Rocky River is a locality in northern

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

,near

Uralla Uralla is a town on the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. It is located at the intersection of the New England Highway and Thunderbolts Way, north of Sydney and about south-west of the city of Armidale. At the , the township of ...

on the

Northern Tablelands The Northern Tablelands, also known as the New England Tableland, is a plateau and a region of the Great Dividing Range in northern New South Wales, Australia. It includes the New England Range, the narrow highlands area of the New England regio ...

plateau. About three kilometres west of Uralla, was the

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

mining area and associated village also called Rocky River. In 1851 W.F. Buchanan and J. Lucas reported to the Maitland office that gold had been found at Rocky River. This announcement was made official on 7 October 1851, by Commissioner Massie, and started a rush to the area. In 1852 the first licences to prospect were taken out. In October 1852, the Windeyer Brothers discovered the first payable gold on the field washing about five ounces of gold in less than a week. This caused further interest and by the end of 1852, the goldfield's population rose to around 150 persons. At this time it was all alluvial mining, confined to the rivers and creeks. Panning and cradling were the usual methods of extracting the gold from the wash dirt.Donald, J.Kay, Exploring the North Coast and New England, Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, 1987. The census carried out between 3 and 5 June 1854 reported that there were 86 tents on the field and a population of 350, comprising 193 males, 58 females and 99 children. Until 1856 Rocky River gold field was small and unimportant to the remainder of the country. In February 1856 John Jones discovered a few specks of gold lying in cartwheel tracks on what is now known as Mt Jones. Jones's discovery then led to the sinking of deep-lead shafts in the vicinity and another rush into the area. Around 1856 Rocky River was a thriving goldfield town with an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 miners and their families. Rocky River, at its peak supported 20 hotels, numerous boarding houses, stores, churches and schools. Among the miners were many Chinese, some of whom had made the long trek from

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...

and Victorian goldfields. Many of the Chinese miners worked over the original alluvial field at Maitland Point, south of

Thunderbolts Way Thunderbolts Way (and at its northern end as Bundarra Road) is a country road located in the Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia, linking Inverell via Bundarra, Uralla and Walcha to Gloucester The road is sealed and ...

, near Rocky River bridge. Some of these miners later bought land around the

and settled there as farmers. After the rush, permanent allotments were taken up and in 1861. Today only the Public School on Thunderbolts Way and a few houses remain. In the 2006 Census (held on 8 August 2006), there were 479 persons usually resident in the Rocky River area.

References

{{coord, 30, 37, S, 151, 30, E, display=title, region:AU_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Mining towns in New South Wales Gold mines in New South Wales Towns in New England (New South Wales)

See also

References