Saturday, Jan 26, 2013 at 15:26
...And.some additional history
"With the discovery of a gold nugget at
Moujakine the government voted 300 pounds to equip a prospecting party on assignment for a period of 3 months to
test the district east of
Newcastle (since renamed
Toodyay) to Lake Deborah.
With the assistance of the
Northam and
Newcastle Settlers’ Association, the party under the leadership of Mr. Bernard Norbert Colreavy set
forth in August of 1887 and made their way to Ennuin at the Yilgarn Hills north of the lake. There they began prospecting both reefs and for alluvial. Although many quartz reefs were found there was no indication of any colour nor alluvial.
As the weeks passed the party gradually began to search the district back towards
Northam. Promising indications were found and samples taken and in mid-October they met another party under the leadership of Mr. Anstey who were on their way out to the Yilgarn Hills.
About 10 days later they saw Mr. Anstey, alone, making his way quickly back to
Perth. On about November 12 when they again met Mr. Anstey making his way back out to the Yilgarn Hills, the story of how his party had found a gold bearing reef on a ridge 2
miles from Ennuin was revealed.
Mr. Colreavy inspected the reef and found he had prospected the gully below. Although impressed with Mr. Anstey’s find, he was not convinced this was a goldfield but felt the country he had visited was worthy of further investigation and planned to return under his own devises.
On his second trip Mr. Colreavy accompanied by his partner Mr. Huggins and a native trapper, decided to prospect the hills south of Lake Deborah. Mr. Colreavy and his tracker went out prospecting one morning and made their way towards a prominent
hill standing out in the range. The nearer he got to it the more confident he had come upon gold-bearing country.
He ascended the
hill and struck with the similar appearance to that of a goldfield he had worked in NSW he remarked to himself "Surely this is a goldfield. If I don't find gold here, where am I to look for it."
Examining the countryside from atop the
hill he noticed a slope below him strewn with quartz. Proceeding to this spot he found a
well formed reef and breaking off a piece of stone revealed visible gold. In every piece of stone that he broke of after that, gold was visible. It was about 2pm on December 30, 1887 and gold had been discovered on what was to be known as Golden Valley."
Golden Valley was not named because gold was found there but rather for the Golden Scrub Wattle which covers the slopes of the valley.
A townsite near here was declared as "Knutsford" in 1889, but Knutsford was cancelled in 1912 due to a bad design. The townsite of Colreavy, about 500 metres SE, was gazetted in 1912.
Colreavy was originally going to be called Golden Valley after the name of the general area, but this was rejected due to duplication in the Eastern States.
Cheers
Greg
Reference:
Colreavy - Geocache.com | I sent one final shout after him to stick to the track, to which he replied “All right,” That was the last ever seen of Gibson - E Giles 23 April 1874 Lifetime Member
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