Mount Magnet surfacing alluvial was obtained, and rich gold was found by the side of the small reefs. A ferruginous dyke yielded a great deal of gold by the puddling process, while rich stone was obtained from the claim upon which it was situated. The rich patches on this field were usually found at the intersections of the quartz reefs, which were sometimes of totally different classes. Here, also, numerous leases were taken out in 1892-3. Gold was discovered at Yalgoo, about 200 miles west-south-west of Lake Annean. The Murchison field, as a whole, was well watered. In most of the mines good water was struck. The chief reef developments in 1892 were made on the Nannine Company's property at Lake Annean; but the most extensive area tested was at Cue, where reefs at the Four Mile and Cuddinwarra, or Dead Finish, were carefully exploited. The Day Dawn was as yet the most promising mine on the Murchison. Fine gold was proved to exist to a depth of 80 feet and a length of about 130 feet. A Huntingdon mill was being erected at the end of the year. The Nannine Gold Mining Company and the Murchison Consolidated Company were erecting battery plants at Nannine. A company named the Star of the East had also been formed to work the claim situated some twenty miles east of Lake Annean, and another, the Monarch, to develop a reef at Mount Magnet. The Monarch Gold Mining Company was erecting an Otis crushing mill.
Whilst most of the miners were hunting in every nook and corner for alluvial in proclaimed districts, there were a few hardy prospectors who toiled over the desolate wildernesses of the east searching for new mineral areas. To experienced men it seemed that Yilgarn was only the fringe of a huge mineral belt. Like Raleigh with the Eldorado of South America, they wanted to pierce the forbidding country, and find the centre of the gold region. The ugly acacia and cypress thickets, the hot, wave-like, unfruitful plains, where weakly bush struggled for an existence, and the dry beds of salt lakes were cut north-east, east, and south-east. No one could follow them; few knew that they had gone out; most would never have been wiser had they succumbed while labouring over some waterless tract. These were the courageous men who forged the golden chain of the eastern goldfields; the descendants of the unknown men who in all history have been the couriers of civilisation, the begetters of industrial prosperity.
In 1891 Messrs. Speakman and Ryan discovered gold between Southern Cross and a place named Siberia, but as similar finds had been made in other parts of the Yilgarn fields no extensive rush was made. In 1891 David Lindsey, of the Eider Exploring Expedition, crossed over an area of what he termed mineral country between Fraser's Range and Southern Cross, and known as Dundas. Prospectors went thither, and in 1892 Mr. Moir, who had previously found gold about Dundas, organised, with Mr. Stennet, a prospecting party to more carefully scan the district. These men discovered indications, but soon abandoned the field. Several prospecting parties followed them, and searched on the Dundas Hills. Messrs. Mawson and Kirkpatrick hit upon a rich outcrop, which they named May Bell. Soon afterwards Messrs. Bromley, Mason, and Dejarlais found a second rich outcrop, which they named the Great Dundas; and next, Messrs. Brodie, Kirtley, and Devine discovered two promising reefs, which they called the Scotia. By July news arrived that alluvial had been found at the Dundas Hills, and four or five prospecting parties left Albany for the district. Good reefing specimens were obtained and several claims were pegged out, but before many weeks had passed a discovery further north rivalled this in value, and gave rise to that extraordinary excitement which attracted people from all parts of the world to Western Australia.
In 1891-2 several prospecting parties went east of Southern Cross towards the Hampton Plains, discovered by Hunt in 1864. Although their search was practically fruitless they did not abandon the hope that gold existed in some of the innumerable outcrops crossed. The great difficulty here, as elsewhere in the colony, was the dearth of water, and to sustain life the prospectors had to follow the example of the explorers, and trust to the natives and their own knowledge of the Australian bush. Among these men were Arthur Bayley and John Ford. The former was but twenty-seven years of age, and in the previous year or two had gained a wide experience of Western Australian mining. He was with the first diggers at Nannine, on the Murchison, where he was believed to have obtained over 1,000 ozs. of gold from one claim. He and Ford prospected around Mount Kenneth, about 250 miles north-east of Perth, in 1891, but their horses eat of the poison plant and died, and the two men walked back to Newcastle. They purchased a new outfit and proceeded to the locality, north of Yilgarn, where Speakman had found gold. In May or June, 1892, they entered Southern Cross, and obtained provisions enough to last for about two months. Then with two horses they began a long prospecting tour within a radius of 150 miles of Southern Cross. They kept close to Hunt's track towards the Hampton Plains, and here and there prospected likely places. The way led through stunted bush, from granite hill to granite hill, from quartz ridge to quartz ridge. They remained at the Gnarlbine Rock for two days, resting their horses beside fresh water. Starting out again they intended going in a north-easterly direction to examine country seen a few days previously, but presently, in July, they came to a native well, known to the natives as Coolgardie. Grass was abundant, and they allowed their horses to feed while they prospected in the vicinity of the well. Going out before breakfast they searched a flat, and Ford picked up a nugget of gold half-an-ounce in weight. They named the place Fly Flat. A short time afterwards they picked up a 7 oz. nugget, and in a few weeks they had obtained about 200 ozs. Their rations were now almost done, and they returned to Southern Cross to get a further supply. They did not report their discovery, but hastened back to Fly Flat. Finally, on a Sunday afternoon towards the end of August, they happened on a reef near a wooded ridge. Bayley broke the cap showing on the surface, and saw gold as thick as his fondest hope had anticipated. The two men eagerly tested the reef, and quickly obtained an astonishing amount of the precious metal. The quartz was studded with beautiful nuggets. Before night they had secured about 500 ozs. of gold, dollied out with a tomahawk. One slug weighed 51 ozs., and was three parts gold. The specimens were finer than anything yet discovered in Western Australia, and Bayley and Ford reckoned that the quartz would crush 1,000 ozs. to the ton, and that there were 2,000 ozs. of gold in sight. Another party—Messrs. Foster and Baker and a third man—arrived on the scene, and obtained from the reef over 50 ozs. in three days. According to Mr. Bayley, these men followed him from Southern Cross. While Ford, with loaded revolver, guarded the treasure-ground Bayley took the two horses and the gold and returned to Southern Cross, where he arrived on Saturday, the 17th September. He approached the little mining town by night, anxious with so much wealth to guard, and in the first gleams of morning
