Gold rush history
The discovery of gold in the 1850s and 60s is the most significant event in the evolution of the state of Victoria. In July 1851 Victoria gained its independence from New South Wales and became a separate colony. In the same month the new Victorian government announced that gold had been discovered.
Original inhabitants
The Jarra Jarra people occupied the area where gold would eventually be found. At the time of European settlement, there were 16 Jarra Jarra clans in central Victoria, all speaking the Djadja Wurrung language.
Two Aboriginal rock wells can be found on the Eureka Reef Walk. These small surface depressions were carefully constructed to collect water. A small rock was placed over each to stop animals drinking the water and allowing the Jarra Jarra to travel easily even when water was scarce.
Gold fever hits
Fuelled by extravagant stories of wealth gained at the 1849 Californian gold rush, gold fever hit Victoria following the early gold discoveries in and around Clunes, Warrandyte and Ballarat. An eager digging population was attracted from Melbourne and the neighbouring colonies of NSW, South Australia and Tasmania. But the real rush began with the discovery of the Mount Alexander goldfield 60 kilometres north-east of Ballarat.
Mt Alexander's bounty
Mt Alexander (taking in the goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo) was one of the world’s richest shallow alluvial goldfields, yielding around four million ounces of gold, most of which was found in the first two years of the rush and within five metres of the surface. The arrival at London’s port of six ships carrying a total of eight tonnes of Victorian gold in the first weeks of April 1852 excited the press and the public. The Times of London declared: '.. this is California all over again, but, it would appear, California on a larger scale…'
Mt Alexander goldfield’s largest nugget was found in 1855 at Golden Gully by some inexperienced miners who had been sent to a ‘duffer’ or empty claim. On just their second day digging they discovered the 1008 ounce, ‘damper-shaped’ nugget and named it in honour of the area’s popular gold commissioner, Mr Heron.
Welcome Stranger
The small town of Moliagul became famous when a 69-kilogram gold nugget was found in 1869 at Bulldog Gully. Dubbed 'Welcome Stranger', the nugget was the largest in the world, though it was soon broken into pieces as the district lacked scales big enough to weigh the 60 by 30 centimetre nugget. Today the nugget would be worth over one million dollars.
Gold rush names
Diggers gave names to almost every metre of ground on the gold fields. They chose names like Murdering Flat, Chokem Flat, Drunkard’s Gully, Cranky Ned’s Reef and Dirty Dick’s Gully, some after real people. Others named their new home after old ones, choosing Adelaide Flat, Californian Gully, Manchester Flat, Launceston Gully, Switzerland Reef.
Many place names convey something of the misfortunes suffered there. As well as Murdering Flat and Chokem Flat, there was Deadman’s Gully, Bung-eye Gully, and Burying Ground Flat. Unlucky diggers bestowed names like Poverty Hill and Three Speck Gully to signify the meagre amounts of gold found. More lucrative spots were labelled Hundredweight Hill and Nuggetty Flat.
Population boom
By the end of 1852, 90,000 newcomers had flocked to Victoria in search of gold. Within a decade the population of Australia had trebled, and from the 1850s to the 1880s the bulk of Victoria’s swelling population resided in the interior of the colony where most mining activity took place, rather than in Melbourne or on the coast. Provincial cities like Ballarat and Bendigo grew and large-scale and sophisticated inland infrastructure was developed – railways, roads and active government outposts, as well as libraries, theatres, art galleries, and stock exchanges.
'Marvellous Melbourne' is born
A building boom soon followed the rush of riches, and lavish houses began appearing on the streets of hitherto quiet pastoral towns. In the 1850s the heaviest traffic in Australia was on the road from Melbourne to Bendigo, and by the 1880s, Melbourne was christened ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ – one of the world’s biggest, booming, and cosmopolitan cities of the era.
Sporadic but large-scale gold-mining operations continue in Victoria up to the present day. It is nearly 100 years since the last real gold rush to Poseidon, a goldfield named after the winner of the 1906 Melbourne Cup. The legacy of the gold rush era is evident in boom time architecture in Melbourne, at Sovereign Hill, Central Deborah and other gold-themed attractions, and in the towns and bush, buildings, ruins and relics of the gold rushes are everywhere.
