<P> In the report of the Committee on the Claims to Original Discovery of the Goldfields of Victoria published in The Argus (Melbourne) newspaper of 28 March 1854, however, a different picture of the discovery of gold at Golden Point at Ballarat is presented . They stated that Regan and Dunlop were one of two parties working at the same time on opposite sides of the ranges forming Golden Point, the other contenders for the first finders of gold at Ballarat being described as "Mr Brown and his party". The committee stated that "where so many rich deposits were discovered almost simultaneously, within a radius of little more than half a mile, it is difficult to decide to whom is due the actual commencement of the Ballarat diggings ." They also agreed that the prospectors "had been attracted there (Ballarat) by the discoveries in the neighbourhood of Messrs. Esmonds (Clunes) and Hiscock (Buninyong)" and "by attracting great numbers of diggers to the neighbourhood" that "the discovery of Ballarat was but a natural consequence of the discovery of Buninyong". </P> <P> in 1858 the "Welcome Nugget" weighing 2,217 troy ounces 16 pennyweight . (68.98 kg) found at Bakery Hill at Ballarat by a group of 22 Cornish miners working at the mine of the Red Hill Mining Company . </P> <P> It has been claimed that Gold was first found at Bendigo, Victoria in September 1851 . </P> <P> The four sets of serious contenders for the first finders of gold on what became the Bendigo goldfield are, in no particular order: </P>

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