Show WHEN AUSTRALIA FIRST FOUND GOLD national geographic magazine when word reached sydney early in 1849 that an australian engineer had found gold in the streams of the sierra nevadas nevada s the boats to san francisco were crowded with australians one of these amateur miners edward hargraves was so impressed with the similarity between the gold bearing rocks of california and the rocks alon along the macquarie that he hurried back to australia and had the satisfaction of startling the peaceful colonies by the discovery of gold in new south wales in february 1851 one year later men were encamped at three gold centers ballarat ballaran Ball arat bendigo castlemaine in 1850 victoria had a population of chiefly and farmers by 1855 there were inhabitants three fourths of them men during this period melbourne rose from a town to hold for a time the position of the foremost city in the southern h hemisphere emi sphere parks were laid out the university ver sity public library and museum established the first australian railway built and plans for the future knew no bounds 6 reports of panning to 00 OO per day and of finding nuggets worth thousands of dollars each upset even the most sober minded farms shops ships were alike deserted not only by men on them but by their owners and masters it was shearing time but there was no it seemed that at harvest time there would be no reap ers even government officers and policemen deserted and order was kept and offices manned by soldiers brought from tasmania and from england the workings at ballarat ballaran Ball arat and bendigo justified the excitement for the first ten years 1852 1861 the output was valued at from the victoria field have come nuggets each weighing over ounces and twelve over 1000 ounces the weight of the welcome was 2217 ounces and of the welcome stranger found an inch below the surface 2520 ounces worth Queens lands turn came next one small field after another was developed until in 1886 the famous mt morgan mine was opened this wonderful mine literally a mountain impregnated with gold began by paying dividends of a year in 1889 the stockholders received and the dividends for the first twenty years amounted to although mt morgan continues to produce in gold a year it is in reality a copper mine the gold constitutes the fringe of a mammoth deposit of copper with reserves estimated at 1000 tons in several respects it is the most remarkable mine in the world and ranks next to broken hill as a dividend payer |