Just before Christmas of 1848, a schooner from Hawaii entered Port Phillip Bay, bringing news of gold strikes on the west coast of America. Within a few days, a fleet of local ships was taking passengers, bound for California. Many people had no doubt that Australia had its own gold deposits, and indeed gold was found before the Californian rush, just not in large quantities.

Here and there, tiny amounts of gold had been extracted from quartz outcrops in both NSW and Victoria, and, in 1846, a squatter named David Reid found gold specks in a creek near Beechworth. None of these discoveries attracted any attention but, in 1849, a young shepherd named Thomas Chapman from north-west of Melbourne arrived with 38 ounces of the precious metal; he then disappeared without divulging the whereabouts of his find. Quite a few made their way to the area where Chapman was employed, only to be turned away on La Trobe’s orders (for trespass on Crown land).

La Trobe had no love of the idea of pastoral peace being disturbed by discoveries of gold. The same went for many men of the land, like William Campbell who tried to keep his discovery of gold on his run near Clunes in 1850 quiet. While there had been little interest in looking for gold previously, the Californian rush had changed that. Poor men could become rich, which worried respectable men in power, as even former convicts could elevate their social standing.

In February 1851, gold was found near Bathurst in NSW by Edward Hargraves, who had returned from California boasting that he could find gold in Australia. Many left the Port Phillip District to make their to NSW, which prompted action from some Melbourne residents. Though some like La Trobe feared a gold rush, others feared that Melbourne and the Port Phillip District would suffer from losing many hard-won immigrants. In June, a group of Melburnians offered to pay a £200 reward for the discovery of a payable gold field within 200 miles of the city.

In July 1851, the Port Phillip District became the Colony of Victoria, and the reward still remained unclaimed. However, by the time 2 weeks had gone by, all that had changed. Gold was found at Anderson’s Creek (a tributary of the Yarra) near Warrandyte by Lois Mitchell’s party, and at Clunes by James Esmond’s team. This relieved many who did not want to see Victoria being overshadowed by its former parent colony. Yet nobody had any idea that Victoria held the richest gold deposits in all of Australia, and that Melbourne would soon become the centre of the world.

The news of Victorian gold started others looking for it, as many were grazing their sheep over immense fortunes and had no idea. In August, blacksmith Thomas Hiscock discovered gold at Buninyong, and James Regan at Golden Point. The Ballarat gold fields would become one of the richest in the world, but the part of it known as Golden Point was stripped of its readily available alluvial (surface) gold by December. The miners then moved on, since they knew nothing of the ancient creek beds yet to be found.

During September and October 1851, the rush spread to the Mount Alexander region, Loddon River’s tributaries, ‘Jim Crow’ (Daylesford), and Creswick. The first hint that Bendigo would become a major gold field came in November with finds at Golden Gully and Bendigo Creek. By the end of the year, gold had been found as far away as Omeo, and more deposits found closer to Melbourne.

Thousands of men headed towards the gold fields, and the last couple of months of 1851 saw Melbourne and Geelong decline in activity. Even though many arrived from other colonies, they did not stay long in the cities. To give you an idea of how the rush affected Melbourne, the following is from a report from La Trobe to Earl Grey, his superior, dated 10th of October 1851:

“Not only have the idlers to be found in every community, and day labourers in town and the adjacent country, shopmen, artizans, and mechanics of every description, thrown up their employment, and in most cases, leaving their employers and their wives and families to take care of themselves, run off to the workings,- but responsible tradesmen, farmers, clerks of every grade, and not a few of the superior classes have followed: … Cottages are deserted, houses to let, business is at a standstill, and even schools are closed. In some of the suburbs, not a man is left and the women are known for self protection to forget neighbours jars, and to group together to keep house. The ships in the harbour are, in a great measure, deserted… Fortunate the family, whatever its position, which retains its servants at any sacrifice… Drained of its labouring population, the price of provisions in the towns is naturally on the increase.”

Early in 1852, the news of Victorian gold reached Britain and other parts of Europe. Before long, stories of men picking up handfuls of gold in the streets were circulating, and thousands soon competed for berths on south-bound vessels. All available European ships were put into service bringing over those seeking wealth, and from September onwards Melbourne was alive with activity and its ports full of ships. A total of 94,664 people arrived by sea, 45,000 of whom were from Britain (of which 29,000 were unassisted). Within a single year, the population the Victoria doubled. Before long, the gold fields of Victoria were crowded with Americans, Chinese, Germans, British, French, Danes, Italians, and others. Most people to come over were unassisted, though women still received assistance in an effort to boost the female population (men outnumbered women 2:1).

The focus of interest in the first half of 1852 remained at Mount Alexander (near which the town of Castlemaine was springing up); by September, Bendigo had become the principal gold field, with 55,000 gold seekers. Ballarat became another important field with the discovery of deeper alluvial deposits in May, and its total yield would eventually surpass that of Bendigo.

In 1853, another 92,312 hopefuls poured into Victoria, which meant that less and less diggers could make a living in the fields. A minority made their wealth in those times, and many made enough to survive, yet many others slipped into poverty. With less gold to be found, and more looking for it, times were going to be hard for many. Some realised that a new form of collective mining had to emerge to extract deeply buried alluvial gold at places like Ballarat, and so mining syndicates emerged. Others left Victoria, while many made their way to Melbourne and Geelong in search of employment (which ended the labour shortage in the cities and stimulated the building boom in Melbourne).

1852 remains as the most successful year of the Victorian gold rush; while much was also extracted during 1853, it was spread more thinly over a larger proportion of diggers. While Ballarat expanded in 1854, less gold was to be found elsewhere, and so began the decline of the gold rush era. More (relatively) small deposits were found around Victoria from 1855-58, but an air of desperation now went with the work.

As one can imagine, the discovery of the 2,195 ounce ‘Welcome Nugget’ at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, in 1858 did much to keep the enthusiasm alive (the famous ‘Welcome Stranger’ - a 2,284 ounce nugget - would not be found till 1869); that year saw the peak of gold field activity, with 147,358 people, of which around 33,000 were Chinese, employed on the gold fields (see also: Chinese on the Gold Fields). Ballarat produced 4,806,477 ounces of gold during that decade, while Bendigo yielded 4,305,996 ounces (due to more of it being trapped in quartz).

By 1861, those working on the gold fields numbered around 100,000, and it became clear that many would only be able to do so by working for one of the mining companies (which had the machines to crush quartz). The Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Company, for one, had faced opposition from independent diggers throughout the 1850’s (with the latter trying to blow up the former’s plant in 1858), but this subsided by the end of the decade. This signalled the beginning of corporate mining, and towns like Bendigo, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Maryborough and Clunes evolved from the settled mining communities.