sign in sign up
<<
Home , Australian gold rushes, Edward Hargraves, Prospecting

Contents

The Australian rushes 4 Growth after gold 5 Population explosion 6 Gold – ’s greatest export 9 Spread of settlement 10 Improvements in transport 16 Development of the railways 21 Suburban transport 24 Advances in agriculture and industry 26 Federation 30 Glossary 31 Index 32 Acknowledgements 32

Glossary words When a word is printed in bold, click on it to f ind its meaning. TheThe AustralianAustralian Growth after gold

gold rushes People from all over the world flocked to Australia gold rushes In this book you can: during the gold rushes. Many decided to stay and settle in a new and wealthy country. If they had made • DISCOVER how money from gold they poured this wealth into farming, the rapid increase in manufacturing, the retail business or property. If they population during the n 2001, Australia celebrated the 150th anniversary of I had barely made a living, they looked for other work gold rushes led to the official discovery of gold near Bathurst in New South in shops, mines, factories or farms. Whatever their demands for new goods, Wales. On 12 February 1851, found five experiences, the rush to Australia’s goldfields changed transport and places grains of gold in mud washed from Lewis Ponds Creek. their lives and the future of Australia. to live Gold was such a valuable and desired material that for • LEARN about changes a while, the whole country was caught up in ‘gold fever’. to towns and cities Men left their jobs, homes and families to rush to the when the gold rushes goldfields in and Victoria. The fever ended spread to Queensland, and then finally to all the colonies • READ how transport of Australia. Within 10 years, the population had more Wealth and prosperity expanded and improved than doubled, as eager gold diggers from Europe, America In 1884, artist as a result of the growth and Asia sailed to Australia in the hope of making their Nicholas Habbe of our nation fortune. Australia was never the same again. imagined prosperous • FIND OUT about the New towns and cities grew quickly with the increase New South Wales new industries that in population. More farming land was taken up to feed as a young maiden developed in Australia the diggers and their families. New industries developed with a sparkling after the gold rushes crown. As gold to provide them with building materials, furniture, was a major part • SEE how the colonies clothes and food, and equipment for the mines. But gold of this prosperity, joined together to form did not bring prosperity for all. As settlement spread, it was represented a federated Australia. by a gold band more and more Aboriginal people were forced off their around her arm. traditional lands. Growth After Gold is one in a series of six books that celebrates 150 years of gold in Australia, from the excitement of its official discovery in 1851, to the large scale mines of today. Each book looks at how the discovery A brooch of those tiny grains of gold changed Australia forever. made in in about 1858  from locally mined gold and quartz 4 5 Curriculum Resource Pack: The © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Population explosion Diggers from other countries Until the discovery of gold, most of the non- Aboriginal people living in Australia were born here Australia’s population increased enormously during the or in Britain. Some chose to come hoping they would years. In the 10 years between 1851 and 1861, find more opportunities in Australia than at home. Others came as convicts, government officials or the population of Australia more than doubled, from These Chinese coins 437 000 to over 1.1 million. By 1871, it had reached soldiers. are from over 18 000 1.7 million. At no other time in Australia’s history has Over the first nine years of the gold rushes: recently found on the • 500 000 people left Britain for Australia diggings there been such a huge increase in such a short time. in Queensland • 60 000 came here from continental Europe • 42 000 travelled from China • 10 000 came from the United States • 5000 arrived from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Becoming more multicultural Just over half of these people stayed once the rush was over. For the first time, Australia had a population that was not either born in Britain or the descendants of Britons. There were Germans, French, Poles, Italians, Scandinavians, Dutch and Americans on many goldfields. All of these nationalities brought customs, traditions and skills that enriched their communities and began the move towards a multicultural Australia.

Chinese diggers Not all of these new arrivals were welcome. Gold diggers In the 1850s and 1860s, diggers protested During the second gold rush of the 1880s and 1890s, Like thousands of others, against the numbers of Chinese allowed into these men hoped that Victoria and New South Wales. Twenty years parade another rapid increase in population occurred. Western hard work and some luck later, they objected to them working on the Australia’s population more than trebled between 1891 would make their fortune Some Chinese stayed on in goldfields’ in Australia. Palmer River diggings in Queensland and in towns and were active in community and 1901, increasing from 49 782 to 184 124. life. In 1901, the Duke and Duchess of the Northern Territory. As a result, the In Victoria, the change was particularly dramatic. York were enthusiastically welcomed In 1851, Victoria had a population of 77 345. Ten years governments of these colonies introduced in Ballarat, Victoria. The local Chinese community built a spectacular arch later, the population was 538 628. laws limiting the number of Chinese allowed into Australia. across Main Road, decorating it with richly embroidered banners. 6 7 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Impact on the Aboriginal Gold – Australia’s population Before gold was discovered, the Aboriginal population greatest export of Australia was thought to be between 300 000 and 750 000. Aboriginal peoples living on the east coast King of the Wolgal suffered most from the spread of European settlement. Their lands were taken away, their water polluted and To demonstrate their conquest of Aboriginal peoples, animals killed that they relied on for food. Many died Europeans made particular from European diseases such as measles and influenza. Aboriginals ‘kings’. They By the time diggers arrived in towns like Ballarat presented them with engraved breastplates like this to wear or Bathurst, the local Aboriginal people had already around their necks. The Wolgal been forced off their lands by European farmers. people lived in south eastern New South Wales.

