Page "Gold rush" Paragraph 15

Various gold rushes occurred in Australia over the second half of the 19th century.

The most significant of these, although not the only ones, were the Victorian gold rush in 1851, and the Western Australian gold rushes of the 1890s.

Both were highly significant to their respective colonies ' political and economic development as they brought a large number of immigrants, and promoted massive government spending on infrastructure to support the new arrivals who came looking for gold.

While some found their fortune, those who did not often remained in the colonies and took advantage of extremely liberal land laws to take up farming.