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The gold digging at first ressembled tent camps.

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Lola showed me.

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For convicts, transportation to NSW meant separation and loss. Joe, a convict who recently arrived in the colony, is spending his first night at the Hyde Park Barracks. His hammock mate Jim listens on as Joe enthusiastically describes how back in London he pickpocketed a wealthy gentleman. But Joe's excitement soon fades.

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Miners cut down trees to use for firewood, housing and the boards that reinforced tunnels. Mining turned clear streams into cloudy ones. Sometimes miners diverted whole creeks and rivers to use the water in a new area. It pitted the landscape with holes which would then serve as garbage pits. That they were occupying and damaging the traditional land of people from the Kulin nation was not a thought that entered most miners' minds.

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Explorers and squatters had already disrupted traditional ways of life for Aboriginal people in the Victorian gold fields region. Flocks of sheep and cattle had already changed the environment and now crowds of men left significant scarring on the natural landscape.

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Children were told to only pan for gold in the creek and/or river because digging on the field was classified adult work.

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Possibly over 35 people died in the Eureka stockade.

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The number of people killed as the result of the Eureka Stockade is not known exactly. There is the possibility that some wounded diggers escaped to the bush and died alone. Other contemporary statements mention the death of a woman.

Historian W.B Withers in History of Ballarat (1870) states: How many others owned their death to the Stockade attack can hardly be stated. Some lingered long, and died of wounds received there. Henry Foster admitted to burying five unidentified men himself.

Eureka Deaths

The following are known Eureka deaths.

The Men Who Fell at Eureka.

The list of killed and wounded at Eureka has never been complete, for many who escaped wounded died afterwards, and some of the dead were taken away by their friends. The diggers' casualties as prepared by Peter Lalor, were as follows, from which it will be be seen that the majority who fell were Irishmen:- Killed - John Hynes and John Diamond, of County Clare; Patrick Gittens, Thomas O'Neil, and - Mullins, of County Kilkenny; Samuel Green, England; John Robertson, Scotland; Edward Thoneman, Prussia; John Hafele, Wurtemburg, Germany; George Donaghy, County Donegal; Edward Quin, County Cavan; Thomas Quinlan, Goulburn, N.S.W.; a digger on Eureka known as "Happy Jack;" and two others whose names were unknown. Died of their wounds - Lieutenant Ross, Canada; William Clifton, Somersetshire; Thaddeus Moore, County Clare; James Brown, Newry, Ireland; Robert Julien, Nova Scotia; Edward McGlyn, Ireland; two men whose surnames were Crowe and Fenton; and another quite unknown. Twelve men who were wounded are known to have recovered. Of the attacking force, three privates were killed in the assault, and Captain Wise and another private died of their, wounds.

Reinterments

The Miner and Star newspaper also reported that bodies were exhumed and re-interred.

THE EUREKA VICTIMS:- A request has been made to the Trustees of the Cemetery to have the bodies of those of the Eureka victims who were interred apart from the spot where the monument now stands, exhumed and removed to that part of the Cemetery. The request has been favorably received, and we believe the bodies - which are those of Captain Ross, Thonen, the Lemonade Seller, James Brown and "Tom the Blacksmith" will be removed very shortly and placed beside their fallen victims over whose remains the Eureka Monument now stands.

The following is a list of known deaths at the result of the [Eureka Stockade] battle.

THE EUREKA VICTIMS:-

On Tuesday morning, about 7 o'clock the bodies of Captain Ross, James Brown, Thonen the lemonade seller, and Tom the blacksmith who fell at the Eureka Stockade and had been buried apart from the others, were removed from the grave and placed in that containing the bodies of the others who lost their lives on the memorable 3rd of December. The removal took place in the presence of Mr Superintendent Foster, Mr Salmon, trustees of the cemetery and Mr Lessman. The coffins were in excellent preservation. We understand that no procession will take place on Thursday next, the anniversary of the Eureka affair, but the grave of the fallen will be decorated with chaplets and flowers.

Wounded and Since Recovered

Peter Lalor

Patrick Hanafin

Michael Hanley

Michael O'Neil

Thomas Callinan

Patrick Callinan

Dennis Dynan

Thaddeus Moore

Michael O'Neill

Luke Sheehan

Francis Symonds

James Warner

Luke Sheehan

Michael Morrison

James Warner

William Williams

James Farrant

References

Wickham, D., Gervasoni, C. & Phillipson, W., Eureka Research Directory, Ballarat Heritage Services, 1999.

http://www.eurekapedia.org/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=Eureka_Deaths&id=16454

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The number of people killed as the result of the Eureka Stockade is not known exactly. There is the possibility that some wounded diggers escaped to the bush and died alone. Other contemporary statements mention the death of a woman.

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A man called James Nash discovered gold in the area now known as Gympie in 1860s.

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James Nash
In the early 1860s the colony of Queensland was bankrupt. Then a quietly-spoken, solitary man called James Nash discovered gold in the area now known as Gympie. The government of Queensland had offered a reward of £3000 for anyone who could locate a new payable source of gold within 90 miles of Brisbane. In August 1867, Nash located gold near the Mary River. He kept his findings quiet initially, until reporting his discovery to the Queensland Government on 16 October 1867. The report kicked off one of the 'wildest rushes of Queensland's history'. Nash attempted to claim the £3000 reward from the government, but the area was outside of the 90 mile specification, and so he was only awarded £1000.

The Welcome Stranger
The world's largest alluvial gold nugget, the Welcome Stranger, was the discovery of Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates, gold prospectors hoping to find their fortune in Victoria. On the morning of 5 February 1869 they were working in Bulldog Gully, near Moliagul in Central Victoria when Deason's pick struck something hard a few centimetres beneath the surface. It turned out to be a single nugget of alluvial gold that weighed around 70 kilograms. Deason and Oates transported the nugget to London Chartered Bank in Dunolly. It was so large that it had to be broken into pieces on an anvil before it could be weighed. Deason and Oates were paid £9563 for the nugget, believed to be worth around $3-4 million in today's money.

Edward Hargraves
Edward Hammond Hargraves is generally credited with being the man who started the first Australian gold rush. In the effort to stop losing its population to the Californian gold rush, the New South Wales government offered a reward to whoever could find payable quantities of gold in Australia. Hargraves, who had been in California, returned to Australia in 1851 hoping to collect the reward. He travelled to the Bathurst plains where he enlisted the help of John Lister, and brothers William, James and Henry Toms. After finding £13 worth of gold specks, Hargraves left the others to continue the search and showed his finds to the Colonial Secretary, deliberately misrepresenting the quantities discovered and downplaying his colleagues' efforts. Once he was assured of winning the reward, Hargraves announced his discoveries, sparking the first Australian gold rush. Eventually the Toms and Lister were awarded £1000 each in recognition of their efforts.

Henry Thom Sing
During the gold rushes, many Chinese immigrants settled in Australia and made their lives here. Henry Thom Sing, also known as 'Ah Sin' or 'Tom Ah Sing', was a Chinese-born entrepreneur and community leader who settled in Launceston. Tasmania. Sing travelled to Australia to take his chances in the Victorian gold rush. In 1868 he came to Launceston, Tasmania. Sing spoke excellent English, worked as an agent and interpreter for Chinese speakers, and imported goods from China. Sing was a keen supporter of local businesses and held a number of spectacular Chinese carnivals around Launceston to share Chinese cultural heritage. Sing's St John Street premises are still a part of Launceston's commercial sector, and his name is remembered as part of Launceston's history.

