Hidden Rivers of Gold

Beneath the quiet basalt plains of central Victoria lies one of the most ambitious and least understood chapters of Australia's gold mining history.

Long after the surface diggings were exhausted, miners followed ancient riverbeds buried under lava, clay, and gravel ever deeper into the earth in pursuit of the "deep leads," the hiddenrivers of gold that promised fortunes to speculative investors.

This book traces that extraordinary journey. Beginning with the first alluvial discoveries and th...