N.G. Goldfield
pp. 60-61 · Read in the full issue
Pioneers
Claim That Preston, and Not Darling, First on Koranga
The following are extracts from a letter to the editor from Mr. Edward Auerbach, an old miner and prospector, now living in the Trobriand Islands. Mr.
Auerbach supplies much valuable infor mation about the pioneers of the New Guinea, goldfield; and it will be noted that he says that the first man on Koranga Creek was Preston, and not Darling—thus apparently correcting vari ous books and articles published, in re lation to the subject.
I FIRST met “Shark-Eye” Park in 1901, on the Kumusi Beach, North east Papua. He was going to the Yodda. He travelled up in my launch, from the beach to Bogi (60 miles up the Kumusi River).
I notice that you call him “Park”. I always knew him to be addressed as “Parks”, not “Park”. I was with him for about eight months, and always called him Parks. The first time I knew that his real name was Park was when I saw his death notice in the “Sydney Morning Herald”.
The name of the yacht of the Ger man Administrator of Madang was “Delphin”; in English, “Dolphin”.
I have written to the Collector of Customs, to try and find out the date we left for the Markham River (New Guinea), and he is looking it up for me.
I think it was in September, 1912. I know that, en route to the Markham, we landed in at Rabaul two days after the Melbourne Cup, as both Matt Crowe and I had backed Duke Foote. When
we landed we met Walter Lucas (B.P. & Co. Islands manager in Sydney) and Whiteman. Matt asked them what had won the Cup. They said, Piastre.
I will look up the dates and give you details .of the Green massacre, at Lamata Police Camp. I will only write to you of what I know. The Green mas sacre occurred a year before I arrived at Lamata in 1897, but I met most of the miners who were on the McLachlan Creek at the time, also Mick McLachlan, and I helped to bury Billy Simpson.
From then on, this is what occurred in my own time: 1. —Finding of Gira and Ikora gold fields. 2. —Gebara gold find. 3. —The Yodda find. 4. —The Cloudy Bay find. 5. at the head of Musa River, and the Waria field.
The McLachlan Creek was the first payable goldfield found on the main land. There is only one of the pros pectors’ names I do not know—he was one of the men on the Gebara field; and I knew him as Jacobs. My brother George was mate with him for six months, and he only knew him as Jacob. Perhaps Jack Grey knew his name—Jack was one of the prospectors of Gebara.
“Shark-Eye” Park and I left Rocke Island for the Markham, via Morobe, in 1912. We prospected around the Mark ham and Ramu districts, and then went up the right hand branch of the Mark ham (I believe it is now called the Watut). We found Billy Dankother’s grave on the bank of the river. This is where J. Preston made his 14 days’ trip, when he came out with 600 ounces of gold.
When we got up into the mountains, we did not meet any local natives, so
we could not find out the names of the places.
Two days after leaving the mission station on the Markham we had all the lighting we wanted, two or three times a day. They used to like daylight and dawn to do their fighting. Those natives were game. If trained, they would make splendid soldiers.
With reference to the article on Park’s death, in the March “P.I.M.”:— Matt Crowe and “Shark-Eye” Park were never with Arthur Darling in German New Guinea. The only time Darling was up there was in 1908. Arthur and his Orakivas went about 40 miles up the Markham. The natives tackled him and left him on the bank of the river, apparently dead. He was soeared, and badly knocked about. He recovered, and got down the river, and was in a bad way when Les Joubert picked him up in his launch. “Buna” Darling died about 1912, on one of the B.P. steamers, off Cairns, on his way over to Aus tralia. The names have been mixed up in the article: instead of A. Darling it should be J. Preston. It was J. Preston and not Darling who got his gold in Koranga Creek, and Preston was the first white man there.