DIAMONDS IN N.S.W.

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28222, 9 March 1957, Page 6

DIAMONDS IN N.S.W.

Multi-Millionaire Sees Samples

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 1. A former Canadian engineer. Dr. John Williamson, who became a multi-millionaire when he discovered a rich new diamond field at Tanganyika, Africa, a few years ago, left Sydney a few days ago after a brief visit, with a promise to return next November to search for diamonds in New South Wales. Diamonds have been found in various parts of Australia, but they are small and mined for industrial use only. While in Australia, Dr. Williamson was shown some of the diamonds by a Sydney diamond merchant, Mr Jules Joris, who owns an alluvial field near Inverell, in north-west New South Wales. The diamonds are cut for industrial work in Mr Joris’s Sydney factory. But Mr Joris believes that there is a main source from which the small diamonds came originally and that if it were traced it could develop into a very rich field..

Mr Joris will link up with Dr. Williamson when the latter returns to organise prosperity. Another field in which Dr. Williamson is interested is at Wellington, in western New South Wales.

Although Dr. Williamson will try to trace the source of those diamonds, too, Wellington residents are not wildly excited at the prospect. “We have known there were diamonds in the river for many years,” said the president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Mr Rupert Christie. “People here rarely bother to look for them because they are down so deep. They are small industrial diamonds for the most part. We certainly don’t expect any rush to peg out diamond claims.”