The Harden - McMahon's Reef - Cunningham Creek Diprotodon

During 1897 an article was published by Robert Etheridge Junr., of the Australian Museum, entitled The discovery of [Diprotodon] bones at Cunningham Creek, near Harden, N.S. Wales. According to the Australian Museum website, the Diprotodon optatum, or giant wombat, from the ancient Pleistocene of Australia, was the largest marsupial known and the last of the extinct, herbivorous diprotodontids. Diprotodon was the first fossil mammal from Australia to be described and named. This was done by the British scientist Richard Owen in 1838. It is one of the most well known of the megafauna, with replicas having been made for a number of museums around Australia. The animal was widespread across the continent when the Indigenous people arrived at least 130,000 years ago, co-existing with them for thousands of years before becoming extinct about 25,000 years ago. The animal is often referred to as a giant wombat, or hippopotamus-sized marsupial, as it reached a height of some 2 metres, or 6-8 feet. By the end of 1899 a number of other fossil marsupials had been gathered from the Cunningham Creek site, including that of a marsupial lion along with large kangaroos and wombats. A number of articles referring to these discoveries are reproduced below, along with related material to provide context. At the end of the article there is information about the precise locality.

Chronology

1838

* Richard Owen, Fossil remains from Wellington Valley, Australia. Marsupialia, in Mitchell, T. L., Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, with Descriptions of the Recently Explored Region of Australia Felix, and of the Present Colony of New South Wales, T. and W. Boone, London, 1838, 2 volumes. Appendix, 359-369. This is the first scientific description of the Diprotodon fossil remains from Wellington Caves, New South Wales.

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1897

* Robert Etheridge Junr., The discovery of [Diprotodon] bones at Cunningham Creek, near Harden, N.S. Wales, Records of the Australian Museum, 7 January 1897, 3(1), 9-10. The complete text is reproduced below (there were no illustrations):

The Cunningham Creek Gold-field [which commenced operations 1872] is situated about fourteen miles south-east of Murrumburrah and Harden. The "diggings" lies along both sides of the creek, above and below the Jugiong Road-crossing to Cunningham Plains, reaching almost down to its junction with the more important Jugiong Creek. The whole of this district is composed of grey granite cropping out here and there in bosses and tors, otherwise a thick granitic detritus hides the bedrock completely, and in consequence a subsequent denudation has given rise to gently rolling downs and hills. It is in this detritus that the bones of extinct Marsupials have been found for some time past, generally lying immediately above the auriferous wash-dirt of the old subsidiary branches of Cunningham Creek. The claim of Messrs. J. F. Wilson and Party, who first reported the discovery, is situated on the north bank of the creek, the shaft mouth being about seventy feet above the creek bed, and on the Cunningham Creek Common, barely a mile south-west of Cahill's [Currency] Hotel. The shaft is down sixty feet in fine granitic detritus, interspersed with large boulders of granite. The bones are usually met with at fifty-eight feet from the surface, and, as before stated, immediately above the wash-dirt, but from the wet nature of the ground, they are all very rotten, and difficult of extraction and preservation. The wash-dirt appears to be of poor quality, although containing a few gem-stones, running in narrow gutters between hard granite bars. The bones procured were chiefly those of Diprotodon. Through the courtesy of Mr. W. T. Ditchworth, the Manager of the Crown Point Gold Mining Co., Ltd., I was able to inspect the workings of the Marshall-McMahon Reef, where a quartz lode carrying free gold, and another with very refractory ore, are worked. I was fortunate enough to obtain good specimens for our collection.

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1899

* The Evening News, Sydney, 8 December 1899. Report mentioning the Cunningham Creek discoveries.

ANCIENT AUSTRALIA.

