Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Horse and cart bogged in what was originally a gold digging outside Meares flooded Criterion Store, Clarke Street, Hill End

Horse and cart bogged in what was originally a gold digging outside Meares flooded Criterion Store, Clarke Street, Hill End

Winter 1872
Glass photonegative

The road in front of William Meare’s Criterion Store subsided in the winter of 1872 to form a bog. The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 1872, described the scene.

As regards the mud in Clark-street, I never have heard an exaggeration. No, to Clark-street I will give the palm for mud and the ill manner it is laid out. It possesses three remarkable features, being narrow, crooked, and filthy …

From the Sydney Morning Herald, 25 May 1872

The thing which has been uppermost for the last three or four days is the mud. The tenacity of the clay, which is to be found in its virgin purity in all the streets, is undeniable, and it has rarely happened that such multitudes of men have been seen stoically dragging themselves through such a sea of liquid filth as were to be found yesterday in the principal street. [‘A trip to Hill End’, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 May 1872, p7]