[GOLD RUSH] Minutes of evidence. Thursday, 3rd November, 1853. (Select Committee’s cross-examination of Louis John Michel and other witnesses over Michel’s claim for a government reward for his discov

A$200 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Melbourne : John Ferres, Government Printer, 1853. Foolscap folio, string bound, 22 pp; fine and complete, as issued. From the ADB: Louis John Michel (1825-1904), gold discoverer, was born on 5 July 1825 at Walworth, Surrey, England, son of Louis Michel and his wife Elizabeth, née Watts; his parents were of French origin and came to England in the seventeenth century. He migrated in 1840 to Melbourne with his uncle. He worked as an assistant in a Collins Street grocery, saved diligently and after a few years bought the licence of the Rainbow Hotel in Swanston Street. In 1849 a youth named Chapman showed the proprietor of the Waterman s Arms Hotel in Melbourne a nugget of gold measuring 2 in. (51 mm) by 3 in. (76 mm). Michel was one of many who went to see the find and though nothing came of the incident it served to whet his interest in finding gold. In April 1851 when the news of the discovery of gold at Summerhill Creek in New South Wales created excitement in Melbourne, Michel formed a party with William Habberlin, James Furnival, James Melville, James Headin and Benjamin Greenig to search for gold in the Upper Yarra districts and Plenty Ranges. For some weeks they had no success but on 30 June found likely quartz on the banks of either Deep Creek or Anderson Creek near Warrandyte. The party returned to Melbourne and Michel showed the quartz to Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe. Michel s party disbanded. He soon proposed to Habberlin that the search should continue and

• Binding: Hardcover

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