On February 5, 1869, prospectors John Deason and Richard Oates were searching for gold near Moliagul when Deason’s pick struck what appeared to be a buried rock just a few inches beneath the surface.

Instead, they had uncovered the Welcome Stranger, the largest alluvial gold nugget ever officially discovered.

After being cleaned, the nugget measured about 61 centimeters (24 inches) long and contained approximately 2,284 troy ounces (about 71 kilograms or 157 pounds) of gold. Before cleaning, with quartz and other material still attached, it weighed roughly 72 kilograms (about 158 pounds).

The nugget was so massive that it couldn’t be weighed intact on the local scales. It was broken into pieces before being transported to a bank in Dunolly, where it was weighed, melted down, and converted into gold bullion. Because of this, the original nugget no longer exists.

At today’s gold prices, the gold recovered from the Welcome Stranger would be worth several million U.S. dollars, though its historical and collector value would almost certainly be far greater had it survived intact.

More than 150 years later, no naturally occurring alluvial gold nugget larger than the Welcome Stranger has ever been officially documented, making it one of the most legendary discoveries of the Australian gold rush.