In an article from the Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer dated 13 September 1854, the name of Australia’s iconic gambling game, Two Up, appears for the first time. At the time, the game was being played in a large tent near Murdering Flat on the Victorian gold fields.
When you walk the Goldfields Track from Fryerstown to Vaughan Springs, you pass by Murdering Flat:
‘We were met, and talking over old scenes, of course the gold fields were brought prominently forward. Amongst others present was Jack Gregory, who regards himself as a patriarch of diggers, and requires the same attention paid to him as to the Old Fathers in ecclesiastical history. Jack listened to many a tale and then lamenting that the history of the gold fields had never been written, opened up his budget of experiences and began …. One evening in January, 1852, I was cook to our party at Fryer’s Creek. We were camped opposite the crossing place to Murdering Flat, and close alongside us was a geometrical tent, an acute angle of white calico, filled with pots, pans, shakedowns and diggers. Diggings were diggings then; a man lay down with his revolver within reach, and a knife under his pillow, if he had a pillow. Religion and pugilism competed. I’ve seen three fights, and two preachers within hail; heaps of notes on the ground waiting the result of ‘Two Up’. I’ve seen men bonneted, their pockets turned inside out, and the victim expedited on his journey with a kick and a piece of advice to the effect that wisdom consisted in silence.’