Victoria. Gold Workings, Dandenong

Folio (13 1/8 x 8 inches). Printed on blue paper. Folding lithographed map of the Parish of Narree Worran. Modern brown leatherette, gilt. The accompanying "sketch of the ranges of hills and streams contiguous to these gold workings, and also of the track leading thereunto, has been only very cursorily made with the aid of compass-bearings and rough estimation of distances; and even to procure this very ride and imperfect delineation of these topographical features, I found it necessary to force a passage through such dense tangled scrub that I was occasionally compelled to crawl on my hands and knees to advance at all" (page [i]). The reason for the map's sketchiness is explained by the "unexampled stupidity" of the men that Clement Hodgkinson sent before him, in getting lost. However Hodgkinson was able to provide a detailed report of the area and the diggings. He noted that the profitable land was limited in area and that only about 200 miners were working it. By 1860 these fields were largely depleted.…