Goldrush! The Golden Years That Built Thames

Thames, New Zealand was once the site of one of the World's greatest gold rushes. In 1868, investors, miners, engineers, entrepreneurs — and fraudsters, flocked from as far afield as London and California, to the coastal town of Thames, on New Zealand's Coromandel peninsula, hoping to make their fortune. The town literally burst from obscurity to preeminence, becoming New Zealand's largest town literally overnight. By 1871 Thames had two banks, and it's own stock exchange. It had become an icon of the industrial revolution, ultimately laid low by fraud, and the unique geography of the peninsula. Liberally illustrated throughout, this is the untold story of the triumph and tragedy that is Thames. 67pp