Judging from the fossils occasionally found in different parts of the Continent, and quite lately at a place called Cunningham's Creek, [near Harden], very ancient Australia must have been a much more interesting place to live in than it is at present. That is to say, the country at large, without any reference to the modern cities. Amongst the fossils lately sent to the Government Geologist is a specimen of the Diprotodon Australis, a gentleman with two very large front teeth, which we still see in evidence amongst our degenerate marsupiale. The Diprotodon, however, was the size of a hippopotamus, and would have been a startling individual to meet when one was going down for a morning swim. Another and far more aggressive person was Thylacoleo Cornifex, whom we possibly see surviving in a small way in the Tasmanian devil. If these animals had survived until the coming of man on to this continent, it is very likely that we should have found a different race of people here, or, rather, a people in a higher state of development. The presence of these large and dangerous creatures would lead the natives to build strong permanent villages, and keep together for protection; but, as it was, they had long disappeared when the first black stepped ashore, and the new arrivals were able to bring their luggage on land undisturbed by any roving Diprotodons, or other inquisitive creatures. But what a change must have ta-ken place in the climate of this continent since the last Diprotodon died, and left his bones to become silted up in Cunningham's Creek, or elsewhere, to be brought to the surface by the intrusive human beings who would have made a nice little meal for him? It is quite safe to conjecture that the great droughts of our time were then unknown, and that the order of things tended greatly towards a pretty constant state of humidity. Pity there has not been a greater survival of that characteristic.

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* Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 9 December 1899. Detailed report on the discovery of additional marsupial fossil remains from the Cunningham Creek site.

Fossil Marsupials at Harden.

Harden, Wednesday. - Recently Mr. B. Clayton forwarded to the Government Geologist a number of fossil bones, unearthed by miners at Cunningham's Creek [near Harden]. The collection was not a large one, but as a subjoined report will show contained eight distinct species, evidence of the large numbers of animals which roamed over prehistoric Australia. The paleontologist intimates that specimens from the locality would be very acceptable, and form valuable additions to the Geological Museum. At present as mining is almost at a standstill, pending the long-expected new mining laws, there are not many fossils being discovered, but as there are several dredging leases applied for in the locality, should that class of mining come into operation many valuable and interesting discoveries are sure to result. The following official description shows that the specimens were all of marsupial, or pouch-bearing, animals, some of which were also carnivorous, or flesh-eating, animals, of great size and ferocity :- No.

1. Diprotodon Australia;

2. Thylacoleo Carnifex;

Thylacoleo carnifex [Marsupial Lion]. Source: Australian Museum.

3. Phascolus Gigas;

Phascolus gigas [Giant wombat]. Source: Australian Museum.

4. Sceparnodon Ramsayi; [Reference: E.C. Stirling and A.H.C. Zeitz, Preliminary notes on Phascolonus gigas Owen, and its identity with Sceparnodon ramsayi Owen, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 1899, 123-135.]

Giant wombats. Source: Australian Geographic.

5. Phascolus Mitchelli;

6. Macropus Giganticus:

7. Macropus Robustus;

8. Macropus, undetermined species.

Macropus. Source: Australian Museum.

The following information from other sources will be interesting to many :-

No. 1. Diprotodon was the largest of the extinct Australian marsupials, and of gigantic size.

No. 2. Thylacoleo Carnifex - this names signifies "Corpse maker" - was a greedy, flesh-eating animal, very destructive to other animals, and about the size of a European boar.

Nos 3, 4, and 5 were three different wombats, some of gigantic size.

Nos. 6, 7, and 8 were different kinds of kangaroo, some large.

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1902

* This Cunningham Creek fossil discovery was referred to by A.J. Shearsby of Yass in his Yass Evening Tribune article on Ancient Australian Animals, published on 1 September 1902:

Notes on Geology. No.XI. Ancient Australian Animals. (By A.J. Shearsby).

