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Extract

Title
Narrow escape at Ballarat
Description

A digger made the discovery of a lifetime turning up a huge quantity of gold, only to thinly escape drowning in a torrent of water that rushed into the hole he had just dug.

Date
18 October 1852
Published Source
Australian National Dictionary Centre, The Gold Rushes and Australian English: a resource for researchers, teachers and students, Australian National University, 2005, http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/res/aus_words/gold/index.php. Details
Rights
This material is provided by the Australian National Dictionary Centre, a joint project of the Australian National University and Oxford University Press Australia.

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Transcript

NARROW ESCAPE AT BALLARAT.— During the late rush of water, which has filled many of the best holes about the Canadian Gulley, a digger, who had just bottomed, sent up a bucketful of stuff for trial, which turned out upwards of FORTY POUNDS weight of gold. The water came in upon him, from three sources, so rapidly that he cried out to his mates, and before assistance was rendered him, the flood inpouring rose thirty feet in the hole, carrying the digger with it, who managed to keep himself afloat by paddling, and holding himself to the sides, until he was extricated. Geelong Advertiser, 18 October 1852