Garden Palace For the first 20 years after its discovery, gold took over wool’s In 1879, New South position as Australia’s major export. In 1871, it slipped to Wales showed its wealth in a specially built ‘Garden second place and stayed there until the early 1900s, ahead of Palace’. An obelisk was meat, butter, wheat, flour, coal and other . erected in the grounds to The amount of wealth generated by the goldfields was represent the £281 million worth of gold mined extraordinary. Here are just a few examples. Blanket handout to date. • At the height of the rushes in 1861, Victoria produced Violent conflict With the loss of their 35 per cent of all the gold in the world. land, Aboriginal In later rushes, diggers arriving at the goldfields of peoples became • In the first nine years of the gold rushes in Ballarat, Queensland, Western Australia and what is now the largely dependent £82 million of gold was found. Northern Territory, were usually the first Europeans in on European charity. • When the last of Ballarat’s mines closed in 1918, This photograph the area. They came into direct and often violent conflict shows the annual £230 million of gold had been extracted from the area. with local Aboriginal people and killed many of them. blanket handout • In Queensland, Mount Morgan paid out more than On Queensland’s Palmer River goldfields, enormous at Goondiwindi in £3 million in its first 10 years. When Mount Morgan’s Queensland. conflict was caused by diggers destroying Aboriginal water goldmine closed in 1927, it had produced £22 million supplies and food in their search for gold. The Aboriginal worth of gold. Gold medal people retaliated and killed about 90 diggers. More battles • In 20 years of goldmining, Gympie produced An International Exhibition followed, but Aboriginal spears were no match for European £5 million worth of gold. gold medal shows the main revolvers and rifles. Many Aboriginal people were killed by sources of the colony’s • By the end of 1915, the Western Australian goldmines new wealth: wool, wheat, and police. had paid out £25 million in profits. shipping and . 8 9 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Spread of settlement Gold towns – Victoria Golden stories George Lansell Ballarat GeorgeG Lansell was the first goldfields Gold fever brought people and wealth to country Ballarat was farming land when gold was first millionaire and was nicknamed ‘the quartz king’. He had one mansion Australia. For the first time, a sizable proportion discovered in August 1851. By 1861 it had several in and another in . One of the population lived away from the coast. cattleyards, banks, hotels, 10 foundries, a railway home called ‘Fortuna’ was surrounded by Instant townships grew on goldfields such as station and the nickname, the ‘Golden City’. huge grounds with artificial lakes and lily Ballarat and in Victoria, Gympie in ponds. Inside, there was a ballroom, Queensland, and Coolgardie in Western Australia. Bendigo billiard room, gymnasium, music room, private chapel and a swimming pool. Agriculture and industry developed to supply the Bendigo was equally successful, but it did not give Lansell had favourite sayings painted needs of these towns. Roads and railways were the same appearance of prosperity. The English writer, onto the windows of his homes built to carry goods and people between them. Anthony Trollope found in contrast to Ballarat, the such as ‘East and West, town was ‘crowded, unfinished and uncomfortable’. Home is Best’. Victoria However, it was very wealthy. At one stage, Bendigo had the deepest goldmine in the world. During the 1850s, Victoria grew much bigger and faster than New South Wales. More new People and wealth brought new industries to Clunes and Chewton goldfields were established, more wealth uncovered, Melbourne. This inkwell Most goldfields’ towns did not enjoy such prosperity. and famous nuggets found. As a result, by 1861, was made in 1865 for the Clunes was the site of Victoria’s first gold discovery and Victoria’s population was more than half as big Melbourne biscuit maker, thousands panned for gold along its creeks and gullies. again as New South Wales’ population. Melbourne Thomas Guest Today, there are less than a thousand people living there. also replaced Sydney as the largest city in Australia, despite being a city of tents, with unpaved streets, Chewton had the richest goldfield in Australia for some no lighting and few substantial buildings. years. Thousands of diggers lived and worked In 1852, Ellen Clacy thought Melbourne in the valley. Today, it is farming land. Ballarat postcard looked unfinished as: There are two signs of goldfield wealth in this he gold mines had upset everything and postcard of Ballarat. They T are the trams running up everybody, and put a stop to all improvements the main street and the new about the town. Town Hall up the hill on the left. The Town Hall was very expensive to build, and is ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ one of the few in the world to By the 1880s, Melbourne was transformed. have a full peal or set of bells. A visiting English journalist, George Sala, described Melbourne as: This is what the goldfields Town Hall at Chewton, Victoria look a really astonishing city, with broad streets like today full of handsome shops, and crowded with Melbourne’s new Town Hall (with the clock tower) and bustling, well-dressed people. Swanston Street in 1889. 10 11 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Gold towns – New South Gold towns – Queensland