Adelaide Ingots and Pounds
When gold was discovered in Australia, there was only so much currency circulating in the colonies. With the huge influx of people to the goldfields, Australia quickly ran into currency shortages. Within a few years there was pressure to convert gold into coins or tokens to ease the pressure on the colonies' currency. In 1852, the Adelaide Assay Office started to produce small gold ingots, stamped with their certified weight and fineness, which banks could use as security to issue their own banknotes. These became known as 'Adelaide Ingots' and they were technically Australia's first gold currency. A tradeable currency was still required, so the South Australian Legislative Council made changes to its Bullion Act in late 1852, allowing for the issue of gold tokens with the denominations of 10 shillings, £1, £2 and £5. The Adelaide Assay Office produced a number of these 'Adelaide Pounds' for circulation. In 1855, the first branch of the Royal Mint opened in Sydney. There are only a few examples of Adelaide Ingots and Pounds left, and the Royal Australian Mint holds several in the National Coin Collection.

Camels of the Goldfields
Camels and their cameleer handlers played crucial roles in the gold rush and the development of Western Australia's gold mining industry. Camels were first introduced to WA in 1875, but it was after gold was discovered in WA that large numbers of cameleers travelled to the region. They were all grouped under the name 'Afghans' but they came from a range of places, particularly Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Iran and the Turkish Empire. While their skills were very welcome, there were occasional racial and religious tensions between the mainly Muslim cameleers and the European miners. Nevertheless, settlers who were tired of the alcohol-fuelled violence common on the goldfields, welcomed the quiet and moderate habits of the cameleers. Many of the cameleers remained in Australia, and their descendants still live in the region.

Loong, the Dragons of Bendigo
Bendigo has a family of dragons in residence. Dragons Sun Loong and Dai Gum Loong are the descendants of the original Bendigo dragon, known as Gum Loong or simply 'Loong'. Loong was brought to Bendigo by Chinese residents who had moved to the area to prospect for gold. In 1869, the Bendigo community held the first annual Easter Procession and three years later the local Chinese community decided to participate with a dragon dance, traditionally performed at festivals such as New Year to bring good luck. Loong was imported from China by the Bendigo Chinese Association. His dance was used to raise funds for a local hospital and the benevolent fund - a way for the Bendigo Chinese Association to contribute in a tangible way to the community, and a link to traditions back in China that could be enjoyed by the entire community.

Lola Montez and the 'Spider Dance'
The gold rushes attracted people from all walks of life. Exotic dancer Lola Montez , famous for her beauty, scandalous behaviour and celebrity romances, came to Australia in 1855 hoping to attract some of the wealth from the Ballarat goldfields. After performing her most famous dance, the 'Spider Dance', she was reputedly showered with gold nuggets from the audience. Montez was notoriously bad-tempered. When Mr Seekamp of the Ballarat Times published a review that Montez disliked, she set on him in a bar with a whip. He retaliated and soon the two were embroiled in a furious fight as bar patrons attempted to separate them. Stories such as the 'Battle of Ballarat', which was enthusiastically reported in the press at the time, reflect the rambunctious nature of life on the goldfields.

Raffaello Carboni at Eureka
The Victorian gold rush attracted hopeful prospectors from across the world, and from a range of cultural and social backgrounds. Raffaeollo Carboni was a highly educated Italian who found himself succumbing to gold fever, and unexpectedly caught up in the drama of the 1854 Eureka Rebellion. Carboni came to know Irish miner Peter Lalor, who became the leader of the miner's revolt after Carboni's nomination. Lalor reached out to Carboni to organise the non-English speaking European miners, and Carboni became part of the inner circle of the Eureka rebellion, although he was not present during the actual battle. Carboni was charged with high treason after the rebellion, however public opinion favoured the miners, and no jury would convict him. Carboni chronicled the events at Ballarat in a lively book as a tribute to those who fell. It is the only first-hand account of the Eureka Stockade and the events that led up to it.

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James Nash In the early 1860s the colony of Queensland was bankrupt. Then a quietly-spoken, solitary man called James Nash discovered gold in the area now known as Gympie. The government of Queensland had offered a reward of £3000 for anyone who could locate a new payable source of gold within 90 miles of Brisbane.

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This is what the houses and life was like during the gold rush

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Forget bedrooms, bathrooms, TVs, toilets, electric lights, air-conditioning, running water or even windows with glass. Most "homes" on the goldfields were tents made of thick cotton fabric called canvas that leaked when it rained. The floor was the swept dirt of the ground and the door was just a flap of canvas. Creatures - including dogs, chooks, rats, mice, mosquitoes and flies - wandered in and out whenever they felt like it.

Families that had the time to set up a building to live in still weren't living in luxury. Houses on the goldfields were nothing more than huts made of rough wood, bark, canvas, hessian* bags and wallpaper made of newspaper. There might have been a table, a chair or two, a few stones of a fireplace and some sort of bed frame. They really weren't any better than a cubby.

A teacher who had a bag hut built for him when he arrived on the goldfields described his new home - which was also his classroom - in a diary. He wrote that when it was windy, he couldn't keep a candle or lamp lit indoors, rain came in through the bags and it was freezing at night.

People cooked simple meals on a campfire and washed their dishes and clothes in a creek or bucket.
WHAT SHOULD I WEAR?
What would you wear if you were going out in mud or dust, in heat or cold, to dig with a pick and shovel all day? Probably shorts and a T-shirt when it's hot and a warm raincoat and tracksuit pants when it's cold. But there was no stretchy sportswear, down jackets or even waterproof raincoats during the Gold Rush.

In the 1850s people wore very complicated clothes in many layers that we would think of as more like something you would wear to an amazingly formal and fancy ball. Fabrics were linen, cotton, wool and silk and lace-up boots were strong, but not very comfortable. There were no zips, velcro, press-studs or elastic, so everything had to be buttoned and laced and with enough fabric to allow you to move freely to work.

Men wore big, blousy* shirts held up by braces and jackets and pants more like business suits. Women must have been very uncomfortable, dressed in big, long, voluminous* gowns with many layers of petticoats*, knitted stockings and underwear that laced up tight, called corsets.

Children wore versions of what their parents wore: girls in dresses and petticoats and boys in shirts, jackets and pants. Often, they wore their parents' actual clothes, cut down to fit. They sometimes looked quite ridiculous.
DID YOU KNOW ...
If you were lucky enough to own a cat that had kittens, you had to guard them. There were lots of rats and mice and having a cat around kept their numbers down.

In 1852 on the Bendigo goldfields, the price of a cat was an ounce of gold, which is equal to 28g, or more than £2. There are also reports of kittens being worth more than their weight in gold.

