![]() ![]() The discovery of gold started a series of rushes that transformed the other Australian colonies. News of the find was promptly published in the Sydney Morning Herald and by, 300 diggers had arrived in Ophir. Hargraves was eventually awarded the £10,000 prize, which he refused to share with Lister or the Tom brothers. Samuel Stutchbury was sent to confirm the strike, which he did. Hargraves returned to Sydney in March 1851 and presented his samples to the government. Within weeks they had discovered a small amount of gold at a site Hargraves named Ophir, after a port city of great wealth mentioned in the Old Testament. Near Bathurst, Hargraves enlisted the support of John Lister and brothers William and James Tom. In January 1851 he returned to the colony and immediately headed inland, convinced he would find gold and, more importantly, claim the government reward. He failed to find his fortune but was struck by the topographical and geological similarities between California and the interior of New South Wales. In 1849 he sailed for the Californian gold rush. Hargraves, the Gold Discoverer of Australia, Feb 12th 1851 Returning the Salute of the Gold Miners by TT BalcombeĮdward Hargraves was a jack of all trades: farmer, storekeeper, publican, pearl-sheller and sailor. He convinced the British Government in 1849 to appoint a government geologist, Samuel Stutchbury, and offered a reward to anyone who found a commercially viable amount of gold. Governor Charles FitzRoy had heard rumours of the gold to be found in New South Wales and believed a mineral discovery in the colony could reverse the economic downturn. The promise of fortunes to be had across the Pacific led thousands of men to leave the colony, creating labour shortages and economic depression. The government’s attitude to gold discoveries changed in 1848 with news of the California gold rush. However, he was denied the recognition and monetary reward, which was ultimately claimed by Edward Hargraves. Research by one of Smith's relatives, Lynette Silver, established that Smith’s find was the first discovery of payable gold. In 1848 mineralogist William Tipple Smith found gold near Bathurst and the following year revealed the find to the NSW Colonial Secretary Edward Thomson. Gipps feared that mutiny would result if the people of New South Wales, the majority of whom were convicts or ex-convicts, found that gold was within easy reach. ![]() In 1844 he mentioned it to Governor Gipps who reportedly said: ‘Put it away Mr Clarke or we shall all have our throats cut’. ![]() In 1841 Reverend William Branwhite Clarke, one of the earliest geologists in the colony, came across particles of gold near Hartley in the Blue Mountains. been central to the way history has been told,” according to the Australian government.There had been multiple gold finds in New South Wales (Bathurst and Monaro), Tasmania and what would become Victoria prior to the ‘official’ discovery of the precious metal by Edward Hargraves near Orange in 1851. These “diggers” forged a strong, unified identity independent of colonial British authority. Wages in the region doubled, but it was still difficult to find workers as people abandoned their stable jobs to seek their fortune in the gold fields. Even more immigrants arrived from other parts of Australia. Most of these immigrants were British, but many prospectors from the United States, Germany, Poland, and China also settled in NSW and Victoria. Within a year, more than 500,000 people (nicknamed “diggers”) rushed to the gold fields of Australia. This began the Australian Gold Rush, which had a profound impact on the country’s national identity. Soon, even more gold was discovered in what would become the neighboring state of Victoria. On February 12, 1851, a prospector discovered flecks of gold in a waterhole near Bathurst, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. ![]()
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