made by the government both to impose caution on the reckless and to prepare for a possible catastrophe. Some of the new arrivals were old hands on goldfields, and came fully provisioned and equipped, but the greater part were men without experience, unaccustomed to hardship, and unconscious of the difficulties they must necessarily encounter. Arrived at the diggings, they were immediately met by disappointment. The alluvial workings had not proved successful. The gullies, scenes of the first rich finds, had soon been apparently worked out, and although luck did not wholly desert a proportion of the diggers experienced in the local condition of the field, a far larger number made next to nothing, or barely sufficient to meet their daily needs. In these circumstances, when it was found that gold could not be picked up for the stooping, the rush down to Wyndham became nearly as frantic as had previously been the rush up. Great distress prevailed, great hardship from want of provisions, while many deaths occurred on the road from disease, starvation, and exposure.

At Wyndham, also, while the returned diggers were waiting for opportunities of departure, nothing but the prudent attitude of the authorities averted scenes of lawlessness and riot. Eventually, however, a riddance was effected of the disturbing and useless elements in the digger-population, and those who remained, some hundreds in number, entered upon a systematic examination of the quartz reefs described by Mr. Hardman as so full of promise. The most primitive appliances for extracting gold were alone available, but the success of the first rough attempts exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine, while subsequent assays of parcels sent to Melbourne seem to have established the fact that in the Kimberleys are some of the richest reefing grounds the world has ever seen. The colony is now showing its faith in the future of these districts by hastening the construction of a telegraph line from Derby to the gold-bearing areas, and by adding to the conveniences for shipping at the above-named settlements in King's Sound and Cambridge Gulf.

Although nothing has been discovered to suggest the mineral wealth of the other parts of the continent, gold has been found in other portions of this colony; notably at the heads of the De Grey quite recently, in the Darling ranges not far from the banks of the Swan and Canning Rivers, and at the Yulgan Hills, to the eastward of Newcastle. At Peterwangy near Champion Bay gold is known to exist, while some few years ago stone taken from reefs on the Kendenup estate, near Albany, yielded favourable results upon assay. South of the Kimberleys, however, no payable goldfield has been yet established, and the south western corner of the continent has not disclosed any mineral treasures to compensate for its pastoral inferiority. Searches for the precious metal, however, are constantly being undertaken, with encouraging indications as an occasional result. Recently, indeed, gold has been reported at Yulgan and at Golden Valley, and if these localities should prove to have deposits that can be worked, then a large population will be gathered in that portion of the colony which has Perth for its natural commercial centre, and the old and original colony will take a fresh start.

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