Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Gold chest

Gold chest

belonging to Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, c1851–55
Wooden chest with brass fittings, containing 46 mineral specimens in four trays
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
DR 157

During the winter of 1851, the NSW surveyor-general Thomas Livingstone Mitchell travelled west to survey the recently discovered goldfields around Bathurst. At the makeshift tent settlement of Ophir on the Summerhill Creek, he planned the streets and allotments for a township. He also collected a fine quartz specimen, which he catalogued and carefully stored in this wooden chest, along with other specimens collected from his various expeditions around NSW.

Inside the wooden chest are four specimen trays, three of which can be removed. These originally held 48 specimens (two are now missing), mostly quartz, varying in colour, shape and texture. Most have light concentrations of gold; a few have heavier concentrations. The chest also contains specimens of gold dust.

Mark my words

Explorer, surveyor, road-builder, artist, writer and mapmaker, Thomas Livingstone Mitchell was larger-than-life in both ambition and character. His interests were varied, from the study of fossils to poetry and the mechanical and scientific arts. Between 1831 and 1846 he made four expeditions into the interior of Australia, publishing several accounts of his journeys. He was knighted in 1839.


Mitchell was the last person in Australia to challenge anyone to a duel. Affronted by criticisms made publicly by Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson of over-expenditure in the Surveyor General's Department, Mitchell – fresh from his journey to the gold diggings at Ophir – confronted Donaldson in Sydney at dawn on 27 September 1851 with the intention of fighting a duel.


Both duelists missed their mark, although Donaldson's hat was damaged. Their seconds stepped in to declare that honour had been satisfied and the duel was abandoned.