In the gold rush there were a few key people, those people are Edward Hargraves, Richard Jeffrey, Tom Brothers and John Lister. These people are some of the first and luckiest gold finders to ever live. The goverment were also very important people because they tried to stop the gold diggers and they started one of the most famous parts of Australian history, the Eureka Rebellion.
Edward Hargraves
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Edward Hargraves was the very first person to ever find gold in Australia. He came from the rocky mountains in California thinking that the mountains in Australia were going to be the same as the ones in California. Full of gold. He then started mining and then started the gold rush. People then started to go crazy and told everyone. |
Samuel Thomas Gill
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Gill born in England on the 21st of May 1818. He came to South Australia in 1839. Gills pay was terrible. So he came to Australia to joing the gold diggers. He soon realised that he was a better artist than gold diggers so he stopped. He began to record his life on the gold fields. Years after the gold rush his paintings became quite famous along with him. The bad thing is that drinking started affecting his health. He later died on October 27 1880.
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Peter Layor
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Peter Layor was born in Ireland on 5th of February 1827. He moved to Victoria in 1852, and like so many others, he quit his job and became a gold digger. he became involved in protests against mining licenses and led to the failure of the Eureka Rebellion. After the Eureka Rebellion he won a award for his capture.
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The Tom Brothers found their 4 ounces of gold down the stream near where Edward Hargraves. They also found a 2 ounce nugget in a rock crevice. It was a few years before the Tom Brothers and John got recognised for finding gold. John Lister found gold around the Tom Brothers. They ended up working for Edward Hargraves at a place called Ophir.