The small town of Donnybrook is well known in the region for its fruit orchards but a little known fact is that it was also the sight of a short but profitable gold rush that advanced the town's infrastructure and boosted the population.
A man by the name of GW Simpson unsuccessfully searched for gold in the Donnybrook area in 1874 and again in 1880. It wasn't until Richard Hunter panned the extreme upper reaches of the Nonneycup Creek in 1897 that gold was discovered. Hunter became the "father" of the Donnybrook goldfield.
Through a process called "loaming" he was able to determine that the gold was being shed from quartz reef outcrops and along with his two sons he settled on what became the Hunters Venture gold mine.
Hunter's discovery was the cause for the mini gold rush that gripped Donnybrook in 1899. It became difficult to even obtain basic food staples as the population rapidly expanded. The government reacted, gazetting the site as an official goldfield and extending the rail line into the town.
Hunter who was over 60 years of age, sold his majority interest in the Hunters Venture gold mine to Fred Camilleri (a well known miner and prospector from Kalgoorlie). Camilleri then consolidated some other mining leases and gained the interest of a man by the name of Modest Maryanski who was an internationally renowned geologist.
Maryanski wrote a geological report on the Donnybrook goldfields which formed the basis for the floating of a private company in London in 1899. The company Donnybrook Goldfields Ltd, had an authorized capital of 350,000 pounds and approximately 45,000 pounds was spent on developing the Hunters Venture mine. It was sunk to a depth of 450 feet with three underground drives, one at 100 feet, another at 200 feet and a final drive at 300 feet.
At its peak in 1901, the company employed over 105 men on the shaft and had constructed a five head stamper, assay office, housing for the manager and storeman, 50 foot high poppet head over the shaft, stables and a communications office.
The head foreman was killed in a mine accident at the 100 foot level of the Hunters Venture shaft in 1901 which was the beginning of the end for the mine which was abruptly closed in August 1903. The mines closure was due to declining gold grades at depth, employee wage disputes, major new finds in the Kalgoorlie region and a reluctance to spend further money on exploration.
During the depression years of the 1930's two local men Laurie and Foster Payne tried their luck and unearthed 130 ounces. The gold fields were again pegged during the 1980's when the price of gold was high. The company, West Coast Holdings Ltd, conducted numerous drilling campaigns and entered into various joint venture agreements with companies such as Metana Minerals, BHP, Seltrust and Carr Boyd Minerals before encountering financial difficulties and going into liquidation.
The Donnybrook goldfields have been held by various mining companies since then and a fair amount of geological data has been compiled on the unusual nature of the area.