The story of the “Pride of Australia” nugget
Thanks to a touch of gold fever, Victorian prospector, the late Rod Steed, decided not to sleep in or even have breakfast on his 70th birthday in May 1981. Instead, by 7am on the bright autumn morning, he was out in the bush at Mosquito Gully, near Wychitella, 11km north of Wedderburn, wandering up and down with his Garrett metal detector. Then he got a very solid signal beside a dirt track. In less than an hour after he had set out, Rod was back at home with a 256oz gold nugget taking pride of place on the dining room table. He could scarcely contain his excitement when he telephoned two of his prospecting partners who lived nearby, to break the news. There were four men in the partnership and they had an understanding that when one or more of them found gold in the area they had been prospecting, all would share in the spoils. They gathered to admire the nugget and settled on the name “Pride of Australia” because it roughly, and very roughly at that, resembled a map of the continent.
This image is all that remains of the “Pride of Australia”
Once again, Tasmania missed out, though a second small nugget found beneath the “Pride of Australia” did vaguely resemble the Apple Isle. The fourth member of the syndicate was Brian Shelton, who was in Switzerland at the time negotiating the sale of some gold specimens. He was asked to fly home urgently although he was not told just how significant the find was. As the group’s spokesman, he was the one to officially break the news of the discovery. Some time later Mr Shelton showed the nugget to Dr Birch at the Museum of Victoria. A plaster cast was taken for official records before they set off on their campaign to preserve the nugget itself. While the meltdown value of its gold content was about $80,000 at the time, the nugget’s worth as a specimen was estimated at $250,000. In terms of purchasing power today, the value of the “Pride of Australia” as a specimen would be around $1.17 million. Together Brian Shelton and Dr Birch travelled to the major centre of Australia’s eastern states determined to find an Australian buyer. “The Pride of Australia” was even tabled in Parliament House, Canberra, in a dogged attempt to influence the powers that be to purchase the nugget for the nation. The beautiful reddish-gold specimen caused a sensation when it was passed around from MP to MP but there were no takers until the State Bank of Victoria stepped in almost two years later.
Rod Steed discovered the 256oz “Pride of Australia” on the morning of his 70th birthday
At the time, the bank’s chief manager of marketing, Mr Jack Roach, said the nugget was the last remaining major specimen of alluvial gold in Australia and the bank decided to preserve it as its contribution to the 150th Anniversary of Victoria. The nugget was on display at the State Bank of Victoria headquarters in Melbourne before being permanently exhibited in the Museum of Victoria. Alas, sometimes permanency doesn’t last very long. Around 9.15pm on Friday, 28th of August, 1991, a museum security guard had just finished clearing the Planetarium of visitors. He was walking up Latrobe Street when he noticed a light shining from a doorway. Upon investigation, he discovered a panel of the fire door had been broken. The thieves had reached in through the hole they’d created and turned the door handle to let themselves in. Once inside the building, the thieves made their way to the Stawell Gallery, where the gold nugget was on display in the far corner. Using a sledgehammer, they smashed their way into the display case and made off with the nugget. Police estimated that the entire operation had lasted just three minutes. Security around the gold nugget had been tight. An alarm was attached to the door of the display case, and there was a separate vibration alarm housed inside. Both alarms had failed to go off, even when the case was smashed open by a sledgehammer. When the alarms were checked the next day, both of them were found to be in working order. A security camera had also been trained on the display case but police discovered it had failed to record any footage of the crime. The museum staff and security officers who were on duty that night, were interrogated, but neither the thieves, nor the gold, were ever found.