After traveling for almost two years, an amazing set of circumstances and coincidences led Kevin and Bep Hillier to the day the Hand of Faith was discovered on the Goldfields of Central Victoria.
On September 26, 1980, out of work and recovering from a back operation, Kevin decided to head out with his new detector and try his luck on the Goldfields near the Bridgewater Caravan Park where the family was living.
It had been a quiet day when Kevin and Bep decided to stop behind the old Kingower Primary School just before picking the kids up from school. As Bep walked the rocky ground detecting, she heard an ear-curdling scream through the bush.
When I found him I could not believe the sight unfolding before my eyes. Kevin was kneeling in the bush in tears. This was the first time in my life that I had seen him truly shaken. He wasn’t in control here. He was kneeling with a hole in front of him, which revealed what turned out to be just the tip of the gold nugget. We both set to digging around the side of the nugget, which just seemed to increase in size and never end. By now we were both in tears. Kevin’s back was sore and I suggested we get some help but Kevin did not want to call on anyone.
We continued to dig and dig, the ground was hard. ‘We are filthy rich’, exclaimed Kevin, this was such a shock; it was making me feel a little uncomfortable. At last we did get to the bottom of the nugget, and we managed to lift what turned out to be 27kgs of gold into the car, and drove home very slowly in shock.
It then dawned on me that we had prayed for $10,000. I think God had some sort of sense of humour?”
Bep Hillier, Hand of Faith Story, p.18.