EXTRA READING
Home sweet home How to find gold Making money by not mining gold
FOR ALL GOLD RUSH STORIES, click HERE
GLOSSARY

hessian: jute, or string, woven into a rough fabric

blousy: loose and flowing

voluminous: loose and full with lots of fabric

petticoats: skirts and dresses worn as underwear

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
25 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
For 25 classroom activities on this story and much more, go to kidsnews.com.au/goldrush to purchase the Gold Rush workbook for $20 inc GST.
SOURCES

National Museum of Australia, nma.gov.au

National Library of Australia, nla.gov.au

State Library Victoria, slv.vic.gov.au

State Library of NSW, sl.nsw.gov.au

SBS, sbs.com.au/gold

KidCyber, kidcyber.com.au/gold-rush-in-australia

Growing up on the Australian Goldfields by Kimberley Webber, bit.ly/2nfbbqw

Sovereign Hill, sovereignhill.com.au and sovereignhilledblog.com

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Kids News: Australian families lived in homes no better than tents and huts on the goldfields during the Gold Rush

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22 diggers and six soldiers were killed

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Conflict on the goldfields

From 1853 miners began to gather at 'monster' meetings to voice their concerns about the licencing system. They alleged the police were extorting money, accepting bribes and imprisoning people without due process. Delegations presented their concerns to Governor La Trobe, but he was unreceptive to the requests.

Many of the miners were politically engaged - some had participated in the Chartist movement for political reform in Britain during the 1830s and 1840s. Others had been involved in the anti-authoritarian revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848.

The situation on the goldfields was tense as police regularly ran 'licence hunts' to track down miners who hadn't paid their fees.

Murder at the Eureka Hotel

On 6 October 1854, Scottish miner James Scobie was killed in an altercation at the Eureka Hotel in Ballarat. The proprietor, James Bentley, was accused of killing Scobie.

A court of inquiry was held and Bentley was quickly exonerated. The miners sensed a miscarriage of justice, in part because one of the court members, John D'Ewes, was a police magistrate known to have taken bribes from Bentley.

On 17 October 1854 about 5,000 people gathered to discuss the case. They decided to appeal against the decision. After the dispersal of the crowd, a small group decided to set fire to the Eureka Hotel. They were arrested by police and the situation became more tense.

Eureka and the Southern Cross flag

Over the next weeks the miners met and elected delegates. On 27 November 1854 the delegates approached the new Victorian Governor, Charles Hotham.

The delegation demanded the release of the men who burned down Bentley's Eureka Hotel. Governor Hotham took offence to having demands made of him and dismissed the grievances. He sent 150 British soldiers of the 40th Regiment of Foot to Ballarat to reinforce the police and soldiers already stationed there.

Sensing a change in the government's approach, the miners held another meeting on 29 November 1854 at Bakery Hill. There, the newly created Eureka flag was unfurled. The use of the flag, featuring a depiction of the Southern Cross on a navy background, has become a symbol of the labour movement in Australia.

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1854: Rebellion of goldminers at Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Victoria

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"Children must be seen and not heard"

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A Note for Teachers

These files have been created to make primary sources of information more accessible to students.

They are deliberately short.

The audio files are designed to make difficult historic text come to life for students

The text is provided so students can read along

We have tried to model good referencing techniques

Science, Technology and Luck
Gold in the Grass Roots - William Howitt
"Yet out of the very roots of the grass we shake gold. We can see the particles shining as we open pieces of the grass roots, ..."

(William Howitt Land, Labour and Gold; or Two Years in Victoria Longmans, London, 1855 quoted in Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. pp 48 and 49)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/gold-in-grass-roots.mp3
Tragedy in Peg Leg Gully - C Rudston Read
"Four brothers were digging in Peg Leg Gully, endeavouring to bottom a hole again that had been filled up during the floods ... One of the banks slightly giving way, they endeavoured to keep it up (when too late) with shores, branches of trees etc. Whilst in the act of doing this, the younger brother, who was down in the pit, stuck fast ...finding he could not extricate himself, his brothers immediately rendered their assistance; this was to no avail, and immediately they called for help.

In less than a minute many arrived with ropes, buckets, bailers, shovels scoops &c. and set to work endeavouring to clear away the stuff, and some sailors dropping down got him slung, when every one that could get hold, tried to pull him out, he was at the same time having his arms around his elder brother's neck ... but it was of no avail, the stuff slowly filled in upon him, and as it rose the poor brother was compelled to let him go to save his own life, and the unfortunate lad was smothered."

(C Rudston Read, What I Heard, Saw and Did at the Australian Goldfields T.&W. Boone, London, 1853 as quoted in Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. P 102)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/tradegy-in-peg-leg-gully.mp3

Goldfields Life - The Good Old Days?
Strange and Pathetic Cases - William Howitt
"In fact, he appeared on the very verge of consumption (a disease of the lungs), and said he had been a year and a half in the colony; that he had been to all the diggings, both in Sydney and Victoria, but everywhere with the same absolute want of luck; that everywhere he had been pursued by dysentery, or some other exhausting complaint ...he had no means of carrying his tent and tools away."

(William Howitt Land, Labour and Gold; or Two Years in Victoria Longmans, London, 1855 quoted in Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. P 58)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/strange-and-pathetic-cases.mp3
Flies! - William Howitt
" The little black-devil fly all day attacked our eyes, nose and mouth: and great blowflies in thousands blew our blankets, rugs and everything woollen, all over with their maggots, which were at once dried upon by the sun. They covered spaces of a foot square at once with them, all adhering by a sort of gluiness."

(William Howitt Land, Labour and Gold; or Two Years in Victoria Longmans, London, 1855 quoted in Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. P 110)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/flies.mp3
The Women of Bendigo - William Howitt
"The women of Bendigo are much more neatly dressed than you would expect ... There is no lack of handsome mantillas, polkas, smart bonnets, and parasols. ... Yet, in a morning , you may often see these ladies - and very often, too, smart young girls, not more than fifteen- hanging out their wash, busy at their cooking, or chopping wood with great axes, which they seem not to swing, but which rather swing them, as they cut splinters from the stumps which ornament this digger landscape ...

As to girls marrying here-the great temptation- that is soon accomplished.- for I hear lots of diggers get married almost every time they go down to Melbourne to spend their gold. A lot of the vilest scoundrels are assembled here from the four winds of heaven. Nobody knows them; much less whether they have left wives behind them in their own country."

(William Howitt Land, Labour and Gold; or Two Years in Victoria Longmans, London, 1855 quoted in Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. P 129)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/women-of-bendigo.mp3
The Amiable Female - Ellen Clacy
" Whilst her husband was at work farther down the gully, she kept a sort of sly-grog shop, and passed the day selling and drinking spirits, swearing, and smoking a short tobacco-pipe at the door of her tent. She was a most repulsive looking object. A dirty, gaudy-coloured dress hung unfastened about her shoulders, course black hair unbrushed, uncombed, dangled about her face, over which her evil habits had spread a genuine bacchanalian glow, whilst in a loud masculine voice she uttered the most awful words that ever disgraced the mouth of man - ten thousand times more awful when proceeding from a woman's lips"

(Mrs Charles (Ellen) Clacy, A lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852 - 53 Hurst& Blackett, London, 1853 as quoted in Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. P 134)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/amiable-female.mp3
Survey of Bendigo, early 1850s - James Bonwick
" We live in canvas homes, or huts of bark and logs...Our furniture is of simple character. A box, a block of wood, or a bit of paling across a pail, serves as a table ... We have those who indulge in plates, knives and forks but ... the washing of plates and cleaning of knives and forks require an application of cleanliness most foreign to the ... diggings. Besides, chops can be picked out of the frying pan, placed on a lump of bread, and cut with a clasp knife that has done good service in fossicking during the day"

... "And yet, in spite of the weather, exposure, dust, mud, filth, flies and fleas, the diggings have such attractions that even the unlucky must come back for another trial. The wild, free and independent life appears the great charm. They have no masters. They go where they please and work when they will."

