Major discoveries Gold production graph This graph shows the amounts of gold found in ’s states and territories This map of Australia shows where Australia’s major between 1851–1989. Some states have gold discoveries were made between 1851 and 1900. never been major producers of gold, The state and territory boundaries on this map are while others have changed substantially how they are today. over time.

Families visiting the Super Pit mine on its 20th birthday

12 February 14 June 28 June 22 July August October February October New South Wales’ Gold is found The Advertiser James Regan What will become James Grant finds The first payable gold and John Lister find richest goldfield at Clunes in Victoria publishes news of discovers the richest Victoria’s richest Tasmania’s first is found near Armidale, 1851 five specks of gold is found on the by James Edmonds. Edmonds’ find and alluvial goldfield in the field is discovered 1852 payable gold New South Wales. near Bathurst, Truron River. the Victorian world at Golden Point, at . near Fingal. The first finds of gold New South Wales. gold rushes begin. , Victoria. in South Australia are 20 made at Echunga. 21 Gold discoveries New South Wales Golden stories In 1851, within weeks of Edward Hargraves’ Ned Peters announcement, thousands of diggers were panning across Australia NedG Peters filled his diary with along Lewis Ponds Creek and the Truron River near poems about his life as a digger. Bathurst. The town of Sofala, named after a gold He wrote about the hard work and town in Mozambique, soon had hotels his unhappiness about not finding Although gold has been found in each Australian state and stores to serve the diggers. At one stage, gold. A pennyweight was a tiny Did you know? amount of gold. and in the Northern Territory, this does not mean that Sofala had a population of 12 000. 4000 bc We’ve tom’d and sluic’d and work’d away all have been equally productive. Alluvial gold was quickly worked out. The real During the first , Victoria produced This is when gold was From early morn till setting sun. thought to have been first success of goldfields’ towns such as Hill End and two-thirds of all gold found in Australia at the time. Just each a pennyweight as pay used in parts of Europe. Tambaroora came from deep reef mining. Although For all the labour we had done. In the first 30 years of the gold rushes, only tiny 3000 bc men had to sink shafts as far as 900 feet (275 metres) amounts of gold were found in Queensland, South Egyptians discovered how they were often richly rewarded. It was at Hill End Australia and Tasmania. to beat gold into gold leaf to use in decoration, that Bernard Holtermann and Ludwig Beyers found By the time of the second gold rush, Queensland and to mix it with other their remarkable chute of gold. and Western Australia were approaching Victoria’s metals. New South Wales may not have produced as levels of gold production. New South Wales had fallen 600 bc much gold as Victoria or Western Australia, but it far behind. King Croesus of Lydia (now Turkey) produced did pioneer goldmining techniques. New South Today, almost all of the gold produced comes from the first gold coins. Wales was also the first to use steam power. The Western Australia. first stamper battery in Australia was erected at the Old Company Mine, just north of Tambaroora. New South Wales had the coldest goldfield at This is an Kiandra in the Snowy Mountains. It also had some example of of the hottest, at Mount Boppy and Mount Browne one of the first coins made from in the west of the state. gold in Lydia. Chute of gold

Gold coins Gold coins Many different countries At Hill End in 1872, a huge chute of gold was have produced gold dug out of the ground from the Star of Hope Kangaroo coins were coins. The large coin in Mine. Weighing 630 pounds (286 kilograms) produced as an unofficial the centre dates from the it contained 3000 ounces of gold. Bernard currency in reign of King William III Holtermann was one of the owners of the mine (now Victoria) in the early of Britain and was made and had this photograph taken standing next to it. years of the first gold rush. between 1694 and 1762.

June July September August 30 000 diggers December June 8 January The ‘Welcome’ Gold is discovered News of gold Gold is discovered rush to prospect Edward Stringer finds Gold is The Queensland Nugget is at Canoona and discoveries at at Lambing Flat at Forbes in alluvial gold in the discovered at Government offers 1866 1858 discovered at the Fitzroy River in Port Curtis in 1860 (now Young) in 1861 New South Wales. 1862 Gippsland Mountains, Crocodile Creek 1867 a reward of £3000 Bakery Hill, northern Queensland. Queensland New South Wales. Victoria. The Long in Queensland. to anyone finding Ballarat, Victoria. 15 000 diggers rush leads to a rush. Tunnel mine becomes gold to support 22 to the site. the richest in Victoria. 3000 people. 23 Victoria Queensland In the 1800s, Victoria dominated gold production in In 1858, there was a short-lived rush Australia and, for a time, the world. The first major A model of the to Port Curtis in Queensland. Eager discoveries were of alluvial gold near Bendigo and ‘Welcome’ Nugget prospectors including about 8000 Clunes in 1851. Over the next 10 years, new fields This is one of the largest diggers came from Victoria hoping to were being discovered constantly. As many as 40 000 nuggets ever found in make their fortune. But the first finds men would rush to a new field then leave again when Australia. It was discovered of gold were exaggerated and it was at Bakery Hill in Ballarat they heard of something better. in 1858 and weighed impossible to make a living. Many 78 381 grams. diggers could not afford to leave and Ballarat the Victorian Government had to donate A postcard from Mount Morgan Peter Hiscock was the first to find gold at Ballarat £15 000 to help them come home. on 8 August 1851, but the field was soon abandoned. What is it A second rush took place in 1852 and this time the worth now? Gympie diggers stayed. By the following year, there were The ‘Welcome’ In 1867, James Nash discovered gold at a place that was Nugget was sold 20 000 digging, puddling and cradling for gold. for almost £9000. later called Gympie. Within months, 25 000 people were Once alluvial gold had been exhausted, diggers At today’s gold prices, it in the area. Deep mining began in 1880 turned to underground mines. By 1864 there were would be worth $895 668. and continued until about 1925. In the 1870s, gold 64 000 diggers working 300 mines. was discovered further north, first at Ravenswood and, in 1872, at . Bendigo Bendigo was even more productive. Unlike Ballarat, its wealth lay deep underground in rich quartz mines. Diggers showed that little would deter them from At one time Bendigo was described as having ‘a seeking their fortune when they flocked to the Palmer mine in every backyard’. For many years, the Victoria River goldfield. The goldfield was extremely remote and A typical sample of Quartz Mine was the deepest goldmine in the world. uncomfortable. It was hot and humid with poisonous gold-bearing quartz snakes and ferocious insects. By 1877, there were 17 000 from Gympie Other goldmining areas miners on the Palmer River site, including 7000 Chinese. In western Victoria, (later Castlemaine), Clunes, Chewton, Maldon, and Mount Morgan Ballarat, Victoria Maryborough were all important goldmining The greatest wealth from Queensland gold came from centres. In the north, had a population Ballarat’s main street, Mount Morgan, near . Gold was found in photographed in of 22 500 by 1857 and, over the next 14 years, about 1900. the 1860s, but not mined. In the 1890s, Mount Morgan produced 85 000 kilograms of gold. was the richest goldmine in the world.

October October The ‘Welcome 14 April Payable gold November February Tasmania’s most John Nash First gold found Stranger’, the First payable discovered at William Hann Australia’s most important alluvial discovers gold in the Barossa in largest nugget ever gold found at Pine Creek in discovers gold in the northerly goldfield field is found 1868 1869 1870 1867 at Gympie, South Australia. found in Australia, in New 1871 the Northern 1872 Palmer River in 1876 is discovered at 1878 at Lisle by the Queensland. Gold is discovered is found in Victoria. South Wales. Territory. far north Queensland. Coen on the Cape Bessell brothers. at and Cooktown becomes the York Peninsula. 24 Ravenswood, Queensland. port for these fields. 25