Moliagul is world-famous as the discovery site of the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found in the world – the Welcome Stranger!
Unearthed in 1869 by Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates, the Welcome Stranger was found mere inches beneath the surface. It was taken to the bank at nearby Dunolly, where it was too large to be weighed, so it was broken apart on an anvil.
The anvil is now on display out the front of the Dunolly Museum, and is faced by a fantastic mural across the road which depicts a re-enactment of the Welcome Stranger’s discovery.
Moliagul gold maps
- 1899/1980, Parish of Moliagul, geological survey. Surveyed 1899, re-issued by the Dept of Minerals and Energy in 1980. Includes Moliagul, McIntyre, Humbug Hills, Guys Rush, Welcome Stranger. Shows leads, dykes, reefs, alluvials, newer pliocene, older pliocene, silurian and granite. Also shows a diagram of the section near Welcome Stranger nugget.
- 1915, Geological Survey of Victoria, parts of parishes of Bealiba, Moliagul, Tarnagulla, Waanyarra, Dunolly and Archdale. Shows anticlines, dips, strike, dykes, quartz reefs, auriferous reefs, indicator lines, outcrops of ironstone, nuggets, shafts and alluvial workings.