Gulgong - The Gold Rush Town

Gold rush heritage
Gulgong is one of the best preserved towns of the gold rush period. After the discovery in 1870 of significant gold deposits on Red Hill in what would become the town centre the population jumped from nothing to 500 people in just 6 weeks. By 1872, when the town was officially gazetted, Gulgong had a population of 20,000. It was a gold rush in which everyone had a chance to prosper, as the gold was close enough to the surface to be easily accessible. The diggers were travellers, who moved from one gold field to another in search of their fortunes. Researchers recently uncovered a ‘language of the road’. This was a set of secret symbols left for friends to point them towards opportunities and warn them of perils. Over 50 symbols of the road were recorded in <Gulgong’s Gulgong> pavements by clay artists.

Gulgong was originally a township of bark huts. Even the first hospital was made of bark, as were homes and stores. As the town became more prosperous more substantial buildings appeared. Today Gulgong is a township of single story weatherboard structures and buildings of iron, stone and brick. It boasts 150 historic buildings, with 130 of which are recorded in the National Trust Register. By 1876, 15,000kg of gold had been removed from the town. Production slowed and the population fell. Many of the more splendid buildings were dismantled and moved on after the gold was depleted, but a significant collection remains. In 1909, a rail link gave a boost to the town, and its wheat and wool production expanded.

The National Trust Register includes churches, schools, a police station, and even an opera house originally built from bark in 1871. One of Gulgong’s most famous residences is the Georgian Cottage, built by the father of the poet, Henry Lawson. The best ay to see the town is on foot.

You can step inside a Gold Rush home when you walk into the Pioneer Museum. Here you will see a reconstructed 1870s dining room, a bedroom and parlour from the 1880s, an 1872 bake house and an 1872 kitchen.

The gold rush
The gold at Red Hill was discovered by Thomas Saunders in 1870. Saunders, a local shepherd, had decided to try his luck and look for gold. He found 14 ounces and 8 penny (approx 400g) of gold on 14 April, 1870. Saunders, accompanied by his brother and two men called Kurt and Bullock, excavated a small fortune from Red Hill. Over time people discovered leads (trails of gold) that had cascaded down from the summit of Red Hill. Red Hill was fondly referred to as the golden octopus, due to the twisted trails of its gold leads.

Locals believe that Red Hill was formerly a big mountain, possibly even a volcano. The gold was deep underground, and was forced upwards by pressure beneath the earth’s surface. Quartz, which is lighter, was forced up on top of the gold. When the quartz comes into contact with the gold it cracks and the gold is forced inside. This is why many gold seekers find gold in the cracks of quartz.

Saunders found his first gold when he was 6 years old, inspired by his father who was a prospector. When Saunders struck gold in 1870, 20 years after the finds at Turon River and Hill End, he declared it to the police. Soon after the local police recorded the discovery with the government, and a gold rush began in Gulgong. The gold soon attracted people from around the world, and the town’s population rapidly climbed to 12,000.

Post-gold rush history
Depressions renewed an interest in gold prospecting. The 19th century depression and that of the 1930s were active periods for gold seekers. In the 1930s leads were worked in Three Mile Reserve and at Bakers Lane.

1932 is recorded as a bumper year for gold prospectors in Gulgong. Gold miners discovered an unexpected bounty. A group of men working for a mining company were following a lead in pursuit of gold and struck through a wall of quartz. To their surprise water gushed out with such fury that it almost blew them out of the shaft. From that day on the shaft was closed to gold prospectors. It took on the role of the <Gulgong’s Gulgong> original well, from which the townsfolk would collect water in buckets.

Quartz cobblestones were an abundant by-product of gold mining. They were used to gutter the roads. The roads were then covered with dirt from the mullock heaps. Mullock is a term used to describe refuse from the mines. Children used to throw clods of mullock at each other. Local legend has it that one day an old man, who was camped on the side of the road, was throwing a clod of mullock at a billy-goat skull on a post. When the mullock hit the skull it broke up to reveal a handsome sum of gold.

Gold today
Local hero Hilary Hughes has found a lot of gold around Gulgong. He is often seen with his metal detector. He once found piece of gold weighing more than 3kg at Davies’ Butchery after a rubble drain had been pulled out. He has also found gold near the blacksmith’s shop, near Red Hill School and in the local rivers. Students at Red Hill School have also found gold in the school yard.

In 1955 and 1957 the town flooded and the streets were literally washed in gold. Local Gulgong residents still believe there is plenty of gold at Red Hill which may wash down with the next great storm. While there are no promises of grand fortunes, locals claim there is still plenty of gold in the mullock heaps about the town.

Today the earth around Gulgong provides another form of precious resource, white porcelain clay. Gulgong clay is renowned worldwide for its fine properties and has attracted many leading ceramicists into the Gulgong community. It has become a leading centre for contemporary clay sculpture.

Country roads are often narrow and winding.
Bends and curves are often dangerous due to a build up loose dirt and stones.
Be prepared for changing road conditions and surfaces in wet weather.
Always drive to the conditions, which is not necessarily the posted speed limit