HILL END: The end of the rainbow?
Find out more about Hill End on the National Parks website.
Hill End is situated at the Northern tip of the Bathurst Regional Council boundary.
Here is her story.
Few people leave the village un-affected by its lure; the same, perhaps, which drew so many to its gold fields a century ago. ……………
Extracted by Stewart Greenhalgh from a 1972 National Parks and Wildlife Service of NSW pamphlet for BCW. April 2006
Doctors-turned-miners came to Hill End, as well as professors from overseas, political refugees, freed Negro slaves, forty-niners from California, Chinese, actors, remittance men, ex-convicts, and at least one Victoria Cross winner.
Hill End was the first place where payable gold was worked in Australia, the first where gold was mined from quartz veins, and the first to have a stamper battery.
The largest known specimen of gold was brought to the surface at Hawkins Hill in 1872, at current values worth about $250,000. This was the Beyers and Holtermann nugget.
The area from which it came is believed to have been the richest quarter mile of ground ever found in the world.
Statistics indicate that the Beyers and Holtermann Specimen was 1.32 m (4 ft. 9 ins.) high, 0.6 m (2 feet) wide, had an average thickness of 101 mm (4 ins.), and weighed 285 kg (630 lbs.).
Between 1857 and 1950, close to 21,770 kg (700,000 ounces) of gold were mined at Hill End, valued at about $ 565 –million in 2006.
Gold is still found in the area. Quite a number of visitors find good colour, and a few locals work their claims in the hope of a big strike, as does a company which has been working a mine for a number of years.
The discoverer of the first gold in Hill End will probably never be known.
One story is that a Police black tracker un-covered the first nugget while setting up a Police camp on what is known as Camp Hill, Tambaroora.
Others say two miners left the Turon Field because they were dissatisfied with results, and made their way to Oakey Creek and dis-covered gold. Certainly it was gold and nothing else that caused the rush to the district, populated the area, and built the two townships of Hill End and Tambaroora.
Clarke Street looking south. Photo. Merlin 1872.
It is recorded that the first Chinese arrived in Australia in small numbers in 1853, but in 1854, 37 shiploads of them disembarked and made their way to the diggings. In 1855, it is claimed, 61 shiploads came.
The discoveries in N.S.W., in 1851 and 1852 caused a surge of people from one gold field to another. Soon the area became the site of "the greatest alluvial rush". In next to no time, every water course in the locality had been worked. When alluvial gold became harder to obtain, reef mining in the district was gradually developed.
Gold was accidentally found on Hawkins Hill in 1861, by a man chasing horses there. By the end of 1870, gold was being won in sufficient quantities to indicate that far greater riches were to come. The excitement over reef mining developed to such a stage that a mania for investment swept N.S.W. More than 225 companies are reputed to have held investment interests in Hill End at one stage, and more than $24,000,000 was claimed to be involved in capital outlay.
In 1872, the village held a mile of shops and streets, with 28 hotels, five banks and two newspapers. In no other field of Australia were so many individual fortunes made-and sometimes lost.
In the post World War II period, Hill End attracted the attention of Australian artists such as Russell Drysdale, Donald Friend, Jean Bellet, Margaret Olley and Jeffrey Smart. This link continues today through an Artist in Residence Program managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Bathurst Regional Gallery.
HISTORIC SITE: Hill End itself never died. Because of this, much of the old town's history stands in the form of buildings. The area was proclaimed a Historic Site in 1967, and is under the care of the National Parks and Wildlife Service for preservation and restoration. This has been done so that future, generations of Australians may personally experience something of the thrill of "Gold Fever", walk in the tracks of adventure seekers of 100 years ago and see and feel the atmosphere of a mining town of 1868-72.
HILL END TODAY: Hill End services a local community of about 120 people within the surrounding district. Whilst tourism is an important sector in the town’s economy, sheep grazing and gold mining also play an important part in the local economy.
The village itself is situated on top of a ridge, from which gullies plunge down to the Turon River, 450 m below. The climate is pleasant in summer and bracing in winter. Spring and autumn are particularly beautiful because of the numerous deciduous trees which are a feature of Hill End. Rainfall (average) is about 710 mm.
FACILITIES: Hill End today is a vital little community with a variety of shops, meal and accommodation options available to the visitor.
There is a well-equipped two-teacher Primary School and a Police Station and Court House under the charge of a resident Police Officer.
Royal Hotel, Hill End. Photo. N.P.W.S
