In the year 1851 Edmund Hammond Hargraves, an old settler in New South Wales, returned thither from California, where he had spent about eighteen months in the search for gold.  His efforts in California resulted in no immediate prosperity, but he gained much useful practical experience.  More than this, as he looked at the natural features of the California gold-fields, a great idea grew up in his mind.  Though not a geologist, he appears to have had a quick eye for stratiform resemblances; and the more he studied the peculiarities of rocks and soil in California, the more he became convinced that he knew, in his own colony, a district which presented the same features and which, therefore, might be expected to produce the same results.

Remaining in California only long enough to verify his observations, he returned to Sydney at the beginning of the year 1851.  Seldom has such absolute confidence in unverified observation proved so completely justified.  According to Hargraves’s own account he went without hesitation to a spot on the banks of a little stream known as Lewes Pond Creek, a tributary of Summer Hill Creek, itself a tributary of the Macquarie River, and there at once, on February 12, 1851, found alluvial gold.  In April he had so far advanced as to be able to write to the Government offering to disclose his treasures for five hundred pounds.  But he subsequently decided to trust to the liberality of the Government, and offered at once to show his workings to the government geologist, an official recently sent out from England to report upon gold prospects.  On May 19th Mr. Stutchbury officially reported the discovery of gold in workable quantities at Summer Hill Creek, and by the end of the same month the immigration to the diggings had begun.  Hargraves himself took no part in the digging, merely pointing out to others, without reserve, the places in which his experience led him to predict discovery, and instructing them in the processes of washing and cleaning.  He was soon made a commissioner of Crown lands, and received a reward of ten thousand pounds.

Now began a period which can have no complete parallel in earlier history, save the almost contemporaneous parallel of California.

For in days when news travelled slowly, and travelling for ordinary men was still slower, in days when governments jealously prohibited the expatriation of their subjects, and only allowed the immigration of aliens under strict limitations, nothing like the Australian gold-rush could have taken place.  As it was, everything favored the stampede.  The Australian colonies themselves were anxious for immigrants.  The European disturbances of 1848 had led many Continental rulers to the conclusion that it was wiser to allow turbulent spirits to go than to attempt to keep them.  The new era of industry had completely unsettled the old relationships and awakened a spirit of restlessness.  Finally, the recent application of steam to sea-going