Barkly-Navarre rush diggings 1861-2

The Barkly Navarre rush

Newspaper articles reporting on the rush about the time Richard Daintree photographed the diggings:

Age (Melbourne, Vic.), Saturday 21 December 1861, page 5

The rush at Barkly, near Navarre, appears to be progressing in the most satisfactory manner, and indeed it seems likely to be one of the most important that has taken place for some time. Tho following respecting it is from the correspondent of the Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser of Wednesday last : 
" Another claim was bottomed yesterday half a mile ahead of any others on the deep lead ; the same day, three others intervening ; and all with good propects. In the opinion of the miners, no lead of such extent, or so remunerative, has been opened sine lnglewood. Some hundred claims are now worked, covering more than a mile in length of payable ground. Immense paddocks of washdirt are accumulating round the shafts. Notwithstanding the wide field here opened for employment, little or no accession to the population has been made. Our golden produce is steadily increasing. Much more would be forwarded, but every puddling machine is engaged ; many parties are compelled to wait until after Christmas, the old tub and cradle system being too tedious and expensive where there is so much washdirt."

Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), Wednesday 8 January 1862, page 6

MINING SURVEYORS' REPORTS.
We have received a copy of the reports of the Government district mining surveyors for the month of November last, and published at the commencement of the new year by Mr. R. Brough Smyth, secretary for mines. The following are a few summarised extracts :—
...
AVOCA DIVISION. — ( Wm. Byrne, surveyor.) — Mining population — Alluvial, 3,100 Europeans, 758 Chinese, quartz, 900 Europeans. Steam-engines, 5, of 80- horse power. Distinct auriferous quartz reefs, 17. The decrease in population has been very slight here, and is owing to a rush to Navarre. Except a rush to a mile east of Redbank there is little change. At the rush in question, the sinking is seventy feet, and the yield of the washdirt about two ounces to the load. There has been a great improvement in quartz mining, which is becoming more remunerative.

Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser, Friday 10 January 1862, page 2

At Barkly (Navarre) things were looking well, the workings covering fully three miles of ground; the stone at the Monte Christo Reef was yielding 2 oz. to the ton. Still the people were leaving the place for New Zealand.

Age, Saturday 25 January 1862, page 6

GOLD AND OUR GOLDFIELDS.
The Deep lead at Barkly, Navarre, has progressed very satisfactorily during the month, though during the past week some of the shafts sunk there have turned out badly. The lead, however, is now being worked for an extent of upwards of three miles, and a large number of miners are reported to be doing exceedingly well upon it. The shallow sinkings here are nearly worked out, and those still at work upon them are for the most part employed in fossicking. Some of the reefs in this district are yielding good stone; that recently crushed from the Monte Christo has been giving two ounces and a-half to the ton, and the stone from the Slaughteryard is also improving. The gold from this reef has recently been assayed in town, and has been found to be of a very fine quality.

Maryborough and Dunolly Advertiser, Friday 31 January 1862, page 2

BARKLY At Barkly the deep lead keeps up its character for richness and longevity ; the quantity of washdirt procured from some claims there is most astonishing. Were the Government to form a reservoir it would be of no little service. Were a rate of 3d per load imposed upon stuff washed there as a private speculation it would prove remunerative. Talking about rates, members for the new road board (Avoca) are soon to be appointed. This will come rather hard on people in a small way of business on the Barkly rush, trade being anything but prosperous To account for this state of affairs I may simply state that for the last three months as soon as a claim was worked out the owners made swift tracks for New Zealand, draining the place of ready money. This has caused a great deal of injury to trade, many storekeepers having been brought to a state of collapse. Things are, however, at length becoming more settled, and the prospects of the place for the winter season are decidedly good. Only the other day a rush took place between the Malakhoff and Moonambel, about four miles from the deep lead, Barkly; payable gold has been struck already in three claims, in twenty-four feet sinking. Not much can yet be said upon the merits of the place; it certainly possesses that rather vague quality of looking likely. A few days will, however, tell a tale. As soon as prospecting parties can he induced to try their luck there can be no question that many rich finds will be unearthed in this quarter. This I am satisfied of, that, in the present dearth of new gold fields,no place holds forth better promise to the mining population than the Navarre district; with scarcely any exception anyone can make a living. Many claims have been abandoned on the old lead, that are continually taken and retaken up. When it is considered that the lead it now at least four miles long, varying in width from one claim to twenty, and that at no time there has been resident more than 4,000 or 5,000 actual miners, some of the claims taking six months to work out, the matter is at once explained.

Richard Daintree

Richard Daintree (1832-1878) was a geologist and photographer. He was born in Huntingdonshire, England, the son of a farmer. He matriculated at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1851, but left after a year because of ill health. In 1852 he joined the gold rush to Victoria but was not successful at prospecting.

From 1854 to 1856 he worked as an assistant geologist in the Victorian Geological Survey. He returned to England to study assaying and metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines Laboratory. While there he became interested in photography. He returned to Melbourne in 1857 and he rejoined the Geological Survey as a field surveyor in January 1859. He pioneered the use of photography in field work. In 1864 he moved to Queensland.

He died of tuberculosis in England aged 45. The Daintree River in Far North Queensland was named for him in 1873, and the adjacent national park, declared in 1981, also carries his name.

See also:

• G. C. Bolton, ‘Daintree, Richard (1832–1878)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/daintree-richard-3350/text5043, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 6 January 2026.