Background
Holtermann was born in Hamburg, Germany.
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Bernhardt Holtermann
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Perhaps his greatest claim to fame is his association with the Holtermann Nugget, the largest gold specimen ever found, 1.5 meters (59 inches) long, weighing 286 kg (630 pounds), in Hill End, near Bathurst, and with an estimated gold content of 5000 ounces (57 kg). A larger find was made by the same men, but was broken up soon after being brought to the surface without being photographed. He emigrated in 1858 to avoid Prussian military service.
He departed Liverpool aboard the ship Salem and reached Melbourne in August after a journey lasting 101 days.
After working at a variety of jobs, he teamed up with Ludwig Hugo "Louis" Beyers. They began prospecting around Hill End, New South Wales.
Years of unrewarding labour followed. Then, on 19 October 1872, the Holtermann Nugget was discovered.
lieutenant was not strictly speaking a nugget, but rather a specimen or matrix (a vein of gold embedded in rock, in this case quartz), nor was Holtermann the sole finder, but the name stuck.
Holtermann attempted to buy the specimen from the company, offering ₤1000 over its estimated value (₤10,000, according to one source) but was turned down, and it was sent away to have the gold extracted. Disheartened, he resigned from the company in February 1873. He built a magnificent mansion in Street Leonards, a suburb of Sydney, complete with a stained glass window depicting himself and the specimen.
He invested wisely and kept his wealth, allowing him to take up his true passion, photography.
Holtermann was also interested in patent medicine. He was proud of having cured fellow passengers on his 1858 sea voyage to Australia.
After he retired from mining, he wrote papers and devised formulae for medicines, and promoted and sold "Holtermann"s Life Preserving Drops". In 1882, on his third try, Holtermann was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Street Leonards.