James Bonwick, Notes of a Gold Digger and Gold Digger's Guide, E. Connebee, Melbourne, 1852 as quoted in Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. P 157 &159

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/survey-of-bendigo.mp3
Never shall I forget that scene - Ellen Clacy
"Never shall I forget that scene, it well repaid a journey even of sixteen thousand miles. The trees had been all cut down; it looked like a sandy plain, or one vast unbroken succession of countless gravel pits."

Ellen Clacy, A Lady's Visit to the Gold-Diggings of Australia in 1852-3, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1963 (first published 1853)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/never-shall-i-forget.mp3
Night at the diggings - Ellen Clacy
"Night at the diggings is the characteristic time; murder here - murder there - revolvers cracking - blunderbusses (big firearms) bombing - rifles going off - balls whistling - one man groaning with a broken leg - another shouting because he couldn't find his way to his hole, and a third equally vociferous (loud) because he has tumbled into one - this man swearing - another praying - a party of bacchanals (drunks) chanting various ditties to different time and tune, or rather minus both."

Ellen Clacy, A Lady's Visit to the Gold-Diggings of Australia in 1852- 3, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1963 (first published 1853)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/night-at-diggings2.mp3
The Commissioner's Report - John Richard Hardy, first Gold Commissioner in New South Wales Camp, June 1851
...I am happy to say that I have not experienced the slightest trouble or annoyance from any person here; they refer all their disputes to me without attempting to settle them by violence, and submit to my decision without murmur. I have not sworn in any special constables; it is perfectly unnecessary, for everything goes on in as orderly and quiet a manner as in the quietest English town. There is no drinking or rioting going on."

(John Richard Harding, Further Papers Rel;ative to The Discovery of Gold in Australia, Parliamentary Papers, Great Britain and Ireland, H.M. Stationery Office, 1852 as quoted in Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. P 26 & 27)

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/commissioners-report.mp3
What Men! - William Howitt
"What men! and what costumes! Huge burly fellows with broad, battered straw or cabbage-tree hats, huge beards, loose blue shirts, and trowsers (sic) yellow with clay and earth, many of them showing that they had already been digging in Sydney, where there is so much gold, but according to fame, not so abundant or so pure as in this colony; almost every man had a gun, or pistols in his belt, and a huge dog, half hound half mastiff, led by a chain. Each had his bundle, containing his sacking to sleep upon, his blanket and such slight change of linen as these diggers carry. They had, besides, their spades and picks tied together; and thus they marched up the country, bearing with them all they want, and lying out under the trees."

William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold: or Two Years in Victoria With Visits to Sydney and Van Diemon's Land, Longmans, London,1855

https://sovereignhilleducation.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/what-men.mp3

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A Note for Teachers These files have been created to make primary sources of information more accessible to students. They are deliberately short. The audio files are designed to make difficult historic text come to life for students The text is provided so students can read along We have tried to model good referencing techniques...

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After Macquarie left the colony in 1822 convict assignment became much more common. The 'system' also became much more organised.

The aims of assignment were to:

reduce the number of convicts the government had to look after

provide farmers with cheap labour

clear convicts out of the town of Sydney

By 1836, nearly 70 per cent of all the convicts in NSW were working as 'assigned convicts'.

The new assignment system also changed the role of the barracks.

Now, instead of male convicts living there for long periods of time, it became a place for them to wait.

Some men only waited a few hours to be assigned. Others waited for days or weeks.

Badly behaved convicts were not assigned. Instead, they usually ended up working for the government as part of an 'iron-gang'. This meant hard work in terrible conditions.

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'Assignment' meant that a convict worked for a private landowner. This was usually on a farm, far away from Sydney.Some convicts had been assigned in the past, but Governor Macquarie had kept a lot of them to work for the government in town.

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The police were unsettled by the hostility building among the diggers and decided to implement a licence hunt the next day. That morning, as the police moved through the miners’ tents, the diggers decided they had had enough, they gathered and marched to Bakery Hill.

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Conflict on the goldfields

From 1853 miners began to gather at 'monster' meetings to voice their concerns about the licencing system. They alleged the police were extorting money, accepting bribes and imprisoning people without due process. Delegations presented their concerns to Governor La Trobe, but he was unreceptive to the requests.

Many of the miners were politically engaged - some had participated in the Chartist movement for political reform in Britain during the 1830s and 1840s. Others had been involved in the anti-authoritarian revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848.

The situation on the goldfields was tense as police regularly ran 'licence hunts' to track down miners who hadn't paid their fees.

Murder at the Eureka Hotel

On 6 October 1854, Scottish miner James Scobie was killed in an altercation at the Eureka Hotel in Ballarat. The proprietor, James Bentley, was accused of killing Scobie.

A court of inquiry was held and Bentley was quickly exonerated. The miners sensed a miscarriage of justice, in part because one of the court members, John D'Ewes, was a police magistrate known to have taken bribes from Bentley.

On 17 October 1854 about 5,000 people gathered to discuss the case. They decided to appeal against the decision. After the dispersal of the crowd, a small group decided to set fire to the Eureka Hotel. They were arrested by police and the situation became more tense.

Eureka and the Southern Cross flag

Over the next weeks the miners met and elected delegates. On 27 November 1854 the delegates approached the new Victorian Governor, Charles Hotham.

The delegation demanded the release of the men who burned down Bentley's Eureka Hotel. Governor Hotham took offence to having demands made of him and dismissed the grievances. He sent 150 British soldiers of the 40th Regiment of Foot to Ballarat to reinforce the police and soldiers already stationed there.

Sensing a change in the government's approach, the miners held another meeting on 29 November 1854 at Bakery Hill. There, the newly created Eureka flag was unfurled. The use of the flag, featuring a depiction of the Southern Cross on a navy background, has become a symbol of the labour movement in Australia.

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1854: Rebellion of goldminers at Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Victoria

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The population grew to be 12726 men, 9135 women and 7838 children on the goldfields

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When everyone burns there licence

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Conflict on the goldfields

From 1853 miners began to gather at 'monster' meetings to voice their concerns about the licencing system. They alleged the police were extorting money, accepting bribes and imprisoning people without due process. Delegations presented their concerns to Governor La Trobe, but he was unreceptive to the requests.

Many of the miners were politically engaged - some had participated in the Chartist movement for political reform in Britain during the 1830s and 1840s. Others had been involved in the anti-authoritarian revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848.

The situation on the goldfields was tense as police regularly ran 'licence hunts' to track down miners who hadn't paid their fees.

Murder at the Eureka Hotel

On 6 October 1854, Scottish miner James Scobie was killed in an altercation at the Eureka Hotel in Ballarat. The proprietor, James Bentley, was accused of killing Scobie.

A court of inquiry was held and Bentley was quickly exonerated. The miners sensed a miscarriage of justice, in part because one of the court members, John D'Ewes, was a police magistrate known to have taken bribes from Bentley.

On 17 October 1854 about 5,000 people gathered to discuss the case. They decided to appeal against the decision. After the dispersal of the crowd, a small group decided to set fire to the Eureka Hotel. They were arrested by police and the situation became more tense.

