The Gold Rush

The first mention of gold being found in Australia was by a convict in August 1788. He claimed some gold dust found in his possession was from a source in Sydney Harbour. It was later found he had been filing down a gold coin and using the story to get clothing and other items from ships’ crews; he was severely punished.

It is however possible that gold was found within the first thirty years of settlement. Oral tradition in the Macquarie family says that in 1820 Mrs Macquarie (Governor Macquarie’s wife) gave gold found in NSW as a wedding present to her niece in Scotland.

The first official mention of the discovery of gold is in 1823, shortly after the Macquaries left. Surveyor James McBrien, who was surveying Fish River, east of Bathurst, wrote in his Field Book that, ‘at this place I found numerous particles of gold in the sand’.

In 1839 Polish explorer Count Paul Strzelecki observed gold particles in Gippsland rock but Governor Gipps, who feared convict unrest if they heard of the discovery, asked him to say nothing. Similarly in 1844 when geologist W B Clarke presented Gipps with a gold sample he found near Bathurst, Gipps supposedly told him, ‘Put it away, Mr Clarke, or we shall all have our throats cut’.

It was not until 1851 that Edward Hargraves was credited with, and rewarded for, finding a location with a significant quantity of gold. This honour was later disputed by various people including William and James Tom and John Lister who had worked the site Hargraves claimed to have found alone. In 1891 a Committee recognised these men and not Hargraves as the first people to discover payable gold in Australia.

By this time Australia had changed forever. In 1852 gold was also discovered in much larger quantities in the newly named colony of Victoria. This created massive social upheaval and led to the settlement of new areas. The 1850s gold rushes altered the nature of Australian society permanently. It caused a huge influx of migrants, a sudden increase in wealth, and was significant in bringing about a desire for self-government and the end of the transportation of convicts.