It wasn’t long before the colony became a magnet for fortune-seekers the world over. "It was as if the name BALLARAT had suddenly been written on the sky," wrote Mark Twain. As a British colony, Victoria sent huge sums of money back to Britain in the late 1850s, which was used to pay off foreign debts. Melbourne became one of the richest cities in the world, its wealth reflected in grand buildings like the Oriental Bank building, pictured here in 1858.

These are the earliest photographs of Australia

Vintage photos from gold rushes around the world