Wales Palmer River New South Wales did not have the same level of gold The Queensland gold rush led to the development of many small discoveries as Victoria. In New South Wales, there were towns. These quickly became ghost towns when the gold was fewer diggers trying their luck and less development of mined out. In 1875, Maytown was the centre for diggers on the new towns. Although thousands rushed to new fields, Palmer River. On Sundays, diggers filled the streets, selling their they left just as quickly when the most easily found gold gold and buying supplies. The town had a courthouse, post office, ran out. Within 20 years, Sofala and Hill End had three banks and two newspapers. By 1885, many of the buildings almost become ghost towns. At one stage, Hill End had were empty and most of the diggers had gone. 50 hotels for thirsty diggers. By 1871, only 716 people still lived in the town. and Gympie Always looking for gold Further south, towns like Charters Towers, and Gympie grew on the Bathurst Although gold fever faded, prosperity brought by the search for gold. By 1888, Charters Towers Gold brought prosperity to Bathurst and reinforced its some continued to search for had a population of 12 000 and was the second largest town in role as a regional centre. It also brought new faces and gold. These prospectors were photographed in the 1880s, Queensland. Gympie remains a substantial town, but has never experiences. Writing to her family from Bathurst in carefully turning over rocks again had 25 000 living and working there as it did in the 1860s. 1861, Rachel Henning remarked on the number looking for traces of gold. This postcard of Chinese in the town: Mount Morgan and shows a bustling In the 1890s, Mount Morgan was the richest goldmine in Australia. street in Gympie e met some the other day, evidently newly around 1900 W The workers, equipment and manufacturing industry needed to arrived from China, with broad flat hats with a little support the mine led to the development of Rockhampton. point in the middle … and carrying their property slung at each end of a stick and balanced over their shoulders. Snowy Mountains’ towns Gold also took prospectors to previously unsettled areas such as the Snowy Mountains. Towns like Kiandra, Adelong and Tumut were the result. But the harsh climate meant that diggers did not stay. About 3000 people prospected at the Kiandra diggings in 1860. By 1866, only 230 remained. The fine buildings constructed at the height of gold fever fell into ruin.

Harsh winters meant few prospectors Winter in Kiandra stayed long at Kiandra. In this photograph, the Kiandra Hotel has almost completely disappeared under snow. 12 13 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Gold towns Gold towns – Western Australia Tasmania When gold was first discovered in Western Australia in 1886, the colony was very sparsely settled. Perth was just Tasmania did not experience a small town of a few thousand homes. The gold rushes the same level of gold fever brought people and money to Perth and soon made it a as the mainland of Australia. prosperous city. The richest goldfields’ town Gold brooch was Beaconsfield, to the north Coolgardie and Boulder A successful digger on of Launceston. The Tasmanian the Western Australian The south east of Western Australia had the richest gold goldfields had this brooch Company built deposits in Australia. With thousands of diggers arriving made for his wife or this town to house its miners sweetheart. The black to seek their fortune, the towns of Coolgardie and Boulder and their families. In 1881, swan, the symbol of that developed quickly. state, sits between two 53 companies were working Mrs Arthur Garnsey travelled to Coolgardie in the gold nuggets. the field, producing about 1890s and later described it as ‘a city in a sandy desert’: £12 million worth of gold. T he town was well laid out … Northern Territory Most of these houses, or shacks, were When gold was first discovered These Chinese children canvas over a wooden framework … in 1871, the main town of were photographed The most original structures were Palmerston (now Darwin) was a tiny settlement. gathering for the Chinese those made entirely of beaten-out Gold fever temporarily brought diggers from the rest New Year Festival in Darwin, in 1922 kerosene tins, nailed to a wooden of Australia and from overseas to Pine Creek, south of framework. There were numbers Palmerston. However, the heat, humidity and isolation of these; some were quite large meant that few Europeans stayed. It was mostly Chinese ‘restaurants’. One, where coffee and diggers who persisted. ‘hot dogs’ were to be had day and By 1879, there were 3400 Chinese in the night, boasted the grand name of Northern Territory, seven times the number of Europeans. the ‘London and Paris Café’. When the government placed similar restrictions on them to those in Victoria and New South Wales, the number of Camel transport Chinese in the Territory dwindled. Camels in the main street of By 1905, Kalgoorlie was the principal town of the diggings. Coolgardie in the late 1800s. South Australia It had a railway station, six banks, several hundred shops, Camels were an important Gold finds were so small in South Australia that they did not three breweries, five hospitals and four newspapers. Over form of transport during Western Australia’s gold lead to long-term settlement. In 1886, Thomas Brady and the next 30 years, the amount of gold being mined slowly rush era. Thomas Smith found gold at Teetulpa, 360 kilometres north decreased. Kalgoorlie was saved from becoming a ghost east of . Although about 5000 people rushed to the town by an increase in the price of gold in the 1930s. By diggings, they quickly found all the gold they could, packed 1934, Kalgoorlie was the largest gold producer in Australia up their tents and moved on to the next rush. and goldmining continues there today. 14 15 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Improvements in transport Clippers Golden stories Diggers were prepared to pay almost anything for a Rachel Henning’s voyage ticket on a faster ship. Ship owners and captains made RachelG Henning travelled to Transport in Australia improved greatly as a huge profits on the popular routes adapting cargo Australia on a steamship in 1861. result of the gold rushes. Diggers keen to ships called ‘clippers’ for the run to Australia. She enjoyed the journey. Her cabin was snug and her fellow get to newly discovered fields created Clippers were designed for speed rather than comfort. passengers were pleasant company. a demand for fast and efficient ships Conditions on some ships were so bad that some She also appreciated having steam and railways and well built roads. passengers died during the voyage. However, clippers power as they approached the equator: did succeed in setting new records for the journey to Some days the thermometer was up to Faster ships Australia. In 1852, the Marco Polo reached Melbourne 90 in the saloon, but we were fortunate enough to steam through it, while the The distance of Australia in 78 days. Two years later, the James Baines reduced the time to 65 days. unhappy sailing-ships we passed were from the rest of the world flapping their sails helplessly in the was the first hurdle to be calms … while their inhabitants overcome. In 1851, it Steam-powered ships must have been nearly took three months to Diggers also travelled to Australia in steam-powered roasted alive. travel by ship from ships. These had the advantage of not being becalmed Europe to Sydney when there was no wind. Instead they fired up their (calms – an area around the equator and Melbourne. The engines and steamed on. They still had to stop at ports notorious for its lack of wind) enormous numbers on the way for fresh supplies of coal and water. In 1853, of hopeful diggers the Great Britain made the trip to Melbourne keen to get to the diggings in 83 days. encouraged ship captains to search for new and faster routes to Australia. Golden stories The quickest route was also the most risky. Sailing as far south as The Star of the East GBuilt in 1853 and sold for possible, ships went dangerously close £16 000, the Star of the East’s to Antarctica and its icebergs. In 1858 the Boardgame first voyage was from Liverpool Guiding Star took this route and was never to Melbourne. With a return heard from again. There were 546 people In this popular Race to cargo of tea from China, the the Diggings of Australia on board. profit was £8018, or half board game, children could the cost of the vessel. compete to see who would be the first to arrive.

