Basalt Town - Boots Gully Slate Quarry - Charlesford Mine - Henderson Spring

 

 BOOTS  GULLY SLATE QUARRY

Kyneton Observer (Vic.: 1856 - 1900), Thursday 15 February 1894, page 2 

The Daylesford Gold Find. 

Touching the rush near Daylesford, to which we referred in our last issue, the Daylesford correspondent of the Age writes: —For the last few days the people of Daylesford have been considerably excited over a rich find of stone made by a couple of miners named Charles White and Jackson in a claim at Welcome Gully, a place about four miles from Daylesford as the crow flies, and between Basalt Hill and German Gully. Welcome Gully and also the next gully (Smith's) has for years yielded large nuggets at various times, and prospectors have worked there with varied fortune for a considerable time, sinking shafts from 3 to 20 feet in depth. With the exception of spasmodic prospecting the country may be looked upon as practically untried. White and Jackson have been working there for about two years and a half, and on Friday last, at a depth of 20ft, they came across what was literally a golden reef. Pieces containing as much as 12oz of gold were broken up, and in less than two hours over 91b weight of gold, value over £400, was obtained. The ground up to that time had been held by them under miners' rights (two men's ground), each having a right to 60 feet on the course of the reef. Immediately the discovery was made they pegged out sufficient ground for a large claim (20 acres) and lodged their application for a lease. They also pegged out claims north and south of the one in which gold was discovered, and other parties have taken up the adjoining country and applied for leases. A company has already been floated by Patterson and party to work White and Jackson's No. 2 lease. On Saturday Jackson and White got more golden stone, and although they are reticent regarding - the quantity, it is stated on the best authority that they have already about 201b weight of the golden stone taken out, which they estimate will give 161b of gold, or about £800 worth. I saw some of the gold, and nothing like it has been seen in Daylesford since the Keep-it-Dark gold, was "got many years ago, and that even was not so rich as this find. The gold will be taken and sold at the Melbourne Mint to-morrow. The discovery has naturally caused great excitement in the district, and hopes are entertained that the Mining Department will send up an expert to report on the prospects of the country, as the place is practically a new field, and it should be the means of opening up the ranges in the locality. 

Age (Melbourne, Vic.: 1854 - 1954), Tuesday 27 November 1923, page 1 
 BOOTS GULLY DEVELOPMENT 

BALLARAT. — Official advice from Boots Gully Syndicate Daylesford on Monday stated that a large body of stone had been struck on the footwall side of the lode, giving good prospects of gold. The shaft is 86 feet in depth, and & crosscut was a fortnight ago put out from the bottom. The lode was struck in the crosscut at a distance of 30 feet. The development has occurred in country west of the Ajax line. The syndicate owning the property includes a number of leading mining investors of the district. 

 

Argus (Melbourne, Vic.: 1848 - 1957), Wednesday 18 June 1930, page 4 

SALT HILL REEF. 

Preparing for Trial Crushing. 

DAYLESFORD, Tuesday - Application has been made for two cases on the search sites and one house on the north side of the gold bearing veins discovered at Basalt Hill! since the discovery was reported prospectors have been arriving on the scene 

Some are accompanied by their wives and families The reef is about four miles from Daylesford, and as it is difficult of access some of the prospectors are staying at Eganstown, the nearest township Mr. A. Rooks has been appointed manager of the company which owns the original lease "Men were engaged to-day to take out quartz for a trial crushing. Twenty tons of ore will be crushed at Daylesford battery in about a fortnight. 

Daylesford Advocate, Yandoit, Glenlyon and Eganstown Chronicle (Vic.: 1914 - 1918), Tuesday 20 March 1917, page 3 

BASALT. 

WELCOME HOME 

The residents of Basalt met in the State School on Friday evening to give a " welcome home " to Private David Henderson, son of Mrs John Henderson. Private Henderson was wounded in France last July and has been invalided home. The proceedings were in the form of a social, during which Private Henderson was presented with a pocketbook and a writing case. Mr Sydes made the presentation, and Messrs J. Thompson, R. D. Allison, and S. Vanzetta added words of praise to the honoured guest. The latter returned thanks in a bright speech, in which, referring to the war, he invited the young and fit to " hop into it." 

Supper was provided by the ladies. 

Messrrs Cooper, Sydes and Thompson played the dance music and Mr G. Pfeiffer was a capable M.C. 

