Gold mining town Walhalla, Victoria.

Walhalla, a small town in Victoria,  Australia, was  founded as a gold-mining community in early 1863.  The town's name is taken from Valhalla from the Vikings.
The first gold was found in Victoria in 1851, which lead to the Victorian gold rush.

A group of prospectors who had been exploring in creeks flowing into the Thomson River valley found gold sometime during late December 1862 or early January 1863. A claim was pegged out and a member of this group, former convict Edward Randel, registered the claim at the outpost town on Bald Hills on 12 January under his assumed name, Edward "Ned" Stringer. Although he was presented with a monetary reward of £100 for his discovery, Stringer was unable to capitalise on his finds, dying in September 1863. Although the settlement was soon rechristened Walhalla after an early mine, the creek running through town still bears his name.

The rush that inevitably followed news of this find was slowed to some extent by the goldfield's remote and inaccessible location, but many miners soon found their way there. In February 1863, John Hinchcliffe discovered an immensely rich quartz reef in the hill just above the creek, which he named Cohen's Reef, after a storekeeper at Bald Hills. Cohen’s Reef - yielded over 50 tonnes of gold, making Walhalla one of Victoria’s richest and most vibrant towns, and home to thousands: with hotels, shops, breweries, churches, school, jail and its own newspaper.

The picture above is of the Long Tunnel Extended Gold Mine (LTEM) which was one of the richest mines of Walhalla.  This mine was the second most productive mine in the area (after the Long Tunnel) and in total produced 13,695 kg of gold until it closed in 1911.

Wordless Wednesday; Captain Moonlite

Find out about this bushranger and his real name.

 

Owen Hargrave Suffolk "The Convict Poet"

Owen Hargrave Suffolk was born April, 4th 1829 in Middlesex, England. His father was William Johnson Suffolk and his mother was Ann.  He was born into a middle class family and was both well spoken and literate. In the 1841 England census an older child was in the same house as Owen named William.

Owen Hargrave Suffolk was transported to Victoria, Australia in 1847, on the Joseph Somes, for petty crime in the County of Middlesex:
7 years for Forgery of an Order of the payment of money with intent to defraud   Robert Wilson; also for unlawfully obtaining 2 sovereigns, 1 half-sovereign, 1 crown, 1 half-crown, 2 shillings, and 1 sixpence, and other monies, of   Robert Wilson, by false pretences*

He wrote many poems including those about prison and bushranging e.g. For Frank Gardiner, (below) and was dubbed 'The Convict Poet'.

Suffolk spent more than sixteen years in colonial goals. He was incarcerated in both England and Australia for a total of 5 terms but this never seemed to deter him from leading a life of crime. When he finally returned to London he continued in his life of crime - he became a bigamist, faked his own death and escaped to America with a widow's money. In March, 1867, he married a widow, Mary Elizabeth Phelps. In 1880 he married Eliza Shreves.

"For Frank Gardiner.

It is not in a prison drear
Where all around is gloom,
That I would end life's wild career,
And sink into the tomb,
For though my spirit's ever bold
Each tyrant to defy;
Still, still, within a dungeon cold,
I could not calmly die.

It is not that my cheek would pale
Within a lonely cell;
It is not that my heart would quail
To bid this world farewell.
For if oppressed by tyrant foe
I'd freely be the first
To give my life, and strike the blow
To lay him in the dust.

But place me in a forest glen
Unfettered, wild and free,
Wtih fifty tried and chosen men
A bandit chief to be.
'Tis there, when fighting with my foes
Amid my trusty band,
I'd freely leave this world of woes,
And die with sword in hand. "

He started writing  his autobiography in 1858, describing his life as bushranger, horse thief, prisoner and con man, called Days of Crime and Years of Suffering, published in 1867.

RESOURCES:
1841 England Census about Owen Suffolk
England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892
England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 about Owen Hargrave Suffolk
Convict Records of Australia
* The proceedings of The Old Bailey from 1674 to 1913