Gold Rush Days

While on the topic of gold I will include a poem written by a local, about Gympie’s history, there is still some deep lead mining in our area but the gold boom has long since finished.
Like so many other areas in Australia there was certainly a lot of gold found in the hey-day of the gold strikes.

Gympie Golds

Half way down the Mary,
Nestled in it’s hilly folds,
There lies the town of Gympie.
Where Nash discovered gold.

Although it’s now a city,
And one of high renown,
It still retains the atmosphere,
Of a quiet country town.

Sure we’ve had our share of troubles,
With fire and flood and drought.
But advantages out weigh them,
And that’s without a doubt.

In eighteen sixty seven,
From near and far away,
Some packed their gear on horses,
And some arrived by dray.

They even walked to get here,
Their swags upon their backs,
They cut their way through tangled scrub,
And made their own bush tracks.

They built their rough slab humpies,
With shingles on the top,
And worked from dawn to sunset,
Some times without a stop.

They mined that precious metal,
Hard work in every stroke,
And in their way saved Queensland,
When it was nearly broke.

And when the mining petered out,
They farmed and made it pay,
They didn’t pack their swags and go,
No, Gympie’s here to stay.

Bananas, pines and pawpaws,
on the hillsides standing bold,
They grew them to perfection,
Another kind of gold.

And so our city prospered,
So let us give three cheers,
For those that put it on the map,
Our own bold pioneers.

written by Ron Domin