Australian gold rush timeline, Discovering gold, Gold and mining, SOSE Year 6, SA | Online Education Home Schooling Skwirk Australia The first major mineral discovery - gold - was a watershed (a turning point or landmark) for Australian society. The initial stages of the gold rush were responsible for tremendous changes in the community, bringing Australia's first great waves of immigration from countries other than England and Ireland. Ambitious prospectors from Asia, Europe and America made the trek to the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria, and Bathurst in New South Wales, in the hope of striking it rich. This influx of people brought many social changes, including an increase in racial tensions with the persecution of some groups, notably the Chinese. Government Surveyor James McBrien discovers traces of gold in the Fish River, east of Bathurst. Explorer and geologist Paul de Strzelecki discovers small amounts of gold in silicate near Hartley in the Blue Mountains. The 1840s Early gold discoveries were greeted with fear. William Campbell finds gold on his sheep run in Strathlodden, Victoria, in 1840.
Discovery of Gold Discovery of Gold - A Brief History In 1837, under pressure of a bad drought, Thomas Learmonth and a group of squatters explored the area to the north of their settlement near Geelong in search of better watered regions. On this journey they reached and climbed Mt. Bonan Yowing (now Buninyong) and were thus the first to see the Ballarat area. During the next 13 years, shepherds and their flocks roamed in the area with Buninyong becoming the service township for the settlers. The discovery precipitated a great rush to the area which in turn resulted in the rapid growth of the new town of Ballarat. In that same year, 10,000,000 grams of gold were transported under police escort to the Melbourne Treasury. In the 1860's, when the shallow alluvial deposits began to run out, companies were formed to exploit the deep quartz lodes. In 1870, wild speculation caused a recession of the mining industry and dozens of companies failed. Ballarat's last mine closed down in 1918.
Gold rush Sailing to California at the beginning of the Gold Rush A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold deposits. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there were several major gold rushes. The permanent wealth that resulted was distributed widely because of reduced migration costs and low barriers to entry. While gold mining itself was unprofitable for most diggers and mine owners, some people made large fortunes, and the merchants and transportation facilities made large profits. Gold rushes were typically marked by a general buoyant feeling of a "free for all" in income mobility, in which any single individual might become abundantly wealthy almost instantly, as expressed in the California Dream. Life cycle of a gold rush[edit] Australia[edit]
GoldRush Gold Rush Facts As of July 1, 2013 ThinkQuest has been discontinued. We would like to thank everyone for being a part of the ThinkQuest global community: Students - For your limitless creativity and innovation, which inspires us all. Teachers - For your passion in guiding students on their quest. Partners - For your unwavering support and evangelism. Parents - For supporting the use of technology not only as an instrument of learning, but as a means of creating knowledge. We encourage everyone to continue to “Think, Create and Collaborate,” unleashing the power of technology to teach, share, and inspire. Best wishes, The Oracle Education Foundation
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. It is also true to say that those heady times had a profound impact on the national psyche. 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! The discovery that changed a nation Gold frenzy A nation transformed Racism Gold Rush
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. The Australian gold rushes changed the aboriginal view of Australia. When the rush began at Ballarat, diggers discovered it was a prosperous goldfield. The gold rushes caused a huge influx of people from overseas. F.
Australian gold rush timeline, HSIE, Discovering gold, Gold! Year 6, NSW | Online Education Home Schooling Skwirk Australia The first major mineral discovery - gold - was a watershed (a turning point or landmark) for Australian society. The initial stages of the gold rush were responsible for tremendous changes in the community, bringing Australia's first great waves of immigration from countries other than England and Ireland. Ambitious prospectors from Asia, Europe and America made the trek to the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria, and Bathurst in New South Wales, in the hope of striking it rich. This influx of people brought many social changes, including an increase in racial tensions with the persecution of some groups, notably the Chinese. Government Surveyor James McBrien discovers traces of gold in the Fish River, east of Bathurst. Explorer and geologist Paul de Strzelecki discovers small amounts of gold in silicate near Hartley in the Blue Mountains. The 1840s Early gold discoveries were greeted with fear. William Campbell finds gold on his sheep run in Strathlodden, Victoria, in 1840.
