Shaping Australia: Gold Rush

Product Description

Gold was discovered in Australia before the 1850s, but the colonial governors suppressed news of the finds. At the time a large number of the population were British convicts who had been transported to New South Wales, Victoria, Van Diemen's Land, Queensland and Western Australia for their crimes. It was widely believed there would be a convict revolt if word of the potential fortunes to be made from mining gold leaked out. The first official mention of gold in New South Wales was made in 1823 by a government surveyor named James McBrien. He discovered traces of the yellow metal in the Fish River, east of Bathurst. It was during the first decade of the opening up of the western region after Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth found the path across the Blue Mountains in 1813.