South West Life

Thars gold in them thar hills... Really, there is! Donnybrook had it's own gold rush at the turn of the 19th/20th century.

The honour of first finding gold in the region goes to Richard Hunter, who discovered some in 1897 by panning the upper reaches of the Nonneycup Creek, which is a tributary of the Preston River.

Richard soon settled on a quartz outcrop, and sunk a shaft, which became known as Hunter's Venture.

News of a gold discovery always travels fast, and it wasn't long before Fred Camilleri, a well known prospector from Kalgoorlie, heard about Richard's discovery and was very interested. Fred offered to help Richard develop the field.

Fred sank his own shaft near Richard's, on Mt Cara (named after his daughter). Later he then consolidated other mining leases and sold the field to "Donnybrook Goldfields Ltd", a company floated in London in 1899.

Donnybrook Goldfields Ltd had capital of £350,000 for the express purpose of developing the Donnybrook Goldfields. It was serious business now, and the WA State government gazetted Donnybrook as a goldfield. A new town, to be called Goldtown, was also gazetted and subdivided ready for sale.

A mini gold rush was taking place.

Donnybrook Goldfields Ltd spent £45,000 on infrastructure, including extending the railway. A second hotel was built in town. The place was growing rapidly and in 1901, over 200 miners were in and around the goldfield. By 1902, 105 workers were employed at the Hunter's Venture mine. The shaft was being sunk, a 5 head battery and a 6 drill compressor had been erected, and optimism was high.

But the rush was shortlived, and didn't eventually meet expectations. In August 1903, with little warning, and after an inspection by the financiers from Europe, the mine was closed.

With all gold finds of that size, you always wonder whether they closed prematurely, whether a big find was just around the corner. A couple of attempts have been made since the closure of the mine to "just check" another time.

In the 1930s, some small scale work was undertaken by locals Laurie & Foster Payne. They recovered 102 ounces.

Then in 1980, with much updated technology, the goldfields were repegged by West Coast Holdings Ltd. Joint ventures were entered into. Extensive exploration was carried out, including diamond drilling, sampling, aerial survey, and satelite imagery. Various drill holes revealed there was still gold there, but the grades proved uneconomic to mine any further.

And so that was the end of the gold mining in Donnybrook. Today, the site is remembered and brought back to life by the Old Goldfields Orchard & Cider Factory, with the re-erection of an exact replica of the poppet head over Hunter's Venture, an information centre housing photographs, videos, memorabilia, and press reports from the golden era. Mt Cara Adit is again open, and children can pan for gold.

You can visit the Old Goldfields Orchard & Cider Factory's web site at www.oldgoldfields.com.au. They provide the information and photos for this story.