Canberra, Jan 31 (IANS): The Australian government has nominated the goldfields in the country's southeast for World Heritage status.

Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water, on Friday announced that the goldfields in the state of Victoria have been added to Australia's World Heritage Tentative List.

It is the first formal step towards having the area recognised on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List.

Plibersek said in a joint statement with the government of Victoria that the goldfields, which encompass a large central area of the state, also known as the Golden Triangle, tell the story of Indigenous communities and early migration to Australia.

The goldfields are strongly associated with the gold rush of the 1850s and 1860s that drove a migration boom.

According to the National Museum of Australia, over 30,000 Chinese migrants immigrated to Australia during the gold rush. By 1861, 3.3 per cent of the Australian population had been born in China -- a figure that was not equaled until the 1980s.

Plibersek said that international recognition for the region would better protect its heritage and attract visitors from all over the world, Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is the most extensive, coherent and best-surviving gold rush landscape in the world. It deserves to be celebrated and protected," she said.

Jacinta Allan, premier of Victoria, said that the goldfields stand as a "living testament to those who came to Victoria, seeking a better life and how they transformed the state."

Victoria's population grew from around 77,000 in 1851 when gold was discovered in the town of Clunes -- about 120 km northwest of Melbourne -- to over 530,000 in 1861.

Tourism to the goldfields contributes 1.8 billion Australian dollars ($1.1 billion) to the Victorian economy annually.