Australian gold rushes Australian gold rushes During the Australian gold rushes, significant numbers of workers (both from other areas within Australia and from overseas) relocated to areas in which gold had been discovered. A number of gold finds occurred in Australia prior to 1851, but only the gold found from 1851 onwards created gold rushes. This is mainly because, prior to 1851, the colonial government of New South Wales (Victoria did not become a separate colony until 1 July 1851) had suppressed news of gold finds which it believed would reduce the workforce and destabilise the economy. After the California Gold Rush began
Australian gold rushes managed by the National Trust of Australia (WA) states:The gold rush transformed the Western Australian economy as gold production soared from 22,806 ounces in 1890 to 1,643,876 ounces in 1900 and this was matched by the fourfold increase in WA's population from 46,290 in 1890 to 184,124 reported in the 1901 census. Gold was rediscovered near Tarnagulla on 6 November 1906 (Melbourne Cup Day), when a miner who had prospected the district for years obtained seven ounces of gold from a shaft nineteen feet (6 metres) deep. With some fairly large nuggets being found soon after, the so-called Poseidon rush,