Gold Rush Era : Australia

Australia Discovery Paintings

May 20, 1981

Complete Set of 4 nos of commemorative postage stamp on the Gold Rush Era (Sketches by S. T. Gill) :

Issued by Australia

Issued on May 20, 1981

Designer : Finished art by Bruce Weatherhead, Melbourne, from the sketches of S. T. Gill

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 22 cents each

Size (incorporating perforations) : 26 mm x 37.5 mm

Printing Process and paper : Photolithography on 104 GSM litho chromo stamp paper incorporating luminescence

Printer : Asher & Co, Division of Leigh Mardon Pty Ltd, Melbourne

About :

Officially-recorded discoveries of gold in Australia date from as early as 1823. However, it was not until Edward Hargraves announced the finding of gold at Ophir, New South Wales, in 1851, that the rush for gold really began. Within months the rich Victorian gold fields also opened up and fortune seekers flooded into the country.
Other Australian colonies also felt the effects of gold fever. Important discoveries were made at Gympie, Queensland, and the Kimberleys of Western Australia. Lesser finds in Tasmania kept the dreams of diggers alive.
The last great discovery of The Gold Rush Era occurred in 1892-3 with the location of gold in the parched Western Australia desert areas of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. At these fields the diggers faced soaring temperatures, clouds of dust and flies in their quests for the precious metal.
There are still some who seek gold in outback Australia, but the roaring days of the gold rushes have gone. Fortunately, our knowledge of life on the gold fields has been preserved through the drawings of contemporary gold field artists, the most famous of whom was Samuel Thomas Gill.