| Gold fever reached its peak in Victoria on the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo. For some "fortune favoured the brave" and the ultimate reward came in the form of a rich gold nugget. | |
 Image Title Prospecting for gold or rewarded at last Description: Sketches of Australian life and scenery. London, Paul Jerrard and Son, [185?] Text Title | |
| 'The lucky day came at last; and I shall never forget the rush of
emotions which filled my breast on striking, nearly at the bottom of one
of our holes, a nugget of fourteen pounds weight... We found a whole
‘pocketful’ of gold, and for eight consecutive days took out from six to
eight pounds a day. We had the prudence to keep this extraordinary change
of luck quiet, having seen enough of the folly of bruiting abroad any
sudden turn of fortune which had befallen a successful party, from the
swarms of excavators it immediately brought around them to mine in their
neighbourhood.' | |
| But a lucky strike was not the end of the story. Some quit the diggings and returned home with their new-found wealth; others squandered their earnings, and remained part of the life under canvas. | |
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Many of course found no gold, and the sad stories of the
unlucky digger must have haunted the minds of each new arrival.
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