Gold Escort

Gold Escorts were common across Australian goldfields, transporting mined and processed material from mines to banks and mints across the country.

A pen and ink watercolour painting of the Gold Escort in Victoria by W. Drummond (1852)

They were important in safely transporting gold, and were in most cases carried out by police assisted units.[1][2][3][4][5]

Victoria

During the Victorian Gold Rush of the 1850s, a special armed detachment from South Australia provided a 'Gold Escort' for the secure transportation of gold overland from the western Victorian gold fields to Adelaide. The first gold escort led by Alexander Tolmer (a 'colourful' character who later became the South Australian Police Commissioner[6]) departed Victoria on 5 March 1852 carrying 5,199 ounces (150 kg) of gold and arrived in Adelaide two weeks later.[7] Eventually, eighteen trips were made between 1852 and 1853 transporting 328,502 ounces (9,310 kg) of gold.[7] The Victorian-goldfields to Adelaide route was notable for the distance and amount of gold carried, almost a quarter of all gold, 1,520,578 ounces (43,110 kg), transported within Victoria during the gold rush (1851-1865).[8]

The Gold Escort route started in the Bendigo area and then went west across the Pyrenees to the small settlement of Horsham. From Horsham, the route passed north-west through the Little Desert region into South Australian territory and then ran roughly parallel with the coast to Adelaide.[9]

References
  1. Blake, L. J. (Leslie James) (1978), Gold escorts in Australia, Rigby, ISBN 978-0-7270-0496-3
  2. Parker, Heather; Ellis, Colin, (illus.); Tatiara (S.A.). Council (1971), All in the line of duty : danger and drudgery on the gold escort route Adelaide - Mount Alexander, 1852-53, [District Council of Tatiara], ISBN 978-0-9598647-0-0CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "GOLD ESCORT". Kalgoorlie Miner. III (817). Western Australia. 19 July 1898. p. 4. Retrieved 15 July 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "GOLD ESCORT". The Wyalong Advocate And Mining, Agricultural And Pastoral Gazette. 2 (82). New South Wales, Australia. 9 April 1904. p. 3. Retrieved 15 July 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "GOLD ESCORT". New South Wales Government Gazette (183). New South Wales, Australia. 6 June 1876. p. 2195. Retrieved 15 July 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Alexander Tolmer". collections.slsa.sa.gov.au. Government of South Australia. 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  7. Blake, L.J. (1971). Gold Escort. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press. p. 212.
  8. Blake, L.J. (1971). Gold Escort. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press. p. 214.
  9. Blake, L.J. (1971). Gold Escort. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press. pp. 66–80.


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