SHORT ON TREES, BIG ON STORY

Gold was once the reward for digging at Kosciuszko National Park's Long Plain. Now a rich history awaits, just below the surface.

- MATTHEW HIGGINS

IF YOU EVER find a pickle bottle with gold in it, chances are it once belonged to goldminer Joseph York. Joseph, who died aged 82 in 1898, was rumoured to have hidden his stash while working at the small goldfield named for him, Yorkies, at Long Plain, in what is now Kosciuszko National Park in southern New South Wales.

The culturally significant Long Plain is one of the vast, naturally treeless plains in northern Kosciuszko NP. Formed by the frosthollow effect (see “Frost Hollows”, page 40), the plains are surrounded by timbered hills. Long Plain is the traditional home of the Walgalu people, but many language groups converged there for the summer Bogong moth harvests, ceremony, intermarriage, and trade. It also has a rich and varied European history.

The diggings at Yorkies were worked again in the 1930s by locals Tom Taylor, Bill Harris and Billy Jemmett. They used water races (trenches) to bring water from a local creek to the site, fed by gravity through pipes and a nozzle to hydraulically sluice the paydirt. Photos of the men’s huts in 1932 show primitive structures of timber and calico. In the 1940s Billy Jemmett moved on to isolated fire-tower duties – a solitary lifestyle – in the Brindabellas; apparently, he was happy with his own company.

I led a tour to the area in 1989 that visited the ruin of Jemmetts Hut. The site offered up corrugated iron, boards, flattened kerosene tins and dozens of rusty food cans.