On his way to Geelong from Clunes (or Cameron's Sheep Run) with samples of gold, while passing through Buninyong, it is possible he could have yarned to Thomas Hiscock about the quartz and surface gravel on the hills near Butters Hill in California compared with the local hills.

Maybe he let the blacksmith see the sample of gold he was carrying.

Maybe this is just speculation, but why should Thomas Hiscock pick a quartz covered slope of the White Horse Range to look for gold so soon after Esmond had passed through the area, unless his eyes had been opened to the possibility of gold by a prospector on his way to Geelong.

Thomas Hiscock found gold on August 8, 1851 near the present Buninyong cemetery.

The news of this event, so soon after Esmond's sample of gold had reached Geelong, startled the seaport again.

Another minor rush followed on the heels of the men who had already set off for Clunes. But it was the next news reaching Geelong that triggered the major rushes of the next ten years.

The first groups of men on their way to Clunes were side-tracked at Hiscock diggings, where they searched for the precious metal, with poor results. The wet weather then prevailing and Mother Jamieson's Hotel being close by, they were snug enough. Small parties prospected along the White Horse Range, between August 21 and 24, 1851.

Then John Dunlop and his mate James Regan, who were prospecting on a ridge between One Eye Gully on the east and Yarrowee River to the west, discovered gold.

The ridge became known as Poverty Point.

The outcome of this find was that new diggers arrived, spreading themselves across the north-west slope of the ridge.

They could not miss the alluvial gold as they sank holes in the shallow ground. This is when Golden Point was born.