Around
1879, Jacob Spier/Speers an eccentric German prospector, despite
being crippled with rheumatism and forced to walk with a stick and
suffering an internal complaint, discovered a rich alluvial gully of
gold near Mount Larcom which was called Jacob's Gully. He abandoned
the claim once other miners moved in.
On
discovering Mount Jacob, he secretly worked it for two years before
being followed to his find by Bob Knight.
To
extract the gold, Jacob roasted the ore in a wood fire, he extracted
the gold by rolling a large round boulder over a large concave
granite stone. The contraption is in the Brisbane Museum.
The
gold bearing reef (Garden Reef) was taken over by the Mount Jacob
Mining Company which gave Jacob an acre of land for a home close to
the reef.
After
the claim was abandoned, Messrs. McLachlan recovered about £600
worth of gold within 6 feet of ground. Mr. John Theodore and his
brother also worked a reef called the Standby, and found a lot of
gold.
In
1894, Old Jacob unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide with a
revolver but a cushion of air forced the bullet to flatten against
his forehead. He later successfully blew himself up while in bed.
About 50 oz. of gold was found in his camp after his death and it is
rumoured that there was more.
Jacob
claimed he had traced gold all the way up the Boyne River and the
further he went up, the richer the gold became but his fear of the
large number of Red-bellied black snakes stopped him.
We met up with Margaret and
John just past the Mount Morgan turnoff, and, just after we drove
off, I was pulled over by the police for the second time within a
week and more than
forty years of driving. This time it was by a very
apologetic officer who mistook our vehicle for another ute that had
just passed us.
We
stopped under a shady tree for morning tea at Flutter Creek, before
heading up to Bulburin National Park to set up camp in the Forestry
Camping Area. Us with our new $99, 4-person domed tent, and John and
Margaret in their camper trailer.
I
was keen to try out my recently built fireplace, and after using it
to help cook dinner, we kept the fire going to heat the mulled wine
and provide some warmth while we chatted.
The
next morning, John and I left early to return to Mount Jacob Mine
where I had led a through-walk years earlier with the bushwalkers.
Like every other time in this area, our paths crossed that of a
dreaded red-belly black snake (much like those which kept Jacob Spier
from his explorations).This time, with the aid of the map on John's
GPS, it took us less than 2 hours to find the abandoned combination
boiler and steam engine, stamper, stirrer, and settling tank which
are now hidden under fallen tree and vines. I removed some of the
fallen branches and vines before looking for the mines that were easy
to find near their mullock heaps. We found about 4 mine-shafts before
resting for lunch.
With
the day hotting up, it took about an hour and 45 minutes to walk back
down the Boyne River to the car. After having a wash, changing
clothes, lunch and a rest, in the cooler part of the day, I walked
down one of the bush tracks to meet up with John who had gone on an
exploration walk along the forestry roads.
That
night we cooked our steak dinner on the home-made fireplace, and
again used it to make mulled wine while spending an enjoyable night
sitting around chatting. There were a few ticks around, but none made
it onto anyone.
