GOLD AT GRANITES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21346, 22 November 1932, Page 6

GOLD AT GRANITES

PROSPECTOR'S DIARY

HARDSHIPS AND PRIVATIONS

STORY TOLD IN FEW WORDS

BY F. E. BAUJia

No. 111. THE GRANITES, Nov. 2 When old Jack Atherton, who with Jimmy discovered tho Rurdekin Duck mine on tho Granites, remained on tho lonelv field through eighteen months of hardship and privation, ho kept a diary. Just as tho older bushman, whether prospector, drover or sheepman invariably writes down tho happenings of each day, so old Jack, now comfortably off, but thinking always of the past reads his own brief diary daily, and tears come to his syes. "It's not complete," Jack says. ' But it represents eighteen months of fairly hard work and plain living, and now I m comfortable I like to glance over it." The ."fairly hard living" to which lie refers was a diet of cornflour and kangaroo rats ■when all transport was held up—but that, in his own opinion, is by the way. On September 26, 1931, he notes: " Sent 11 ounces three pennyweights to the Melbourne mint. Return of £55 6s. Three ounces sold at Alice Springs, £ls. That was his way of reckoning up his stores bilL

Gold at Bunker's Hill Notes meant nothing to Jack, and it was nothing unusual for him to hand over dust to a stray camel traveller on the field to be brought into Alice Springs for disposal. The code up here is rigorous, and no man on pain of death would steal gold so given for disposal. But Jack was on the field long before that September. His first diary entry is February 26, 1931. "Bob Anderson left fqr Hall's Creek," he writes. That long journey was just an incident. Up to October 1 he simply reports dryblowing. On October 2 water from the well was carted, and from then on to the Bth more dryblowing. On October 8 Jack reported: f Struck few dwts. of gold at Bunker's Hill." That is the hill where to-day a huge cut is being made preparatory to development. On October 14: "Struck a few more dwts." On October 16 Saxby—a well known bushman and prospector, and friend of Randal Stafford —went to Tanami for provisions. Then came three davs of rain and cold and Atherton, suffering from fly-infected eyes did not bother to make a further entry.until October 20. On that date he describes his pegging of a lease at Bunker's Hill and on the next day reported a few more dwts. from the hill.

Beturns from a Hew Find Illness came quickly. "In camp with toad back," says the diary. " Hope it .won't last more than a few days." October passed with recording of rain and the return of a prospector from Hall's Creek. On November 5 two inches of rain fell and it held up work for many days. December came without another entry save for ai short note: "Dissolved partnership in the Ivy mine," and on December 7: "New Find." No embellishment,, Just two words—words which were to mean money and comforL for the prospectors who had braved the Granites. Across the dates for the rest of December old Jack wrote: "Very dry and hot. Food short"—and that was that. The same entry was made for January with one .variation on the fifth: " Found new gold lead." Where, he did not say. That disclosure was to be made later when southern money was to flow into the field. It rained most of Februaiy. On the 12th a note is made: "Four ounces of gold from That meant money for provisioning and much more would mean a trip to the civilisation of Alice Springs for a while at least. On March 6 is an entry: "Nine ounces to date on new find," and there is not another entry until May 14 when the word "Rain" is spelt in big capitals. Silence for Four Months The three months had passed with nothing but . work—yet not a word in the diary. Not a word about the split with Ted North or Jack Saxby; not a word about cornflour and rats and a fat goanna which had a hiding place under the forge and is still a sore point with Jack, who says he was not the one who ate it; not a word about the loneliness when the only other man left at the Granites was little Paddy O'Neill, now the inseparable partner of Black Paddy Ryan. None of the things which would have been incidents in the life of an ordinary man were noted. On May 18, 19 and 20 the diary reports four inches of rain. A fall of that type noted so casually would be sufficient on that desert to hold up transport for weeks and to keep men at Brooks' "soak" until the desert dried. But the diary reports it in' his coldest—and wettest fact. On May 20 he wrote: "Good rain filled all drums." Then silence until September of this year, September when the cities began to take notice of this lonely field and .to send their experts. Philosophy of Life

On September 9 Atherton wrote: !*'Signed agreement re claim," and on the 13th: " Two men started work on claim" —and from then on nothing, for Jack 'Atherton was taking a rest in the capital of Central Australia. This philosopher of tlbe North knows more about the Granites than any one else on the field, and his 62 years have been crammed with prospecting experience in the worst parts of Australia. But Jack Atherton never exaggerates. He does not tell weird and wonderful stories such as have been published in many newspapers as being the etories of some of the prospectors who have delighted -in drawing the long bow for the/ unwary journalist.

Jack knew the Granites in the time of Stuart, 23 years ago; he has been searching for Stuart's grave recently; he knew the late Dave Sullivan who got gold from the Granites almost a quarter of a century ago. But he says: " Hard work may win you gold That's all. No wild tales of Eldorado for me. I've worked hard all my life—and if I had my life over again I'd live if as' I have lived it. That's Adam Lindsay Gordon's philosophy—and its good enough for me."