When Edward Hammon Hargraves found himself 'surrounded by gold' near Bathurst in 1851, he sparked off what was to become the most exciting, and the most chaotic, period in Australia's history. Gathered together in this volume are over 120 eye-witness accounts of those colourful, turbulent years between 1851 and the late 1890s. Here are first-hand accounts of fabulous 'finds', of terrible privations in the diggers' camps, of police brutality and anti-Chinese riots, of incredible feats of courage and endurance by men in the powerful grip of 'gold fever'. Here also, by the men who took part, is the truth about the 'Eureka Stockade'; stories of Lola Montez; of bushrangers and the lure of the gold escort, and some fascinating new material on the legendary 'Lasseter's Reef' Extracts from diggers' letters and diaries, and from official reports, are complemented by drawings, paintings and prints.