Welcome Stranger

The Welcome Stranger is the name given to the largest alluvial gold nugget found, which had a calculated refined weight of 2,283 oz 6 dwts 9 gr (62.0192 kg). It measured 61 by 31 cm (24 by 12 in) and was discovered by Cornish prospectors John Deason and Richard Oates on 5 February 1869 at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, about 9 miles north-west of Dunolly.

Found only 3 cm (1.2 in) below the surface, near a root of a tree on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully, its gross weight was 3,523.5 troy ounces (109.59 kg), the trimmed weight was 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg), and net it weighed 2,315.5 troy ounces (72.02 kg).

At the time of the discovery there were no scales capable of weighing a nugget this large, so it was broken into three pieces on an anvil by Dunolly-based blacksmith Archibald Wall.

Deason, Oates and a few friends took the nugget to the London Chartered Bank, in Dunolly, which advanced them £9,000. Deason and Oates were finally paid an estimated £9,381 for their nugget, which became known as the "Welcome Stranger". It is estimated that the nugget would have been worth around £786,309 or 1,240,716 dollars in 2011. It was heavier than the "Welcome Nugget" of 2,217 troy ounces (69.0 kg) that had been found in Ballarat in 1858. The goldfields warden F. K. Orme reported that 2,269 ounces 10 dwt 14 grains (70.5591 kg) of smelted gold had been obtained from it, irrespective of scraps that were given away by the finders, estimated as totalling another 47 ounces 7 dwt.

The nugget was soon melted down and the gold was sent as ingots to Melbourne for forwarding to the Bank of England. It left the country on board the steamship "Reigate" which left on 21 February.

An obelisk commemorating the discovery of the "Welcome Stranger" was erected near the spot in 1897. A replica of the "Welcome Stranger" is in the City Museum, Treasury Place, Melbourne, Victoria; another replica is owned by descendants of John Deason.