Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Gold miner's hut opposite Petersen's (formerly Price's) battery, Hill End

Gold miner's hut opposite Petersen's (formerly Price's) battery, Hill End

1870-1875
Glass photonegative

This idyllic bush scene is the result of at least five attempts by the photographer to portray this miner’s wattle and daub hut in a painterly manner. The reality is his other negatives reveal the hut was directly across the mill pond from Peterson’s stamper battery on Oakey Creek. The noisy battery crushed gold-bearing quartz from the mines of nearby Nuggetty Gully on Lower Hawkins Hill, 24 hours a day, except Sunday.

From Anthony Trollope’s Australia and New Zealand, Vol 1.

“Men would try their luck for a month, or perhaps for a fortnight, and if they failed, or did not meet success to satisfy them, would pack up their swags and would betake themselves elsewhere. In this way the population at a rush is very precarious, falling as quickly as it rises, receiving or losing a thousand in a few days, as the places gives or refuses to give its treasures.” [Anthony Trollope’s Australia and New Zealand, Vol 1., p66]