Introduction
In 1851, during the time that there was a gold rush in California USA, a gold rush began in Australia. Small amounts of gold were found in New South Wales in the early days of the colony, but the colonial government of NSW had suppressed news of the gold finds which it believed would reduce the workforce and destabilize the economy. However, in February 1851 a man named Hargraves found gold in Bathurst, and word quickly spread. By June there were 2000 people digging for gold. The Australian gold rush had begun and they named the goldfield Ophir after a city of gold in the Bible. Between 1851 and 1861, Australia produced one third of the world's gold and brought 622 000 people to Australia. By the end of that century, Australia was the largest producer of gold in the world.
The gold rushes of the nineteenth century and the lives of those who worked the goldfields, known as 'diggers', brought new skills and professions in Australia, contributed to a burgeoning economy and helped lay the foundations of the democratic nation that was to be established in 1901. The mate-ship that evolved between these diggers and their collective resistance to authority led to the emergence of a unique national identity and produced a country that every nation desired.
The gold rushes of the nineteenth century and the lives of those who worked the goldfields, known as 'diggers', brought new skills and professions in Australia, contributed to a burgeoning economy and helped lay the foundations of the democratic nation that was to be established in 1901. The mate-ship that evolved between these diggers and their collective resistance to authority led to the emergence of a unique national identity and produced a country that every nation desired.
A Map of the Goldfields in Australia
![Picture](/uploads/2/9/8/2/29824425/4945621.gif?404)
- In February 1851 a man named Hargraves found gold in Bathurst, NSW.
- Gold was discovered at Poverty Point in 1851 in Ballarat by John Dunlop and James Regan in the Canadian Creek, in Victoria.
- Gold was found at Bendigo Creek, Victoria, in September 1851.
- Gold was first discovered in South Australia in 1846 at the Victoria mine near Castambul, City of Adelaide.
- In 1893 Paddy Hannan discovered gold at Mt Charlotte which started the biggest gold rush in Western Australia's history.
- The town, Kalgoorlie in Western Australia was founded in 1892, when gold was discovered in the area.
- Alluvial gold was discovered at Arltunga, Northern Territory, 100 kilometres east of the present Alice Springs.
- Gold was found in 1870 in Mount Morgan, Queensland.
- In 1866, gold was discovered at Queensland, Rock Hampton.