On 20 May 1861, Gabriel Read discovered gold in the Tuapeka river 70 kilometres from the small town of Dunedin. Gold is the most valuable metal in the world and many people have rings and other jewellery made of it. All of a sudden, Tuapeka and the surrounding areas became famous and people started arriving from all over New Zealand, as well as from Australia, China and many other countries. They came to search for gold and to get rich, and soon there were more than 11,000 people working the gold fields.
In 1861, Dunedin was only a small town of about 3,000 people . However , as the news of gold spread , Dunedin's population doubled in six months . By 1870, Dunedin was the largest and richest
city in New Zealand.
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