![]() ![]() The promise of fortunes to be had across the Pacific led thousands of men to leave the colony, creating labour shortages and economic depression. The government’s attitude to gold discoveries changed in 1848 with news of the California gold rush. ![]() However, he was denied the recognition and monetary reward, which was ultimately claimed by Edward Hargraves. Research by one of Smith's relatives, Lynette Silver, established that Smith’s find was the first discovery of payable gold. In 1848 mineralogist William Tipple Smith found gold near Bathurst and the following year revealed the find to the NSW Colonial Secretary Edward Thomson. Gipps feared that mutiny would result if the people of New South Wales, the majority of whom were convicts or ex-convicts, found that gold was within easy reach. In 1844 he mentioned it to Governor Gipps who reportedly said: ‘Put it away Mr Clarke or we shall all have our throats cut’. In 1841 Reverend William Branwhite Clarke, one of the earliest geologists in the colony, came across particles of gold near Hartley in the Blue Mountains. There had been multiple gold finds in New South Wales (Bathurst and Monaro), Tasmania and what would become Victoria prior to the ‘official’ discovery of the precious metal by Edward Hargraves near Orange in 1851. ![]()
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