When did the australian gold rush finish?
It’s still going on now! There were two main periods of gold rushes, as gold was found in new areas, causing a huge influx of local and migrant prospectors hoping to make it rich. 1850’s-gold was found near Bathurst in NSW, and in the Sovereign Hill area of Victoria. These alluvial gold deposits could be easily worked by individuals or small groups and caused the biggest “rushes”-look at the change in population of Australia from1850 to 1860, compared to 1840 to 1850. 1890s Gold was found in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie in WA-another huge influx of migrants to WA. The mining boom that has driven Australia’s growth in GDP over the last 15 years has been partly based on the price of gold, but it doesn’t cause the same kind of wild changes in prices and populations because opening a mine is a huge long term project that is too big for individuals or even small companies. Opal mining is the last viable resource that an individual or family can mine successfully.