The number of dead wallabies and other marsupials to be found in the bush since this drought has been in possession of the land, together with the great demand for their skins, brings to one's mind the possibility of this distinctly Australian form of animal life becoming extinct in the early future. It seems strange that Australia and New Zealand should possess such a large number of these marsupials, whilst there is only one to be found outside these countries. This exception is the opossum, which is also found in a native stage in America. No marsupials are to be found in Europe at the present day, except, of course, those which have been imported from other countries. They existed, however, in ages long past, as their remains are to be found in the rocks of the Eocene period. Not only ins the present animal life peculiar to Australia, but we find on examining the fossil remains of pre-historic quadrupeds that they also differed distinctly from those of other countries. Up to the present no remains have been found that would tend to show that animals similar to the tiger, elephant, ox, or sheep, ever existed in Australia, prior to the advent of the white races. The remains of animals which have from time to time been found in different parts of Australia, such as Wellington Caves, Darling Downs, the country round about Melbourne, and coming nearer Yass may be mentioned the Harden district, all show that the animals that were in existence prior to the present ones belonged to the marsupial or pouch-bearing family. It will be found also that these pre-historic animals were, as a rule, quite gigantic when compared with their descendants now living.

At Cunningham Creek, near Harden is be found a large deposit of bones, buried at a depth of about fifty feet. These were discovered when digging a shaft for gold, and were found lying immediately above the wash dirt. On being examined they proved to be the remains of a large marsupial, known as the "Diprotodon." According to Prof. Owen, the great authority on fossil remains, the Diprotodon was an animal of the marsupial family, which stood about eight feet in height. The tail was long and similar in shape to a kangaroo's. The skull was enormous, being three feet in length, and nearly the same measurement in height. The brain power was very small, as the face of the animal took up nearly all the available space. The front teeth - two above and two below - are described as enormous, whilst the back grinders are six inches long. Naturally, having such a large head, the mouth would be proportionately large, though from the formation of the teeth it seems that the animal was vegetarian in its habits, and lived on leaves and small trees. Although the skull is similar to a kangaroo's, the Diprotodon differed from the modern animal in having very long fore-limbs, which seems to point to the fact of it walking on all fours. It will not be seen then from the above description that the Diprotodon was a very large animal, and as it did not jump like the kangaroo it has been compared to a pouched Rhinoceros. Another peculiarity about this monster was the short neck, which with the long fore-limbs made it impossible for the animal to eat grass unless by it went down on its knees, or possessed a long trunk like an elephant. It seems to have had no means of defence, and as remains of small skeletons have been found in caves inhabited by carnivorous animals, they were probably carried there by the flesh-eaters as food.

Living at the same time, and in the same of districts as the Diprotodon, was a similar animal called by Prof. Owen the "Nototherium." Like the former it was a vegetarian, and became extinct at the same time. Then there were the carnivorous flesh-eating animals. One of these seems to answer the description of the "Native Devil," and the other was an animal similar to the "Thylacine" or pouched dog. Both of these animals are extinct as far as the mainland is concerned, but their descendants are still to be found alive in Tasmania, which tends to prove that during that time Tasmania was united to the mainland. Still another carnivorous marsupial was in existence on the mainland during that period, and remains of it have been found in the caves. The skulls have very powerful jaws with an array of long sharp teeth or fangs. On account of these teeth and powerful jaws, Prof. Owen named it the "Thylacoleo" or pouched lion. It seem to the have been very fierce and preyed upon the smaller helpless animals which lived at the same time. Remains have also been found in the Darling Downs belonging to an extinct pouched ant-eating porcupine. It will be seen then that all these ancient animals belonged to the same family as the modern ones, namely the marsupials. Remains of many of the modern ones have also been found, together with the bones of wingless birds partaking of the nature of the emu. Some geologists suggest that the cause of the extinction of the Diprotodon was a sudden climatic change which overwhelmed the continent, and was not due to a universal deluge, as otherwise all the marsupials would become extinct, and Australia would have had at the present day, animals similar to those of other parts of the world.

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2008

* G.J. Price, Taxonomy and palaeobiology of the largest-ever marsupial Diprotodon Owen, 1838 (Diprotodontidae, Marsupialia), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 153, 2008, 369-397. Includes reference to the Cunningham Creek fossils.

