TODAY'S photo, which is from a private collection, shows the relic known as the "jaw crusher" and gold races at the Big Oakey Mine at Wattle Flat.
Wattle Flat boasted many mines sunk into the bowels of the earth in the early days.
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Gold was discovered at Wattle Flat in 1851, not long after the finds of payable gold at Ophir, near Bathurst.
As the news of a new find close to Sofala leaked out, flocks of prospective miners arrived.
While some alluvial gold was to be found on the local creeks, it was the search for the less accessible gold below the surface that would lead to the typical type of mine in this district for over a century.
The Wattle Flat gold fields are some 20 miles north of Bathurst and three miles south of Sofala on the Turon River and comprise an area of around 25 square miles.
Advertisements soon appeared in the Bathurst newspaper, such as: "P. Morgan - Is a Purchaser of GOLD to any amount at the highest market price by 'just weighs'."; "Good News for Diggers. Mr Austin Is prepared to give £3 5s per ounce for AUSTRALIAN GOLD, in any quantity. July 15th, 1851"; or "Bee Hive Store, BATHURST, J. SOLOMON and CO, are giving THREE POUNDS SIX SHILLINGS per ounce for GOLD, in any quantity. Notice the address. As they are giving the highest price in every case, Miners will do well to give them a call."
Many businesses at the time placed lines in their advertisements such as: "Gold weighed, purchased for cash, or gold taken in exchange for goods."
By January 1853, businesses had well and truly geared up to cater for prospectors' needs with Mr C.P. Dunsford of William Street in Bathurst advertising he was selling picks, shovels, buckets, gold pans, tents, stretchers, rope, bucket hooks, cradles, saddle bags, canvas and gold miner's weights and scales "to be sold cheap".
With the influx of men and boys looking for gold came the usual conflict over claims.
The Superintendent of Police for the Western District had his constables out in the field.
The Big Oakey Gold Mining Company Limited does not appear in the 1873 list of mines in the Wattle Flat area, however, share certificates for the company do exist and are dated 1889, though we know that it was working prior to 1889.
The Big Oakey Mine and The Queenslander (on Spring Creek Ranges) and their capital investment were to change the nature of mining at Wattle Flat.
Many local diggers became employees of these companies.
The Big Oakey Gold Mining Company Limited was registered in Sydney with share capital of £30,000.
The shares of £1 each were generally sold in lots of 10 or more, with the purchaser paying 17 shillings (17/-) each.
Joseph Page was the manager of the company in 1899.
The following report bears witness to life at the time: "After a large blow of quartz onlookers could see on the surface in the 1870s from which some rich specimens were located and displayed in the butcher's shop window. Wages men were the first employed when gold could frequently be seen "in the solid" as well as on the face of the stone or it was 'treated', often yielding over an ounce per ton. After the reef was located it was found that the gold ore-bearing reef varied from 10 inches to 6 feet in width. The area where this mine was established boasts at least twenty others."
A large battery crusher was later brought in and the company sank and later drove some 300 feet into the hill, striking a good reef by means of a rise, after which the mine was floated, and later worked on tribute until the McKenny brothers and Moyle got it.
The crusher was not terribly efficient, and some tailings were later cyanided to get the rest of the gold.
