They fought soldiers and police officers and 22 people died, but in the end the miners' demands were met including eventually their right to vote.Īs the gold rush continued, so did the transformation of Australia. They burned their licenses, built a stockade and raised their own flag. Tens of thousands of miners came together to protest. In 1854, that unrest led to a dramatic confrontation at the Eureka goldfield near Ballarat. There was also anger towards authorities who forced diggers to pay for mining licenses and gave them no say in the way they were governed. There was a lot of discrimination against Chinese miners, who tended to work in big groups and mine more successfully. But that was all snapped up pretty quickly, so diggers had to mine the gold from the earth and that was difficult and dangerous, and only a lucky few managed to get rich. It was called alluvial gold and you only needed basic tools to get it out. At first gold was found along rivers and creeks. The population exploded as people came to Australia from all over the world, Europe, the Americas and China, bringing with them new skills, new ideas and different ways of life. In July that year gold was found in Victoria and soon the gold rush had spread to other parts of the colonies. On May 22nd, the New South Wales government announced the find and hundreds of diggers came to the site which Hargraves named Ophir. Not that Hargraves shared any of the prize money or the credit. He had help from an innkeeper's son named John Lister and brothers William and James Tom. Hargraves, who had just returned from the Californian goldfields, was one of hundreds who set out to claim the reward. So, governments in New South Wales and the new colony of Victoria, offered rewards to anyone who found a gold deposit big enough to be mined. It brought huge riches to America and lured much-needed workers away from Australia. GOVERNOR: Put it away Mr Clarke or we shall all have our throats cut.īut their attitude changed pretty quickly in 1848, when the California Gold Rush began. Although authorities at the time didn't want to spread rumours of gold because they didn't trust the convicts that made up a lot of the population. Since the early 1800s there had been small finds. It wasn't the first-time gold had been found in Australia. It was just five little flecks, but it was the start of a gold rush that would change the Australian colonies forever. The year was 1851, the place, a creek outside of Orange in New South Wales, when a man named Edward Hargraves made a huge discovery.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |