Tag: Gold Rush

The Sacred Nugget

Author’s Note: The information for this interesting piece of WA’s history comes from two newspaper articles, both of which are available on Trove.1 2

In the late 1890s, the town of Kanowna was a place where “gold fever” was not just a metaphor—it was a way of life. With a population surging toward 12,500, the air was thick with the dust of thousands of miners seeking their fortunes in the “deep leads” of the Western Australian scrub. But in July 1898, this fever reached a delusional breaking point in an event that would become one of the most legendary pranks in Australian history: the hoax of the Sacred Nugget.

The Rumour of the Sickle

The mystery began when reports circulated through the Eastern Goldfields of a monster lump of alluvial gold. Unlike the usual “slugs,” this one was described as being shaped like a sickle and valued at a staggering £6,500 ($A9.9million at today’s gold value).

Secrecy surrounded the find. The discoverers remained anonymous, and the nugget was supposedly hidden away, sight-unseen by the public. However, one man claimed to have seen it: a young, naive priest named Father Long. Because of his involvement, the treasure earned the nickname the “Sacred Nugget”.

7,000 Men and a Hotel Balcony

By August 1898, the mining community’s frustration with the secrecy had reached a boiling point. To quell the unrest, it was promised that the exact location of the find would be revealed publicly.

On Thursday, August 11, at 2:00 p.m., Kanowna stood still. An estimated 7,000 eager men—including a special contingent of 2,000 who had rushed over from Kalgoorlie—massed in front of Donnellan’s Hotel. A strong body of police was required to hold back the mob as a pale, nervous Father Long stepped onto the upstairs balcony.

After making the crowd promise to ask no further questions, he delivered the “pay-line” they had been waiting for:

“The nugget was found a quarter of a mile this side of the nearest lake on the Kurnalpi Road…”.

The Great Stampede

The announcement triggered a scene of absolute chaos. Before the priest could even finish speaking, the crowd erupted. Thousands of men on horses and push-bikes charged toward the Kurnalpi road, trampling one another in a desperate race to peg out claims. Within hours, hundreds of acres were pegged, and men began digging furiously.

Days passed into weeks. No gold was found. The “Sacred Nugget” was nowhere to be seen, and even the Union Bank in Coolgardie—where the gold was allegedly lodged—denied knowing anything about it. The “gold fever” began to turn into a cold realization: they had been had.

The Confession: Scrap Iron and Gold Paint

The truth, revealed long after Father Long’s untimely death from typhoid at age 27, was far more mundane than a hidden treasure. The hoax was the brainchild of two local pranksters, referred to in historical accounts as “Smith” and “Jones”.

The duo had found a heavy, semi-circular lump of scrap iron in a hotel backyard. Seeking a bit of “tomfoolery” to wake up the town, they bought a tin of gold paint from a local store, coated the iron, and shoved it into a bag.

The prank took an unexpected turn when they literally bumped into Father Long while carrying the “find”. When the priest excitedly asked if they had gold in the bag, the men realized that involving a man of the cloth would make the gag “funnier than ever”. They played their parts as “highly skilled actors,” and the naive priest, who knew nothing of the hungers gold bred in men, fell for the ruse completely.

A Lasting Legend

Though the “Sacred Nugget” never existed, its legacy endured. While some grumbled that publicans had tricked the priest to bring trade to Kanowna, most felt a strange lack of resentment toward Father Long, believing he had been a sincere victim of a clever trick. Today, while the town of Kanowna is a ghost of its former self, the story remains a cautionary tale of how easily a few pennies’ worth of paint can lead 7,000 men into the desert

Sources

  1. OUR STRANGE PAST (1953, November 19). Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 – 1954), p. 10. Retrieved December 31, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39358444 ↩︎
  2. Some facts about HISTORIC NUGGETS (1950, September 14). Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 – 1954), p. 36 (COUNTRYMAN’S MAGAZINE). Retrieved December 31, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39104972 ↩︎

The first rush

In 1872, the government offered a reward of £5,000 for the discovery of the first payable goldfield in the colony of Western Australia1.

