Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Panorama of Central Hawkins Hill (showing Holtermann goldmine), Hill End

Panorama of Central Hawkins Hill (showing Holtermann goldmine), Hill End

1870-1875
Glass photonegative

This view of Hawkins Hill was taken by Beaufoy Merlin, who erected his camera more than a kilometre away across a gully nearly 300 metres deep. Just left of centre of the image are the twin buildings and two-storied structure of Beyers and Holtermann’s Star of Hope, which employed 23 miners. The claims along this hill extracted 12.4 tonnes of gold.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 17 1872

Some of the oldest of the Hawkins Hill miners, men who have now succeeded in drawing fortunes out of their claims, have assured me that they worked on month after month, under every possible discouragement, hoping against hope, now getting a little gold to encourage them to keep on, now living from hand to mouth, and now brought down to a last crust; with storekeepers looking black at the long scores, and anxious for some or any excuse to bring the reckoning to an end. All this they suffered as man by man of their mates dropped from them, worn out and discouraged; but still they persevered in spite of all, and no one can say but that such indomitable courage well deserved the reward it obtained. (‘Random notes by a wandering reporter: Hill End’, Sydney Morning Herald, Jan 17 1872, p5)