This is a model of the Flying Cloud American clipper ship, Flying Cloud which set new speed records in the 1850s. 16 17 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 New roads and bridges Golden stories Early prospectors walking or riding to the A trip to Bathurst In 1861,G Rachel Henning travelled from diggings in New South Wales and Victoria Sydney to Bathurst to stay with her sister. followed roads that were simple tracks cut She made the first part of her journey through the bush. There were no signposts by train to Parramatta where she stayed and it was easy to become lost. During heavy the night. The next day she caught a rains, coaches and drays became hopelessly Cobb & Co coach for Bathurst. stuck in the mud. When diggers came to First the passengers had to cross the Nepean a river they had to cross as best they could River by punt as the bridge had washed away. They slowly climbed the steep Blue Mountains’ as there were no bridges. roads. Rachel admired the driver’s skill: As the goldfield population increased, We had a capital driver, fearless and yet it became vital to build proper roads and careful, and he took us safe over rocks and bridges. When these were completed, it was ruts and deep holes and fallen trees. much quicker to travel to inland towns. They spent the night at Black Heath. They set off at 6 o’clock the next morning on the last leg of their trip, arriving in Bathurst at 7 o’clock that night. The journey took The wheelwright three days. A crowd gathers around In the Wheelwright’s Factory a dray bogged in Clarke at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat, Street, Hill End in 1872 Better coaches Victoria, local tradespeople make coach and carriage The demand for faster travel changed the type of coaches wheels in the traditional way. used on Australian roads. Before the gold rushes, most were made in England. They were solid, heavy and frustratingly slow. They also had springs that made journeys over rough roads very uncomfortable.

