History Always Repeats

Although gold had been rumoured to have been found in Australia as early as 1814, the first gold fields did not appear until thirty years later. Gold discoveries were not considered blessings in the pre 1850’s Australian convict society as the authorities believed gold fever could potentially cause anarchy in the small fledgling British colonies.

How things have changed since those days.  The gold rushes in the second half of the 19th century would completely change the face of Australia. Before 1851, Australia’s combined white population was approximately 77,000. Most of those had been convicts sent by ship over the previous seventy years.

The gold rush completely changed that however. In the two years that followed Edward Hargraves’ discovery at Bathurst, Australia’s population increased to over 540,000. 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia’s ports during the year 1852 alone.  That is right, gold is the very reason Australia grew as a nation.

The flow of convicts to Australia’s shores stopped. It suddenly seemed like a foolish idea (and indeed no longer a punishment) to give a free boat ride to Australia’s rich gold fields to anyone who had committed a crime in the UK.

The incredible wealth that poured out of Victoria was unthinkable. When the ships returned to England carrying eight tonnes of Australia gold, the London Times declared in 1852: “…this is California all over again, but, it would appear, California on a larger scale…” 

Incredibly, Victoria alone produced more than a third of the world’s gold produced in the 1850's. By 1871 the population of Australia had increased from 540,000 to a whopping 1.7 million. These are just some of the snippets of information of interest now appearing in the GoldOz Gold History section under construction.

Victoria was not the only State in Australia to see massive gold interest.  Gold was initially reported to have been discovered in Western Australia at Fly Flat near Coolgardie in 1892 by Arthur Bailey and William Ford.  Bailey reported that he had mined 554 oz of gold on that day and received a “reward claim” of 20 acres of mining lease. 

The Kalgoorlie gold rush began in June 1893 with the discovery of rich alluvial gold deposits near Mount Charlotte. This distracted prospectors away from Coolgardie in a similar fashion to other discoveries in the Eastern States a few decades earlier. 

From an historical perspective, the Coolgardie gold find proved to be one of immense national significance. During the 1890’s, Eastern Australia experienced a severe depression and people flocked to the areas of Coolgardie in the hope of a better life.

Rebirth of the Gold Rush is Here

Today we have central banks being net buyers of bullion as gold re-establishes itself as a credible and essential part of the global monetary system.  Today the gold mining sector in Australia is a major export earner and a vital part of our economy.  It supports many country towns providing employment and even tourism benefits.

Western Australia is the major force producing a major proportion of Australia’s gold production today which is partly why I studied this state to select a target for my first major GoldOz Educational Report back in August 2009.  The gold rush is on and many stocks have blitzed it since October and November of 2008 when I called a bottom.  However this report covered a stock that tripled since August 2009 and outperformed many other gold companies.

We called the breakout in the Aussie gold sector and warned for many months ahead that this would happen.  The other significant gold regions are spread across Australia and a part of our study as we unearth the significant miners in today’s era.  We called the break out timing of gold itself 9 months ahead in reports at the beginning of 2009.

The public are only just getting the fact that gold is back.  Companies, investors and web sites around the world are booming on the back of gold.  The web site that you find this article on is doing investors, and every body that will listen, a huge favor.  They provide you with an invaluable support in bringing you the vital data from leading writers and services like on-line gold and bullion sales so you can protect yourself and financially prosper from related investments.