THE KIMBERLEY GOLDFIELD.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXV, Issue 7864, 20 May 1886, Page 3

THE KIMBERLEY GOLDFIELD.

{Adelaide Observer, May 8.) . Perth, May 6. The steamer Albany has arrived at Cossack, and reports that one man has returned to Derby from the goldfields with 80 ounces of gold. Up to date of the Albany’s departure, 600 ounces have been brought in. The diggers complain of short stores and other necessaries. The Albany has on board ISO ounces. The following additional information, (says the Argus ) as to the Kimberley goldfield in Western Australia, and the means of access to it, are supplied by an official report and by private letters which have been received in Melbourne :— =■ The gold is being found on the Elvire Eiver, which flows into the Panton, about thirty miles above the junction of that river with theOrd. The Ord is afterwards joined by the Negri, the Bow, the Behn, and the Fenham, and flows into Cambridge Gulf at the east arm. The head-quarters of the Resident and townsite on the gulf is supposed to be inland from the west of the Bastion Hills, where the Admiralty sur-. veyor recommended the construction of ajetty. Hitherto the stores have been at View Hill, the point at the junction of the east and west arms, but at the date of the last advices they were about to remove to the new site. The gulf is entered by the passage west of Lacrosse Island, 26 fathoms water, and has a fairway about eight miles wide and 13 fathoms water by the west of Adolphus Island to View Hill; thence on to the anchorage at Bastion Hill in ten fathoms of water, distant about 60 miles. Captain Coglan’s late chart shows the channel clear for navigation. The rainy season commences .in December and lasts for three months. The cool season is in April, May, June and July; the hot season in September, October, and November. Mr Harry Johnstone, who has been in command of the survey parties in Kimberley for the last three years, and who has surveyed the country from Derby on King’s Sound to the Upper Elvire, and from that to the Cambridge Gulf, states that the distance from the Bastion Hill landing to theUpper Elvire is 290 miles, and the distance from. Elvire to Derby 350. He recommends the road from Cambridge Gulf as the best in every way, "passable fora dray as far as the junction of the Elvirewith the Panton, with good grass and abundance, of water at all seasons.” It is said that a good dray road can be got from the landing under the West Bastion Hill to the Negri, &c., by going up the valley between the Bastion Hills and Erakine Ranges, then close to Parry’s creek and Goose Hill lagoons over to the Ord, and crossing on to its east side in the neighbourhood of False Home Eoof Hill, then, keeping about two miles out from the river, to avoid some country that is much cut up with gullies, till the great western bend is reached, from whence there is easy travelling over plains southerly. Mr remarks: —“Ibelieve the best dray road from the Springe under the Burt Eanges will be obtained by not touching the Ord again, but keeping nearly south, and almost direct for a spot on the Negri, a few miles above its junction with the Ord. This route will save distance, and lie principally over., basaltic country, well-grassed and watered, stony, and in places hilly, but, not sufficiently so to present serious difficulties. Prom this on to within two miles of the junction of the Elvire with the Panton the country is nearly all plains, and easy for a dray to travel over.” " Country proved by prospectors •'to be gold-bearing,” adds the Surveyor, “ extends for a long way to the north and north-east of where gold was found by Mr Hall, thus lessening the distance of the auriferous country from Cambridge Gulf. Fresh meat ought to be procurable, as it is estimated that there are over 12,000 head of cattle in the valley of the Ord. Pish are •very plentiful in the pools of that river. No stores are to be procured on the road or' at the diggings, therefore everything has to be carried from the port. As the country has only been lately occupied, no horses are to be had for hire or purchase, and therefore, it is urged, no man need think of going to the goldfield unless he imports his own horses. All stores- or buildings ought to be of iron on iron frameworks, the white ants often destroy wooden buildings. In Port Darwin the only wood that resists the white ant is a pine something like the Murray pine. Eleven constables. and an officer form part of the establishment at the Gulf at present, but the force will be increased when required. The climate issaid to be healthy, but parties are advised to provide themselves with a Supply of medicine.”