Welcome Stranger Gold Nugget Discovered (1869)
The Welcome Stranger gold nugget, discovered on February 5, 1869, near Moliagul, Victoria, remains the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found by hand. It weighed a staggering 72 kilograms (2,300 ounces) and required no mining—just a pick, a shovel, and a whole lot of luck. Two Cornish miners, John Deason and Richard Oates, found the...