Beaconsfield is the chief goldfield, 26 miles north-west of Launceston.
From that time the gold industry made steady progress until the Rand gold mines proved the richest and most productive goldfield in the world.
As early as 1860 there had been disturbances of a serious character, and the Chinese were chased off the goldfields of New South Wales, serious riots occurring at Lambing Flat, on the Burrangong goldfield.
During 1905 the town of Goldfield had a period of mushroom growth, then quieted, and finally revived to a healthy development.
It is met at several points by lines which serve the rich mining districts to the south; at Cobre by the Nevada Northern from Ely in White Pine county in the Robinson copper mining district; at Palisade by the Eureka & Palisade, a narrow-gauge railway, connecting with the lead and silver mines of the Eureka District; at Battle Mountain by the Nevada Central, also of narrow gauge, from Austin; at Hazen by the Nevada & California (controlled by the Southern Pacific) which runs to the California line, connecting in that state with other parts of the Southern Pacific system, and at Mina, Nevada, with the Tonopah & Goldfield, which runs to Tonopah and thence to Goldfield, thus giving these mining regions access to the Southern Pacific's transcontinental service; and at Reno, close to the western boundary, by the Virginia & Truckee, connecting with Carson City, Minden, in the Carson Valley, and Virginia City, in the Comstock District, and by the Nevada-California-Oregon, projected to run through north-eastern California into Oregon, in 1910, in operation to Alturas, California.