William Henry Millwood Haselhurst (1842-1917) was the son of Samuel Haselhurst (1795-1858) a gold miner[1] and Elizabeth Ann nee Atkins, then later Hosken, (1810-1890).[2]  He was born at Lane Cove River near Sydney in February 1842, and at three years of age he was taken by his parents to Adelaide and then to the Burra Burra Copper mines in South Australia.

In 1852, the family moved to Bendigo, Victoria, where Samuel was involved in gold mining. This experience introduced William to what was to be his main interest in life – gold. He told the following story about himself:

In 1853, I was a boy of eleven years of age, living at Mount Korong, near what is now known as Wedderburn. One morning I was washing dirt in a tub at an old mullock heap in the eternal quest for gold. I might mention that the tub was made of an old flour barrel, and that our flour was imported from Valparaiso. My young brother was working with me, and we were intently engaged in our work when a company of the licence-hunters came along. The official stood and looked at me, then the sergeant gave the order. “March him off.” So I was marched off to the camp and charged with not having a licence. They evidently thought me trustworthy, because they allowed me outside the tent. For my dinner they gave me dumpling and sugar. In the afternoon my father called to interview the commissioner, who concluded I was too young to be compelled to have a licence, I was let off. Young as I was then, I remember that I fossicked out of a drive at the bottom of an abandoned shaft a nugget that weighed 3 oz. So perhaps the sergeant was right in thinking I should have had a licence.[3]