RUSH FOR GOLD

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29270, 30 July 1960, Page 13

RUSH FOR GOLD

Armed Twins Guard Reef SYDNEY, July 29. Swarms of gold-seekers have been arriving at the hamlet of Moonan Flats, in the Hunter Valley of central coastal New South Wales, in search of a hidden gold reef. By noon today local residents reported that about nine cars full of people had passed through the town looking for the gold. Somewhere in the district—“about 90 miles north-west of Newcastle"—twin brothers, Joe and Sid Wright, have found a gold reef which they say is Australia's richest gold strike for 10 years. But the brothers say only a handful of people know the exact location of the reef, which is gouged out of a hillside In rugged country about 14 miles from Hunter Springs. The Wright brothers are guarding their claim with rifles. Four professional prospectors from the West Australian gold town, Kalgoorlie. were stopped as they approached the reef and were told by the brothers to go away. The four men staked out claims on nearby ridges and returned to Newcastle to buy mining gear. One of few persons the Wright twins have allowed on to the claim, Mr R. Muir, a Mines Department Inspector, today collected ore samples for assaying. He said later: “Some of the ore is very rich and the strike appears to be good.” But he said no estimate could be made of its full value until it was developed further. "The big question is how deep it goes,” Mr Muir said. Leisure is a very strange commodity, a commodity that most people do not even know they have.—Lady Reading.