Located on the Burnt Creek, north-west of Dunolly, Moliagul was named after the Aboriginal word for ‘wooded hill’. Although alluvial gold was first discovered in 1852, the town is best known for its nuggets of gold. In 1869, two fossickers, John Deason and Richard Oates, unearthed a large mass of almost pure gold, the largest ever found, and called it the Welcome Stranger. Moliagul was surveyed and proclaimed in 1859. Its population by 1871 was just over 700 but, ten years later, had declined to 97.