Place:Neilborough, Victoria, Australia

Began life as Elysian Flat gold lead in November 1857 when gold nuggets were first found in the area. It was a rich but short gold rush, peaking in little over a year. The site was first surveyed for township in August 1858, and the township of Neilborough was gazetted on August 3, 1860.

From Bendigo Advertiser, Friday 29th January, 1858. Page 2.

ELYSIAN FLAT. ( FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT) The brilliant prospects held out by the new goldfield promises to far exceed everything which has been written and hitherto foretold of it, and the impression exists very generally that the en- suing winter will see a rival population here to Ararat itself, and probably one of the greatest rushes that has ever taken place in Bendigo or the colony at large. In former reports I have stated that plenty of gold was getting ; and if at liberty to do so I could tell of some tidy lots having been taken up. For obvious reasons a scrupulous adherence to facts has been strictly exercised in all reports of the Elysian Flat goldfield ; and many flying reports that have ultimately proved to be correct received with considerable caution and distrust ; but I am now enabled to state on the best authority that from twelve and a half to six- teen ounces to the load have been washed since the few showers of rain of Sunday morning last, and from six to ten ounces per load is the common average yield of many of the claims in what is termed the new or last discovered lead. A twenty four ounce five pennyweight nugget was taken up last week in a claim in the same lead, and a three ounce nugget has been picked up out of the wash dirt of an adjoining claim. Other yields of a less favorable nature are quite common ; and as I have hitherto stated in former despatches, when washing up day comes and all the piles of washdirt are " tommed " off, there will be a gratifying tale to tell, and no mistake. The diggers were not slow to act on the suggestions in a former report with regard to the construction of dams. They have laudably set to work at once, and the result is six excellent (private and registered) dams have been constructed as suggested by falling trees across the creek, and backing up with clay and tailings. Some of the cement in the new lead claims is exceedingly hard, and requires to be both gadded and blasted. An idea may be formed of how business moves along here when it is stated that some of the restaurants can number from sixty to one hundred boarders ; others, on a smaller scale, from half a score up to two score and ten. A new public house is in course of erection by Mr. Jeffreys, formerly of the old Whipstick, and altogether the general prospects of the place, both mining and commercial, are rapidly assuming an importance and first-class position in these respects which must be very gratifying to all those who have been in any way instrumental in bringing about such a prosperous condition of affairs in the hitherto out of-the-world Whipstick Scrub,— a state of affairs which, after all, is but the realisation of what has been time after time (in the columns of the Advertiser) prophesied and foretold. When these facts travel Bendigo will once more gather in all her sons from every goldfield and outpost in the colony, and no man can tell the results that will accrue through the course of the ensuing winter on the as yet new and unfledged goldfield. Of course, it would be both superfluous and absurd to speculate or comment on mere probabilities or improbabilities, but things at Elysian Flat have changed from probabilities into realities. Here we have a flourishing popula- tion of not less than two thousand persons, congregated together in a few weeks' time, and already amalgamated into a thriving community, and the germ of another Victorian township fairly implanted in the very heart of the bush, and on the confines of what may yet prove to be one of Victoria's richest and most productive goldfields, for it cannot be denied that if the whole of the immense flat or territory, on the borders of which the Elysian Flat diggings are situate, turn out as aurif- erous as that portion termed the Elysian Flat rush, that a grand discovery has indeed been made that will benefit not only Bendigo but the colony at large to an extent that it would be impossible to properly estimate. It is not unreasonable, how- ever to anticipate results from present facts and appearances that may yet astonish the natives, and prove to the world that Bendigo still enjoys her pristine vigor, and bears unsullied her high title of metropolitan goldfield of Victoria. We have only to turn over the leaf to see what a bright and golden page in Bendigo's prospective and retro- spective history in quartz mining and reefing is presented,— and then again to look at the en- couragement and pile-making inducements held out to capital and enterprise in steam puddling and by wind and horse power machinery. Verily, the man or men who close their eyes against these proofs and truths— these facts and figures, as it were, and shut their teeth on a Manilla cheroot or a merschaum tube and sit down to gabble in Mel- bourne divans and Bendigo grog shops on the badness of the times and of Bendigo's decadence, must be worse than blind— and either devoid of intelligence and reason or arrant knaves and blustering loafers. And in reference to the present, brilliant state of affairs at the Whipstick, it may be punningly asked— where are the sceptics— the grumblers— the unbelieving Thomas's— and the Elizabethian Age men of last year got away to now ? Alas ! poor Yorick. The vanity of poor humanity is mournful to contemplate. Doubtless, all these men would wish themselves once again in the barren regions of the Whipstick, to feast on the roast wild turkey— kangaroo chops— stewed bandicoot— curried pigeons— and turkey eggs. poached in brandy at a temperature precisely of 119° Fahrenheit. The weather still threatens rain, and doubtless with the change of the moon there will be plenty of it. Several new comers have "set in" yester- day in Scotchman's gully.