American Concord coaches Diggers were keen to get to their destinations quickly and were prepared to pay well for speed. As a result, some companies imported Concord coaches from America. These were lighter and faster than English coaches. The Concord coach used two long leather straps rather than metal springs. This meant it did not swing from side to side, but instead rocked back and forth. Passengers were thrilled by the speed and comfort of these American coaches and they were an instant success. Australian coachbuilders soon began making American-style coaches. 18 19 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Cobb & Co Development of the railways In 1854, four Americans, Freeman Cobb, John Peck, James Swanton and John Lamber, formed the company, Cobb & Co. Their first route was Quick improvements to the rail system were from Melbourne to the Victorian goldfields. Cobb needed for the many people settling in new towns & Co coaches were so efficient and reliable that and in new suburbs of major cities. Now they changed the style and reputation of coach people had to travel across cities to work and to travel in Australia. school. Goods and people had to be carried from One woman who travelled on a Cobb & Co coastal ports to new, busy goldfields’ towns. coach in 1861 described it as: Mail box After a slow start, construction escalated. In Much of Australia’s mail 1859 there were less than 300 kilometres of track First Sydney train machine built very strong and very light, hung was carried by Cobb & Co in use. By 1875, this had risen to 1600 kilometres, and a An excited crowd greets upon a peculiar sort of spring and with seats coaches, securely locked five years later, there were 6500 kilometres of railway up in boxes like this. the arrival of the Governor inside for nine … and drawn by four capital tracks in Australia. Between 1860 and 1890, railways at Parramatta on a special horses, changed every ten miles, at every stage. were the fastest growing industry in the colonies. As the run from Sydney one month before the first official train in poet Henry Lawson wrote, railways were connecting the September 1855. The Sydney bush not just to the cities, but to the world: Morning Herald described the Bright, red coaches opening of the first railway in The distinctive red coaches of he flaunting flag of progress New South Wales as ‘a great T distinction’. Cobb & Co were soon seen is in the west unfurled along outback roads in every The mighty bush with iron rails Australian colony, except is tethered to the world Did you know? Tasmania. In their 70-year • The first Australian history, Cobb & Co spread The size of Australia and the spread of settlement steam train service overseas to New Zealand, meant that coaches continued to be a useful form began in Melbourne of transport, often linking railway stations to other on 12 September 1854. South Africa and Japan. Passengers travelled settlements. between the city and Port Melbourne. A Cobb & Co coach • Sydney’s first steam The bright red Cobb & railway opened on Co coaches stood out as 26 September 1855, they raced into town. Their carrying passengers arrival was announced by from the city to the driver blowing a horn. Parramatta. One side of this coach has been restored; the other half remains unrestored This illustration by S.T. Gill depicts and unpainted. the temporary Sydney station in 1856 when it was a timber platform housed in a hastily built shed

20 21 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Victoria Western Australia Golden stories In the 1850s the colonial government built The railways, like the goldfields, developed later in railway lines linking goldfield towns to Western Australia. When gold was first discovered James Twigg To Graise money to go prospecting, Melbourne and . The first 20 miles in the area around Coolgardie, diggers had to walk James Twigg took on a job cutting (36 kilometres) of the line to Bendigo from the end of the rail line at Southern Cross. down trees to provide timber for the opened in January 1859. The builders Then the government extended the railway to cope railways. He earned eight shillings a celebrated by inviting 1000 people to a lavish with the thousands keen to get to the diggings. day, which would buy goods worth ball. Three years later, the line to Ballarat and The railway line from Perth reached $49.60 today. Writing to his brother on 10 April 1893, he described the job: the completed Bendigo line were opened. No.1 Locomotive Coolgardie in March 1896. The Governor, It is reckoned the hardest work a man can go Railway lines soon fanned out across the colony. This photo shows it Sir Gerald Smith, arrived on the first train. at out here. I got 1s 0d per hour 8 hours a outside the newly built At the celebration party, 500 people drank day. I did well and was saving fast when the engine house behind the champagne until well after midnight. The first New South Wales Technological Museum weather broke and the Australian winter came train from Perth reached Kalgoorlie six months on … I caught a severe cold and a terrible After the initial success of the line from Sydney to in Harris Street, Ultimo, probably around 1905. later. attack of dysentery of which I am afraid it will Parramatta, the railway’s progress west across the Blue cost me something to get rid of … It is just Mountains was slow. Although it was easy to build a possible I will go to the gold fields this line going up the mountains, the descent on the other Northern Territory winter if this disease don’t put side was very steep. Engineers solved this by building In the Northern Territory, the goldfields at Pine Creek me under. In the bush one can’t get medicine. a series of three ‘zigzag’ lines. In 1874, the Illustrated led to the building of a railway connecting the Sydney News described the zigzag railway as: goldfield with Palmerston (now Darwin). By the middle of 1888, over 3000 men, mostly Chinese, (dysentery – an infectious disease that O ne of the most impressive sights and were building the line across harsh and difficult causes severe diarrhoea) grandest bits of engineering in the world. country. This magnificent work … is cut out of the solid … and cost about £25 000 per mile… The difficulties which had to be overcome by both engineer and contractor were very great, but the result of their combined labours is a spectacle which commands the admiration of every traveller.

