In 1949 David Butterick bought a block of land neighboring his own from the Bank of Australiasia. My grandfather had farmed all his life around the Wedderburn district and now was looking forward to retirement.  My grandmother Susan Butterick and Dave had been married for over forty years and had seven daughters, now all married and with children of their own. Susan and Dave had both lived all their lives in or around Wedderburn. In 1919 they moved to Wilson Street where they had lived ever since. The block had a large shed on it, and Grandpa thought he could use it for extra storage and also do some prospecting on the land. He worked the land finding a few "Specks"; then he called on his son-in-laws for assistance. Together they worked, finding a total of 85 fine ozs.  Although this was promising it was certainly no fortune. "I reckon there's gold there Pop", my father Rex Chapman said.  As a small boy he had prospected with his father and had been taught about what signs to look for.He suggested to Dave that he and George Webster another son-in-law would continue on and look for and indicator In 1893 a Mr. T. Cerchi had discovered a gold bearing reef in the vicinity and as the block had not previously been worked it was hopeful that they would find their "Eldorado"..

The feature most characteristic of this belt of country is the presence of "indicators" which are thin beds causing the gold in the reefs to be concentrated at their intersection with the indicators.  In indicator country the gold occurrences are very patchy but are characterized by the presence of nuggets in the placer deposits and of rich patches in otherwise nearly barren lodes. Each weekend the men would travel to Wedderburn to work the block, sometimes accompanied by Jack Cole and Bill Matthews two more son-in-laws. Then one morning in the early months of 1950 came the sight that they had been looking for

Above Geo. and Rex looking for an indicator while, family members look on

A broard grin broke across my dads' face as he climbed up the ladder of the shaft and walked toward the house."Well Pop we did it, we just struck gold, and I reckon there's plenty more".

Gold had been found in and around Wedderburn for as long as could be remembered. In 1851 the finding of the first gold in Australia was made.  Edward Hargraves and John Lister found gold near Bathhurst in New South Wales.  The government of the times fearing that the population would leave Victoria, offered a reward of 200 pounds for the first finder of payable gold within 200 miles of Melbourne.  James Esmond announced one month later that he had found gold at Clunes, Ballarat and Castlemaine also had finds almost simultaneously.  And then Bendigo topped the lot. Every able-bodied man took off for the gold fields, leaving Melbourne almost deserted.

The goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo were just a part of the geological plan and were in a large triangular shape that covered most of central Victoria.  The quartzy earth was the ideal stratum for gold, but wheat was also grown in abundance.

The only way to sink a shaft in those days was to use a pick and shovel, and it was backbreaking work.  As the shaft got deeper a hand operated winch was set up over the hole and a bucket was lowered down, filled with soil and wound up.  It would than be taken to a "cradle" where the soil was poured into a wooden body and rocked back and forth while water passed over it.  The cradle had two mesh layers and as the cradle rocked back and forth, the smaller stuff would fall through while the larger stones and rubble at the top would be thrown away. Gold is very heavy and it will sink to the lowest level.  This was not as easy as it seemed as the lower level was still filled with dirt. The dirt was then taken and washed by hand in a panning dish.  Finally if you were lucky there would be a few specks in the bottom.  Now to the uninitiated this would seem like a lot of hard work for very little return, but for a prospector it is the very thing he wants.  Even a small speck will encourage him to continue on.  In my dad's case it seemed like a sure sign of things to come.

Above and Below Rex Chapman at the Winch and Cradle

Above Dave Butterick panning for gold