Eureka and the Southern Cross flag

Over the next weeks the miners met and elected delegates. On 27 November 1854 the delegates approached the new Victorian Governor, Charles Hotham.

The delegation demanded the release of the men who burned down Bentley's Eureka Hotel. Governor Hotham took offence to having demands made of him and dismissed the grievances. He sent 150 British soldiers of the 40th Regiment of Foot to Ballarat to reinforce the police and soldiers already stationed there.

Sensing a change in the government's approach, the miners held another meeting on 29 November 1854 at Bakery Hill. There, the newly created Eureka flag was unfurled. The use of the flag, featuring a depiction of the Southern Cross on a navy background, has become a symbol of the labour movement in Australia.

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1854: Rebellion of goldminers at Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Victoria

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The story behind the day people gave up and said "enough is enough" includes a detailed drawing of the massacre of the 3rd December 1854

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Eureka Stockade: Eureka Stockade, rebellion in which gold prospectors in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, clashed with government forces on December 3, 1854.

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Was intresting.

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Conflict on the goldfields

From 1853 miners began to gather at 'monster' meetings to voice their concerns about the licencing system. They alleged the police were extorting money, accepting bribes and imprisoning people without due process. Delegations presented their concerns to Governor La Trobe, but he was unreceptive to the requests.

Many of the miners were politically engaged - some had participated in the Chartist movement for political reform in Britain during the 1830s and 1840s. Others had been involved in the anti-authoritarian revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848.

The situation on the goldfields was tense as police regularly ran 'licence hunts' to track down miners who hadn't paid their fees.

Murder at the Eureka Hotel

On 6 October 1854, Scottish miner James Scobie was killed in an altercation at the Eureka Hotel in Ballarat. The proprietor, James Bentley, was accused of killing Scobie.

A court of inquiry was held and Bentley was quickly exonerated. The miners sensed a miscarriage of justice, in part because one of the court members, John D'Ewes, was a police magistrate known to have taken bribes from Bentley.

On 17 October 1854 about 5,000 people gathered to discuss the case. They decided to appeal against the decision. After the dispersal of the crowd, a small group decided to set fire to the Eureka Hotel. They were arrested by police and the situation became more tense.

Eureka and the Southern Cross flag

Over the next weeks the miners met and elected delegates. On 27 November 1854 the delegates approached the new Victorian Governor, Charles Hotham.

The delegation demanded the release of the men who burned down Bentley's Eureka Hotel. Governor Hotham took offence to having demands made of him and dismissed the grievances. He sent 150 British soldiers of the 40th Regiment of Foot to Ballarat to reinforce the police and soldiers already stationed there.

Sensing a change in the government's approach, the miners held another meeting on 29 November 1854 at Bakery Hill. There, the newly created Eureka flag was unfurled. The use of the flag, featuring a depiction of the Southern Cross on a navy background, has become a symbol of the labour movement in Australia.

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1854: Rebellion of goldminers at Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Victoria

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The eureka stockade was when all the miners came togeather and burned there licences because they were sick of paying for them

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The eureka stockade was when all the miners came togeather and burned there licences because they were sick of paying for them

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We keep the stories of Australia's social history, our unique and distinctive land, nation and people through exhibitions, events, education resources, collections and research.

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What Aboriginal peope were doing during the gold rush

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Explorers and squatters had already disrupted traditional ways of life for Aboriginal people in the Victorian gold fields region. Flocks of sheep and cattle had already changed the environment and now crowds of men left significant scarring on the natural landscape.

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Some children had to own their own money by running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

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As much as there may have been some opportunities for fun and fossicking, children would have suffered through the same basic living conditions and harsh weather on the goldfields. Children were often used as another source of labour but some managed to earn their own money running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

A darker side can still be seen in the gravestones at Pennyweight Flats Children's Cemetery in Castlemaine. More than 200 children are buried there. Their weaker immune systems left them more susceptible to diseases like and cholera brought about by poor sanitation.

One of the best accounts from a young person comes from Lucy Birchall writing to her grandmother in England. From her letter it is clear that for families with sufficient income, many of life's ordinary routines were still in place:

I like the diggings very well I have washed myself about a pennyweight [2 grams] of gold besides a match box full of specimens [gold in quartz]. The other day I went with Mamma and Papa over to the quarry reef. There we saw a gentleman of the name of B Farrell he has one of the richest claimes in the reef He has made thousands of pounds [...] You will laugh when I tell you what I have been doing today, making a kennel for a puppy I have not yet got it is a very nice one made of latice. Mr Sundy is going to give me the puppy this week We began school today.
- Lucy Birchall

There were real dangers on the diggings and in the city of Melbourne. Author William Howitt relates a number of stories of boys in Victoria 'acting the man at a very early stage...':

A boy of about fourteen, being in Melbourne from the diggings, was seized by a great fellow in a solitary place at night, and ordered to give up his money. The lad put his hand into his pocket; but, instead of pulling out money, he drew out a sharp knife, and stabbed the fellow [...] the lad, in a very business-like way, went to the police office, and informed them what he had done. The man was found still alive; and to the no little astonishment of the police, they beheld in him a most notorious bushranger, of whom they had long been in quest. He died the next day. The coroner's inquest found it a case of justifiable homicide, and the lad discharged.
- William Howitt

The police tried to make the young man pay the funeral expenses of the bushranger. The boy replied 'What! pay for killing a bushranger? Not I, indeed. I'm the one who wants paying for the job. What's the reward?' Howitt remarks that this question embarrassed the police who did not pursue the matter any further. A quick mind was a real asset in the early years of the colony.

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As much as there may have been some opportunities for fun and fossicking, children would have suffered through the same basic living conditions and harsh weather on the goldfields. Children were often used as another source of labour but some managed to earn their own money running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

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Object 8 in the exhibition is a 223-page diary written by a Scottish gold-digger on the Ballarat goldfields. The diary is on loan from State Library Victoria.

The diary was written over a six-month period, from 8 July 1855 to 1 January 1856. It is closely written in black ink in a ruled cash book bound in black leather. The author's name remains a mystery, but his handwriting, spelling, grammar and talent for description suggests a good education.

The diary includes the account of a fire that killed 11 people, the murder of a butcher, theatrical performances by Lola Montez, Charles Thatcher and others, the arrival of new prostitutes in town, even the escape of a Bengal tiger from the Montezuma Circus into Ballarat's Main Street. But it is the author's description of daily life on the goldfields that makes this diary so interesting!

Daily life

The diary contains descriptions of daily chores, meals and weather conditions.

It opens with the following typical entry:
Got up about 9 o'clock. Had breakfast and accompanied John Adams, Dugie Weir, Jim Young & Bill Douglas out to Magpie Gully to assist in erecting their log hut. Engaged all day in getting up the logs and building chimney. Returned after sunset pretty tired and hungry.
One of the lucky ones

The first rush to Ballarat was in 1851 when nuggets of gold could be found in the shallow surface soil and the lucky ones could make small fortunes easily and overnight. This miner arrived in time for the second rush, when miners had to work in incredibly trying conditions, sinking deep shafts and tracing the underground leads.

Some found great nuggets on the Ballarat field. Others, like the miner, discovered some gold, enough to pay his way: 'Took home our tools and on getting home, dried gold and cleaned it & weighed it out. 'This is the last of the Tucker Hole and a good hole it has been.'

'Such work... will finish me, but there is no help. I shan't give in.'

