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At the beginning of 1861, Dunedin was a village of some 2000 people.

Civic leaders knew gold was to be found in Otago but they feared the opening up of goldfields would prompt hordes of unruly and immoral miners to descend upon them and destroy the ideal society they were trying so hard to create.

However, by the middle of 1861, the Otago Witness newspaper proclaimed 'Gold, Gold, Gold, is the universal subject of conversation'. The gold rushes had begun. Gold Gold Gold considers the effect on Dunedin as it was transformed into a rowdy boomtown, fuelled by an influx of people and the extraction of bright fine gold.