Victorian gold rush
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The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia, approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony and an influx of population growth and financial capital for Melbourne, which was dubbed "Marvellous Melbourne" as a result of the procurement of wealth.
Richard Daintree and Antoine Fauchery (circa 1858) A gang of diggers at Forrest Creek, Chewton
Fossickers in the Nerrena Creek outside Ballarat
Canvas Town, South Melbourne in the 1850s
Ballarat's tent city just a couple of years after the discovery of gold in the district. Oil painting from an original 1853 sketch by Eugene von Guerard.
Gold rush
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A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Greece, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, the United States, and Canada while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
The fastest clipper ships cut the travel time from New York to San Francisco from seven months to four months in the 1849 California Gold Rush.
A man leans over a wooden sluice. Rocks line the outside of the wood boards that create the sluice.
Swedish gold panners by the Blackfoot River, Montana in the 1860s
Gold prospecting at the Ivalo River in 1898