On 21 May 1851: Gold was discovered in Australia.

Within a few weeks of the reports of Hargraves’ discoveries, songs were appearing about the rush to Ophir. One such song was published in
Bell’s Sydney Life and Sporting Reviewer on 31 May 1851, under the heading On the Gold-digging Epidemic now raging in New South Wales.

It’s off to the diggings we’ll go, Whether they let us or no.
We’ll scramble for gold Through wet, dirt or cold,
And it’s off to the diggings we’ll go.

It’s off to the diggings we’ll go, And perhaps without striking a blow
We may fill up our bags, And then mounting some nags,
We’ll cut to the …. oh oh.

Gold’s called the elixir of life; It certainly causes some strife;

Some of the turmoil created by the goldrushes can be appreciated in these verses from New Words to an Old Song,
again about the rush to Ophir, and written by William Walker ‘on the breaking out of the Gold Diggings, 1851’.

The world is now turned upside-down, And everything seems queer,
For all the men are leaving town, And prog gets dreadful dear.

To talk of love now no one thinks, The men have got so cold
Their heads are stuffed with nothing, but – This cursed, filthy gold.

A woman’s voice sounds dull and tame, In her no charm now lives;
But spades and picks are harmony, And gold the music gives.

Songs from the Australian Goldfields, Part 1: Gold mania by ROSS A. BOTH and WARREN FAHEY
Journal of Australasian Mining History, Vol. 13, October 2015