Ophir

Postcode: 2800

Ophir is the name of a locality in New South Wales, Australia in Cabonne Shire. Ophir is located near the Macquarie River northeast of the city of Orange. Ophir is the place where gold was first discovered in New South Wales in 1851, leading to the Australian gold rushes. Ophir was named after the biblical reference, see Ophir.

The area was known to its original inhabitants, the Wiradjuri people, as 'Drunong Drung'. This is said to mean 'many snakes' as they were apparently attracted to what was a very reliable water source. To the early European settlers it was known as 'Yorkey's Corner' after a reclusive shepherd from Yorkshire who kept his flock here.

A Sydney jeweller tried to make the government aware of the gold traces he discovered there in 1849, with no success. In February 1851 Edward Hargraves, who had garnered some experience and success at the California goldfields, together with John Lister, turned up a pan of gold-bearing gravel at the junction of Lewis Ponds Creek and Summer Hill Creek. But the find was of little value and appeared to lead nowhere so Hargraves temporarily abandoned the search.

A small number of hardy diggers stayed on. They were joined in the mid-1850s by a Chinese prospectors who, as they so often did, reworked earlier diggings with good success. They camped on the flats below Murray's Hill and their earthen water races can still be found in the hills.

The Belmore Reef was discovered in 1866 and reef mining was pursued into the 1890s to the south of the junction. The veins were rich in gold but often short-lived. In the 1890s Doctors Hill became the central focus and a small settlement developed there, although flooding of the shafts proved a major problem. Mining still occurs beneath this hill. Copper was mined at Lewis Ponds in the 1860s and 1870s and silver, lead and zinc in the 1880s. The reserve has, for obvious reasons, continued to attract fossickers and, in the late 1970s, a 5.22 kg nugget generated renewed interest.

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