Ancient Greeks believed that gold was formed by the rays of the sun transforming common metals in the earth. Scientists today still think that gold formation is related to stars, specifically dying stars. At the core of a dying star - a supernova - elements begin to fuse together in the extreme heat.
Clouds of heavy elements are ejected that can eventually form new stars and planets like Earth. A small amount of this material is gold and over millions of years it dissolved and accumulated under the intense heat of the earth's mantle.
The Great Dividing Range was noted by early geologists to be similar to gold-bearing mountain ranges like the Urals in Russia and the Rocky Mountains in America. The specks, flakes and nuggets that caught the eyes of early gold seekers in Victoria and New South Wales confirmed the similarity.
For Christians - like the Reverend Dr John Dunmore Lang - gold was a gift to the new colony from God: