page_title: David Carnegie (explorer)
section_title: Gold prospecting
hierarchical_section_title: David Carnegie (explorer) / Gold prospecting
caption_attribution_description: English: This image shows a photograph of David Carnegie and three other members of his exploring expedition, circa 1897. The original photograph is held by the State Library of Western Australia. Their catalogue states that it was taken from an unknown published source. A digital image of the photograph was created by the State Library of Western Australia and is available from the Library Information Service of Western Australia (LISWA) website. The LISWA image includes an assertion of copyright 2001, but this assertion is incorrect: the image is in the public domain under both Australian copyright law and US copyright law. This digital image is a cropped version of the LISWA digital image that eliminates the incorrect copyright notice.
context_page_description: The Hon. David Wynford Carnegie was an explorer and gold prospector in Western Australia. In 1896 he led an expedition from Coolgardie through the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts to Halls Creek, and then back again.
context_section_description: On arriving in Albany, Western Australia in September 1892, Carnegie and Douglas learned of Arthur Bayley's discovery of gold at Coolgardie, and immediately decided to leave the ship and join the gold rush. Together, they prospected around Coolgardie for a number of months, with little success. Eventually, Douglas left the field to raise finances in order for them to continue prospecting. Carnegie continued prospecting, joining the rush to Kalgoorlie after Paddy Hannan's discovery of gold there. He had little success, and by the middle of 1893 he was destitute. Unable to make a living as a prospector, he took a job at the Bayley's Reward mine in Coolgardie.
  Late in 1893, Douglas was appointed a director of a new mining exploration company, thus securing finances for Carnegie's prospecting. In March 1894, Carnegie commenced his first prospecting expedition, in the company of a prospector and camel handler named Gus Luck. The pair initially explored the Hampton Plains immediately east of Kalgoorlie, but finding it extremely dry, they travelled instead to Queen Victoria Spring, about 250 km (160 mi) east of Kalgoorlie. From there they travelled north through unknown country to Mount Shenton, about 100 km (62 mi) north east of the present-day town of Laverton. After prospecting around Mount Margaret and Mount Ida, they returned to Coolgardie, having been away for ninety days and having travelled about 1,350 km (840 mi). They had found little evidence of gold, and nothing worth claiming a lease on.
  In November 1894, Carnegie set out on his second prospecting expedition, this time in the company of two prospectors: an American named Jim Conley and an Irish-Victorian named Paddy Egan. The party initially travelled north, but hearing rumours of promising country near Lake Roe, they turned to the south east. After meeting no success around Lake Roe, they returned to the north, again exploring around Mount Margaret and Mount Ida. Early in February, after failing to locate a pool at Erlistoun, the party sought water in a granite outcrop near Lake Darlot, about 60 km (37 mi) east of the present-day town of Leinster. There, they had the good fortune to stumble upon the scene of a rich new find, before news of the find had reached Coolgardie. Having beaten the rush, Carnegie was able to discover and lay claim to a high quality reef. After working the reef for a period, the company sold the mine, and Carnegie received a substantial sum.
  Carnegie formed a syndicate with some friends, into which he deposited his camels, then returned to England to visit his family. Finding that his family were disappointed and embarrassed by his lack of an education and career, he returned to Australia determined
  to prove that I am not the useless devil they have prophesied I would become¹.
  While he was away, his syndicate had pegged another mine, and shortly after his return it also was sold.
caption: The Carnegie Exploring Expedition
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