The Gold Rush; The Fever That Forever Changed Australia

Australia's incredible gold rushes of the mid- to late-1800s produced tremendous wealth and ensured the financial survival of the struggling Australian colonies. Not only that, but 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.

David Hill has been chairman then managing director of the ABC, chairman of the Australian Football Association, chief executive and director of the State Rail Authority NSW, chairman of Sydney Water Corporation, and chairman of CREATE, a national organization responsible for representing the interests of young people and children in institutional care. He is the author of 1788 and The Forgotten Children.