James Esmond

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[edit] The James Esmond, William Cambell and Dr. Hermann Bruhn Gold Discovery

Several dates are associated with James Esmond’s gold discovery. News of the find was published in the Geelong Advertiser on July 7 1851 according to Clunes Information and Brief History(aside from this, on July 9 1851, the Melbourne Daily News reported a different discovery at Warrandyte - nowadays a suburb of Melbourne). As well, the Sir John Quick Lecture: 150 years of Gold indicates that Esmond’s discovery was published in Melbourne newspapers on July 16 1851 - the same day the City of Warrandyte claimed the first discovery of gold in Victoria at Anderson’s Creek by Louis John Michel and party. Two days later, on July 18, Dr. Hermann Bruhn wrote to Victoria's Governor La Trobe, reporting his discoveries, and perhaps commenting on deficiencies in Esmond’s account of the gold find. The Gold Rewards Committee awarded Dr. Bruhn five hundred pounds; also rewarding Esmond and another (William Campbell) since the committee felt that all three had legitimate claims to the reward.

In fact, prior to 1851, pastoralists and squatters were aware of gold deposits in the Clunes area, though choosing not to disclose such information - for several reasons one might imagine. Chapman took a gold sample from that area to a jeweler in Melbourne during 1849, and William Campbell found gold at a Donald Cameron’s sheep station, Clunes in 1850. Cameron, and presumably Campbell as well, decided secrecy was in order: nevertheless rumors of the area’s gold-bearing quartz reefs began to spread.

Dr Hermann Bruhn claimed that in January 1851, while travelling through bush during his mineral resources exploration, shepherds had told him of a gold-bearing quartz vein on Cameron's sheep station. On meeting with Esmond he told of the Clunes gold and both proceeded to Cameron station, there finding gold on June 28 1851.

An article “The Victorian Gold Discovery Committee” elucidates further, reaching the conclusion It seems that while William Campbell made the first Victorian gold discovery at Clunes, Esmond was the first to work the claim. In another article “Stall Historical Society: 150 Years of Gold Mining in Victoria”one reads that It is difficult to say with certainty who found the first gold in Victoria. James Esmond, a young Irish prospector, found gold at Clunes in June 1851. At almost the same time gold was discovered at Anderson's Creek, Warrandyte, and shortly after at Buninyong by the local blacksmith, Thomas Hiscock. The news of Esmond's discovery was reported in The Geelong Advertiser sparking the Victorian Gold Rush and ending the alarming exodus of Victorian men to NSW.