Episode 1 of 1
First Officially Recognized Gold Find
- When
- 15 February 1823
- Where
- Fish River
Assistant surveyor James McBrien observed gold flecks at Fish River near Bathurst on 15 February 1823, marking the first officially recognized gold find in Australia.
McBrien recorded the discovery at Fish River, between Rydal and Bathurst. The colonial government suppressed the news due to fears of economic destabilization and workforce reduction. The find was treated as a curiosity, and the penal nature of the colony kept the subject quiet, delaying immediate exploitation.
Sources
- Australian gold rushes Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-22
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.