Welcome Stranger

- large gold nugget - Richard Oates - John Deason - 1869 -

A famous gold discovery was made by Richard Oates and John Deason, who arrived from England in 1854 and settled on land in central Victoria at Dunolly. They worked the land full-time and looked for gold part-time.

On 5 February 1869, while Oates was working in a paddock nearby, Deason worked the claim removing four loads of washdirt for puddling. On the fourth load his pick broke when it struck something hard just under the earth's surface. Thinking it was a boulder, he tried to prise it out of the earth but broke the handle trying to get it out.

When he eventually got it out of the earth, he discovered it was a large nugget - 61 cm by 31 cm. Afraid of theft, he and Oates hid it in their hut under the fireplace till dark, then took it to the bank manager's office where everyone was amazed at its size. The local blacksmith had to be called in to break it into two, so that it could be weighed on the scales that were not big enough.

Oates and Deason were paid 19,068 pounds for the nugget, the largest alluvial gold ever found in the world, which became known as "Welcome Stranger".

Reference

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