Australia boasts a history of mining booms. The country first realised her fortunes back in the 1850s with the first gold rush. Thousands flocked to Victoria and New South Wales in a bid to profit from these newly discovered gold deposits. Another boom began forty years later with new discoveries in Western Australia. And in the 1950s and 1960s new oil and gas deposits were discovered in Bass Strait, the Cooper Basin and Northwest Shelf.
Today vast iron ore and coal resources are mined at Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. These resources are now largely exported to China and the Asian economies as the region continues down its growth path.