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Ophir has gone down in history as the site of the first payable GOLD found in the colony of NSW. Ophir still has gold, despite and courtesy of the two major Gold Rushes that occured in the area. One piece of gold that the modern gold prospector can find on the side of the road at Ophir is Wildwood Cottage.
Recently renovated “Wildwood” Cottage Circa 1871 was originally built to service the thriving Gold Rush in the Ophir area, operating as a Hotel, Post Office, General Store and Butcher Shop, until about 1920. Since then it has been used as a private residence, mainly by the Pitts’ Family.
The property of “Wildwood" runs mainly merino sheep for wool production along with some prime lamb growing, with around 1500 sheep in total. Depending on the time of the year, you may be lucky enough to see some shearing, lambing, crutching etc. You may even be invited to help around the farm with some small jobs.
approximately 450 acres of mine workings, mainly from the late 1800’s. No permits or permission are required to detect in this area and gold is still regularly found in the reserve. Significant workings were also carried out on the property of “Wildwood” and the initial Gold Discovery in 1851 was in fact on “Wildwood” on the Lower Lewis Ponds Creek, of which approximately 5km runs through the property of “Wildwood”.