Victorian gold rush
The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s.[1] In 10 years the Australian population nearly tripled.[2]
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[edit] Overview
During this era Victoria dominated the world's gold output. Ballarat for a while ranked number one in terms of gold production.[3]
Gold discoveries in Beechworth, Ballarat and Bendigo sparked gold rushes similar to the California Gold Rush.[4] At its peak some two tonnes of gold per week flowed into the Treasury Building in Melbourne.
The gold era evolved Victoria from a sheep grazing economy based around squatters, into an emerging industrial base and small (yeoman) farming community. The social impact of gold was that Victoria's population boomed and the lack of available land for small farming generated massive social tensions, especially among Victorian Aborigines. Those on-going tensions around land and selection (small farming) culminated in the Kelly Outbreak of 1878.[5]
Melbourne was a major Boomtown during the gold rush. The city became the centre of the colony with rail networks radiating to the regional towns and ports. Politically, Victoria's goldminers introduced male franchise and secret ballots, based on Chartist principles. As gold dwindled, pressures for land reform, protectionism and political reform grew and generated social struggles.[6][7] A Land Convention in Melbourne during 1857 demanded land reform. Melbourne became one of the great cities of the British Empire and the world. Following the huge gold rushes were the Chinese in 1854. Their presence on the goldfields of Bendigo, Beechworth and the Bright district resulted in riots, entry taxes, killings and segregation in the short term and became the foundations of the White Australia policy.[6][8] In short, the gold rush was a revolutionary event and reshaped Victoria, its society and politics.
[edit] Background
There were rumours abroad about the presence of gold in Australia, but Government officials kept all findings secret for fear of disorganising the young colony. However the Colonial Secretary, Edward Deas Thomson, saw a great future for the country when Edward Hargraves proved his theory that Australia was a vast storehouse of gold. Hargraves had been in the California gold rush and knew gold country, when he first saw it, round Bathurst. The news spread like wildfire, and soon the race was on from coast to gold fields. Flocks were left untended, drovers deserted their teams, merchants and lawyers rushed from their desks and entire ships' crews, captains included, marched off to seek their fortunes.[9]
[edit] Gold discovered
in March 1850, Mr. W. Campbell of Strath Loddon found on the station of Mr. Donald Cameron, of Clunes several minute pieces of native gold in quartz. This was concealed at the time but on 10 January 1851, Campbell disclosed it. Others had found indications of gold. Dr. George H. Bruhn, a German physician, whose services as an analyst were in great demand, had been shown specimens of gold from what afterwards became the Clunes diggings. In spite of these and other discoveries, however, it was impracticable to market the gold, and James Esmonds. "find" which was made on Creswick's Creek, a tributary of the Loddon, at Clunes on 1 July 1851, was the first marketable gold field.[10]
A party formed by Mr. Louis John Michel, consisting of himself, Mr. William Haberlin, James Furnival, James Melville, James Headon, and B. Groenig, discovered the existence of gold in the quartz rocks of tile Yarra ranges, at at Andersons Creek, near Warrandyte, in the latter part of June, and showed it on the spot to Dr. Webb Richmond, on behalf of the Gold Discovery Committee on 6 July.[11]
The third discovery was by Mr. Thomas Hiscock, a resident at Buninyong; induced by the writings of the Rev. AV. B. Clarke, and by the discovery of Brentani's nugget in the Pyrenees district five years before, he had kept a constant lookout for gold in his neighbourhood. He discovered an auriferous deposit in the gully of the Buninyong ranges now bearing his name, on the 8 August 1851, and he communicated the fact, with its precise locality, to the editor of the Geelong Advertiser on the 10th of that month.
Dr. George II, Bruhn, a German physician, in the month of January, 1851, (i.e. before Mr. Hargraves' discovery at Summerhill) started from Melbourne to explore "the mineral resources of this colony. During his lengthened tour, he found, in April, indications of gold in quartz about two miles from Mr. Barker's station, and on arriving at Mr. Cameron's station was shown by that gentleman specimens of gold at what are now called the Clunes diggings. This information he made widely known through the country in the course of his journey, and communicated to Mr. James Esmonds, at that time engaged in erecting a building at Mr. James Hodgkinson's station. Dr. Bruhn forwarded specimens, which were received by the Gold Discovery Committee on 30 June 1851.