The first train from Sydney to Bathurst finally arrived two years later on 4 April 1876. The restored No.1 Locomotive is now on display at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum The opening ceremony of the Darwin to Pine Creek Railway on 1 October 1889 22 23 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Suburban transport Trams Golden stories Horse-drawn trams In the years before the gold rushes, there was very The earliest trams were horse-drawn and the first New job opportunities Australian tramway opened in 1861. Travelling along GThese new forms of transport little suburban transport. The capital cities of each provided new job opportunities. colony were small. Most people could walk from Pitt Street in Sydney, it linked the rail terminus at John Maxwell, a young Irish their homes to work, school or the shops. But after Redfern with Circular Quay. The trams were painted emigrant, had at first found it hard 1851, the population explosion and growth of cities ‘a lively yellow’ and were decorated with lions and to get on in Melbourne. But in 1886 and towns meant suburban transport was needed. The earliest known suburban eagles. Each tram carried 60 passengers. Horse trams he wrote to his brother, describing railway ticket in New South Wales how his luck had changed: Omnibuses, trains and trams soon became effective were introduced in Adelaide in 1878, in Melbourne and popular parts of the transport system. This ticket was issued on in 1884 and in Brisbane two years later. The I had heard that there was a very good job 28 September 1855 for travel journalist, H.G. Turner, was impressed by Adelaide’s to be had on the new cable tramways … between Newtown and Sydney. trams and in 1884 wrote: I applied and was informed that I was the Omnibuses sort of man they wanted and … they would Omnibuses were horse-drawn buses and carried he fares are moderate, the departures frequent, give me a trial … I went for training last people along specific routes in the cities. Three T Monday week and passed on my seventh the vehicles clean and easy of access, the speed quite to four horses pulled each bus which carried day’s practice … I will be what is sufficient for ordinary purposes, and the journey is called engineer (a rather big between 12 and 20 passengers. Some were two accomplished in a delightful quiet, as compared with word for what I will storeyed, with a spiral staircase on the outside. the rumbling cab or omnibus. have to do). Costs of tickets varied. The Melbourne Omnibus Company charged threepence a mile from the Birmingham Arms Hotel in Collingwood to the Steam, cable and then electric trams city. In Sydney, it cost sixpence for a bus along Horse trams were later replaced by steam, cable and, George Street and regular services also ran to In the 1890s, this omnibus finally, electric trams. Soon all the capital cities and many Randwick, Double Bay, Bondi, Coogee and carried passengers along Oxford regional centres had their own tram networks and trams Kogarah. Street to Paddington in Sydney had become the most popular of all forms of transport. A visitor to Melbourne in 1883 described By 1924, trams were omnibuses as ‘fast, clean, roomy and well-managed’. carrying 744 million passengers a year. Suburban railways Railway lines spread throughout the suburbs of Australia’s major cities. By 1891, Melbourne had six railway lines and 70 suburban stations. By 1900, in New South Wales, there were 2800 miles (5040 kilometres) of track. Adelaide and Brisbane developed their own smaller suburban rail systems. and Perth remained too small to need them. These people are jumping aboard one of Brisbane’s Omnibuses carry ‘Sydneysiders’ down Omnibuses trams in the early 1900s George Street on a wet day around 1900. 24 25 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Advances in agriculture Development of new industry Two major areas of industry to benefit from the gold rushes and industry were machinery and engineering goods, and manufacturing. Machinery and engineering In the early gold rush days, blacksmiths, tinsmiths and The increase in population and wealth that resulted carpenters made the simple tools that diggers used. from the gold rushes led to advances in Australian Golden stories But once large-scale company mines developed, heavy agriculture and industry. Diggers and their machinery and engineering works were needed. Coolgardie safe families needed food and clothing. They Farming in Western Australia Foundries repaired and made the pumps, Farming Gcould be just as hard as mining. The Coolgardie safe was invented wanted to spend their new-found wealth on With money made as a digger in Western engines, chains and pipes required by the large mining to keep food cool during the smart carriages, stylish homes and fashionable Australia, James Twigg bought a farm. companies. Special quartz crushers were built to Western Australian gold rushes. furnishings. Consequently, farming areas He had to deal with kangaroos eating his break up the rock efficiently. Foundries experimented Hessian cloth was hung down the sides and kept wet by a tray of around goldfields’ towns expanded and crops, dingoes killing his sheep, bushfires with the best ways of extracting gold. and drought. In 1904 he wrote to his brother: water at the top, cooling the air towns and cities developed new industries. When the gold rushes were over, the more successful as it passed into the safe. In areas where gold was discovered, I have so much to do on this big place. Even my foundries went on to produce other types of heavy much of the land was already being farmed. Sundays are spent … going round the sheep and I was machinery. In 1871, Ballarat’s Phoenix Foundry won the butchering one last night at 11 o’clock and up this The sudden rise in population meant that tender to supply locomotives for Victoria’s new railways. morning at 5 to get the carcass in before the flies not enough wheat was grown, or sheep and got at it … it requires no small amount of pluck cattle raised, to feed all these new arrivals. to keep on. Manufacturing The high prices diggers were prepared to pay Three years later he gave up, selling the Diggers needed basic supplies such as food, drink and for basic food supplies encouraged farmers to farm and taking his family clothes. If they struck it rich they wanted to display their plant more crops and increase their herds of pigs, to east Africa. new wealth in the most obvious way. A fine carriage was cattle and sheep. Many farmers in areas close to ideal. A range of factories developed around goldfields’ the diggings made far greater fortunes than the gold towns to meet the need for: (carcass – dead body of an animal) Trembath and Sons, Coach diggers who bought their crops and ate their meat. • soap and candles and Carriage Builders • beer Diggers turn to farming • soft drinks With money saved from their Loading wheat • biscuits on a New South gold finds, some diggers set Wales’ property. • leather goods and horse themselves up on small farms. An ingenious device products like saddles In the years following the gold pulled by a horse, • boots and shoes lifted sacks onto the • clothes rushes, the number of farmers dray and the amount of land they • coaches.

