A telegram to AAP in Adelaide of 30 August 1872 noted that "an auriferous reef has been discovered near the telegraph station at Yam Creek and is traced for a distance of three miles. Gold is visible to the naked eye within a radius of 150 yards of Yam Creek. Ten claims have been taken up and pegged out".
The Northern Australian of 16 April 1887 reported on a petition from the residents of the goldfields districts to the Acting Government Resident in Palmerston:
"We, the undersigned, your humble petitioners, residents of thc goldfields districts, sheweth :
That in December, 1884, the Government offered for sale by public auction certain allotments of the township of Burrundie and, as an extra inducement to intending purchasers, promised to remove from the Shackle to that township the Warden's office and the police and telegraph stations.
That the Warden's office and police station have thereto been removed, but not the telegraph office.
That the telegraph office at the Shackle is six miles from the nearest township and is the only office on the goldfields and that it is not situated on a public thoroughfare. That the mines employing the greatest amount of labour are situated to the south of Burrundie, which is on a public thoroughfare and is the terminus of the weekly mail service.
That to facilitate the police in matter of crime, it is desireable that the central up-country police station at Burrundie should be in direct communication with the chief office, Palmerston, as well as with the Katherine.
That there is no medical practitioner nearer than Palmerston, so that in cases of alarming symptoms, the doctor in Palmerston could be communicated with by telegraph.
That for the present year, the Government need not incur the outlay of building a telegraph station at Burrundie as the doctor's and Warden's quarters being in disuse might be utilized for the present. That the loss of time, great expense and inconvenience suffered by the public is inconceivable.
Your memorialists, therefore, humbly pray that you will be pleased to use your utmost influence with the Government in procuring the removal of the telegraph station at the Shackle to Burrundie".