- Notes compiled from records by Mr. J. DULFER.

10th May, 1964. Leader: Mr. J. Dulfer.

"These few short notes - mainly dealing with some of the early-day happenings associated with the development of the district as a Mining City - are intended to only briefly cover such events, and to whet the appetite of members to probe for themselves some of the excellent detailed writings that are available."

"The first known white visitors to the area are the members of Captain Sturts Ill-fated 1844 expedition in search of an "Inland Sea". It is only too well known how Sturts' search proved unsuccessful in this respect but it did provide valuable information in the way of geological and other data which must have been availed of in later years. We do know that Sturt actually covered the "Broken Hill" and that he collected mineral specimens which, unfortunately, were not valued or properly examined by the recipients. Had this been so, Broken Hill may have been "discovered" much earlier. In later years, when the pastoral industry began to open up the country, teamsters working between the Burra, then the South Australian railhead and local sheep stations, gradually became aware of some quartz outcrops which soon attracted the inevitable gold seekers, but their quest was in vain. However, about 1876, Paddy Green a storekeeper and prospector had some 36 tons of galena forwarded from Thackeringa to London for realisation. Unfortunately the ore was jettisoned during the voyage and another delay occurred in the birth of Broken Hill. Undaunted by the lack of any positive result from his first venture, Green made a further attempt in 1878 and backed his fancy to the extent of one hundred tons of ore, which contained 65% of Lead and assayed 35 ozs. of Silver per ton - a nice juicy "stake" to be sure. This stimulated others to exert themselves and shortly afterwards the Thackeringa, Silverton and Apollyon Valley Silver mines became accomplished undertakings round which the town of Silverton arose. In passing it may not be out of place to mention that at one time - in 1884 - Purnamoota township was considered to have such possibilities as to warrant the installation of an electric power station and tram services. Alas by 1890 Purnamoota as a town was no more."

"With all the prospecting activities in the district in the early 1880s, it was not suprising that sooner or later somebody would become interested in the Broken Hill surface indications of some form of mineralisation. Such proved to be Charles Rasp, the boundary rider, from Mt. Gipps station who had invested, as so many others have done since, in the current "Prospectors Guide" of his day. Many of us recall the great interest shown in Uranium prospecting a few years ago and the interest shown in Gieger Counters, Ultraviolet Lamps etc. "Hope ever blooms in the hearts of all mining folk". Rasp first became interested in what he imagined to be a "Mountain of Tin". In the light of present day knowledge it is very much more than probable that his "Tin Ore" was the mineral now known as Coronardite - a complex lead Manganese mineral. In Rasp's day, Silver was the sought for metal, but coronardite is barren of silver hence the lack of interest shown in it. It does, however, contain in its clear condition, up to 28% lead. This mineral is readily found in the overburden dumps on the old B.H.P. leases and quite a few other places between the South Mine outcrop near No. 4 Change House and the outcrop near Thompsons Shaft. It is listed in Dana's Mineralogy as a "rare" mineral, but I would hesitate to say how many hundreds- or oven thousands - of tons were discarded in early day mining operations. Eventually after months of work, Rasp found evidence of Silver and the famous "Syndicate of Seven" came into being, and pegged what later became known as Blocks 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. Due to an error in the early pegging of these leases and the leases of 5, 6, 7 and 8 - by the Maiden group from Menindee - a wedge shaped block was left un-pegged. One T.H. Nutt noted this and promptly rectified the matter to his advantage. This block ultimately became known as the Central Mine."