Mining was hard, hazardous, dirty work, with no certain return at the end of it. This miner worked in shifts, day and night, in deep shafts up to 40-feet deep. He was often waist-deep in water: 'Got to work and went down and sunk until about one o'clock. Shaft dreadfully wet. It fairly spouted mud and water out of the drifts above. Before I was 5 minutes down I got such a soaking as I would have on being plunged into a creek.'

Labouring in the cold, dark, wet earth took its toll: 'Feel very stiff & sore after my drenching. Hands and arms fearfully cut up, cracked and smashed. Such work for a month will finish me, but there is no help. I shan't give in.'

Tent living

Life on the goldfields was exciting but conditions were harsh. The miner lived in a simple tent; canvas thrown across a timber frame, pegged to the ground over a dirt floor. For more comfort, he built a mudbrick fireplace at one end.

The tents were cold in winter, hot and stuffy in summer and unpleasant when it rained: 'Got home and found the tent afloat and my blankets wet'. Flies and 'troublesome fleas' were a scourge during the summer months, as was the 'incessant mosquitoes'.

With very few women on the goldfields, men had to perform what was traditionally female work. The miner took it in turns to cook and keep the tent, but he wasn't particularly good at it though: 'Kindled fire and cleaned up tent. Boiled kettle and prepared supper. Ironing my blankets, I burned one of them.'

A simple diet

The miner's diet was very simple. It consisted mostly of mutton and duff ('duff' is a flour pudding boiled in a bag), with the occasional potato. Such diets, with almost no fresh fruit and vegetables, left diggers prone to all manner of ailments, including scurvy. The diet certainly accounted for the continual festering of abraded hands and knuckles, which few diggers could afford, and aggravated the incidence of the infectious diseases which were a feature of digging life.

Disease

Hygiene was an issue on most goldfields, especially in the 1850s. Streams around the diggings were soon polluted by gold washing, refuse and worse, causing widespread dysentery, then the dreaded typhoid fever. Other common inflictions were the respiratory diseases, rheumatism and cramp produced by working in water and sleeping in damp clothes or on wet ground.

The author had numerous bouts of dysentery, each time making him 'too weak to work'. He also suffered from an ongoing bronchial complaint, 'easily tired today cough being rather troublesome.' His cough became so bad that his doctor advised, 'the sooner I cut my acquaintance with the Diggings the better for me.'

A dangerous job

A digger's life was dangerous and many died trying to make their fortune. Accidents were common. Mine shafts collapsed, killing diggers trapped under rock and timber. Shafts flooded with water while men were working in them, or filled with poisonous, deadly fumes, known as 'foul air'.

In his diary the miner tells of a man 'smothered today in a shallow sinking', and recounts the death of two men working near him:
The accident arose from foul air. One of the men having went down the shaft and the air having caught him when about 60 feet from bottom he dropped out of the bucket and was killed. This lad who was working for me t'other day then jumped into the bucket and sd. lower away cheerily boys to we see what's up. Poor fellow, he got served out the same way and was awfully smashed. In 2013 UNESCO added this goldfields diaries to the Australian memory of the world register. Founded in 2000, the UNECSO Australian memory of the world register was the first in the world; now there are more than 60 national Memory of the World programs, and is designed to list documents that have significant documentary heritage. Click here to read the full diary online at State Library Victoria. Author: Curator, Old Treasury Building SEE MORE OBJECTS

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Diary of an Unknown Miner - Old Treasury Building

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A]dvise him first to go and dig a coal-pit; then work a month at a stone-quarry; next sink a well in the wettest place he can find, of at least fifty feet deep; and finally, clear out a space of sixteen feet square of a bog twenty feet deep; and if, after that he still has a fancy for the gold-fiel

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Chilrdn on the Gold Fields

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As much as there may have been some opportunities for fun and fossicking, children would have suffered through the same basic living conditions and harsh weather on the goldfields. Children were often used as another source of labour but some managed to earn their own money running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

A darker side can still be seen in the gravestones at Pennyweight Flats Children's Cemetery in Castlemaine. More than 200 children are buried there. Their weaker immune systems left them more susceptible to diseases like and cholera brought about by poor sanitation.

One of the best accounts from a young person comes from Lucy Birchall writing to her grandmother in England. From her letter it is clear that for families with sufficient income, many of life's ordinary routines were still in place:

I like the diggings very well I have washed myself about a pennyweight [2 grams] of gold besides a match box full of specimens [gold in quartz]. The other day I went with Mamma and Papa over to the quarry reef. There we saw a gentleman of the name of B Farrell he has one of the richest claimes in the reef He has made thousands of pounds [...] You will laugh when I tell you what I have been doing today, making a kennel for a puppy I have not yet got it is a very nice one made of latice. Mr Sundy is going to give me the puppy this week We began school today.
- Lucy Birchall

There were real dangers on the diggings and in the city of Melbourne. Author William Howitt relates a number of stories of boys in Victoria 'acting the man at a very early stage...':

A boy of about fourteen, being in Melbourne from the diggings, was seized by a great fellow in a solitary place at night, and ordered to give up his money. The lad put his hand into his pocket; but, instead of pulling out money, he drew out a sharp knife, and stabbed the fellow [...] the lad, in a very business-like way, went to the police office, and informed them what he had done. The man was found still alive; and to the no little astonishment of the police, they beheld in him a most notorious bushranger, of whom they had long been in quest. He died the next day. The coroner's inquest found it a case of justifiable homicide, and the lad discharged.
- William Howitt

The police tried to make the young man pay the funeral expenses of the bushranger. The boy replied 'What! pay for killing a bushranger? Not I, indeed. I'm the one who wants paying for the job. What's the reward?' Howitt remarks that this question embarrassed the police who did not pursue the matter any further. A quick mind was a real asset in the early years of the colony.

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As much as there may have been some opportunities for fun and fossicking, children would have suffered through the same basic living conditions and harsh weather on the goldfields. Children were often used as another source of labour but some managed to earn their own money running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

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Growing up on the Victorian goldfields was tough, even for children from rich families. If you had healthy parents, you could expect to have lots of brothers and sisters, and if they couldn't afford to send you to school, you would be sent to work instead. Girls and boys experienced childhood quite differently back then, and if you had one or even two toys, you were a lucky child indeed!

Life on the goldfields was dangerous for children. While falling down a mineshaft or being trodden-on by a horse was always a risk, the big killer of children was disease. In the 1850s, people - especially children - often died from diseases which rarely kill Australians today, like scarlet fever, pneumonia, diphtheria and consumption (tuberculosis). However, children were most likely to die from drinking water contaminated by human 'poo' ... Horrible diseases like dysentery, cholera and typhoid killed thousands of children during the Victorian gold rushes. Until Germ Theory was developed and the flushing toilet introduced, such 'poopy' diseases could kill as many as HALF of all British children before the age of five! Parents sometimes died of diseases and accidents too, and life was especially tough for the orphans of the gold rushes. Fortunately, we had kind people ( philanthropists) in Ballarat like Emanuel Steinfeld, who established a free school for local orphans during the gold rushes.

