Archives Outside

For people who love, use and manage archives

Archives Outside - For people who love, use and manage archives

We need your help to find a hidden treasure.Who wants to go gold digging?

Interested? Well, a bit of background first. It might sound ‘old skool’ but we do still microfilm records here at State Records. Currently the gaol photograph description books are being microfilmed (and indexed) alphabetically gaol by gaol.

In the repository

In the planning stage is a new project relating to the Colonial Secretary’s records, the most comprehensive index of early NSW settlement. It was thought that the majority of these records had already been microfilmed and it was only during a recent stock-take of archives that we found some unprocessed boxes of records.

Accessioning – a treasure map discovered

The Manager of Special Projects was tasked with the job of sorting through the contents of these records and found a treasure map, purportedly drawn up by Governor Bligh leading to a stash of gold that was hidden during the Rum Rebellion.

gold nuggets from Washington

Can you help decipher the clues?

We haven’t yet been able to verify if this is true or not! You have helped us with projects in the past and we thought, a treasure hunt might just be the thing to seize your interest. If any of you live or visit Parramatta regularly, the clues seem to point to this area, which makes sense considering Parramatta was one of the earliest established towns in the Colony.

The more of us to go ‘hunting’ the better chances we have of finding the gold!

Who’s interested?

Category: General
  • lyn says:

    hahaha You got me!!

    April 1, 2011 at 10:32 am
  • beachcomberaustralia says:

    A “Treasure Trove” search of the SMH for 1/4/1808 mentions a crock of gold at the end of Rainbow Street, Parramatta, closely guarded by a colony of leprechauns.

    Oddly enough, John Degotardi Jnr., Government Photographer, inadvertently photographed the cache during Cleansing Operations c.1900 – http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/asp/photosearch/photo.asp?12487_a021_a021000029

    I wonder if it the same crock of, um, gold? More info and Google Street view – http://bit.ly/f3sVlC

    April 1, 2011 at 11:49 am
  • Anthea Brown says:

    @beachcomberaustralia Hahahahahahahahahaha!

    April 1, 2011 at 11:53 am
  • Debbie says:

    Hilarious! Some of the facilities produced today are probably worth a pot of gold too! I don’t like being talked to by a stranger when I’m about my business if you know what I mean… it’s unsettling (=0

    April 1, 2011 at 1:20 pm
  • Iain Stuart says:

    Do you need a miner’s right to go gold digging?

    April 4, 2011 at 11:28 am
  • Fiona Sullivan says:

    Ooops, you got us, we slipped up there! Maybe we can go fossicking instead ? If there were a lot of us and we did it over a long period of time we could almost comply with the regulations lol.

    April 5, 2011 at 10:15 am