Other mines also brought good prices. What with discoveries of alluvial gold, and the output from the quartz reefs, the returns for 1887 were good, and yet, because of the wholesale evasion of export duty, the figures do not show nearly the amount obtained. The Blue Book gives the export as 4,873 ounces, valued at £18,517 8s.
Development work on the reefs was carried out with moderate expedition in 1888. At the same time a few prospectors were getting payable gold in the alluvial. Machinery was introduced for several of the mines, and the crushings were, in some cases exceedingly promising. The returns announced in August were generally good. The Jackson Company crushed all its stone at grass for 78 ozs. of gold; eight tons from the Blackmount claim yielded 3 ozs. 8 dwts. per ton; five from the Perseverance, 12 dwts. per ton; seven from the Lady Margaret, 11ozs. per ton; five from the Southern Cross. 13 dwts. per ton; and twenty-four tons from the Golden Crown yielded 1 oz. 12 dwts. per ton. The general interest in the Kimberley fields had by this time abated, and the history of the remote goldfield has since then been uneventful. Discoveries in other places have transcended its glories; and though very good mines exist there, they have not obtained the capital and the enterprise sufficient for extensive development work. A select few mines have been worked, and with capital the district may yet substantially contribute to the colony's annual gold returns.
But the Kimberley fields served an excellent purpose; they proved that Western Australia had prospects of becoming a gold producing country, and they attracted the men who were best fitted by experience and courage to explore the waterless deserts in search of the metal. People all over Australia began to think that the colony was not singular in the group in containing no gold. Many prominent people here and there were willing to assist in equipping prospecting parties. The territory was so extensive, and so slightly known, that none could tell what wealth might lay hidden. In March, 1887, Mr. Chas. Glass, of Mugakine, when digging a tank on his property, about 100 miles east of Newcastle, encountered a metallic substance which he sent to the Rev. C.G. Nicolay, of Fremantle, who pronounced it to be gold. It had for a long time been thought that a goldfield would be discovered in the country east of Newcastle and Northam. Proposals were made in Perth to equip a party to prospect in the neighbourhood of Mr. Glass' tank. In July Mr. G. Shenton moved in the Legislative Council that a sum not exceeding £300 be placed upon the estimates to defray the expenses of such a party. Mr. Harper said that years before he had collected specimens of auriferous stone from this very district. He forwarded the specimens to England, and was told that valuable metals should be found in the district from which they came. The motion was agreed to.
Several parties went out to the east during the next few months. In November news was received that gold-bearing quartz had been found at Lake Deborah near the Yilgarn Hills, about 100 miles north-east of Newcastle; the Government reserved a large area for prospecting purposes in the interests of Messrs. Anstey and Leake. Mr. H. Anstey with a party was prospecting on behalf of a syndicate, and discovered this outcrop, but Paine, one of the party, broke the stone and first saw the gold. The men were elated and, to celebrate the discovery of gold in the eastern districts, shook hands all round and tossed up their hats. Anstey returned to Perth with the stone and secured a lease while his companions prospected on the reef and in the neighbourhood. They soon found four other reefs, one of which, showing gold, was very wide, and was traced for 1,200 yards.
A prospecting association at Northam, a few weeks earlier equipped a party, led by Mr. B.N. Colreavy, which went out beyond this country. During the first few weeks Colreavy saw numerous quartz outcrops, but could get no trace of gold. On 12th October he reported that the Mugakine Range had a very interesting mineralogical appearance, and he predicted that if reefs were found containing gold they would be rich, "on account of the undisturbed state of the country." However, he was not destined to make any momentous discovery. When returning to Northam he visited Anstey's reef at Lake Deborah, and was pleased with the appearance of the stone. Another party under Mr. Seabrook prospected near Lake Deborah, and found quartz in which gold was plainly visible. Mr. F. Von Bibra also obtained excellent specimens in January, 1888.
Mr. Colreavy set out on his own account after his first successful trip and prospected Golden Valley, ten miles south of Lake Deborah. He found a small reef which carried gold throughout. Mr. Parker went south of Golden Valley and discovered promising reefs in a locality which be named Parker's Range. Considerable interest was taken in these finds, and men of capital organised prospecting expeditions which scoured the surrounding country. In February, 1888, Mr. H.P. Woodward, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., the Government Geologist, and successor of Mr. Hardman, who died in 1886, issued a report concerning Anstey's and other reefs. The veins in the former had pinched out, and no gold was found in a shaft which had been sunk. Bibra's line of reef near by, which formed a series of hills or blows, had been abandoned, owing to disappointing returns from a crushing. Mr. Woodward observed two fairly defined reefs in Golden Valley, and he decided that Mr. Colreavy's claim was well worth opening up. Two claims named the Edith and Marion in the western part of the valley also deserved testing, and the Government Geologist concluded that as a whole, the Yilgarn country was very promising, and he thought that rich alluvial deposits would probably be found in Golden Valley and south of it. Mr. Emmett, an experienced miner, also reported for a syndicate on the district. He did not consider Anstey's reef would be permanent, but he found gold showing freely in every stone at Colreavy's reef at Golden Valley. When questioned he is said to have expressed the opinion that this claim was worth £200,000. Other claims were pegged out at Golden Valley, such as those of Messrs. Barrett and Saunders, and Mr. Crossland. At Wongan Hills, sixty miles N.N.E. of Newcastle, Mr. Paine, and Messrs. Glyde and party, obtained prospects which, in May, Mr. Woodward said, were worth following.
In order to assist prospectors the Government spent £1,000 in water conservation at Yilgarn in 1888. The goldfield was proclaimed on 1st October, and Mr. F.A. Thompson was appointed Acting Warden, and E.F.A. Crompton, Mining Registrar; in May, 1889, Mr. J.M. Finnerty succeeded Mr. Thompson. The country was considered so promising that companies were formed to work certain of the claims, and before the end of the year new reefs were discovered, and leases taken out south of Golden Valley, towards the present site of Southern Cross. It was not until 1889 that any permanent developments were made. In 1892 the Government awarded Mr. H. Anstey £500, and Messrs. Colreavy and Huggins £250 each for the discovery of the Yilgarn Goldfields. Still, another goldfield was discovered soon after the Kimberley excitement had subsided. In 1888, at Mallina, seventy miles east Roebourne, a lad named Withnall, in the act, it is said, of throwing a stone at a crow, observed a speck of gold. The neighbourhood was scanned, and two reefs—the Mullins, and Peeawah—were discovered.