cultivated increased enormously. A farmer and his children put Harvesting Between 1860 and 1900, the away their McKay ‘Sunshine wheat areas of land planted with Harvester’ after bringing in the wheat increased five times. crop. It was developed in Ballarat to harvest wheat more quickly. 26 27 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 The first mint Improvements in working An important industry that grew directly from the gold conditions rushes was the minting of coins. In the early years of European settlement in Australia, nearly all coins The rise of trade unions came from Britain. It was illegal to make coins in Trade unions are groups of tradesmen and women Australia. who join together to protect their working conditions. The gold rushes strengthened the position of Australian Using Australian gold craft unions. So many men left their jobs for the Once gold was discovered, the New South Wales A gold sovereign made at the Sydney Mint diggings, that those who stayed behind successfully Government asked the British Government for argued for better conditions and higher pay. permission to establish a local mint so local gold In 1852, the soldier and writer Godfrey Mundy wrote could be used to make Australian An eight-hour day badge about the immediate effects of the first gold finds: currency. The British Government agreed, I n less than a week the diminution of the street and a branch of London’s population of Sydney was very visible … My coachmaker opened in Sydney in 1855. Coining deplored the loss of ten of his workmen – my tailor, presses sent out from England struck of seven. sovereigns and half sovereigns from (diminution – reduction) locally mined gold. A sovereign was worth 20 shillings, or £1. By 1891, the Sydney Mint had turned more than Eight-hour day £70 million worth of gold into coins In 1851, the typical working day and bullion. was 10 hours. Within five years, the A second branch of the Royal Mint stonemasons’ union had succeeded opened in Melbourne in 1872. After in having its day shortened to eight gold was discovered in Western hours. Its slogan was ‘8 hours Australia, a third branch of the Royal labour, 8 hours recreation, 8 hours Mint opened in Perth in 1899. rest’. The introduction of the eight hour day is still celebrated by Australian trade unions today. What is it worth now? Health and safety The stonemasons’ banner proclaiming Miners working in company mines an eight-hour working day Today, one sovereign would formed unions as well. They fought Trade unions had these elaborate buy goods equal to about to protect their rights and to make banners made to celebrate their $124. Work at the Sydney Mint employers provide safer conditions. achievements. Members carried them during parades and protests. These sketches show men working at the Sydney Mint, melting and rolling gold, casting and counting ingots. 28 29 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Federation

One of the most important results of the gold rush was to encourage the separate colonies that made up Australia to join together in a Federation. At the beginning of 1851 there were four colonies, each with its own administration: New South Wales, which covered the entire east coast of Australia, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. Victoria became a separate colony on 1 July 1851 and Queensland followed in 1859. These decorated Joining together as one mugs were made Not all the colonies were keen to federate. However, to celebrate Federation gold made New South Wales and Victoria the wealthiest and most populated colonies. Their support led to the eventual acceptance of Federation. When voted, the greatest ‘yes’ vote came from goldfields’ towns. In fact, 95 per cent of voters in Ballarat and Bendigo said ‘yes’ at the 1898 referendum.

Western Australia Miners on the Western Australian goldfields saw the proposed Federation as an opportunity to form a separate and independent colony, called the Eastern Goldfields. In 1899, they collected 28 000 signatures and sent them to London, petitioning the Queen that the Eastern Goldfields should be a separate colony. In the end, Western Australia did not split in two.

The Commonwealth of Australia On 1 January 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia Proclamation of Federation was founded. The Earl of Houpetoun was sworn in Crowds at the pavilion as the first Governor-General and Edmund Barton in Centennial Park, appointed the first Prime Minister. Sydney watch as the Commonwealth of Australia is proclaimed on 1 January 1901. 30 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Glossary becalmed when a sailing ship stops because of lack of wind blacksmith a tradesperson who works with iron, beating it out into shapes such as horseshoes bullion a quantity of gold formed into a rectangular brick colonies the six British settlements of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia (including the Northern Territory) and Western Australia continental Europe all of Europe except Great Britain craft unions unions whose members have particular skills such as stonemasons currency money drays horse-drawn vehicles with flat wooden platforms for carrying goods emigrant a person who leaves one country to settle in another equator an imaginary circle that runs around the centre of the Earth’s surface Europeans settlers from Europe. This term is often used to distinguish between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal (or European) Australians export to send to other countries or places for sale Federation the joining together of separate states to form a central government with states retaining some powers foundries places where metal is melted and cast into shapes ingots lumps of gold or metal after having been cast, usually in the shape of bricks multicultural having more than one culture obelisk a four-sided column that ends in a point £ (pounds) currency introduced to Australia from Britain and used until 1966 when pounds, shillings and pence were replaced with dollars and cents prospectors people searching for gold or other minerals punt a shallow, flat-bottomed boat referendum an opportunity to vote on an issue of general public concern tender to make an offer for something tinsmith a tradesperson who makes things out of tin

