Ancient Australian History After a long trek on foot or horseback by coach or dray from Sydney or Melbourne, new miners were thankful and excited when they reached the goldfields. On the larger fields they saw hundreds or even thousands of tents clustered around creeks or near the site of earlier discoveries. There were horses and bullocks, wagons and carts and everywhere people bustling around, digging, panning, washing gravel, moving mounds of dirt or gently rocking their cradles from side to side. New miners soon realised, however, that the goldfields were not as attractive to live in as they looked from a distance. Miners worked hard day after day and often could afford neither the time nor the money to buy good food. The first diggers lived in tents which they brought with them to the goldfields. As well as diggers’ tents or huts, there were many other buildings on the goldfields. At first the government did not know quite what to do about the gold diggers.
Australian Gold Rush In fact they only got worse. A powerfully disruptive hysteria seemed to grip the State along with the rest of the country. Farmhands simply left their employers with harvests they could no longer reap and thousands of workers fled Melbourne leaving empty industries in their wake. Wages tripled due to scarce labour. To raise money, many property owners put their houses on the market. But as there was no one interested in buying, house prices collapsed. Luckily however, this was not to last. And of course, lucky miners returning from the gold fields spent extravagantly easing the pressure on the suffering Melbourne. The incredible wealth that poured out of Victoria was unthinkable. Robert Coupe says in his book Australia's Gold Rushes (New Holland, 2000) that: "When the first reports of gold in the colonies were published in English newspapers late in 1851, few took much notice. This wealth brought many imports and improvements to Australia.
The Australian gold rush JCF Johnson, A Game of Euchre, col. wood engraving, Australasian Sketcher Supplement [Melbourne], 25 December, 1876. Image courtesy of the : nla.pic-an8927787. The gold rushes of the nineteenth century and the lives of those who worked the goldfields - known as '' - are etched into our national . There is no doubt that the gold rushes had a huge effect on the Australian economy and our development as a nation. The camaraderie and '' that developed between diggers on the goldfields is still integral to how we - and others - perceive ourselves as Australians. Indeed, mateship and defiance of authority have been central to the way our history has been told. Even today, nothing evokes more widespread national pride than groups of irreverent Aussie 'blokes' beating the English at cricket, or any other sport for that matter! It is this early flowering of a national identity that makes any study of the gold rush days so intriguing. The discovery that changed a nation Gold frenzy Racism Vindication
Sydney Gold Rush Period Maps Related to New South Wales Sydney, Australia Sydney is the most populated city of Australia, and is the capital of New South Wales. It is also the site of the first British colony in Australia and is a huge natural harbor. The area of the city was originally occupied by the indigenous Cadigal people of Australia. Geography Sydney is located on a coastal basin on the Tasman Sea and is bordered by the Blue Mountains in the West, the Hawkesbury River in the North and the Royal National Park to the South. Modes of Transport You can travel to Sydney in the following ways : The city is served by the Sydney Kingsford Smith International airport which is the busiest airport in Australia. Culture and Traditions Sydney has a large immigrant population which has given rise to diverse cultures. The Sydney Festival is held in January to celebrate the arts. Reference Links :
28 Jul 1951 - 5 men start a 'gold rush' Sydney, Friday 5 men start a 'gold rush' Sydney, Friday Sydney Monday (just as sad) worth of gold in 30> min- utes has started a gold rush to Barrington Tops, 75 miles from Maitland. In Maitland itself to- night many . families were packing pans, shovels, picks, and tents into their cars. They will leave early to- morrow for the rugged Mount Royal Range, in which Bar- rington Tops is located. One prospector, Mr. there. "If a bunch of new chums can find five quids' worth in half an hour, there must be a lot of gold lying around. "An old prospector we met on Barrington Tops said he believed the alluvial gold came from a rich reef on the summit. "He showed us a nugget worth £35 which he said he found three weeks ago." Mr. ago. "Towns mushroomed over- night on the field, but the ¿old petered out about 1910," he said.
Life on the Australian Goldfields On hearing that there was gold to be found, thousands of people left their homes and jobs and set off to the diggings to find their fortune. At the start of the gold rush, there were no roads to the goldfields, and no shops or houses there. People had to carry everything they needed. At the diggings, the gullies were filled with claims, and so the higher ground nearby soon became huge campsites. There was violence on the goldfields. People came to Australia from all over the world. Fresh food at the diggings was limited, and the basic diet was mutton, damper (a bread made of flour, water and salt, cooked over an open fire) and tea. If you use any part of this in your own work, acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this: Sydenham, S. & Thomas, R.
Eureka! The rush for gold The gold rushes and the diggers who worked the goldfields are etched into Australian folklore. Follow the story of the people who sought the glittering prize. Edward Hammond Hargraves is credited with finding the first payable goldfields at Ophir, near Bathurst, New South Wales, on 12 February 1851. News of gold spread quickly around the world and in 1852 alone, 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia. The Australian gold rushes transformed former convict colonies into modern cities with an influx of free emigrants in the latter half of the nineteenth century. While not all these diggers found riches on the goldfields, many chose to stay in the colonies and established themselves in the newly-prosperous cities. The camaraderie and 'mateship' that developed between diggers on the goldfields is still integral to how we perceive ourselves as Australians. Small gold minehead without shelter and six miners, Gulgong, ca. 1875, by AACPWet plate negative ON 4 Box 43/18 Eureka!
Australian gold rushes An Australian gold diggings circa 1855 After the California gold rush began in 1848, causing many people to leave Australia for California to look for gold there, the New South Wales government rethought its position, and sought approval from the Colonial Office in England to allow the exploitation of the mineral resources and also offered rewards for the finding of payable gold.[2] The first gold rush in Australia began in May 1851 after prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Bathurst, at a site he called Ophir.[3] Hargraves had been to the Californian goldfields and had learned new gold prospecting techniques such as panning and cradling. Hargraves was offered a reward by both the Colony of New South Wales and the Colony of Victoria. Before the end of the year, the gold rush had spread to many other parts of the state where gold had been found, not just to the west, but also to the south and north of Sydney.[4] Pre-rush gold finds[edit] F. At E.
Gold Rush in Australia! The transportation of convicts to Australia was phased out between 1840 and 1868. By 1860, the continent of Australia had been divided into FIVE separate colonies (not officially states yet, mate but seperation away from New South Wales), each not seeing eye-to-eye and exhibiting more loyalty to London to each other. A major force within the colonies was the “squatocracy” – the rich officers and settlers a.k.a. opportunists who had followed the explorers into fertile hinterlands. Gold was originally discovered in Australia by Rev. [NEXT: the birth of a new nation!
GoldRush