"Big" Clarke, as a member of the so-called bunyip aristocracy, also helped to frustrate legislative measures involving opening land to small farm selectors. "Melbourne Punch" depicted Clarke in anti-squatter cartoons, such as "The Man in Possession" In 1859, "Big" Clarke was involved in a scandal around the discovery of gold on his holdings in Deep Creek. Shares in the Bolinda company soared and Clarke sold his shares at the peak of the rush, before the fraud was exposed. The gold assay was actually 'salted', possibly via a shotgun blast of golden pellets into the samples. Clarke claimed the rich assay was proved when washed in a soup bowl. The ever-barbed "Melbourne Punch" explained how the fraud worked in a cartoon of a chipped Chinese Willow Pattern plate titled "The Soup Plate".