Kanowna ObeliskPrint Page

The Obelisk and plaque commemorate the site of the goldfields town.

Kanowna was originally called White Feather. Gold was discovered there in 1893 and almost instantly the area was swarming with miners. By 1894 a town site had been selected and by 1895 a battery had opened serving the 4000 people who had poured onto the field. Although it was wild, ramshackled and temporary, the town became a municipality in 1896. The alluvial gold had all but disappeared by late 1896 and it was replaced by underground mining. Although the town was continuing to progress - 1897 saw the arrival of the railway and electricity - people were starting to drift away from the area. It was probably as a result of his concern about the town`s declining population that the local Catholic priest, Father Long, announced from the balcony of the Kanowra Hotel that he had been shown a gold nugget weighing nearly 100 pounds. He gave vague directions as to where the nugget had been found and, with due piety, the nugget was named the `Sacred Nugget`. In spite of Father Long`s efforts the town started a slow and steady decline. Long`s hoax had provoked a brief rush in 1898 but, without a new strike, the town was doomed. By 1912 it was no longer a municipality.

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