Hill End, situated at the end of a dry and dusty road some 65 km north, north-west of Bathurst, NSW, is today a quaint tourist village with a heritage of gold that is second to none. In its heyday, it was home to thousands of goldminers miners and the focal point of one of Australia's most prosperous alluvial goldfields.

Gold was first found at Hill End in 1851. For 20 years the gold field produced well, with quartz reefs being uncovered from time to time and this led to a large scale boom in 1871-72. As the fame of this region spread worldwide many diggers came from overseas to find their fortunes, and many did. It was here that the head of the great coaching empire, Cobb & Co. had its headquarters and James Rutherford, the man in charge had a grand mansion from where he directed the operations. In distances travelled Cobb & Co. in Australia, out rivalled Wells Fargo of the USA.
At the peak of the rush there were 28 hotels in the town itself and over 70 in the surrounding area. Only one remains today. Because of the steady gold stream coming from Hill End the shops were many, and the town well established. There were blacksmiths, general stores, coachbuilders, chemists and millinery emporiums. Many grand churches were built but these are now mostly destroyed. Hill End was in fact a grand, vibrant, and wealthy town.
The greatest claim to fame of this historic town is the Holtermann Nugget, the greatest single piece of quartz, slate, mundic and gold ever mined anywhere in the world. It contained about 2,750 ounces of gold. This great piece of history was blasted out of the ground on 19th October 1872. The mine was owned by a company at the time, with the three previous principals, Beyers, Holtermann, and Kerr, having sold the major share of the Star of Hope mine, some months before. They did however retain a share. Holtermann was photographed with the nugget and for this he has become famous.
The surrounding gullies roads and steep slopes have a myriad of stories locked into historical fact. Monkey Hill, named as one almost had to be a monkey to climb it, is reputed to have it's own ghost. A man called Timothy Halpin was thrown from his horse and killed one night in 1872. He is supposed to wander the hill nightly in search of his horse.

The most famous golden area is Hawkins Hill, a grand monolith that gorged forth huge quantities of gold. It took the diggers seven long years to gain the wealth from Hawkins Hill, and this was not helped by Holtermann who wrote to the Sydney papers, suggesting that there was no gold there. His effigy was burnt in protest. Even today some prospectors still ply their trade here, eking a living from this once grand golden place.
Just how much gold was taken from Hill End is as usual, open to conjecture, but in one week alone over a ton of gold was escorted to Bathurst and on to Sydney. Hill End was a grand producer and provided a handsome income for many years, both for the alluvial privateers and the deeper reef mining companies.
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Text source: Gold Net Australia Online Magazine

Websites: History Hill | Hill End

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