BILLYCAN REEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 July 1931, Page 10

BILLYCAN REEF

FORTUNE FOUND AND LOST.

Through an error of judgment, and because of lack of experience as a bushman, Jack Russell found and lost a fortune in the early ’sixties of last century (writes E. Nichols in the Melbourne “Argus”). The goldfields at Wood’s Point were “booming,” yielding slugs and nuggets of gold to many diggers. Russell, then in the prime of vigorus manhood, joined the throng cf treasure-seekers. On a warm morning in the first month of 1862 he left the top of Matlock, which was then known as Emerald Hill, a mining camp of several tents, where he was camped, to explore the ranges to the south. Taking sufficient crib for the day and a billycan of tea, he started down a spur of the range. The spur foil away very steeply towards a creek. The scrub and the undergrowth were difficult to penetrate and their density increased. He found it very hard to work his way through. Progress was slow' and tedious and the climb up again on the other side after having crossed the stream w'as very steep. With a struggle Russell won through the scrub and reached heavy forest country, where the undergrowth was sparser and the travelling was easier.

A change had occurred in the weather. The sun had disappeared behind a dull, grey, cloudy sky, a common happening in those altitudes. This occurrence robbed Russell of his guide, the sun, but he felt certain that he was on the spur that would lead him to the range that he wished to explore. He kept travelling until evening, when he reached the top of the range. Suddenly, before him, standing many feet above the ground, there appeared the white outcrop of a massive quartz reef. Before he reached the outcrop he could see large specks of gold in the quartz. In a moment he felt that ecstasy that comes only to those who have fortune thrust upon them unexpectedly. On every side of the great outcrop rvere visible heavy specks and slugs cf gold. Russell had found El Dorado. Riches beyond his wildest imagining lay before him. The huge size of the reef and its richness amazed him. Some time was required to trace the outline of the reef. Night was coming on and Russell realised that he must fix its position so that he might return. He looked to what he reckoned w'as the north. There, on the round peak that ho had left in the morning, he could see the white tents of the camp through the trees. He considered that he wmuld be able to return to the reef without difficulty. There was nothing with which to mark the reef, to signify that he had discovered it, so Russell decided to leave his billycan on the outcrop to indicate that it had been found. Russell set off down the spur of the range in the direction of the distant camp. He travelled as speedily as possible, but night came swiftly. He rested at the bole of a forest giant,, /sleeping fitfully and dreaming. He dreamed of the wealth he wmuld gather from the reef which his billycan was guarding far up on the range. At the first light of day he hurried down the mountain spur, as he believed, towards the camp on Emerald Hill. He could no longer see the camp. About 10 o’clock he came to the Jordan River, at the Red Jacket Creek, ten miles east of Matlock. The Jordan was the first water that he had met since leaving the reef, or since ho crossed the creek on the previous morning. He returned to cam£ after refreshments and registered his discovery.

A 30-YEAR QUEST.

Then for days, weeks, months, and years. Russell sought to find the reef again in the ranges south of Matlock. He continued the quest more than 30 years. Every summer Russell walked up the Yarra track to the upper Jordan River beyond Jericho to continue bis search for the reef that he had found and lost in his youth. The search continued until age withered bis features and turned his hair grizzly and grey, ’fut he never found the Billycan Reef. Towards the end of his vain quest I passed a night with Russell at Shaw’s Halfway Hotel, now deserted, burned, and decayed. I put to him the probability that the Royal Standard, a similar outcrop which was discovered four years after Russell’s discovery, was the Billycan Reef. The Standard was east of Matlock. Russell said: “It was in the wrong direction. I am sure that the Billycan was south of Matlock.” He was sincere in his belief. More than 60 years have passed since Russell left his billycan on the outcrop. In those years no goldmine has been found in the district described by Russell. Russell is dead,' and there is no certainty that the I Billycan Reef has been found, but | among the old diggers and miners of the ranges a strong belief prevailed that when Fred Standard’s mate, Bill Singleton, while looking for horses, found the Royal Standard outcrop, he discovered Jack Russell’s lost Billycan Reef.

The Royal Standard was a huge outcrop of quartz. 300 ft long, more than 20ft wide, and standing several feet from the ground. Singleton said he could "see it when some distance away, and that he could see gold in it a chain away.” He declared also “that a rusty billycan was near the outcrop.” Singleton made, his discovery early in 1866, four years after Russell. In those four years thousands of diggers and others had come to Wood’s Point, yet the Royal Standard was unseen until Singleton chme across it, practically by accident. It proved to be the sensation of the year In a few months the Royal Standard Mining Village came into existence, with stores, accommodation houses, refreshment houses, and a fairly large, although somewhat .floating, populaton. A road was made, and teams from Melbourne carted supplies. Many other mines were discovered on the line of reef, among them the Strap and Buckle, Baby Burns, Champion, and Fixed Star. The first crushing from the Royal Standard of 300 tons yielded 3000 oz. In five months 14,000 ounces of gold had been obtained from the outcrop, which was worked on the open-cut system. Nothing of value, however, was found below 70ft, There followed a period of prospecting by driving tunnels into the hill, until 23 tunnels had been driven. Only two, according to the Mines Department, cut the Royal Standard reef. From one tunnel only was a crushing taken. It gave a non-payable return of 4dwt to the ton. For several years some of the other mines were worked successfully by co-operative and private

parties. The Royal Standard and about a dozen other mines in the Standard Creek Glen, that in their day produced thousands of ounces of gold, are now abandoned. The vast forest is returning to the condition that prevailed before the white men came.

None is now left of the reckless, energetic miners who opened up the stern Wood’s Point Ranges. I know of only two of that generation who remain in the hills. Mrs Svenson, senr., of the Aberfeldy, Mount Lookout, lived with her husband at the Royal Standard in the time of its prosperity. She still attends to her household duties, although her years are approaching 90. The other is Mrs Fletcher, who is aged between 80 and 90 years. She has lived for the last 40 years on the top of Matlock. There is little doubt that the Royal Standard outcrop was that found by Russell. When the sun disappeared he had nothing to guide him, and inevitably he bore to the left and went north-east, on to the divide and along to the Royal Standard, q'he fact that he came to Red Jacket, so far out of his course to Matlock, showed that he was lost and did not yeally know where ho had been. Russell was so positive tliqt he would not search in any other direction, and his obduracy possibly lost him m fortune.