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The fever that forever changed Australia The fever that forever changed Australia. David Hill relates the extraordinary people and staggering events of Australia's great gold-rush years. From the mid- to late-1800s, people from all corners of the globe and all walks of life, including two future prime ministers of Great Britain and Australia, threw off their previous pursuits and made the often perilous journey to the goldfields, from where they would return either fabulously wealthy or demoralised and broken - if they returned at all. From the destitute to the eminent, the prospectors included such characters as Edward Hargraves, who won the race to find the first payable gold in New South Wales, Lola Montez, whose sensual 'Spider Dance' caused outrage and delight in equal measure, Lord Percy Douglas, the elder brother of Oscar Wilde's famed lover Bosie, who returned from Western Australia empty-handed, and Herbert Hoover, who managed the Sons of Gwalia mine in Western Australia at the age of 22. David Hill brings this monumental turning point in Australia's history brilliantly to life, using the diaries, journals, books, letters, official reports, parliamentary inquiries and newspaper articles of the time, along with his own skills as a master storyteller.

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9781864711301

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During his remarkable career, David Hill has been chairman then managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; chairman of the Australian Football Association; chief executive of the State Rail Authority; chairman of Sydney Water Corporation; and chairman of CREATE (an organisation representing Australian children in institutional care). He has also held a number of other executive appointments in the areas of sport, transport, broadcasting, fiscal management and city parks. In 2006 he was awarded a Diploma of Arts with merit in classical archaeology from Sydney University. He is an honorary associate at the Sydney University departments of archaeology, classics and ancient history, and a visiting fellow at the University of New South Wales. Since 2011 he has been the manager of an archaeological study of the ancient Greek city of Troizen. He has for many years been a leading figure in the international campaign to have the Parthenon sculptures returned from the British Museum to Greece.

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