By the middle of the 1850’s, most of the known Victorian goldfields had been scoured for gold. A system of sorts had been introduced to allocate small parcels of land, called “claims”, for prospectors to dig or pan for gold. The prospectors were issued with licences that entitled them to work their particular claim. Claims that yielded little or no gold were called “duffers” and were soon abandoned by their disenchanted licence holders. Such claims were then often re-allocated to the many gullible newcomers still being drawn to the goldfields by the lust for gold.
In 1855 at the Mount Alexander goldfield, a group of inexperienced miners was sent to a claim in Golden Gully that was believed to be empty. However, in this case, the nasty trick very swiftly backfired. On only their second day of digging, the miners unearthed a 1008 ounce gold nugget which would change their lives forever. The nugget was named after a well liked gold commissioner called Mr Heron.
The Heron Nugget was the seventh largest nugget in the world at the time it was discovered.
What if the miners who abandoned the claim had dug for a day or two longer?
What if…?
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