~ GOLD ~



Early gold discoveries Edward Hargraves Gold in Victoria The frenzy The journey to Australia Impressions of Melbourne To the diggings First impressions of the diggings

SBS > Gold > Discovery of Gold

Early gold discoveries in Australia were kept quiet as many feared a gold rush would plunge the largely convict population into chaos and lawlessness. However the rush to California depleted the new colony’s small population and forced the authorities to think differently about Australian gold. Self styled knight in shining armour Edward Hargraves rode to the colony’s rescue. His well publicised discovery of gold in NSW marks the beginning the Australian gold rush, the mass migration and the frenzy that ensued.

Early gold discoveries
Gold was not always seen as a way of making a fortune. In fact, many perceived it as a dangerous commodity.
Edward Hargraves
Was Edward Hargraves really the first to discover gold in Australia?
Gold in Victoria
Mass migration to NSW forced the Victorian government to think differently.
The frenzy
After weeks at sea, Melbourne was a disappointment for most weary travellers.

The journey to Australia
Ten weeks aboard a clipper ship was just the beginning of the journey for many Europeans flocking to the Victorian goldfields.

Impressions of Melbourne
After weeks at sea, Melbourne was a disappointment for most weary travellers.
To the diggings
The muddy or dusty tracks to the goldfields presented many challenges for the new chums.
First impressions of the diggings
Barely a blade of grass remained but the first sight of the goldfields was, for some, worth the journey.

Australian soldiers were called diggers, as many men who fought for Australia in WWI were diggers from the goldfields.

"Gold is not found in quartz alone; its richest lodes are in the eyes and ears of the public."
Samuel Butler.

It is estimated that at least 20% of all the gold mined since 1500 has been wrung from the earth during only fifty years' worth of gold rushes in the nineteenth century.

A 150th anniversary is a sesquicentenary.

In the first few years of Victoria's life as an independent colony, the Victorian Government sold £4,500,000 worth of Aboriginal land.

The Incas called gold the "sweat of the sun", while the Aztecs and the Mayans called it "the excrement of the sun".

A census of the Kimberly gold fields showed unqualified practitioners such as faith healers, tonic sellers and clairvoyants out-numbered legally qualified doctors three-to-one.

Australia now mines about 300 tonnes of gold annually – worth about $4.5million – making it the third-largest producer in the world, after South Africa and the United States. Gold is Australia’s second largest export after coal.

In 1965 archaeologists discovered the "Ramlah Hoard" – a collection of gold dinars and ingots dating from 761 to 976 – at Ramlah, near Jerusalem.

Gold fingerprinting technology, developed in Australia to help police trace the origin of stolen gold, is now being used to determine the origin of archaeological artefacts.