Abstract
The goldfield of Forbes and Parkes is situated about 200 miles to the west of Sydney, where the old rocks of the East Australian Highlands disappear beneath the Black Soil Plains. Low spurs from the Palaeozoic rocks project westward into the plains, and wide valleys of alluvium run eastward into the foothills. Gold was found during i86r in the river gravels at Forbes, near the bank of the Lachlan River, and a gold-quartz lode was discovered in the following year at Parkes, on Gooban Creek, a tributary of the Lachlan. Further leads and lodes were discovered at both localities. Mining on the field has, however, been very irregular in its results. The alluvial deposits at Forbes yielded 212,547 oz. in 1862 and 71,493 oz. in 1863; but since then the output from both fields has varied from 57,851 oz. in 1875 down to as low as 1583 oz. Mining at Forbes has at times ceased entirely, and the field is now almost derelict. In the hope of reviving mining there, Mr. Pittman, the Government geologist of New South Wales, arranged for a geological survey of the field to collect trustworthy evidence as to its past history and determine the most likely directions for future mining. The problem of the field is mainly physiographic; and the work was entrusted to Mr. E. C. Andrews, who has already made his mark as an able physiographer. His interesting report is a valuable contribution to the geology of central New South Wales.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
GREGORY, J. Two Minor Australian Goldfields and the Antiquity of Man in Australia 1 . Nature 87, 464–465 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/087464a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/087464a0