Thomas Hiscock was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

 and prospector

Prospecting

Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...

 who settled in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 in the 1840s. He is best-remembered today for helping to spark the Victorian Gold Rush

Victorian gold rush

The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.- Overview :During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output...

 with his discovery of gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 outside the town of Buninyong

Buninyong, Victoria

Buninyong is a place in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Midland Highway, south of Ballarat on the road to Geelong. It's known locally as the drug smuggling capital of the South West region. Local Dealers are said to import the majority of their cannabis supply from farmers in Durham Lead...

, near Ballarat

Ballarat, Victoria

Ballarat is a city in the state of Victoria, Australia, approximately west-north-west of the state capital Melbourne situated on the lower plains of the Great Dividing Range and the Yarrowee River catchment. It is the largest inland centre and third most populous city in the state and the fifth...

.

Short biography

Hiscock was born in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, in 1812. He married Phoebe Blanchard in 1833 and the couple had two sons before moving to what is now Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 on 1 July 1841. They had three more children, all daughters, after arriving in Australia (the eastern half of which was then known as New South Wales).

He initially worked for a squatter

Squatting (pastoral)

In Australian history, a squatter was one who occupied a large tract of Crown land in order to graze livestock.  Initially often having no legal rights to the land, they gained its usage by being the first Europeans in the area....

 in Trawalla

Trawalla, Victoria

Trawalla is a town in central Western Victoria, Australia, located on the Western Highway, 41 km west of Ballarat and 154 km west of Melbourne, in the Shire of Pyrenees. At the 2006 census, Trawalla and the surrounding agricultural area had a population of 224.Trawalla sits at the...

 before setting up as a blacksmith in Buninyong

Buninyong, Victoria

Buninyong is a place in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Midland Highway, south of Ballarat on the road to Geelong. It's known locally as the drug smuggling capital of the South West region. Local Dealers are said to import the majority of their cannabis supply from farmers in Durham Lead...

. He spent some time searching for gold around the Buninyong area, finally discovering an outcropping of gold-bearing reef in August 1851. This discovery led to increased interest in Victoria from gold prospectors, who soon uncovered gold at nearby Ballarat. In 1854 Hiscock was awarded £1000 for his part in the Victorian Gold Rush, but he was struck down by a cold contracted at the Mount Alexander

Mount Alexander

Mount Alexander is a mountain that is located approximately 125 km north-west of Melbourne, near the small town of Harcourt. It rises 350 metres above the surrounding area to a level of 744 metres above sea level...

 diggings before he could receive it. He died on 25 July 1855.

Discovery

Accompanied by John Stoker Thomas, Hiscock discovered gold near the Buninyong cemetery in early August, 1851. The find was publicised by the Geelong Advertiser

Geelong Advertiser

The Geelong Advertiser is a daily newspaper servicing Geelong, Victoria, Australia, the Bellarine Peninsula and surrounding areas. The Geelong Advertiser is the oldest newspaper title in Victoria and the second oldest in Australia, and was first published on 21 November 1840. The newspaper is...

on 12 August 1851, which reported:

We yesterday received from Buninyong a packet containing some of the finest specimens of gold, in quartz matrix, that we have hitherto met with. They were found within a mile or two of the township by Mr Hiscock, a respectable resident there.

The discovery, which Hiscock later explained as occurring on 8 August 1851, led to an influx of prospectors into Buninyong. The reef was soon exhausted, but as prospectors began to search a greater area around Buninyong, they quickly discovered large gold deposits in and around the nearby settlement of Ballarat. Within a matter of weeks the goldfields administration shifted from Buninyong to Ballarat.

The ensuing gold rush did no favours for the Victorian economy in the short term, with many people leaving the major centres of Melbourne and Geelong in search of gold. However, the discovery of gold did halt the exodus of men from the newly-established colony into neighbouring New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, where gold had also been discovered earlier in the year.

Memorial

Following his death, an obelisk of granite was erected near the spot where Hiscock found gold. The obelisk proclaimed him to be the first discoverer of gold in Victoria; which although not strictly correct, may be argued to be an acceptable overstatement, considering the stimululation the discovery provided to Victoria during its early development era. The proclamation reads:

Erected by The Borough and Shire of Buninyong to indicate the spot where Gold was first discovered in Victoria by Mr. T. Hiscock(s) August 3rd 1851, David Kerr M.P Mayor, Jas. A.Jordon Town Clerk, F.E.Sides J.P. President, C.A. Hale Secretary. June 21st 1897 Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Year.

Hiscock's obelisk can be found about eight kilometres (4.97 miles) south of Ballarat, on the Midland Highway at the corner of Hiscock Gully Road.

External links

• Photograph of Thomas Hiscock