I'm at present compiling an index covering mining batteries, claims and companies. In doing so, it reminds me that so often we forget to look at the most obvious resources. I have been busy indexing books written in the late 1900s and failed to remember the wealth of information available in the Miner's guide by Edward Clarke. This is available online at Auckland University but I have a preference for reading a real book!! (Thanks to
Cadsonbury Publications, the reprint makes an excellent read )
Page 93 has a section on the machinery at the goldfields:
"The first Mill erected on the Thames Goldfield was called the Great Expectations. It commenced working about November 1867, and consisted of four wooden stampers, shod with plates of iron, the whole worked by a donkey engine. The machine is not now working, it having given place to larger and more efficient machinery."
