Australian gold rushes a £1,000 reward as "the first actual producer of alluvial gold for the market". The following goldfields were discovered in New South Wales during July 1851: On 20 July 1851 gold was found near present-day Castlemaine, Victoria (Mt Alexander Goldfields) at Specimen Gully in today's Castlemaine suburb of Barkers Creek. The gold was first found by Christopher Thomas Peters, a shepherd and hut-keeper on the Barker's Creek, in the service of William Barker. When the gold was shown in the men's quarters Peters was ridiculed for finding fool's gold, and the gold was thrown away. Barker did not want his
Otago Gold Rush that of other major gold-bearing areas, and it was assumed the gold would amount to little. Māori had long known of the existence of gold in Central Otago, but had no use for the ore. For a precious material they relied on greenstone for weaponry and tools, and used greenstone, obsidian and bone carving for jewellery. The first known European Otago gold find was at Goodwood, near Palmerston in October 1851. The find was of a very small amount with no ensuing "rush". Instead, the settlement of Dunedin was just three years old, and more practical matters were of higher