In 1853 two boys aged 9 and 11 walked with their father from Sydney to the Bathurst gold diggings, a distance of about 200 km. There they joined the merry community of gold prospectors on the Ophir and Turon gold fields. They observed first hand the miners at work, panning, wheeling, cradling, shafting and tunnelling in their search for gold. The boys acquired a scraggy dog and this led to a brief encounter with the bushrangers.