The map covers the whole area of New South Wales in Australia, highlighting in yellow the locations of gold fields.

The first Australian Gold Rush began in May of 1851 when prospector Edward Hargraves found substantial deposits in Bathurst in New South Wales. Hargraves was offered a reward by both the Colonies of New South Wales and Victoria. News soon spread and by the end of 1851 numerous other gold fields were beginning to be exploited in both New South Wales and Victoria. The rush would continue on and off for the rest of the nineteenth century, and have a great effect on the population, which increased from 430,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million in 1871.

The map is housed within a guide of Australia in Welsh, ‘Country of Gold or the Companion of the Welsh migrant to Australia’. The region was named by Captain James Cook after its resemblance to South Wales, and Welsh people numbered amongst the first settlers. In the nineteenth century mass emigration from Wales began, first with farmers and later with gold diggers and coal miners.