-
The gold rush story.
Significant numbers of workers (both in Australia and all around the world)relocated to areas in which gold had been discovered. A number of gold finds occurred in Australia prior to 1851, but only the gold found in1851 onwards created gold rushes. This is mainly because, prior to 1851, the colonial government of New South Wales (Victoria did not become a separate colony until 1 July 1851) had suppressed news of gold finds which it believed would reduce the workforce and destabilise the economy.