The school children daring the evening sang the following songs: Rule Britannia, Fairest Isle, Dulce Domum, The Roast Beef of old England, Golden Slumbers, Polly Oliver, and Ye Gentlemen of England- Mr Sydes sang The Jolly Sailor, The Yeoman's Wedding Song, and Fifteen of 'em on the Parlour Floor, and Miss Mary Allison contributed a pianoforte solo 

  

Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic.: 1869 - 1954), Saturday 16 October 1920, page 60 

BASALT. 

Lillian Welsh, living at Basalt, writes: — Dear Aunt Connie. This is the first time I have written to you. I am 14 years and six months old. I will take for my subject "Basalt." Basalt is the name of the place in which I live. It was named Basalt because there is a lot of basalt rock about. We are about seven or eight miles away from an extinct volcano, Mt. Franklin. There are not many people living at Basalt as it is not very big. When families grow up and leave school they cannot get employment at Daylesford, which Is the town where we get our necessary articles, so they go to Melbourne and other towns to earn their livings. There are two mineral springs here, one of which, the land surveyors said. Is one of the best waters in the Commonwealth. They are in the bed. of a creek, and in the winter the water washes sand and pebbles into them. Round about them there is a lot of rock and maiden hair fern growing among the rocks and under logs of wood. In the spring. Basalt looks very pretty, with the wattle trees out in bloom. If anyone goes for a walk in the bush, they see many different kinds of orchids. The heath and Australian fuchsia are also out in bloom. The birds' claw is another plant which we see here. It is a very pretty flower and grows in the thick of the bush. Please may I write again? (Yes. I shall be pleased to hear from you, Aunt Connie.) 

FARMER'S FIND NUGGET WORTH £150 

DAYLESFORD, Friday 

A nugget of gold weighing 221 ounces was found by William Henderson while prospecting in Yorkey's Gully, near Basalt Hill. 

William and Gordon Henderson, brothers, who have a farm at Basalt, decided to prospect in surrounding gullies in their spare time. They had been working a few months but had earned very little. 

Before leaving the creek William Henderson saw a 'colour,' and investigating it more closely, unearthed a solid piece of gold, valued at approximately £160. 

The nugget was brought to Daylesford and sold at a bank. 

Yorkey's Gully Is well known among the miners of earlier times. It is in the same stretch of country as Long Gully, Scorpion Gully, Welcome Gully and Green Gully, all of which were very rich in alluvial gold. 

The largest nugget found In the Daylesford district came from the Corinella deep lead and weighed 260 ounces. Other nuggets over 5O ounces found in the district, and recorded by the Mines Department weighed 144oz., 136, 106, 95, 65, 60, 60, 58. 57. 54. 

 

HENDERSON SPRING was built by Gordon Henderson from our 3rd generation, who ran the family farm about one kilometre northeast from the spring. They ran a dairy farm on unproductive soil with income supplemented by work on the cricket bat plantation at Shepherds Flat. He was himself a good local cricketer. 
For reasons we still don't understand at age 42 he joined the army to fight the Japanese, leaving behind his mother, wife and 4 children. With little training he arrived in Singapore just before the Japanese. 

He was taken prisoner and went to Changi prison and from there sent up to the Burma railway coming in from the Burma end. 
 
Being a hard worker, he did OK for a while, but then contracted leg ulcers, which lead to the amputation of his leg. This was done without anaesthetic by Dr Coates from Ballarat, a statue of whom stands up the top of Sturt St. He only survived a few weeks after that and was buried at the camp near the track. After the war he was exhumed and reburied in a Commonwealth war cemetery at Thanbuzyat in Burma.  I have visited him twice 
in Burma, taking water from his spring and rocks from the creek to lay with him, his death caused his family to lose the farm and his wife struggled thereafter. each year the 5th and 6th generations lay a wreath in his memory 

2021 Stewart Henderson 

Basalt 

In the early part of the1900’s, the CHARCOAL KILN was run by a Bernie Plodza , who cut and sold firewood and charcoal into Hepburn, he also had a kiln nearer Hepburn, and charcoal was transported into Hepburn on horse and cart through a steep ravine through the creek which was tough on the horse! Bearing in mind that every blacksmith shop ran on charcoal. He also had a flying fox across the gorge for getting firewood across, so avoiding carting heavy loads through the creek. 

2021 Stewart Henderson 

Basalt 

Researched and compiled by Andrew Parker 2021