Drag to turn the globe

Events/Rush · 1851

Bathurst and Ophir gold rush

Rush, 1851, Australia.

What happened

Edward Hargraves and partners found gold near Bathurst in 1851 after he returned from the Californian fields. Within a month a thousand men were looking for gold at the field named Ophir.1,2

Why it matters

It was the first publicised Australian gold rush and prompted the Victorian discoveries.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Paddy Hannan born

    Paddy Hannan born (date from Wikidata).3

  2. Bathurst and Ophir gold rush

    It was the first publicised Australian gold rush and prompted the Victorian discoveries.1,2

  3. Alfred Beit born

    Alfred Beit born (date from Wikidata).4

  4. Eureka Rebellion

    Eureka Rebellion.5

  5. Welcome Nugget found at Ballarat

    It shows how rich the Victorian deep leads were.1,6

  6. Otago gold rush

    It financed the early growth of Dunedin and the colony.7,8

  7. General Mining Law of 1872

    The law remains the basis for claims to locatable minerals on US federal land.9,10

  8. Black Hills gold rush

    The expedition went ahead although the 1868 treaty had made the Black Hills part of a Sioux reservation. Homestake became a long-lived mine that closed in 2001.11,12

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

Discovered byEdward Hammond HargravesOn 12 February 1851 men he had taught cradle-washing found gold near Bathurst.1Inspired byPaul Edmund de StrzeleckiHis 1839 gold find was kept quiet until the 1851 rush.13

Mines

Located inHill End goldfieldA mine from the same area and mineral story: Hill End goldfield.1

Events

Led toVictorian gold rushVictoria's gold was notified on 5 July 1851, soon after Hargraves found gold near Bathurst.14Came out ofJames Marshall finds gold at Sutter's sawmillEdward Hargraves came home from the Californian fields and found gold near Bathurst.1

Sources

  1. Australian Mineral Facts: Gold Geoscience Australia
  2. Ophir (item Q7097979), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q2057649 (Paddy Hannan)
  4. Wikidata item Q77802 (Alfred Beit)
  5. Wikidata item Q2164870 (Eureka Rebellion)
  6. Ballarat (item Q17856), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. History of Gabriels Gully NZ Department of Conservation
  8. Gabriel's Gully (item Q5515501), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  9. Mining Claims and Sites on Federal Lands (PDF) US Bureau of Land Management
  10. Washington, D.C. (item Q61), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  11. Mining in South Dakota: Education Kit (PDF) South Dakota State Historical Society
  12. Black Hills gold rush (item Q3453700), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  13. Strzelecki, Paul Edmund de Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 vol 55 (public-domain text on Wikisource), article by Thomas Seccombe
  14. Year Book Australia 1911, gold chapter Australian Bureau of Statistics

Pictures on this page: Edward Hammond Hargraves.jpg, Angas, George French, 1822-1886 (Public domain); Paweł Edmund Strzelecki 1.jpg, Unknown author (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

The Super Pit gold mine at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, at sunsetMining historyGold rushes, then and nowGold and lithium · WorldwideGold drill-hole columns rising over the Yilgarn goldfields on a satellite map of Western AustraliaData storyUnder Western AustraliaDrill holes · Western AustraliaGold drill-hole columns over the Northern Territory on a satellite mapData storyUnder the Northern TerritoryDrill holes · Northern TerritoryGold drill-hole columns over central Victoria on a satellite mapData storyUnder VictoriaDrill holes · Victoria

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0.