Historic Discovery: Massive 4.1KG Gold Nugget Unearthed in Central Victoria’s Golden Triangle, Recalling Australia’s 1850s Gold Rush

Saturday, September 16, 2023

An enormous gold nugget has been found in Victoria by a local prospector and his gold detector.The 4.1kg nugget, which is worth more than $250,000, has been named ‘Friday’s Joy’. 

It was discovered on the southern edge of the ‘Golden Triangle’ in Central Victoria – an area famous for the quality of the gold nuggets discovered there.

The prospector, who wished to remain anonymous, had found a tennis ball-shaped gold nugget a day earlier, and had returned in the hope of finding more with his detector, a Minelab GPZ 7000.“I thought it was rubbish at first, maybe an old horseshoe,” he said.“About 12 inches below the ground, I could just barely make out the top of something. As I began to scrape away the clay and dig deeper, I really couldn’t believe my eyes. 

“I was in total disbelief as I didn’t think nuggets of this size were still around.”

The prospector had been going out in search of gold, coins and relics for more than a decade with a group of close friends. The group agreed if ever they found any valuable gold they would split the proceeds. They have shared celebratory beers after the huge discovery. The prospector admitted he wasn’t sure what to do with the nugget at first. “It’s like catching a big fish and not knowing what to do with it!” he said. “Where do we put it? I washed it in water, covered it in aluminum foil and kept it in my oven on the first night.” 

The nugget is now locked up in a  bank vault, waiting to be auctioned off.

Victoria’s famous Golden Triangle, in which the nugget was found, is more of golden pentagon, an area bordered by Ballarat on the south, Wedderburn in the north, Tarnagulla on the east and Ararat in the west. The Golden Triangle was the historical site of the early Gold Rush period in the 1850s and it wasn’t until the 1980s that Western Australia overtook Victoria in gold production.

‘Friday’s Joy’ is far from the biggest gold nugget ever found in Australia. That record belongs to ‘The Welcome Stranger’ found near Moliagul, Victoria in 1869, weighing in at a staggering 72kg (2300 ounces). ‘Friday’s Joy’ is now sitting in a bank vault while a replica is being made.

Dermot Henry, acting head of sciences at Museum Victoria explained that historically Victorian goldfields had the greatest concentration of gold nuggets and have produced more large nuggets than any other field in the world.