Hi all.
I wanted to share some new info I found on my ggrandfather, Joseph THUNDER who died at Flowerdale near Wynyard, Tasmania, in 1903. His obituary said he had bought a dairy farm with the proceeds of a ''lucky find'' in a mine called Specimen Reef, but I could never figure out anything about this mine or even if it really existed.
In an idle moment the other day, I did a Yahoo Internet search on 'specimen reef' and 'thunder' and came up with a website called www.treasureentreprises.com, which has a section on Gold Prospecting Locations. Under Tasmania, it documents some of the early gold finds, including my Joe. Under a paragraph about 1882 discoveries in north-west Tasmania at Savage River, he is listed as G. Thunder, with a T. Greenway as business partner, (who had also been listed in Joe Thunder's obituary, as Mr Greenway).
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The website said: "In May of 1882, four gold prospectors, S. Hall, T. Jones, G. Johnson and T. Farrell, found rich gold in a creek west of the Savage River about 9 kilometres north of Long Plains. One tributary to this creek named Specimen Creek became famous for its coarse gold. It was in this creek that T. Greenway and G. Thunder found the first gold reef on the West Coast. The two men collected about 40 ounces of free gold from its outcrop. About 30 leases were pegged out in the vicinity, some with promising names like the Lucky Hit, the Second to None and the Goldfinger. The reef was named Specimen Reef. Some rich specimens from this reef were exhibited in Launceston in November 1882."
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I would have done Internet searches on Specimen Reef and THUNDER many times over the years, with no luck, so it just goes to show it's worth doing new searches in case new info is put up on the web.
It's good to know Joe really did find gold, but sadly none of the family fortune survives!
Cheers,
Carolyn Webb.
Melbourne.