Homeowner Discovers Gold Mine Hidden In His Backyard

When you buy a home, you buy the history that comes with the property. Some people like to seek out homes that are unique, or have an interesting story. Others fall in love with a property first, and only later discover that their house had something truly special about it. That is the story of one man out of Australia, who had no idea that he was sitting on a massive discovery in his very own home.

The Property Was Bought In 2015

Anthony Dooley bought the property in Brisbane, Australia, in 2015, for $1.35 million AUD. The five-bed, two-bath property resides 20 kilometers from the Brisbane CBD, and it boasts a 4-car garage and over 16 hectares of property.

For our American friends, the conversion between hectare and acres is a 2.47 ratio. So Anthony’s property was approximately 40 acres beyond the property that he purchased, and like a lot of people would be, he was eager to explore and see everything that was on his land.

Anthony Was In For A Huge Shock

Anthony wasn’t told anything about the property that he purchased, other than the scope of the size. This meant that he went into it blind when he set off to start exploring the land, and nothing could have prepared Anthony for what he was going to discover.

Anthony explored his property on foot, and in the foothills of his property, he literally stumbled on an opening in the ground. In an interview, he explained that he nearly fell into the hole when he first discovered it, and the only thing that he could think of was the Indiana Jones movies, and all the underground railroads in the franchise.

Anthony Didn’t Explore, Not Right Away

Anthony was understandably a little leery of the hole in the ground at first. Most people would be; especially in nature, anything new or different could be cause for concern, and it took some time for Anthony to gather the courage to further explore the newly discovered feature of his property.

When he finally went down to the hole in the ground to explore, he discovered that it was a fully-intact mine shaft. The mine shaft is approximately six meters deep, and the old ironbark that helped to maintain the structure of the mine shaft was still intact when Anthony discovered it.

To the Internet!

This would be a stunning discovery for anybody, but Anthony immediately wanted to know more. He poked around a little in the mine without fully going inside, but then he started to research. Anthony wanted to know everything that he could about the mine shaft on his property, and dug into the history books.

Anthony discovered that the area where the house was built was once a center of gold mining in Brisbane. The shaft on his property is not the only mine shaft around, with many different sections of the Brisbane hills containing small mine shafts.

Brisbane has Seen Multiple Gold Rushes

Brisbane has been the center of gold prospecting several different times in history, with the gold boom usually following a period of economic downturn for the area. In the mid-nineteenth century, a doctor who came to Australia from Scotland claimed that he had found a piece of quartz that bore gold about two feet underground in Brisbane.

Prospectors flooded the area, searching for more gold in a period that was known as the Kangaroo Point gold rush. When a committee sought to confirm the existence of the quartz with the doctor, it was discovered that he and the alleged quartz had disappeared. A newspaper published fifty years after the fact wrote that the claims of the quartz were a joke, but it didn’t stop others from looking for gold in hope that they were true.

An Economy Downturn Drove Prospecting

Another gold rush occurred in Queensland in 1925, nearly one hundred years after the Kangaroo Point gold rush. At the time, the economy was in a downturn, with unemployment spiking at nearly 22%.

One man’s claims of finding a piece of gold and copper ore on his property again incited a frenzy among geologists and desperate miners, who were looking for a way to make a living in a difficult time. Ultimately, it was discovered that the man’s claims of gold were misleading, though that didn’t stop others from continuing to try and strike literal gold in the area.

An Interesting Discovery

The history of gold prospecting makes Anthony’s mineshaft discovery exciting, but nothing particularly special. Anthony said in an interview that there was a part of him that was interested to find out if there was still gold in the shaft to be discovered, but he ultimately never did.

Instead, three years after Anthony first bought the home and after the discovery of the mine, he decided to move on elsewhere. Rather than handling the details of the real estate himself, he handed the property over to his mother to put up for sale.

A Successful Sale

Anthony initially wanted to get $300,000 AUD more for the property than he had purchased it for three years prior, but his mother had a difficult time figuring out what exactly to list the property for. Yes, the property is large, but the turnover of residents is fairly low, so she wasn’t sure who would be interested in the land.

Ultimately, Anthony ended up selling the property for the same amount that he had purchased the property for. For anyone in real estate, the fact that he didn’t take a loss on such an expansive property would be cause for celebration, and Anthony walked away with an amazing story.

Would You Have Explored?

Everyone dreams of finding something incredible in their backyard, though none of us ever think that it’s going to happen. For Anthony, even though he ultimately decided against exploring it, the discovery of his property’s gold mind was a life highlight.

It’s a thought provoking question. If you discovered a gold prospecting shaft on your property, would you look to explore it? The change of an old mine collapsing could be high, but you also might end up with a hell of a story!