Victorian gold was extremely pure and incredibly abundant just below the surface of the soil.Gold's remarkable properties, value and prestige put Victoria on the world map in the 1850s. Find out about some of Austraila's richest discoveries, where gold was most commonly found and how it was mined.
The discovery of gold in Victoria created years of wealth for the young colony.
Here was a metal that could liberate servants from their masters and sometimes set those masters off to dig for gold themselves.With little attention paid to the environment or the Indigenous custodians of the land, all Victorian soil became potential ‘paydirt’. In this section, learn about the positive and negative impacts of gold mining; many of which we can still see today.