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South America Gold History

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[Gold] since the days of the Egyptian Pharaoh's some 5,000 years ago to the Roman Empire and the Mayan and Aztec civilisations of South America gold has been the lure of mankind representing power and prestige. The importance of Gold and its lustre for men was its rarity and even up to today with all the gold mined throughout history, it would only fill two Olympic-size swimming pools. Furthermore, up until the 1930's gold had been the measure of a countries currency strength. Consequently, for the colony of NSW, the gold discoveries would drive the economy and turn stockmen into overnight millionaires. The getting of gold though was labour intensive and at first was panned in the rivers and creeks followed by reef gold where deep shafts were hollowed out and men would drop 100 to 300 ft to get to the precious …show more content…

Frank had been following the escort movements in and around both the Forbes and Lambing Flat goldfields with their routes and times and amounts of gold onboard each coach being frequently published. However, Gardiner's plan for the robbery may well have sprung from his former home state of Victoria, wherein 1853, a gold escort travelling from the McIvor diggings to Bendigo to connect with the main escort for Melbourne was attacked and robbed by a gang of six, who split in two with one section firing on the police whilst the others snatched the gold, and escaped after wounding four police officers taking over 2,300 ounces of gold and £800 in cash. At the time that Gardiner was in the process of his planning, a serious concern had been raised over the lack of sufficient police

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