Australian gold rushes The specimens have been subjected to the most rigid test by Mr Patterson, in the presence of other competent parties, and he pronounced them to be beyond any possibility of doubt pure gold...The particulars of the precise location, with Esmond's consent, was published in the "Geelong Advertiser" on 22 July 1851. Publication of Esmond's find started the first official gold rush in Victoria in that same month. By 1 August between 300 and 400 diggers were encamped on the Clunes Goldfield, but soon moved to other fields as news of other gold discoveries spread. Esmond was in 1854 to receive
Queen Charlottes Gold Rush the dollar equivalent in blankets). The vessel could not be saved because the Masset looted and destroyed her. The total value of gold recovered from the Queen Charlottes Rush was reckoned to be in the range of three hundred dollars. The rush was complicated by the fact that in 1851 the Queen Charlotte archipelago, though recognized by treaty as British, was as yet unincorporated as a formal possession or colony. With American ships converging on Mitchell Harbour (Mitchell Inlet) on Moresby Island, which was the main port for rush activity, the islands came to the attention of the British Colonial