gold was discovered in Queen's Gully and the settlement of Moliagul sprang up almost immediately. By January of the next year a thriving goldfields town with a store, a butcher's shop and a blacksmith's forge had opened but almost immediately the new settlement was abandoned as people departed for the Sandy Creek gold rush.

In July 1855, gold was found at Little Hill and a second gold rush occurred in the Moliagul area. In 1855 it is estimated there were 16,000 people living in the immediate area during the peak of the Victorian gold rush