Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	30° 23' 7'' South , 121° 6' 12'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-30.38554,121.10356
GeoHash:	G#: qdw55u2zm
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BSh : Hot semi-arid (steppe) climate

T.J. Cashman had worked in Charters Towers Northern Queensland on gold mines, before arriving at Coolgardie on news of the gold rush there. Finding the alluvial in 1893 largely worked out by the hundreds of men who had arrived before him, he wandered the countryside looking for gold. He explored the Norseman region before heading north past Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie to Lake Barlee, some 200 kilometres to the north-west. Returning via Ularring, he discovered gold in an outcrop, about 3 kilometres east of the present day Ora Banda.

The original prospecting party was Cashman, C. Johnson, See and Pope. The discovery was made in August 1893. They found 50 ounces of gold within a few hours, and dollied 500 ounces the next day. Cashman almost immediately sold out to the other three in the prospecting party. They all left for a holiday to Sydney and Melbourne, paid for by the gold won. The remaining three returned 6 months later and obtained 1000 ounces of dollied gold within a few weeks. They sank a shaft to 25 feet on the reef showing 'splendid' gold. Meanwhile there had been an alluvial rush to the site, with many men obtaining nuggets up to 2.5 ounces. It was the original find of gold at Ora Banda, and except for Bayley's at Coolgardie, had produced the most gold in the region to that point, with very little work.

If this was North America, there would be an interpretive museum at the site, staff dressed in period costumes, and possibly a gold related theme park next door. But this is Australia, and the site is a collection of shafts, hidden in the scrub and forgotten about. It is approximately 3 kilometres east of Ora Banda, 500 metres north of the Broad Arrow-Ora Banda Road, and north north-west of the Lady Evelyn mine which borders the road on the south. There are many shafts from several old mines in the area.

Later in 1894, a company was floated in Adelaide. Other sources though state it was an English company. Either way the company and lease was named Cashman's Brilliant Reward, and the line of historic mines stretching several kilometres to the north-west was known after as the Cashman's Line. The reward lease was acquired with another 6 acres neighbouring lease.

Gold was found in iron stained honeycombed quartz, the reef 4 feet thick. The shaft was extended to a depth of 60 feet. Another lode was discovered 30 feet to the west showing fine and coarse gold, and further west another lode showing gold freely it was claimed.

The company was quick to conclude the lease was valueless, despite a panel of experts visiting, and finding 'fair' specimens in the reef. It appears the company abandoned the lease soon after.

Nothing was found until 1911, when Jack Legg, Shepherd, Thomas Walls, and Jack Corrigan are at the mine, having acquired it from the original prospectors for 3000 pounds. It is now called the Denver City, and the party are also working the nearby Golden Mount mine. The party of miners got back their original purchase price for the Denver City, with gold won from their first crushing. It is said they located a rich shoot on the eastern boundary of the lease, which crushed up to 22 oz to the tonne, but the shoot was lost.

All falls quiet again until 1922, when Dudgeon and Maher are noted at the mine, backed by a local syndicate. The main shaft is down to 150 feet. No more was found of their activities.

Next activity found was 1930, when Walls' two sons take up the mine. P.A. 1959W. Some small crushings were produced by the brothers in 1932 and 1933.

The Mindat co-ordinates are approximate.

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

2 valid minerals.

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Neoarchean - Mesoarchean 2500 - 3200 Ma ID: 3187503

Archean intrusive rocks Age: Archean (2500 - 3200 Ma) Comments: Yilgarn Craton Lithology: Intrusive igneous rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Archean 2500 - 4000 Ma ID: 734098

mafic intrusive rocks 74263 Age: Archean (2500 - 4000 Ma) Description: Mafic intrusive rocks, medium to coarse-grained; layered mafic to ultramafic intrusions - dolerite, gabbro, olivine gabbro, peridotite, pyroxenite, leucogabbro, quartz dolerite, quartz gabbro, gabbronorite Comments: igneous mafic intrusive; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Igneous mafic intrusive Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References