Figure of the month: 1851

The California Gold Rush and the subsequent gold rushes  in Colorado, Montana and the Black Hills in the US, or those of a similar scale in South Africa, Brazil and Oceania: all of them are a fascinating and exciting chapter of history. That is, however, not all there is to them. An area in Australia was the scene of a huge gold rush but remains attractive to prospectors to this day, and not just for historical reasons.

The Victoria Goldfields: stuff of legends for over 170 years

In 1851, the Victoria Goldfields, also known as the Golden Triangle, were discovered in Australia, leading to a gold rush of unprecedented proportions Down Under. At times, gold discoveries in the Golden Triangle surpassed all others worldwide, apart from California. Some of the nuggets found here were gigantic in size, such as the ‘Welcome Stranger’ at 72 kg or the ‘Canadian’ weighing some 50 kg. During the main gold rush and for some time afterwards, a total of 1.9 tonnes of gold were ‘harvested’ on the Victoria Goldfields.

The Golden Triangle rightly bears its name to this day

Even though the heyday of the Victoria gold rush died down in the late 1860s, amateur gold prospectors have continued to find remarkable nuggets, such as the ‘Hand of Faith’ in 1980, weighing an impressive 27.3 kg. In 2023, a prospector found a 2.6 kg nugget of gold in the Golden Triangle, situated between the towns of St Arnaud, Bendigo and Ballarat, and just a few months ago, amateur gold prospector Luke Phillips unearthed a nugget weighing just under 600 grams using a semi-defective amateur-grade metal detector. It is thus no wonder that the Golden Triangle remains extremely popular with gold fans – and an official prospecting licence can be purchased by anyone for a fee of 30 Australian dollars.