<P> Smythe's Creek, a branch of the Wardy Yallock river, is also attracting its share of the mining population, who are doing tolerably well . One very fine sample of gold has also been received in town during the week from the Wardy Yallock itself, found in the locality where the exploring party of last winter ended their labours . The parcel is small, - only 22 dwts., but was obtained by one man in a week from very shallow surfacing . </P> <P> In March 1850 pastoralist William Campbell found several minute pieces of native gold in quartz on the station of Donald Cameron at Clunes . William Campbell is notable as having been the first member of the electoral district of Loddon of the Victorian Legislative Council from November 1851 to May 1854 . Campbell was in 1854 to receive a £ 1,000 reward from the Victorian Gold Discovery Committee as the original discoverer of gold at Clunes . At the time of the find in March 1850 Campbell was in the company of Donald Cameron, Cameron's superintendent, and a friend . This find was concealed at the time lest it should bring undesirable strangers to the run . Observing, however, the migration of the population of New South Wales and the panic created throughout the whole colony, and especially in Melbourne, and further motivated by a £ 200 reward that had been offered the day previous to anyone who could find payable gold within 200 miles (320 km) of Melbourne, on 10 June 1851, Campbell addressed a letter to merchant James Graham (member of Victorian Legislative Council 1853--1854 and 1867--1886) stating that within a radius of 15 miles of Burn Bank, on another party's station, he had procured specimens of gold . Campbell divulged the precise spot where the gold had been found in a letter to Graham dated 5 July 1851 . Prior to this date, however, James Esmond and his party were already at work there mining for gold . This was because Cameron had earlier shown specimens of the gold to George Hermann Bruhn, a German doctor and geologist whose services as an analyst were in great demand . Communication of this knowledge by Hermann to James Esmond was to result in the discovery by Esmond on 1 July 1851 of payable quantities of alluvial gold at Clunes which then resulted in the first Victorian gold rush . </P> <P> Edward Hargraves, accompanied by John Lister, found five specks of alluvial gold at Ophir near Orange in February 1851 . Then, in April 1851, John Lister and William Tom, trained by Edward Hargraves, found 120 grams of gold . This discovery, instigated by Hargraves, led directly to the beginning of the gold rush in New South Wales . This was the first gold rush in Australia and was in full operation by May 1851, even before it was officially proclaimed on 14 May 1851, with already an estimated 300 diggers in place by 15 May 1851 . Before 14 May 1851 gold was already flowing from Bathurst to Sydney, an example being when Edward Austin brought to Sydney a nugget of gold worth £ 35, which had been found in the Bathurst District . </P> <P> In 1872 a large gold and quartz "Holtermann Nugget" discovered by the night shift in a mine part owned by Bernhardt Holtermann at Hill End, near Bathurst, New South Wales: the largest specimen of reef gold ever found, 1.5 meters (59 inches) long, weighing 286 kg (630 pounds), in Hill End, near Bathurst, and with an estimated gold content of 5000 ounces (57 kg). </P>

The beginning of the gold rush in australia
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