THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



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THE •"WELCOME STRANGER" NUGGET. 



From the Model in the Museum. 



Photo C Glutton 



ing the nugget, and on Saturday morning 

 it was loaded on a dray and taken into 

 DunoUy. The finders had intended to cart 

 the nugget to Melbourne and exhibit it 

 there, but Deason did not like the look of 

 the crowd that gathered round the dray in 

 Dunolly. He decided to turn it into cash 

 at once, so it was sold to the bank and 

 melted after it had been solemnly christ- 

 ened in the presence of a large gathering 

 of people, some of whom had travelled 

 miles to assist at the ceremony. A few 

 days later the two men were back at their 

 claim, but no more nuggets rewarded them. 

 They soon gave it up, and separated. Some 

 years later the two mates again met at 

 Dunolly. Meanwhile, Oates had made 

 some fortunate investments and was 

 richer than ever, but Deason's luck liad 

 forsaken him again and he was once more 

 poor. 



The "Welcome" nugget, but little smaller 

 than its fellow, was found on June 15, 

 1858, in the Redhill Mining Company's 

 claim. Bakery Hill, Ballarat, at a deptli of 

 180 feet. The claim was being worked by 

 a party of twenty-two Cornish miners, 

 who, it is interesting to know, were the 

 first to introduce steam-driven machinery 

 at the Ballarat diggings. The nugget was 

 first sold at Ballarat for £10,500, was ex- 

 hibited at Melbourne for some weeks, and 

 was sold there on March 18, 1859, for 

 ^9.325- It was melted in London, Novem- 

 ber, 1859. 



These are the two most celebrated gold 

 nuggets, but many others of considerable 

 value have been found in Victoria, New 

 South Wales and, more recently, in West- 

 ern Australia. In the early days of shal- 

 low sinking, both in Victoria and New 

 South Wales, the digger was ever cheered 

 and spurred on by the hope that to-morrow 

 his pick might encounter a lump of gold 

 which would make him rich for life; to 

 the sanguine every new rush was the 

 promised land. Some miners had extraor- 

 dinarily good fortune. A party of new- 

 comers, just out from England, started to 

 work an abandoned shaft 60 feet deep at 

 Canadian Gully, Ballarat, and had deepened 

 it only about four feet, when the man be- 

 low drove his pick into a lump, too soft 

 for stone, too hard for clay. Working 

 round the obstacle, he prised it up and, 

 examining it by the light of his candle, he 

 was amazed and delighted to find that he 

 had unearthed a nugget, which was found 

 to weigh 1,117 ozs. Two days later the 

 same party found another nugget of i.oii 

 czs., and two of them, after but a few 

 weeks in Australia, returned to England, 

 rich men. What fine immigration agents 

 they would have made ! 



But the finding of nuggets was not all 

 romance; it had its tragic side. Sometimes 

 the finder's mind became unhinged by the 

 sudden accession of wealth, and he lived 

 out his life babbling witlessly of gold. 

 Then again the work was hard and often 