31 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8 Index

A Aboriginal peoples 8 F farming 26 P Palmer River 7, 8, 13 Adelaide 24, 25 Federation 30 Parramatta 21, 22 Adelong 12 foundries 27 Perth 15, 23, 24, 28 Pine Creek 14, 23 B Ballarat 7, 9, 10, 11, 22, 27, G Geelong 22 population increase 6, 7 30 gold coins 28 Bathurst 8, 12, 18 gold export 9 R railways 21–24 Beaconsfield 14 Goondiwindi 8 referendum 30 Beechworth 10 Gympie 9, 10, 13 roads 18 Bendigo 11, 22, 30 Rockhampton 13 Boulder 15 H Hill End 12, 18 Royal Mint 28 Brisbane 24, 25 Hobart 24 S ships 16, 17 C camels 15 I industry 26–27 Sofala 12 Charters Towers 13 Sovereign Hill 19 Chewton 11 K Kalgoorlie 15, 23 suburban transport 24–25 Chinese miners 7, 12, 14, Kiandra 12 Sydney 10, 21, 22, 24, 25, 28, 23 29, 30 clippers 17 L Lawson, Henry 21 Sydney Mint 28 Clunes 11 coaches 19 M machinery 27 T Teetulpa 14 Cobb & Co 18, 20 McKay Sunshine Harvester 27 trade unions 29 Coolgardie 10, 23 mail 20 trams 25 Coolgardie safe 27 manufacturing 27 transport 16–25 Melbourne 10, 17, 21, 24, 25, 28 Tumut 12 D Darwin (Palmerston) 14, mint 28 23 Mount Morgan 9, 13 W working conditions 29 E eight-hour day 29 O omnibuses 24

Acknowledgements The author and the publisher are grateful to the following for permission to of SA (B9067); page 25 ‘People jumping on a Brisbane tram’ courtesy of State Library reproduce copyright material: of Queensland, John Oxley Library, Neg. 18151; page 27 ‘Trembath and Sons, Coach and Carriage Builders’ reproduced courtesy of the Ballarat Historical Society; page 28 Cover: Postcard showing the main street of Gympie in about 1900, ‘Sketches at the Sydney Mint’, Sydney Mail, 16 July 1892 reproduced courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum. State Reference Library, State Library of New South Wales; page 29 ‘Stonemason’s banner’ reproduced courtesy of the CFMEU–Construction & General Division (Vic Photos supplied by the Powerhouse Museum Collection except as follows: Branch). Page 7 ‘The visit of the Duke and Duchess of York to Ballarat, 1901’ reproduced courtesy of the Ballarat Historical Society; page 8 ‘Aborigines receiving blankets in While every care has been taken to trace and acknowledge copyright the publishers Goondiwindi, Queensland, in 1890’ reproduced courtesy of collection: John Oxley tender their apologies for any accidental infringement where copyright has proved Library, Brisbane (neg. no 60423); page 10 ‘Melbourne’s new Town Hall, 1889’ untraceable. reproduced courtesy of La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria; page 11 ‘Chewton, Victoria’ courtesy of Getty Images/David Overton; page 14 ‘Chinese festival, Darwin, The author would like to acknowledge the following sources of information: 1922’ reproduced courtesy of the Mortlock Pictorial Collection, State Library of SA Bate, Weston, 1978, Lucky city: The first generation at Ballarat, 1851–1901, Melbourne (B23015); page 15 ‘Camels in Coolgardie’ about 1895, reproduced courtesy of the University Press, Melbourne National Library of Australia; Kalgoorlie brooch, anonymous collection; page 18 ‘Dray Cannon, Michael, 1983, Life in the Cities, Currey O’Neil, Melbourne bogged in Clarke Street, Hill End’ Sydney Mail, 14 September 1872 reproduced courtesy O’Farrell, Patrick, 1983, Letters from Irish Australia, 1825–1929, University of New of the State Reference Library, State Library of New South Wales; page 19 ‘William South Wales Press, Sydney Proctor, Coachbuilder’ reproduced courtesy of The Sovereign Hill Museums Association; page 21 ‘Arrival of the first railway train at Paramatta from Sydney’, wood engraving The calculation used in this book to convert 1850s pounds to today’s dollars is only by Walter G. Mason, 1857, courtesy of National Library of Australia; ‘The temporary approximate as prices fluctuated wildly during the gold rushes. Sydney station in 1856’ lithograph from Scenery in and around Sydney, 1856, courtesy of National Library of Australia; page 23 ‘Opening of the Darwin to Pine Creek Railway, 1 October 1889’ reproduced courtesy of the Mortlock Pictorial Collection, State Library Please visit the Powerhouse Museum at www.powerhousemuseum.com 32 Curriculum Resource Pack: The Australian Gold Rushes © Powerhouse Museum/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2012 ISBN 978 1 4202 9789 8