$35.00 each + $12.00 postage within Aus$90.00 for all 3 volumes (1,2 & 3) + $20.00 postage within AusRead our online ordering information to purchase confidently. |
A History of The Hill End – Tambaroora Goldfield
Now Reprinted
The Hill End Story – Book 1
A History of The Hill End – Tambaroora Goldfield
Book 1 of the Hill End story tells of the rise of Tambaroora and Hill End in the second part of the 19th century when their riches drew tens of thousands of people to the stark plateau north of the Turon. When Hodge wrote this work in 1965 Hill End had one shop and one hotel. In 1872 it had a mile of shops. There were 28 hotels in the town itself and 52 within a three-mile radius. The neighbouring town of Tambaroora had at least 40 business houses and 10 hotels. Its population included 1500 Chinese. Today, all that remains of old Tambaroora is a solitary house.
Here and there, in both towns, are traces of their past. A miniature ridge shows the line of a vanished garden fence. A mound is all that remains of a wattle and daub cottage chimney. A depression indicates the cellar of a vanished hotel. A few of the old buildings remain in Hill End and there has been no intrusion of newer ones. Someday the shops and hotels may be reconstructed just as they were in 1872. A photographer named Beaufoy Merlin has left in the Holtermann collection all the pictorial evidence necessary for that reconstruction. Hill End has already been rebuilt in miniature by the writer, whose scale model reproduces the main streets just as they were in the boom years. If the town is restored, it could become a tourist attraction equal to Willem, Williamsberg and Old Tucson in the USA. But vision, careful planning and finance will be necessary.
This book, the first of three volumes, records the story of Hill End and Tambaroora as they were when their streets were thronged with people who came from the ends of the earth in answer to the magic call of gold. Although gold was then the sole reason for these aggregations of population, this volume deals mainly with people. Their lives, in an isolated area with a rigorous climate and few of the amenities of civilization, form part of the pattern of our national development for most of them remained in Australia to play their parts in that development.
The Hill End Story – Book 2
A History of The Hill End – Tambaroora Goldfield
Book 2 carried on the story of the famous gold field at the time when there was mining activity along practically the whole of the 24 kilometres stretch from Chambers Creek north to Dun Dun. It dealt first with the techniques of alluvial and reef mining and tells how they were applied in the Hill End district. It recorded individual mining operations in detail because mining was the sole raison d’etre of the sister towns of Hill End and Tambaroora, as well as the lesser aggregations of population along the line of reef. Included in this section was an account of activity in the alluvial of the Macquarie and Turon Rivers, which both cut across the North South reefing belts.
The mines of the fabulous Golden Quarter Mile, the “jewellers’ shops” of the area were dealt with in detail as well as those which for a variety of reasons, were not successful. This information is supplemented by contemporary press extracts.
Triamble, one of the squatter stock raising areas established well before the gold discoveries receives attention. It was closely associated with the neighbouring Hill End Tambaroora district, not because of any gold discovery but because of its role in helping to feed the miners. Had it not been developed the lot of the gold seekers would have been much harder than it was.
The life of the people on the gold field was again touched on, particularly with reference to the dauntless “Women of the West” who braved the unknown and stood staunchly by their menfolk in their stern struggle for existence. Vignettes of outstanding characters who left their marks on the field in some way or another were included, and the Aborigines of the area came under brief notice.
An appendix containing the names and years of birth of over 3000 people who were born on the field between 1856 and 1893 is included. It should be of interest to those whose ancestors were natives of the district. A second appendix lists the names of some of the people who were residents in the eve of the boom era.
Illustrations include prints from the famous Holterman collection, the work of Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss in the period 1871 to 73, maps, diagrams and recent photographs.
The Hill End Story – Book 3
A History of The Hill End – Tambaroora Goldfield
Book 3 dealt with the greatly diminished town as the author saw it in his boyhood. It was a remote, isolated, inward looking community, cut off from ready contact with larger towns by many miles of mountainous roads. Its story is therefore one in which the impact of world events came second-hand through the newspapers, and the near horizon imprisoned many of its people for the whole of their lives.
$35.00 each + $12.00 postage within Aus$90.00 for all 3 volumes (1,2 & 3) + $20.00 postage within AusRead our online ordering information to purchase confidently. |