Gold! Gold Rush in Australia Gold is found in rocks and in the ground. People came to look for gold in Australia. It was called the Gold Rush. It was a hard life digging for gold. Gold is a soft, yellow precious metal. Gold in California and Australia In 1851, during the time that there was a gold rush in California USA, a gold rush began in Australia. However, in Australia, it was not unusual for gold nuggets, some very large, to be found. The California Goldfields. The Largest Australian Nuggets In October 1872 Holtermann's Nugget was found. The Australian gold rush begins Small amounts of gold were found in New South Wales in the early days of the colony, but the authorities hushed it up. Within a week there were over 400 people digging there for gold, and by June there were 2000. Between 1851 and 1861, Australia produced one third of the world's gold. The Victorian goldfields In August 1851, part of New South Wales was made a separate colony, and was named Victoria after the Queen.
Gold rush history, Goldfields The discovery of gold in the 1850s and 60s is the most significant event in the evolution of the state of Victoria. Fuelled by extravagant stories of wealth gained at the 1849 Californian gold rush, gold fever hit Victoria following the early gold discoveries in and around Clunes, Warrandyte and Ballarat. But the real rush began with the discovery of the Mount Alexander goldfield 60 kilometres north-east of Ballarat. Mt Alexander (taking in the goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo) was one of the world's richest shallow alluvial goldfields, yielding around four million ounces of gold, most of which was found in the first two years of the rush and within five metres of the surface. Mt Alexander goldfield's largest nugget was found in 1855 at Golden Gully by some inexperienced miners who had been sent to a 'duffer' or empty claim. The small town of Moliagul became famous when a 69-kilogram gold nugget was found in 1869 at Bulldog Gully.
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. At Bendigo, for example, up to 40,000 people lived close together in tents. 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.
GOLD The gold fields were Australia’s first experience of a truly diverse population. The largely British population expanded to include people from all over the world, creating a diverse mix of language and culture. Polish digger Seweryn Korzelinski wrote in his memoirs "a happy-go-lucky German tailor, a brawny English smith, a slightly-built French cook, a Polish Jew, an American or Dutch sailor, watchmaker, confectioner, a Swiss hat-maker, an impoverished Spanish hidalgo, gather near a mound of earth and one can see amongst them here and there a black Negro head, a brown Hindu face or the olive countenance with slanting eyes of a ‘child of the sun’. Elsewhere in a group a Swedish sailor away from his whaling ship, a Norwegian reindeer herdsman, a gaucho from La Plata, a Creole from Malabar or Mozambique and many others sit together. The diggers’ life Most of these migrants lived harmoniously on the gold fields. Inherent prejudice ‘Where do you come from?’ ‘Poland’ Credits By Suzie Hoban
1853 Gold Mining Licence | Australia's migration history timeline | NSW Migration Heritage Centre Era: 1840 - 1900Cultural background: Chinese, EnglishCollection: Powerhouse MuseumTheme:Gold Government Labour Movement Miners Riots Settlement Licence for gold mining, 1853. Courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum Collection Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia. Object Name Gold Mining Licence. Object/Collection Description Licence for gold mining, framed, paper / wood / glass, issued to J McDonnell, printed by John Ferres, Government Printing Office, Victoria, Australia, 1853. In March 1851, Edward Hargraves wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald to announce that he had found payable gold just outside the New South Wales town of Bathurst. Lambing Flat miners’ camp, c.1860s Courtesy State Library of New South Wales With so many people leaving for the gold fields, many businesses found it hard to keep operating. Although there were some remarkable discoveries on the gold fields, few people made their fortune and most drifted back to towns and cities looking for work. Bibliography Websites