Life seemed to be settling down for William Melody after the excitements of Eureka and the great boxing match in Dunolly. In July 1858 he married Eliza Moran, a 21 year old Irish woman from Galway who had arrived in Victoria some 4 years before. The wedding took place canvas church of St Alipius in Ballarat. Their daughter Sarah was born the following year.
The next record of William Melody is this report in the Police Gazette in 1859. Lucky Woman's Diggings is a gold field to the south of Ballarat near Smythesdale. Gold was discovered at Smythdale in 1852 and by 1859 the population has swelled to 20,000.
Court records show was he apprehended on the 19th December 1859 and held at the Smythesdale Lockup on the charge of “on suspicion of assaulting and robbery of Israel Burgess with intent to do grievous bodily harm’. When apprehended he had in his possession one knife. Bill was released on the 20th after discussions. J.P. Hamilton the Police magistrate and Henry Lee J.P. were the adjudicating magistrates .
Thus he was cleared of that charge. Maybe it was mistaken identity or just insufficient evidence. We will never know.
In 1860 Bill's name appears in an report in Bells Life and Sporting Review. He is acting as umpire for Dan Timmins in a fight with Jemmy McCallum for £300 at Lucky Women's Flat. Seems he has hung up the gloves (in fact it was bare knuckle) but is still active in the sport.
In 1861 Bill went to Otago in New Zealand as word of a great gold discovery spread. He left his family behind and that same year a second daughter Rose Ellen was born in Inglewood near Dunolly. One can speculate that Eliza was with friends and family there. The next year Rose died at 14 months and was buried back near Lucky Woman's Diggings. That same year Bill returned to Victoria to retrieve his family having this time been successful on the goldfields of Otago. They returned with him to New Zealand on the City of Hobart, arriving December 12th 1862.
