The Tasmania Reef was the richest gold discovery anywhere in Australia in the 1870s and 1880s, and Beaconsfield grew to become Tasmania’s third biggest town. In today’s money, some $3 Billion came out of Beaconsfield over the life of the Tasmania mine. This book is a first-hand account of the discovery of gold and how the town was established. The narrator is a composite of the writings of around a dozen miners who were there – and describes the mines, the people and the events of the early years, as Beaconsfield grew and changed from a tent city to become a proud, innovative and community-conscious urban society.