A free public lecture at USC on Tuesday 26 September will explore the fascinating geographical history of Gympie’s gold mining era.

Presented by the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland Sunshine Coast in partnership with USC, it will follow the golden days of the Mary River Valley region from the discovery of gold in 1867 to the late 1800s.

The lecture will be delivered by the society’s Executive Officer Bernard Fitzpatrick, an international geographer with a strong interest in regional geography, and a family connection to Gympie, dating back to early days of the Gympie gold rush.

Explorer James Nash first discovered alluvial gold in a gully to the east of the Mary River, sparking a rush to the new gold field and the settlement of Gympie.

Gympie become known as “the town that saved Queensland” and gold continued to be mined in the Gympie area until the 1920s.

Mr Fitzpatrick has worked for almost 40 years in natural resource management, agriculture and forestry, undertaking projects over various locations in Australia and overseas before becoming the RGSQ Executive Officer in 2014.

The presentation will be held at USC’s Sippy Downs campus in Lecture Theatre 2 (K Block) on Tuesday 26 September, from 7.15pm.

It is the final lecture in the 2017 public seminar series by the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland Sunshine Coast in association with the USC’s Geography department.

— Clare McKay