On this day, in the state of Victoria in southeastern Australia, the world’s largest ever alluvial gold nugget, Welcome Stranger, was unearthed by the Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates. The nugget was found only 3 cm below the surface, near the base of a tree on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully, and had a gross weight of 109.59 kilograms. At the time of the discovery, there were no scales capable of weighing such a large nugget, so it was broken into three pieces on an anvil by the blacksmith Archibald Walls. Deason and Oates sold the nugget to the London Chartered Bank of Australia where it was melted down and sent as ingots to Melbourne for forwarding to the Bank of England. It left the country on board the steamship Reigate which departed on 21 February.
Read Bob Lynn’s short story “Welcome Stranger”
about the finding of the world’s largest gold nugget HERE
