OIL RUSH SCENES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 August 1924, Page 3

OIL RUSH SCENES.

■SO SQUARE MILES MAPPED OUT,

SCRAMBLE FOR LEASES.

Following the reported discovery of traces of crude petroleum at Lake Bunga bore, Gippsland, the biggest oil boom ever known in Victoria has swept over the Gippsland Lakes district with the rapidity of a bush lire. Within eight days 50 square miles °f country have been mapped out for mining leases. Twenty-four of the applicants set down their total, estimated expenditure in official documents at £120,000. Among them are a number of oiL experts, and persons associated with similar ventures in other parts of Australia. A wild scramble, has ensued since the reported discovery for mining leases. Every available inch of the parish of Colquhoun has been claimed in the quest to “get-rich-quick,” as well as portions of Tildesby West, Colquhoun East, Colquhoun North, ancl Bumberrah parishes.

Everybody in those parts talks oil, and the boom has even commenced to extend to the country near the Snowy River and Bairnsdale. One claim has even been pegged out 30 miles from Orbost.

The excitement was enhanced bv the arrival of Mr W. Baragwanath, * Government Director of Geological Survey, and Mr Stanley Hunter, engineer in charge of boring. They have commenced an intensive examination of Lake Bunga bore, about which they will submit a report to Mr McNamara, Minister of Mines.

All the “fortune hunter” does is to select his .site, mark it with four corner plots, lodge a deposit of £5 with his application, and then pay the cost of an advertisement announcing his desire. Should it happen that he wants to explore possibilities existing on private property, lie must make satisfactory arrangements'.