The Gold Discovery Committee awarded £1000 to Michel and his party; £1000 to Hiscock, as the substantial discoverer of the Ballarat deposits; £1000 to Campbell as the original discoverer 'of Clunes; £1000 to Esmond as the first active producer of alluvial gold for the market and £500 to Dr. Bruhn.[12]
On 20 July 1851 Thomas Peters, a hut-keeper on William Barker’s Mount Alexander station, found specks of gold at what is now known as Specimen Gully. This find was published in the Melbourne Argus on 8 September 1851, leading to a rush to the Mount Alexander or Forest Creek diggings, centred on present-day Castlemaine, claimed as the richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world.
These discoveries were soon surpassed by Ballarat and Bendigo. Further discoveries including Beechworth in 1852, Bright, Omeo, Chiltern (1858–59) and Walhalla followed.
| Year | Population of Melbourne (excludes indigenous) |
|---|---|
| 1835 | 0 |
| 1840 | 10,000 |
| 1851 | 29,000 |
| 1854 | 123,000 |
The population of Melbourne grew swiftly as the gold fever took hold. The total number of people in Victoria also rose. By 1851 it was 75,000 people. Ten years later this rose to over 500,000.
First obtained was the alluvial gold found on the surface. It is reported that when miners first arrived on the Mount Tarrengower fields, nuggets were picked up without digging. This was followed by exploitation of alluvial gold usually in creeks and rivers. The seekers used gold pans, puddling boxes and cradles to separate this gold from the dirt and water.
As alluvial gold ran out, underground or deep lead mining began. This was harder and dangerous. Locales such as Bendigo and Ballarat saw great concentrations of miners as teams and syndicates sank shafts. Coupled with erratic and vexatious policing and licence checks, tensions flared around Beechworth, Bendigo and Ballarat. These tensions culminated in the Eureka Rebellion of 1854. Following the rebellion, a range of reforms gave miners a greater democratic say in resolving disputes via Mining Courts and an extended electoral franchise.
A tent city, known as Canvas Town was established at South Melbourne. The area soon became a massive slum, home to tens of thousands of migrants from around the world, particularly from Ireland and China who arrived to seek their fortunes in the goldfields. Significant Chinatowns were established at Melbourne Chinatown as well as Bendigo and Castlemaine.
At Walhalla alone, Cohens Reef produced over 50 tonnes (1.6 million tr oz) of gold in 40 years of mining.
[edit] Legacy
Australia's population changed dramatically as a result of the rushes. In 1851 the Australian population was 437,655, of which 77,345, or just under 18%, were Victorians. A decade later the Australian population had grown to 1,151,947 and the Victorian population had increased to 538,628; just under 47% of the Australian total and a seven-fold increase. In some small country towns where gold was found abundantly, the population could grow of over 1000% in a decade (e.g. Rutherglen had a population of ~2,000. Ten years later, it had ~60,000 which is a 3000% increase). The rapid growth was predominantly a result of the gold rushes.[13]
The gold rush is reflected in the architecture of Victorian gold-boom cities like Melbourne, Castlemaine, Ballarat, Bendigo and Ararat. Ballarat has Sovereign Hill—a 60 acres (24 ha) recreation of a gold rush town—as well as the Gold Museum, while Bendigo has a large operating gold mine system which also functions as a tourist attraction.
The rushes left the legacy of quaint Victorian towns in the Goldfields tourist region like Maldon, Beechworth, Clunes, Heathcote, Maryborough, Daylesford, Stawell, Beaufort, Creswick, St Arnaud, Dunolly, Inglewood, Wedderburn and Buninyong. With the exception of Ballarat and Bendigo, many of these towns were substantially larger than they are today. Most populations moved to other districts when gold played out in a given locality.[6]
At the other end of the spectrum ghost towns, such as Walhalla, Mafeking and Steiglitz still exist.
The last major gold rush in Victoria was at Berringa, south of Ballarat, in the first decade of the 20th century. Gold mining ceased in Victoria, not because there was no more gold but in part because of the depth and cost of pumping. The First World War also drained Australia of the labour needed to work the mines. More significantly, the prohibition on the export of gold from Australia in 1915 and the abolition of the gold standard throughout the Empire saw many goldtowns in Victoria die.[14] The slump in gold production never recovered. However, as of 2005 the recent increase in the gold price has seen a resurgence in commercial mining activity with mining resuming in both of the major fields of Bendigo and Ballarat. Exploration also proceeds elsewhere, for example, in Glen Wills, an isolated mountain area near Mitta Mitta in north-eastern Victoria.
