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To contact us: |
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Email: Johns @ theozzie.info |
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Much of Australia’s early gold information has been lost or forgotten. It was a period in our history when not many records were kept and many of those that were written were lost or destroyed . So in many cases we have to go on story’s past down though the following generations of which a lot are inaccurate. A lot information we have, unfortunately, is still in the memories of our older generation, a generation that did not have computers or TV, a generation that sat and talked at night about times gone by. Nowadays it is up to those with an interest to collect that old information and save it for our future generations. There were many reports of gold being found in Australia, long before the first reported and recognized find by Edward Hargeaves, although these finds were suppressed by the government of the time in the fear that they would cause a rush and the graziers would loose there labour. The earliest recorded discovery of gold was made in 1823 at Bathurst, N.S.W. by a Lands Department surveyor, James Mc Brien. Mc Brien was engaged in the survey of a road along the Fish River, between Rydal and Bathurst and at one point of the survey recorded in his field book the following note: "At E. (end of survey line) 1 chain 50 links to river and marked gum tree. At this point I found numerous particles of gold convenient to river" It was not until Edward Hammond Hargave's discovery of
payable gold in 1851 that any real gold rush began in Australia.
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