19th century goldrush families tended to be larger than Australian families today; having lots of children ensured that some survived to old age and were therefore able to look after their elderly parents (there was no pension to support senior citizens back then). Another reason for large families was tradition. Before the Industrial Revolution (c.1750-1900), most Europeans lived and worked on farms, and having lots of children meant that you had extra hands to help look after the animals and grow the food. That's why many children worked in England's factories at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It was absolutely normal for children to work and contribute to the household income. So, when Europeans moved to Victoria in their tens-of-thousands during the gold rushes, many brought this idea of working children with them. Young boys often worked in mines or as assistants to labourers and shopkeepers, while young girls would train as maids or seamstresses (women who sew clothes) but would only work until they were married (because after that they were expected to be full-time mothers and housewives).

Eventually, people decided that childhood was a special time in a person's life and should be dedicated to learning and play, which meant that sending a child to work became illegal. Nowadays, children in Victoria can't legally work until they are 13 years old, and can only work then if they have a special ' Child Employment Permit ' from the State Government. If you are 15 years or older, you are free to work without a permit.

Believe it or not, there was no free schooling in Victoria until the 1870s. So, if your family arrived in Ballarat in the 1850s, you would only be sent to school if your parents could afford the tuition costs. This meant that lots of poor children didn't learn to read and write, and girls were often kept at home to learn the 'art' of housekeeping while their brothers received an education. If girls were sent to school, they often learnt different skills to the boys (they might learn cross-stitch while the boys learnt technical drawing). The girls were also encouraged to play different games to the boys during the breaks between lessons. ' Graces', for example, was a game specifically for girls. During the 1850s and 60s, it is thought that only half of Victoria's children were lucky enough to get an education (Bradby, D. and Littlejohn, M., Life in Colonial Australia, Walker Books Australia, 2015, p.17).

Boys and girls wore very different clothes during the gold rushes, but only after a boy was ' breeched'. Both boys and girls wore dresses until boys were toilet-trained and considered 'ready' for pants (in those days, boys' pants were called knickerbockers). This 'breeching' often involved a little party to celebrate this rite-of-passage for young boys. Girls wore short dresses and smocks over their pantalettes (loooong white underpants) until the age of 12-14 when they would begin wearing women's clothes like crinolines, corsets and long dresses. Not long after this, they would start looking for a husband ... Young women usually married quite young in comparison to now, while young men waited until they had a good job and enough money to support a wife and children. Those who had been academic high-achievers at school could become teachers from as young as 14 years of age!

Being an Aboriginal young person would have been very difficult at this time also; by the 1850s, thousands of Victorian Aboriginal people had been forced off their ancestral lands by European sheep farmers and gold miners. Many Aboriginal people across Australia found it very difficult to practise traditional culture, and pass on their knowledge, skills and stories to the next generation thanks to the European colonisation of this continent.

So, if you could be born in another historical period, would you choose the 19th century? Why/why not?
Links and References
The history of child labour: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour

Industrial Revolution English children - in their own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87eVOpbcoVo

The history of the concept of childhood video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MqMuqJpVyM

The history of the concept of childhood on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood#History

Children on the goldfields: http://www.resourcesandenergy.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/109324/children-on-the-goldfields.pdf

More information about children on the goldfields: http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore-history/golden-victoria/life-fields/children

School in the 1850s: http://www.myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/1850/decade_landing_15_1.html?tabRank=3&subTabRank=2

Children's fashion in the 1850s: https://sovereignhilledblog.com/2012/11/26/gold-rush-babes-childrens-fashion-in-the-1850s/

Women's work in the 19th century: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/womens_work_01.shtml
Bradby, D. and Littlejohn, M., Life in Colonial Australia, Walker Books Australia, 2015. Deary, T., Horrible Histories: Vile Victorians, Scholastic Children's Books, London, 1994. Fabian, S. and Morag, L., Children in Australia: An Outline History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1980.

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Growing up on the Victorian goldfields was tough, even for children from rich families. If you had healthy parents, you could expect to have lots of brothers and sisters, and if they couldn't afford to send you to school, you would be sent to work instead.

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Information for kids K - 6 about Australia’s gold rush 1851 -61, including life and conditions on the goldfields. Includes easy to read section for early readers. For school and homeschooling projects or just reading for interest.

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More than 200 children were burried in penny weight flats childrens cemetery in castlemaine

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As much as there may have been some opportunities for fun and fossicking, children would have suffered through the same basic living conditions and harsh weather on the goldfields. Children were often used as another source of labour but some managed to earn their own money running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

A darker side can still be seen in the gravestones at Pennyweight Flats Children's Cemetery in Castlemaine. More than 200 children are buried there. Their weaker immune systems left them more susceptible to diseases like and cholera brought about by poor sanitation.

One of the best accounts from a young person comes from Lucy Birchall writing to her grandmother in England. From her letter it is clear that for families with sufficient income, many of life's ordinary routines were still in place:

I like the diggings very well I have washed myself about a pennyweight [2 grams] of gold besides a match box full of specimens [gold in quartz]. The other day I went with Mamma and Papa over to the quarry reef. There we saw a gentleman of the name of B Farrell he has one of the richest claimes in the reef He has made thousands of pounds [...] You will laugh when I tell you what I have been doing today, making a kennel for a puppy I have not yet got it is a very nice one made of latice. Mr Sundy is going to give me the puppy this week We began school today.
- Lucy Birchall

There were real dangers on the diggings and in the city of Melbourne. Author William Howitt relates a number of stories of boys in Victoria 'acting the man at a very early stage...':

A boy of about fourteen, being in Melbourne from the diggings, was seized by a great fellow in a solitary place at night, and ordered to give up his money. The lad put his hand into his pocket; but, instead of pulling out money, he drew out a sharp knife, and stabbed the fellow [...] the lad, in a very business-like way, went to the police office, and informed them what he had done. The man was found still alive; and to the no little astonishment of the police, they beheld in him a most notorious bushranger, of whom they had long been in quest. He died the next day. The coroner's inquest found it a case of justifiable homicide, and the lad discharged.
- William Howitt

The police tried to make the young man pay the funeral expenses of the bushranger. The boy replied 'What! pay for killing a bushranger? Not I, indeed. I'm the one who wants paying for the job. What's the reward?' Howitt remarks that this question embarrassed the police who did not pursue the matter any further. A quick mind was a real asset in the early years of the colony.

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As much as there may have been some opportunities for fun and fossicking, children would have suffered through the same basic living conditions and harsh weather on the goldfields. Children were often used as another source of labour but some managed to earn their own money running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

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Gold was discovered in victoria in 1851 so thousands of men left home to work on the golfields. Women were meant to stay home with the children and take care of the house but by 1851 some women worked side by side with their husbands. By 1854 there were 4023 women working on the goldfields and, unlike men, didnt have to pay for a miners license!

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We research, preserve and present Chinese culture and Australian history, to recognize and celebrate the identity of Chinese Australians

我们研究，保存并展示中华文化和澳大利亚历史，藉此认同及表扬澳籍华人的身份

school students have visited to learn about multiculturalism, immigration history, arts & culture.

Chinese Australians form part of our contemporary Australian Society whom the Chinese Museum represents.

precious artefacts form the basis of our valuable collection - the tangible heritage of our 200-year history.

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school students have visited to learn about multiculturalism, immigration history, arts & culture. Chinese Australians form part of our contemporary Australian Society whom the Chinese Museum represents. precious artefacts form the basis of our valuable collection - the tangible heritage of our 200-year history.

