Amherst a town in Victoria, Australia is now located in what is known as the Shire of Central Goldfields, northwest of Talbot. The town's location now resembles an uneven paddock of some 10 acres (40,000 m2), but has little showing of its startling and significant historical prevalence. The town began as a mining settlement which was referred to as Daisy Hill, or sometimes Daisy Hill Creek, and extended throughout the village. After a discovery of gold during the Gold Rush of 1853, the location became known as an extremely rich goldfield soon thereafter. Prior to this discovery, Daisy Hill had gained a particular notoriety, due to an illegal gold rush in February 1849, that was based solely upon the spurious claims made by on Thomas "Tommy" Chapman, a shepherd and former Parkhurst prison d