Gold Rush Stories - Part 19 - Ophir; Land Of Gold - Site of the First Payable Gold Discovery

@kieran.wicks #GoldRushStories #AustralianHistory #VoicesofFederation #OneTownataTime #Ophir #GoldStrike #Filmmaker #producer #Gold #KingSolomon #FYP #Australia ♬ original sound - Kieran.Wicks

The first “payable gold” deposits were found in a deep valley, eventually named Ophir, A biblical reference to the revered ‘Ophir – land of gold’ in reference to the Red Sea port city that paid tribute to King Solomon every third year.

https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/collection-items/sketches-australia-plates-g-f-angas-six-views-gold-field-ophir-sydney-woolcottt-and

Sketch Of The GOLD DIGGINGS AT OPHIR By Samuel Sidney From The Book The Three Colonies Of Australia - Samuel Sidney, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gold_diggings_at_Ophir.png

Map of Ophir 1851 - https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/74Vv74vq7GkA/7mkLAJGNwA4xM

Plan of the town of Ophir, situate on Lewis Ponds, Co. of Bathurst, the property of H. Perrier, Esq. [cartographic material] to be sold by auction by Messrs Mort & Brown on Friday 1st August 1851 / [William Meadows Brownrigg] - "N.B. The allotments vary in size from one to two acres"

Cadastral map showing roads and lots for auction. Street and other borders: Grafton Street, Lewis Ponds, Holden Street and Albert Street.

Mitchell copy: Signed by Brownrigg, surveyor.

Selected for Digitisation 2013.

Panning for gold - Ophir, NSW c 1888 At Work and Play – (SLNSW)
Photographed by - James Mills - https://search.sl.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1cvjue2/ADLIB110309015