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2021

Legacy Minerals Prospectus (2021a) describes the McMahon's Reef gold mines geology and geography as follows:

The principal mines in the McMahons Reef area were the Old McMahons Reef and the New McMahons Reef. The Old McMahons Reef occurs in an argillic alteration zone within the Young Granodiorite. The lode varies from 0.5 m to 3 m wide, is 400 m long and strikes 110°, dipping steeply south. Sulphides include pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and arsenopyrite, with gold below the water table present within sulphides.

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Location of the finds

The rediscovery of the above information gives rise to the question: Where exactly were the bones dug up? Finding an answer is problematic, due to the lapsed time - more than 130 years - the brevity of Etheridge's initial description, the extended period over which mining occurred in the area of McMahon's Reef and the Cunningham's Creek goldfield, and the fact that the fossils were retrieved from underground. Rough directions to the site were provided in Etheridge's 1897 article, indicating it was located on the northern side of Cunningham's Creek, perhaps near where the alluvial workings and battery are indicated on the hand drawn map from Barry McGowan's chapter on McMahon's Reef and Cunningham Creek in his Lost Mines Revisited (1996). This is reproduced below, along with an equivalent Google map of the area. Within the McGowan map roads are indicated in brown, and creeks in black.

Maps of the McMahon's Reef area, southeast of Harden, New South Wales.

According to Etheridge (1897) the shaft containing the bones was located to the southwest of the Currency Hotel, and within a mile distance therein. Etheridge's reference to the Cunningham Creek Commons likely implies that it was located outside of any land which had been granted to individual farmers. A town plan drawn in 1898 and referred to in a 1970 historical geology report by D.S. Clift, refers to a 'shaft in the vicinity of Old McMahon's Reef' (Clift 1970). This is likely the shaft from which the fossils were drawn.

The bones were secured from alluvial material laying above the solid granite bedrock and derived from creek erosion and its former tributaries. A shaft was driven into the Cunningham Creek Common, at a level 70 feet above the adjacent creek bed. The shaft was sunk to a depth of 60 feet. Around that point auriferous (gold-bearing) wash dirt was found and mined. Just above this, at 58 feet, there was a layer of detritus containing the fossil bones. The material was damp at this level and therefore the state of preservation was not ideal.

The Mindat.org website contains locality information on the Cunningham Creek Diprotodon bones here, based on the article by Price (2008). However it placed the find on Jugiong Creek, not Cunningham Creek, and this does not tie in with the 1897 find report by Robert Etheridge Jnr.

Mindat.org map of the Cunningham Creek Diprotodon, (?erroneously) sited on Jugiong Creek, southeast of the above described location.

During 2021 Legacy Minerals began preliminary exploration work in the Harden area. A press release during September of that year included a map of historical mining operations in the region. Two shafts at McMahon's Reef were noted.

Legacy Minerals, Harden Project and Historical Production, 2021.

On-site inspections will hopefully locate the shaft - likely filled in - and further refine this information, along with the possibility of further finds.

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References

Clift, D.S., The McMahon's Reef Gold Mines - a compilation, Geological Survey Report, New South Wales Department of Mines, No. GS 1970/676, October 1970.

Legacy Minerals (a), Prospectus - Gold & Copper: Focused on Discovery in the World Class Lachlan Fold Belt, 15 July 2021, 262p.

----- (b), Legacy Minerals completes successful IPO, 13 September 2021.

McGowan, Barry, Lost Mines Revisited, 1996.

-----, Dust and Dreams: A regional history of mining and community in south-east New South Wales, 1815-1914, PhD thesis, Australian National University, June 2001, 378p.

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Acknowledgement

In the compilation of this article I would like to thank Robyn Atherton, President and Research Officer, Harden-Murrumburrah Historical Society for providing information on the possible location of the bone collection site, including a number of documents on the history of McMahon's Reef.

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Last updated: 1 March 2023

Michael Organ

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