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Clip description
When Hargraves (played here in re-enactments by Hugh Keays-Byrne) returned to Australia in 1849 with the knowledge he’d gleaned from the American goldfields, he set out for the country around Bathurst in New South Wales. With assistance from a young local, John Lister (James Heathmore), he began panning in Summer Hill Creek at a place he called Ophir. The five small pieces of gold he found began a wild gold rush to Australia.
Curator’s notes
With actors to draw out the very different character of the two men, and using the technology Hargraves had learned from the American goldfields, the history of this great event is brought alive. Not only does the series draw out the drama of this history, but Bill Peach shows how effective history can be when it’s drawn from the diaries, newspaper articles, political cartoons and stills or drawings of the time.
