Thomas Gabriel Read

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Thomas Gabriel Read

Thomas Gabriel Read (* between 1824 and 1826 in Tasmania , Australia , † October 1894 in New Norfolk ) was a prospector, miner and later a farmer. With his gold discoveries near Dunedin, he triggered the gold rush in Otago .

Life

Read was the eldest son of the immigrants Frederick Read, a merchant and banker, and Margaret Terry, daughter of a miller. He suffered a head injury in his childhood as a result of which he was prone to violent and bizarre behavior. Nevertheless, he was very educated and particularly interested in classical music and English literature .

As a young man, he sailed to California on his own schooner to find his fortune in the search for gold . He did not find what he had hoped for and eventually sailed to the islands in the Pacific , where he worked as a trader until he was shipwrecked off Hawaii in 1850 . In the same year he returned to Australia , this time to find his luck in the gold fields of Victoria . Again his success was rather moderate.

In 1860, fed up with the violence and lawlessness that was common in the goldfields of the time, he returned to Hobart Town , Tasmania. But in September 1860 the gold fever seized him again when he heard of gold discoveries in the Mataura River in the southern part of Otago , New Zealand . In February 1861 he reached Port Chalmers in Otago Harbor . But the Mataura area had since turned out to be unsuccessful. Nonetheless, he made his way south and came in contact with John Hardy, farmer and member of the Otago Provincial Council , on his journey . He firmly believed in the existence of gold in the area around the Tuapeka River , near today's city of Lawrence . Read followed his recommendation and finally found it on May 25, 1861 in the area now known as Gabriel's Gully, which is considered the starting point of the Otago gold rush.

Read discovered further deposits in the so-called Waitahuna field in July 1861 . After this success, the Otago Provincial Council commissioned him to search in the Waipori, Pomahaka and Mataura areas , but found no significant gold deposits. Disappointed, he resigned from his job on November 6, 1861. With £ 1,000 in recognition for his service and the certainty of being in the history book, he stayed in the country for three more years, prospecting in the Dustan and Wakatipu areas and finally returning to Tasmania in 1864.

Read became a farmer and married his cousin Amelia Mitchell. His outbursts of uncontrolled violence became more frequent, and in 1887 he was admitted to New Norfolk Hospital as manic-depressive . Read died of a stroke in New Norfolk in October 1894 .

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SURNAME Read, Thomas Gabriel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian prospector, miner and farmer
DATE OF BIRTH between 1824 and 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Tasmania , Australia
DATE OF DEATH October 1894
Place of death New Norfolk , Tasmania , Australia