Australia's incredible gold rushes of the mid- to late-1800s produced tremendous wealth and ensured the financial survival of the struggling Australian colonies. They also tripled the country's small population, were the last nail in the coffin for convict transportation, subverted the hierarchical British class system, laid the foundations of the Australian egalitarian ethos, and stimulated the democratic ideas that led to the establishment of the nation of Australia. David Hill recreates this monumental turning point in Australia's history using the diaries, journals, books, letters, official reports, Parliamentary enquiries, and newspaper reports of the time, along with his own master storyteller's skill of bringing the past to life. From New South Wales and Victoria, up to Queensland and the Northern Territory, then down to Tasmania and across the great deserts of Western Australia, David Hill tracks the people and the huge gold discoveries that would forever change Australia.