The Welcome Stranger is the biggest alluvial1 gold nugget found, which had a calculated refined weight of 3,123 oz 6 dwts 9 gr (71.018 kg). It measured 61 by 31 cm (24 by 12 in) and was discovered by prospectors John Deason and Richard Oates on 5 February 1869 at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, about 9 miles (14.6 kilometres) north-west of Dunolly.
Found only 3 cm (1.2 in) below the surface, near a bark of a tree on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully, its gross weight was 3,523.5 troy ounces (109.59 kg), the trimmed weight was 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg), and net it weighed 2,315.5 troy ounces (72.02 kg).
At the time of the discovery there were no scales capable of weighing a nugget this large, so it was broken into three pieces on an anvil by Dunolly-based blacksmith Archibald Walls.
1Alluvium (from the Latin, alluvius, from alluere, “to wash against”) is loose, unconsolidated (not cemented together into a solid rock) soil or sediments, which has been eroded, reshaped by water in some form, and redeposited in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand and gravel. When this loose alluvial material is deposited or cemented into a lithological unit, or lithified, it is called an alluvial deposit.