Gold was first discovered in the hills north of Tennant Creek in 1925 by a linesman working on the Overland Telegraph. This gave rise to Australia’s last big Gold Rush in the early 1930s.

Because of the depression, prospectors travelled by any means across dirt tracks or rough bush from Mt Isa, the Kimberley and other parts of Australia to try their luck. Some struck it rich on mines such as ‘Burnt Shirt’, Rising Sun and Eldorado but many struggled against the elements and found little. Hundreds of mines sprang up in the ranges and by 1935 six hundred people lived in Tennant Creek.

A blind man, William Weaber, and his one-eyed partner Jack Noble pegged four leases, one of which, Noble’s Nob went on to become the largest open-cut gold mine in Australia. By the time it closed in 1985 it had produced of 35 tons of gold.