Welcome Stranger

[[File:Welcome Stranger.jpg|thumb|right|A wood engraving of the Welcome Stranger published in The Illustrated Australian News for Home Reader on 1 March 1869. The scale bar across the bottom represents {{convert|12|in|cm}}.{{cite web

|url=http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/177743

|title=The "Welcome Stranger" (picture).

|publisher=State Library of Victoria search

|access-date=19 March 2015}}]]

Welcome Stranger is the name of the largest alluvial gold nugget ever discovered. It was unearthed by Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates on 5{{nbsp}}February 1869 in Moliagul, 9 miles north-west of Dunolly in Victoria, Australia.{{cite web |last=O'Shea |first=Johnny |date=5 February 2019 |title=Welcome Stranger: World's Largest Gold Nugget Remembered |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-47041314 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=14 November 2023}}

The Holtermann nugget was 03kgs so is the biggest nuggest found in the world found at Hill End NSW. After official verification, it was crushed and 17 miners shared their spoils.

Discovery

Found only {{convert|3|cm|abbr=on}} below the surface, near the base of a tree on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully, the nugget had a gross weight of {{convert|3523.5|ozt|kg|disp=flip}} (241 lb 10 oz). Its trimmed weight was {{convert|2520|ozt|kg|disp=flip}} (210 lbs), and its net weight was {{convert|2315.5|ozt|kg|disp=flip}} (192 lbs 11.5 oz).Potter, Terry F. (1999) The Welcome Stranger: a definitive account of the worlds largest alluvial gold nugget. {{ISBN|0-646-38709-X}}

At the time of the discovery, there were no scales capable of weighing a nugget this large, so it was broken into three pieces on an anvil by Dunolly-based blacksmith Archibald Walls.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article174572918?searchTerm=%22Robert%20Walls%20of%20dunolly%22&searchLimits=exactPhrase=Robert+Walls+of+dunolly|||anyWords|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1887-12-01|||dateTo=1887-12-01|||sortby "Wills and Bequests"]. Melbourne Punch (1 December 1887)

Deason, Oates, and a few friends took the nugget to the London Chartered Bank of Australia, in Dunolly, which advanced them £9,000. Deason and Oates were finally paid an estimated £9,381 ({{Inflation|AU|9381|1869|fmt=eq|r=-3|cursign=A$}}) for their nugget, which became known as the "Welcome Stranger". At August 2019 gold prices, it would be worth US$3.4 million [2.3 million GBP]. It was heavier than the "Welcome Nugget" of {{convert|2217|ozt|kg|disp=flip}} that had been found in Ballarat in 1858. The goldfields warden F. K. Orme reported that {{convert|2269|ozt|kg|2|disp=flip}} of smelted gold had been obtained from it,{{cite web

|url=http://www.scillonian.com/Welcomestrangermainpage.htm

|title=Report to the Mines Minister by Francis Knox Orme, February 12th 1869

|publisher=Scillonian.com

|access-date=23 August 2011}} irrespective of scraps that were given away by the finders, estimated as totalling another {{convert|47|ozt|kg|2|disp=flip}}.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}

File:Moliagul WS inscription.JPG

The nugget was soon melted down and the gold was sent as ingots to Melbourne for forwarding to the Bank of England. It left the country on board the steamship Reigate which departed on 21 February.{{cite web

|url=http://www.gold-net.com.au/archivemagazines/apr20/85439743.html

|title=The Real Welcome Stranger Story

|publisher=Gold-Net Australia Online |date=April 2000

|last=Knight|first=Katherine

|access-date=23 August 2011}}

An obelisk commemorating the discovery of the "Welcome Stranger" was erected near the spot in 1897. A replica of the "Welcome Stranger" is in the Old Treasury building, Treasury Place, Melbourne, Victoria; another replica is owned by descendants of John Deason and is now on display at the Dunolly Rural Transaction Centre.{{cite web

|url=http://www.scillonian.com/mr_john_deason.htm

|title=Mr John Deason

|publisher=Scillonian.com

|access-date=23 August 2011}}

[[File:William Parker, Unearthing the Welcome Stranger Nugget, H13298 original.jpg|thumb|Miners and their wives posing with the finders of the nugget, Richard Oates, John Deason and his wife{{cite web

|url=http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/101139

|title=Unearthing the Welcome Stranger Nugget (picture)

|publisher=State Library of Victoria

|access-date=19 March 2015}}]]

File:Statue' discovery of Welcome Stranger' Redruth geograph 2991388.jpg, Cornwall, England, celebrating the find.]]

Discoverers

John Deason was born in 1829 on the island of Tresco, Isles of Scilly, {{convert|45|km|0|abbr=on}} off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England, UK. In 1851, he was a tin dresser before becoming a gold miner.{{cite web|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ricksmith61/scilly/deason/ps06/ps06_023.html

|title=John (John Jenkins) DEASON|publisher=freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com|access-date=23 August 2011}} Deason continued with gold mining and workings most of his life and, although he became a store keeper at Moliagul, he lost a substantial proportion of his wealth through poor investments in gold mining. He bought a small farm near Moliagul where he lived until he died in 1915, aged 85 years.{{cite news | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/33597649 | title="Welcome Stranger" Nugget: Death of the Discoverer | date=19 October 1915 | work=The Western Argus | access-date=4 February 2018}}

Richard Oates was born about 1827 at Pendeen in Cornwall.{{cite web

|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ricksmith61/scilly/oates/ps14/ps14_453.html

|title=Richard OATES

|publisher=freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com

|access-date=23 August 2011}} After the 1869 find, Oates returned to the UK and married. He returned to Australia with his wife and they had four children. The Oates family, in 1895, purchased {{convert|800|acre|km2|disp=flip}} of land at Marong, Victoria, about {{convert|15|mi|km|disp=flip}} west of Bendigo, Victoria, which Oates farmed until his death in Marong in 1906, aged 79 years.{{Cite news |url=https://moneyweek.com/5-february-1869-worlds-biggest-gold-nugget-is-found/ |title=5 February 1869: World's biggest gold nugget is found |last=Samueli |first=Michael |date=5 February 2015 |work=MoneyWeek |access-date=4 February 2018}}

Descendants of the two discoverers gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the nugget.{{Cite web|date=2021-02-08|title=Welcome Stranger Gold Nugget Anniversary {{!}} GeoRarities|url=https://georarities.com/2021/02/08/welcome-stranger-gold-nugget-anniversary/|access-date=2021-05-06}}

Welcome Stranger

Discovery

Discoverers

See also

References

Further reading