ONCE AN EL DORADO

Evening Star, Issue 19919, 16 July 1928, Page 1

ONCE AN EL DORADO

MOUNTAIN OF GOLD The announcement that tho share-* holders of the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company, Ltd., have decided to close down tho nuno indicates that Destiny is about to ring down the curtain upon one of the most absorbing chapters in Australian development (said tho Melbourne ‘Herald,’ a year ago). The reduction of tho mine's mineral supplies has Jong since demanded that engineering ingenuity create wonderful methods to wring from jeaious Mother Earth, the very last ounce of wealth possible.

Nearly every evening at 9, for tens upon tens of years, the notes from the mine’s huge shift whistles have echoed down tiic still night air and put fear and alarm into the animal kingdom of the Dawson Valley. But, awful as they ho to the creatures of the woods and the fields, these concoctions ot brass and steel have had a much greater power. For have they not governed tiie daily lives of all those people whose co-ordinated efforts pro- ! vide us with the history of Mount Morgan? Strange commentary upon human sagacity, indeed, that man should outer a domain Nature had planned for the freedom of the birds and the boasts and set up an institution which ho virtually enslaved himself. Yet, for all that the armies of science and invention won at Mount Morgan, their binders have bad to sound the retreat. The Mount Morgan of to-day would remind you of a huge gilded dome, set high in the heavens and faded by constant exposure to the elements for many moons. Vacant allotments whereon sub- ■ stantial stores once stood, liberally in- | tersperse the business section. Either the fire fiend has claimed the buildings or the owners have removed them to a more profitable location in some other centre. Along the residential areas, however, this civic destruction is more manifest. Whole blocks of homes have gone. Never a week has passed of late years without the disappearance of several cottages. Hotels have been burnt down and never replaced, not even with a temporary structure. To any Australian such a circumstance in a mining community tells a most significant tale. Wherever the eyes travel there is evidence of decay, more especially along the streets upon which whole battalions of miners daily marched to work in the clays when Mount Morgan was a maker of millionaires and not a mine fighting for its very existence.

Mount Morgan—an El Dorado in the heydays of a wonderful career—must bo placed' in the front rank of Australian gold discoveries. Queensland’s commercial, mining, and agricultural industries were stagnant in 1886. But the darkest eve always precedes a brilliant dawn.

“ Sandy ” Gordon- took up a block at. the junction of the Deo River and Mundie Creek, where his father-in-law had seen gold. That which Gordon found bought him beer when he trekked to Rockhampton, the coastal capital. Finally the selector settled an account with a rich stone, which came into the possession of one Morgan, licensee of the Rockhampton Hotel. Analysed, it showed 3,0000 z of gold to the top. Without delay the 040 acres of lands Gordon owned were bought for_ £2OO. Five years later the mine had paid £l,658,333 in dividends. Morgan, his brother, and their sons had 50 per cent, control of the original company, which began with a capital of £30,000. The other shareholders were all local men, among them being Walter and Wesley Hall and Knox Darcy. However, Mount j Morgan’s phenomenal wealth soon led ito the flotation of a limited liability I company of £1,000,000 capital. Previously a tenth share in the first com-; pany had been sold for _ £26,000, but '£31,080 was paid for a similar holding later. One holder wagered £I,OOO to a cigar that the limited company’s shares would reach £lB in a week. The | bet took the Stock Exchange quotations j to £l7 10s, at which figure the bettor i unloaded half his holding. The market flooded, values receded, and the original owner bought in again at consider- ! able profit. ■ The Mount Morgan gold mine had ; one of the most remarkable careers in 1 the world’s mining history. Finally it j became a copper proposition, and by, 1920 had paid £10,000.000 in dividends' and maintained a wealthy township of 1 15,000 souls. Even to-day the company has huge assets. There are hundreds of thousands of pounds invested in costly equipment. The power house alone represents several small fortunes.

Shares and debentures worth over £500,000 are hold in other enterprises. The reserve account of £IOO,OOO would go a long way towards founding another small city. Need it be wondered, then, why the Halls died millionaires, and whence came their wealth to benefit Australian charities with the Walter and _ Eliza Hall trust? Many another with a swollen bank balance could also find the beginning of things at the month of the famous mine, to say nothing of the smaller fortunes made by traders in the town.

Hut to one person Mount Morgan was I not the end of his money-making. I Knox Darcy, who was a solicitor’s clerk when indolent “Randy.” Gordon sold several fortunes for £2OO, disposed of his interests during one of the share booms. Bound for England, ho met a young Persian, who told an entrancing tale - of'huge oil reservoirs, Coal was then nearing the end of its roiern as emperor of the world’s fuel. Darcy listened attentively to the coloured man’s story, and is reputed to have gained another Fortune from his holding in the Anglo-Persinn Oil Company. At nil events, the English portion of his estates was valued at £900,000 for probate purposes. There is sadness in the prosnect that as tlm shareholders who to-day hold serin Darcy once owned have decided to realise their assets -rather than continue mining operations the golden glories of Mount Morgan must shortly become but memories. •