Episode 2 of 3
Start of the Gold Rush
- When
- May 1851
- Where
- New South Wales
The first gold rush in Australia began in May 1851 after Hargraves claimed payable gold near Orange at Ophir.
The first gold rush in Australia began in May 1851 after prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange, at a site called Ophir. Before 14 May 1851, gold was already flowing from Bathurst to Sydney, an example being when Edward Austin brought to Sydney a nugget of gold worth £35.
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.