James Gormly

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

WOLLONGONG 78 YEARS AGO.

The Hon. James Gormley, M.L.C, who has been on a visit to Wollongong during the past week, is a regular encyclopaedia in regard to the pioneering days of this State, and his information in regard to the early days of Illawarra is most interesting. His lectures and writing on exploration and settlement in Australia, which is now being compiled for publication in book form, when issued will be a valuable addition to early history of the work done by the explorers, and early pioneers.

The Mitchell Library in Sydney has been collecting newspaper articles that Mr. Gormley has written within the last two years, which are now neatly and strongly bound in two large volumes, in book form, and are available for the use of readers who are admitted to the library. In '44 Mr. Gormley assisted to drive his father's stock from Illawarra to Murrumbidgee, and in '46 he assisted to drive 700 head of cattle from the Murrumbidgee to Gipps land. This proved to be a most difficult journey. There was no track marked out across the Snowy Mountaians, and at the time the peaks on the range were covered with snow. For three weeks the party passed no habitation the whole country travelled over being in its primitive state. When the dividing range was crossed, on the descent towards the ocean, the M'Alister River was followed down to where the town of Sale now stands, where the cattle were sold. In '47 Mr. Gormly helped to take 1000 young bullocks from the Murrumbidgee to the then new pro vince of South Australia, where the Kapunda and Burra Copper Mines were then being extensively worked. This journey occupied six months, as the party were attacked several times by large tribes of hostile blacks, when passing through the mallee scrub, back from the lower Darling and Murray Rivers. On many occasions the bullocks which were young and wild, were stampeded from the camps at night by blacks, and scattered so widely through the dense - mallee scrub that much time was lost in getting the stock together again. Eventually the copper mines were reached, and the bullocks sold profitably, for the purpose of being broken in and used as workers to haul the copper ore from the mines to the ports of shipment. In '50-51 there, was a great drought on the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers, when fully half the stock perished for want of grass and water. In the summer of '51 gold, in large quantities, was found at Lewis Pond's Creek, in the Bathurst district, and in the winter of that year, which was excessively wet, there was a general rush to the diggings. Mr. James Gormley, although only 15 years of age, like so many others rushed to the goldfields, and worked in the bed of the Turon River during the winter of '51, where he underwent severe hardships and privation. '52 found him on the rich goldfields of Victoria, searching for the precious metal at Bendigo, Ballarat, Mount Alexander, and the Ovens. To tell in detail all the adventures of James Gormley on the goldfields would be to give a history of the Victorian goldfields in their most turbulent times. A state of revolt existed amongst the diggers, brought about by the high tyranny of the goldfield Commissioners and other Government officials. One very exciting incident will suffice. At Reid's Creek, on the Ovens diggings, a squad of police, who had been chasing diggers who were supposed to have no license, accidentally shot a miner

dead. An infuriated mob of diggers soon assembled at the scene of the accident, and jumped to the conclusion that the police had wilfully shot the miner. The whole squad of police were soon surrounded by hundreds of armed, diggers, and made captives. It was decided that the police man whose gun had been discharged should be hung to the branch of a tree that stood close by. A rope was procured, and a noose played over the unfortunate man's neck, and the end of the rope flung Over the limb of the tree. Just as the man was about to be hung up Thomas Gormley, James Gormley's brother, arrived on the scene. He had seen the digger shot, and was aware that the gun had been accidently discharged, so he cut the rope and then explained how the shooting occurred, and thus saved the man's life. James Gormley and his brother left the Victorian goldfields in '53 and, were not, therefore, mixed up in the famous Eureka stockade riot which took place at Ballarat in 1854.

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

External links

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Caption, Reference.