Harry Campbell
Harry Campbell was the Aboriginal miner who identified a rich seam of silver ore which, in turn, was the beginning of the BHP Big Mine – so called because it soon became the richest silver mine in the world.
On 18th August 1887, four years after Charles Rasp famously discovered a lump of ore-laced mullock whilst boundary-riding on Mt Gipps Station, and then pegged a mining lease, The Sydney Morning Herald published a column titled ‘Silver Mining in the Barrier Ranges’. The report predicted that ‘the visit of the minister for Mines and the Minister for Justice to the Barrier Ranges will probably be instrumental in attracting the attention of those who now guide the destinies of the colony to the enormous wealth [being] drawn from the bowels of the earth.’ A few short decades later the colony was being bank-rolled by BHP.
The early assays of the individual mining leases pegged by Charles Rasp and his six soon-to-be famous co-workers from Mt Gipps Station, were disappointing and revealed only trace amounts of silver. Geological surveyors, however, thought the site had promise, so the syndicate of seven who had each invested £70 in the enterprise, and each pegged their own mining lease, kept sinking shafts.
William Jamieson a surveyor, shareholder and first General Manager of BHP followed up on a query by syndicate member Philip Charley that seemed promising. He asked his perceptive assistant, ‘a young Aboriginal boy named Harry Campbell to smash open a rock with a sledgehammer-and it cascaded silver’.
William Jamieson travelled to Adelaide and Melbourne seeking financial investment with little success. At the same time Harry Campbell made another find. He uncovered specimens within a mass of kaolin and quartz between Blocks 11 and 12. The specimens assayed 18,000 ounces of silver to the ton.
Harry Campbell’s discovery was the turning point in a story that has become legend. Sadly, there is no evidence Harry was rewarded for his discoveries. The rest is mining history.
Audio transcript available.