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CHAPTER III.
AUSTRALIAN DIAMONDS.
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LTHOUGH
three, at least, of our Australian Colonies have yielded Diamonds, it
is only in New South Wales that they have been found in sufficient
quantity to invite systematic exploration. As far back as the year
1851, Mr. E. H. Hargraves, in a Report dated from Guyong, referred to
some specimens of gold, and to a number of gems, including what he
called, rather vaguely, " a small one of the Diamond kind," found in
Reedy Creek, near Bathurst. Mr. Stutchbury, the Government geologist,
also reported in 1851, that he had seen a finely crystallized Diamond
from the Turon River. But it was especially the late Rev. B. W. Clarke,
a gentleman well-known for his researches in Australian geology, who
first directed public attention to the Diamonds of New South Wales.
Four specimens had been brought to him from the Mâcquarie River, near
Suttor's Bar, in September, 1859, anoV a fifth, the following month,
from Burrendong. In the meantime he had received Diamonds from Pyramul
and Calabash Creeks. These discoveries were considered by Mr. Clarke so
significant, that he wrote a description of the occurrence, boldly
heading it with the startling title, "New South Wales a Diamond country
!" This announcement was not commercially justified till seven or
eight years later, when the gold rush occurred at Warburton, Australia, better
known as Two-mile flat, on the Cudgegong River, about nineteen miles
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