[edit] See also
- Australian gold rushes
- California Gold Rush (1848–1855)
- Category:Victorian gold rush river diversions
- Colonial liberalism
- Gold rush
- Klondike Gold Rush
- Welcome Stranger
[edit] References
- ^ Wendy Lewis, Simon Balderstone and John Bowan (2006). Events That Shaped Australia. New Holland. ISBN 9781741104929.
- ^ Whaples, Robert, "California Gold Rush", Wake Forest University, http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/whaples.goldrush
- ^ Bate, Weston (1978), Lucky City: The first generation of Ballarat, 1851-1901, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, ISBN 0522850650
- ^ Goodman, David (1994), Gold Seeking: Victoria and California in the 1850s, Stanford: Stanford University Press, ISBN 0804724806
- ^ McQuilton, John (1979), The geographical dimensions of social banditry: The Kelly outbreak, 1878-1880, Melbourne
- ^ a b c O'Brien, Antony (2005), Shenanigans on the Ovens Goldfields, Hartwell: Artillery Publishing, ISBN 0975801309
- ^ McNaughton, I. D. (1955), "Colonial Liberalism, 1851-92", in Greenwood, Gordon, Australia: A social and political history, Sydney: Angus and Robertson
- ^ Cronin, Katherine (1982), Colonial Casualties: Chinese in Early Victoria, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, ISBN 0522842216
- ^ "In The Paths Of The Explorers Gold Brings Australia Wealth.". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) (NSW: National Library of Australia): p. 3 Supplement: Playtime. 20 November 1946. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27909450. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^ "OLD STORY RETOLD.". The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848–1956) (Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia): p. 6. 14 January 1928. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3903764. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
- ^ "COUNCIL PAPER.". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) (NSW: National Library of Australia): p. 2. 28 March 1854. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12954149. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
- ^ "COUNCIL PAPER.". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) (NSW: National Library of Australia): p. 2. 28 March 1854. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12954149. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
- ^ Caldwell, J. C. (1987), "Chapter 2: Population", in Vamplew, Wray, Australians: Historical Statistics, Broadway, New South Wales, Australia: Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, pp. 23 and 26, ISBN 0949288292
- ^ Hague-Muir, Marnie (1995), "The economy at war", in Beaumont, Joan, Australia's War 1914-18, St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, ISBN 1863734619
[edit] Further reading
- Annear, Robyn (1999), Nothing but Gold: The Diggers of 1852, Melbourne: Text Pub, ISBN 1876485078
- James, G. F. & Lee, C. G. (1975), Walhalla Heyday, Ringwood: Graham Publications, ISBN 0959631135
- Aldersea, John & Hood, Barbara (2003), Walhalla, Valley of Gold: A Story of Its People, Places and Its Gold Mines, Trafalgar: Walhalla Publishing, ISBN 097508870X
- Flett, James (1970), The history of gold discovery in Victoria, Melbourne: Hawthorn Press, ISBN 0725600098
- McWaters, Vivine (2002), Beechworth's little canton, Beechworth: Vivienne McWaters, ISBN 0958045909
- Serle, Geoffrey (1977) [1963], The Golden Age: A history of the colony of Victoria, 1851-1861, Carlton: Melbourne University Press, ISBN 0522841430
- Woods, Carole (1985), Beechworth: A titan's field, North Melbourne: Hargreen, ISBN 0949905259
- Talbot, Diann & Swift, Andrew (2004), The Buckland Valley Goldfield, Bright: Diann Talbot, ISBN 0975717006
- Jan Critchett, (1990), A distant field of murder: Western district frontiers, 1834-1848, Melbourne University Press (Carlton, Vic. and Portland, Or.) ISBN 052284389
- Ian D Clark (1990) Aboriginal languages and clans: An historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800-1900, Dept. of Geography & Environmental Science, Monash University (Melbourne), ISBN 090968541X
- Ian D Clark (1995), Scars in the landscape: A register of massacre sites in western Victoria, 1803-1859, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (Canberra), ISBN 0855752815
- Ian D Clark (2003) ‘That’s my country belonging to me’ - Aboriginal land tenure and dispossession in nineteenth century Western Victoria, Ballarat Heritage Services, Ballarat.
