Foster views over Corner Inlet
Foster
& the Serendipitous Gold words : JE Miller
Despite being financially affected by Covid-19, as have so many other people all over the world, I am still so grateful for my career, and what I am blessed to be able to do for a living… to write. Being part of the Gippsland Lifestyle Magazine is such an important part of that career, and the way it came about was like so many other things in life… with a little pinch of serendipity. Writing this story, about a unique Australian town, has been especially serendipitous for several reasons. But before I tell you more about that, I would like to pay my respects and gratitude to the first storytellers of this beautiful land, who in the area of Foster are the Brataualung Aboriginal people, of the larger tribe of Gunnai Kurnai. May all of our stories hold value far greater than gold, through the sands of time. One of the Dreamtime stories is uniquely told in Foster through a collection of painted sculptures at PJ Wilson Reserve. It tells how Bunjil the eagle, the creator spirit, came to the land, and met Mother and Father of the Gunnai Kunai people, Booran the Pelican who flew in from the east across the mountains, and Tuk the Musk Duck, who joined Booran in his canoe after a serendipitous meeting, and travelled around the islands and the waters of the Corner Inlet.
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gippsland lifestyle winter ����
Together Booran and Tuk carry the stories of the land and sea, while Bunjil remembers the creation of the rivers, the mountains, the creatures, and the people. As for my stories, many regular readers will know about my children’s book which came out last year, but you may not know that I finished my first novel the year before. It was a massive undertaking. Years of hard work studiously researching, writing and editing to create a book, with absolutely no idea if it would amount to anything. Do you know there is more chance of winning lotto than hearing back from a publisher? Well, you can imagine how ecstatic I was to recently. I imagine it was like the feeling of the gold prospectors in the area of Foster in the late 1800’s, who persistently chipped away at rock and dirt, in the hope of unearthing the ultimate treasure… that elusive, sparkling gold. From all accounts it was more a case of serendipity than hard work that led to the discovery of gold in Foster in 1870, with illegal loggers posing as gold prospectors, in an attempt to avoid the law, who first struck gold.
However, after that history changing accident, there was certainly plenty of hard work that came afterwards, as hundreds of people flocked to the area, to try and make their fortunes as well. The ABC reported that very recently another small hand-dug gold-mine was found on a farm just outside Foster, with the names T. Hurley, and J. Thomas, scratched into the surface of the rock. While it seems that no gold was ever discovered in their mine, it certainly tells a story of life in the early days of the settlement of Foster. Hopeful prospectors could literally find a patch of unclaimed earth, grab a pick, and start digging. Some got lucky, while others did not. The alluvial gold mines were closed in 1877, to be followed by quartz mining, which eventually also ended, in the 1930’s. During this mining boom and the establishment of the town, the Great Southern Railway made its way to Foster in 1892. The town continued to flourish through the turn of the century, with electricity connected in 1916, as meanwhile across the seas the Great War marched on. The meandering train track rolled over the land, and passengers would have enjoyed stunning views over Corner Inlet and the peaks of Wilsons Promontory National Park.