Edmund Hammond Hargraves, the discoverer of the gold fields of Australia, born at Gosport, England, about 1816. At the age of 14 he went to sea on board a merchant ship, and during the succeeding three years visited almost every part of the world as a sailor. In 1834 he settled in Australia, where he married, and engaged in farming and stock raising. In 1849 he went to California, where he worked in the gold diggings, and was struck with the similarity between the geological structure of California and that of Australia. In January, 1851, he returned to Australia, and on Feb. 5 set out from Sydney on horseback to cross the Blue mountains and explore for gold on the Macquarie river and its tributaries. Having concluded his investigations, he wrote to the colonial secretary, April 30, 1851, naming various places in the district of Bathurst where gold might be found. Within the year following this disclosure gold was exported from New South Wales and Victoria to the amount of nearly $20,000,000. Hargraves was appointed commissioner of crown lands; the legislative council of New South Wales voted him £10,-000; a gold cup worth £500 was presented to him at a public dinner; and he received various other public and private rewards.

In 1854 he returned to England, where he published a volume entitled "Australia and its Gold Fields" (8vo, London, 1855).