In 1879, Alexander Forrest explored the Fitzroy and Ord River areas, and reported excellent grazing land and that gold might be found in the East Kimberleys. John Adams and Phil Saunders managed for find a little gold, but insufficient to be payable. In 1883, a second Forrest expedition included a geologist, Edward Hardman, who showed likely gold deposits on his map of the area.2

On 14 July 1885, Charles Hall and Jack Slattery, following the leads provided by Hardman, found payable gold at Halls Creek in the Kimberley region. After working for a few weeks, Hall returned to Derby to report his find, and took 200 ounces of gold with him as evidence. The ensuing “Kimberley Rush” encouraged as many as 10,000 men to head to Halls Creek. The field was officially declared on 19 May 18863.

Photograph reproduced from Halls Creek Tourism https://hallscreektourism.com.au

Thousands of men made their way to the Kimberley from other parts of WA, the eastern colonies, and New Zealand. Most arrived by ship in Derby or Wyndham, and then walked to Halls Creek. Others came overland from the Northern Territory. Most had no previous experience in gold prospecting or of life in the bush. Illness and disease were rife, and when the first warden, C. D. Price, arrived on 3 September 1886, he found that “great numbers were stricken down, in a dying condition, helpless, destitute of money, food, or covering, and without mates or friends simply lying down to die”. A few were lucky enough to locate rich alluvial or reef gold, but most had little or no success.

Dr Phillip Playford4

In the early days of the gold rush no records or statistics were recorded for either the arrivals or deaths. Also, no one knows how many died trying to get to Halls Creek across the waterless desert, or how many simply turned back. When men actually arrived at Halls Creek, dysentery, scurvy, sunstroke and thirst continued to take its toll. The Government applied a gold tax of two shillings and sixpence an ounce. It was a very unpopular levy as gold proved so hard to get. The diggers avoided registering and the Government had a great deal of trouble collecting the tax or statistics of any kind. Halls Creek was a shanty town of wood, stone, canvas, tin, bark and spinifex. But it boasted two hotels, a post office and a gold warden.

When Price arrived in September 1886, he reported that about 2,000 remained at the diggings. By the end of 1886, the rush had ceased. When in May 1888 the government considered claims for the reward for discovery of the first payable goldfield, it was decided that the Kimberley goldfield, which had proven disappointing, was insufficient to meet the stipulated conditions of a yield of at least 10,000 ounces (280 kg) of gold in a 2-year period passing through Customs or shipped to England, so no reward was paid out5. A gift of £500 was given to Charles Hall and his party, along with a bequest of the same amount to Hardman’s widow.

The rush lasted only a few years as it was not financially viable to transport the machinery to this remote region. With the discovery of gold in Coolgardie, most prospectors moved on. In 1955, the town site of Halls Creek was relocated 15Kms west.

SOURCES & NOTES
  1. Playford, Phillip & Ruddock, Ian (1985). Discovery of the Kimberley Goldfield. ↩︎
  2. Halls Creek Tourism, nd. Halls Creek History. Retrieved 28 Apr 2024 from https://www.hallscreektourism.com.au/information/halls-creek-history ↩︎
  3. The Western Argus, 1931. Our First Gold Rush : Kimberley, 1886. Published 19 May 1931. Retrieved 28 Apr 2024 from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article34582034 ↩︎
  4. Playford, Phillip. 2005. The Discovery of The East Kimberley Goldfield. Retrieved 25 Apr 2024 from https://kimberleysociety.org/oldfiles/2005/THE%20DISCOVERY%20OF%20THE%20EAST%20KIMBERLEY%20GOLDFIELD%201885%20Mar%2005.pdf ↩︎
  5. A lot of gold went out of the Kimberley via the Northern territory and it was rumoured that a gold buyer was to have taken 3,000 ounces of gold at a time out of Halls Creek. It is estimated that as much as 23,000 ounces (nearly 650 kg) of gold was taken from the fields around Halls Creek, some unofficial estimates were as 100,000 ounces. ↩︎