| Hello List, | A big thank you to Trevor for the Report he has listed for us all. | | Dave in Ballarat Thanks for that, Dave. I have also just finished transcribing the 'Dunolly and Betbetshire Express' report of the Royal Commission's evidence-taking in Dunolly. You will recall that the Commission sat in Tarnagulla in the morning, then caught the 1 o'clock train to Dunolly to hear evidence there. The 'Express' report is far superior, in terms of journalistic standards, to the Tanagulla 'Courier' account of the Tarnagulla hearing. It is also very much longer. (About eight A4 pages.) For that reason I am rather dubious about flooding the list with it. To make it more digestible, I would send it in instalments over the next 4 or 5 days. Let me have your opinion if you think this is advisable and appropriate. The 'Express' report is quite different from the 'Courier' account, not just in terms of its standard of writing and length. There is much less emphasis on things like shepherding, the role of the mining and prospecting boards, and similar 'nitty gritty' matters which occupied the Tarnagulla paper, although there *is* some of that. The main difference is the lengthy and(to me, anyhow), fascinating evidence about the discovery of the Queen's Birthday mine, and remarks about other significant mines such as the North Birthday. This evidence comes from the likes of Mr T. Barnett, Mr W.H. Hansford, Manager of the Queen's Birthday mine, Mr R. Ritchie, Mr John Betheras, mine manager of the Queen's Birthday. There is detailed description of the actual workings of the stampers, how mercury (quicksilver) is used on copper plates in the stampers, what its effects are and much more. Various reefs and the work done on them are described and commented upon. (I now understand what a 'winze' is!) Over all, I find the 'Express' report to be a very readable and detailed contribution to the understanding of one aspect of the history of Dunolly and the motivations of many of our forebears who engaged in mining there. Are you all happy with the idea of instalments over the next few days? Trevor

Do you all know that Andrea Johnson indexed all the Bet Bet Shire Expresses about ten years ago? I think there is a copy in the GSV library. She found wonderful info for me about my ancestors. Susan