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The welcome stranger nugget roughly costs $5,962,903 and 60 cents in todays AUD

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Gold rush facts for kids

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Date

May 1851 - c. 1914

Location
Australia

Type

Gold rush

Theme

Significant numbers of workers (both from other areas within Australia and from overseas) relocated to areas in which gold had been discovered

Cause

prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange

Outcome

Changed the convict colonies into more progressive cities with the influx of free immigrants; Western Australia joined Federation

The Australian gold rush was a large number of gold discoveries in Australia. During those gold rushes, significant numbers of workers (both from other areas within Australia and from overseas) relocated to areas in which gold had been discovered. A number of gold finds occurred in Australia prior to 1851, but only the gold found from 1851 onwards created gold rushes. This is mainly because, prior to 1851, the colonial government of New South Wales (Victoria did not become a separate colony until 1 July 1851) had suppressed news of gold finds which it believed would reduce the workforce and destabilise the economy.

After the California Gold Rush began in 1848, which caused 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.

Thousands of people came to Australia in the hope of finding a lot of gold and becoming rich. The first rush started in 1851 when gold was found near Bathurst, New South Wales and ended with the last rush in 1893 to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. At each place gold was easily found in rivers and creeks. This was known as alluvial gold and could be found by individual miners using very basic equipment such as a spade and a dish. In most places this alluvial gold was taken in the first few months. To get at the gold that was buried deeper in the ground meant that miners needed to work together and dig tunnels. Eventually large companies were started to raise money so that deep gold mines could be built.

The gold rushes happened when alluvial gold was found. Miners would quickly move there in the hope of being the first to find the surface gold. For example, miners rushing to Clunes, Victoria in August 1851, quickly changed their minds and went to Buninyong when they heard of a new gold discovery. Weeks later gold was found at Ballarat a few miles to the north and within six weeks there were more than 10,000 people digging. But by 1852 most miners had left Ballarat and rushed to the new goldfields at Bendigo. In 1854, miners in Ballarat were angry and upset at paying for gold licences. They burned their licences and raised the Eureka Stockade flag in protest. The miners fought soldiers and police officers to protect their rights. This was called the Eureka Stockade. Many people died, but afterwards the miners didn't have to pay for their licences anymore.

Before the gold rush

Gold had been found in Australia before the 1851 gold rush. At first people would not believe the stories. A convict who found gold near Bathurst in 1823 was given 150 lashes with a whip as it was believed he must have stolen it. The explorer Count Paul Strzelecki found gold in the Australian Alps in 1839. The government kept it a secret as they did not want to lose control of the convicts if they went rushing off to search for gold. Gold was also found at:

Gold rushes in New South Wales

The first gold rush was in New South Wales. There were many others during the next 30 years.

Gold rushes in Victoria

Clunes, 28 June 1851

Warrandyte, at Anderson's Creek, July 1851

Castlemaine, 20 July 1851

Buninyong, 2 August 1851

Ballarat, 8 August 1851

Bendigo, October 1851

Beechworth, February 1852

Yackandandah, May 1852

Eaglehawk, May 1852

Omeo, 1852

Heathcote 1852

Walhalla, February 1853

Maldon, June 1853

Buckland River, July 1853

Waranga, 3 August 1853

Creswick, 1853

Ararat, October 1854

Daylesford

Blackwood, February 1855

St Arnaud, 1855

Dunnolly

Tarnagulla

Moliagul

Wedderburn, 1852

Rheola

Inglewood

Kingower

Stawell, 1857

Chiltern 1858

Barkly 1859

Wood's Point, 1862

Gaffney's Creek

Jamieson

Matlock

Gold rushes in South Australia

Onkaparinga, October 1852

Teetulpa, 1886

Gold rushes in Western Australia

Gold rushes in Queensland

Gold rushes in the Northern Territory

Images for kids

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Date May 1851 - c. 1914 Location Australia Type Gold rush Theme Significant numbers of workers (both from other areas within Australia and from overseas) relocated to areas in which gold had been discovered Cause prospector Edward Hargraves claimed to have discovered payable gold near Orange Outcome Changed the convict colonies into more progressive cities with the influx of free immigrants; Western Australia joined Federation The Australian gold rush was a large number of gold discoveries in Australia.

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What life was like for women

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https://eurekaanddemocracygoldfieldsofballerat.weebly.com/women-in-the-gold-fields.html

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https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/chinese-goldfields

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In the early 1850's 7000 miners were chinese and by 1861 3.3% of all Australians were born in China.

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We keep the stories of Australia's social history, our unique and distinctive land, nation and people through exhibitions, events, education resources, collections and research.

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The Chinese miners worked in groups of 30 to 100 men under the direction of a leader, which resulted in their gold digging efforts being very successful.

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It was assayed by William Birkmyre of the Port Phillip Gold Company and given its name by finder Richard Jeffery. Eclipsed by the discovery of the larger Welcome Stranger eleven years later in 1869 (also in Victoria), it remains the second largest gold nugget ever found.

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More than 200 children were buried in Pennyweight Flats Children's Cemetery in Castlemaine. Due to poor conditions

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As much as there may have been some opportunities for fun and fossicking, children would have suffered through the same basic living conditions and harsh weather on the goldfields. Children were often used as another source of labour but some managed to earn their own money running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

A darker side can still be seen in the gravestones at Pennyweight Flats Children's Cemetery in Castlemaine. More than 200 children are buried there. Their weaker immune systems left them more susceptible to diseases like and cholera brought about by poor sanitation.

One of the best accounts from a young person comes from Lucy Birchall writing to her grandmother in England. From her letter it is clear that for families with sufficient income, many of life's ordinary routines were still in place:

I like the diggings very well I have washed myself about a pennyweight [2 grams] of gold besides a match box full of specimens [gold in quartz]. The other day I went with Mamma and Papa over to the quarry reef. There we saw a gentleman of the name of B Farrell he has one of the richest claimes in the reef He has made thousands of pounds [...] You will laugh when I tell you what I have been doing today, making a kennel for a puppy I have not yet got it is a very nice one made of latice. Mr Sundy is going to give me the puppy this week We began school today.
- Lucy Birchall

There were real dangers on the diggings and in the city of Melbourne. Author William Howitt relates a number of stories of boys in Victoria 'acting the man at a very early stage...':

A boy of about fourteen, being in Melbourne from the diggings, was seized by a great fellow in a solitary place at night, and ordered to give up his money. The lad put his hand into his pocket; but, instead of pulling out money, he drew out a sharp knife, and stabbed the fellow [...] the lad, in a very business-like way, went to the police office, and informed them what he had done. The man was found still alive; and to the no little astonishment of the police, they beheld in him a most notorious bushranger, of whom they had long been in quest. He died the next day. The coroner's inquest found it a case of justifiable homicide, and the lad discharged.
- William Howitt

The police tried to make the young man pay the funeral expenses of the bushranger. The boy replied 'What! pay for killing a bushranger? Not I, indeed. I'm the one who wants paying for the job. What's the reward?' Howitt remarks that this question embarrassed the police who did not pursue the matter any further. A quick mind was a real asset in the early years of the colony.

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As much as there may have been some opportunities for fun and fossicking, children would have suffered through the same basic living conditions and harsh weather on the goldfields. Children were often used as another source of labour but some managed to earn their own money running errands for diggers or shopkeepers.

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https://fx-rate.net/XAU/AUD/