the everyday life of these gold mining towns. The broader collection was used by the colonial government in international exhibitions, winning an award at the Paris Exhibition of 1878. The buildings also have an important historic association with the Gulgong goldfield-one of the richest yielding goldfields in NSW. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. The Greatest Wonder of the World and the American Tobacco Warehouse and Fancy Goods Emporium are of state heritage significance for aesthetic values as now rare examples of rough, "erected-in-a-hurry" vernacular buildings built to service the burgeoning gold rush population around Gulgong-one of the richest goldfields in NSW. The 1876 remodelling of "The Greatest Wonder of the World" is of significance as an example of the innovative reuse of a simple earlier structure as a more substantial building, signalling the evolution of the town from camp to village. Together these buildings are of state heritage significance as they together demonstrate a pattern of construction and development typical of the development of gold rush towns in NSW. The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. The Greatest Wonder of the World and the American Tobacco Warehouse and Fancy Goods Emporium are of state heritage significance for their ability to demonstrate early "make do" construction technology and the personal resourcefulness necessary to make the timber-framed buildings with square studs, no noggings and saplings between, which were typical of gold rush buildings across NSW. They also provide information on the way gold rush towns evolved from their makeshift beginnings to more substantial townships as individuals and the community prospered through the fruits of the gold rush. The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. The Greatest Wonder of the World and the American Tobacco Warehouse and Fancy Goods Emporium are of state heritage significance as rare examples of gold rush commercial buildings dating from the early period of the significant goldfields at Gulgong-one of the highest yielding goldfields in NSW. The buildings demonstrate construction techniques used in the early and hasty establishment of goldfields towns of NSW. They are also an increasingly rare example of still-standing goldfields buildings documented in the Holtermann Collection. The place is important in demonstrating