The Australian Gold Rushes the Australian Gold Rushes
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Contents The Australian gold rushes 4 Entertainment on the goldfields 5 Around the camp fire 6 Popular activities 8 Public entertainment 10 Sport 14 Problems with drinking and gambling 18 Family entertainment 21 Toys and games for children 26 Sundays and special days 28 Parades and festivals 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 Entertainment goldgold rushesrushes on the goldfields Entertainment was very important on all the goldfields. After a long hard day of digging, carting soil and rock, In this book you can: n 2001, Australia celebrated the 150th anniversary of I and washing it in pans and cradles, diggers were keen to • SEE how diggers the official discovery of gold near Bathurst in New South enjoy themselves. Sitting around the fire telling stories, entertained themselves Wales. On 12 February 1851, Edward Hargraves found five singing and playing music, they celebrated their successes with stories, music and grains of gold in mud washed from Lewis Ponds Creek. and forgot about their disappointments. Once goldfields games Gold was such a valuable and desired material that for became more established, diggers went to theatres • READ about the success a while, the whole country was caught up in ‘gold fever’. and music halls. On Sundays and holidays, there were of theatres and music Men left their jobs, homes and families to rush to the sports like cricket and football, horse racing and boxing halls, and stars like goldfields in New South Wales and Victoria. The fever matches. Charles Thatcher and spread to Queensland, and then finally to all the colonies Today, we still enjoy some of the games and Lola Montez of Australia. Within 10 years, the population had more entertainments that were first seen on the Australian • FIND OUT about the than doubled, as eager gold diggers from Europe, America goldfields. diggers’ love of sport and Asia sailed to Australia in the hope of making their • LEARN about the fortune. Australia was never the same again. problems with drinking New towns and cities grew quickly with the increase and gambling in population. More farming land was taken up to feed • DISCOVER the variety the diggers and their families. New industries developed of entertainment in to provide them with building materials, furniture, diggers’ homes clothes and food, and equipment for the mines. But gold • SEE the types of did not bring prosperity for all. As settlement spread, children’s games and more and more Aboriginal people were forced off their toys traditional lands. Entertainment on the Goldfields is one in a series of six • FIND OUT about special days and events. 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 of those tiny grains of gold changed Australia forever. S.T.Gill’s painting Lucky diggers in Melbourne, 1853 Theatre entertainment was very popular on the goldfields, but the audience seems to be doing everything but looking at the stage. Some are talking and laughing, while one man hands a pipe to another. Goldfields artist, S.T.Gill travelled to the Victorian diggings from South Australia. He made a living by drawing scenes of the life he saw around him. 4 5 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 Around the camp fire Music making and singing Many of the diggers brought musical instruments from home. Sitting around the fire they played Story telling popular tunes on the flute, violin or concertina. Favourite songs were about home, family and After long days looking for gold, diggers were sweethearts and about fortunes won and lost. Concertina happy to spend evenings sitting with their mates Good musicians were very popular, and some This is a wind around a camp fire, smoking pipes, and telling diggers made more money as performers instrument played stories. Some told stories about their adventures by pumping a than they ever made from gold. bellows in and out. getting to the diggings, while others told tales of bushrangers. Pipe smoking Diggers loved to relax around a camp fire and Golden stories they usually smoked a pipe. Tobacco was Charles Thatcher Guitar introduced to Europe from America. People GOne of the most famous musicians copied the way American Indians smoked on the goldfields was Charles Thatcher. using pipes filled with tobacco leaves. On the He arrived in Victoria in 1853 intent on Victorian diggings, Fred Brogden’s camp fire making his fortune, and went to the Bendigo diggings. He did not find much gold, but he was a particularly popular gathering place in did have some success playing in the orchestra the evenings and one digger wrote: ‘The miner’s dream of at the Royal Victoria Theatre and writing and home’ was a typical singing songs about life on the diggings. sentimental song of W e generally had ten or a dozen old familiar faces ‘Petticoat Lane’ was one of his most popular the diggings around our ingle-nook enjoying their pipes, songs and referred to a famous London street: and chatting of past days and future hopes. When first I arrived, (ingle-nook – a cosy corner by the fire) To the diggings I started, Where they said I could pick up The most common In Australia, some pipes were made from local clay, Great nuggets of gold; instruments were but most were brought in from overseas. The bowl But the sight of the holes the ones that were easiest to carry of the pipe was decorated with designs such as ships, Made me feel quite down hearted – Clay pipe I found that I was most decidedly sold. heads of famous people and My delicate hands soon skulls. They were easily If you look Were covered with blisters, broken, but were very cheap closely at this And in heaving the earth out clay pipe you It gave my back pain; to buy, and often given away can see that Violin And I wished I was once more by publicans. People digging the bowl is in At home with my sisters, around goldfields’ sites often find the shape of an Australian In charming old England and broken clay pipes buried animal. Petticoat Lane. in old rubbish tips. 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 Popular activities Brass bands Golden stories Men who could play trumpets, horns and other brass Mungo Mungo instruments formed bands. These were very popular, GA number of Aboriginal and on Sundays they marched around the diggings men became famous as circus Dancing performers. One of the most playing religious hymns and popular tunes. At other Diggers enjoyed sitting around a camp fire, but they successful was Mungo Mungo times they performed in concerts and at dances. from Tamworth in New South Wales. also liked to get away from cramped and cold tents. As goldfields’ towns became more established, Trained by the Ashtons of Ashtons Dancing was extremely popular. Dances could be held and the number of brass bands increased, the Circus, he starred in the Royal almost anywhere and at any time. All that was needed bands started competing against each other. Olympic Circus as it travelled around was a large tent and a few musicians. In the early years the goldfields. In 1855 a Sydney of the diggings, there were never enough women, so journalist described his act as: the men danced with each other. … truly a wonder … [He does] many At the time of the gold rushes, dancing was and daring feats on horseback which changing. Traditional folk dances were being replaced have been taught him in less than Dressing up for a ball two years by the skillful training with more formal dances such as quadrilles and of Mr Ashton. dances for couples. As a result, dancing was more Women wore their best popular than ever. In 1859, Richard Horne, a visitor clothes and jewellery to balls. Some women had to the Victorian goldfields described: brooches like this made from their husbands’ t he general mania for dancing … from which gold finds. scarcely anyone who can dance is exempt. Subscription Brass band balls Members of this brass band stand proudly On special days like the holding their musical instruments. Queen’s Birthday and Boxing Day, or to raise money for the local Travelling circuses hospital or fire brigade, Circuses were also quick to take advantage of diggers organised the diggers’ enthusiasm for entertainment. Not subscription balls and long after gold was discovered on the Truron people bought tickets. River in New South Wales, Burton’s Circus A famous acrobat arrived. Setting up their tent, the performers played for They wore their finest Circus performer Mungo clothes and expected six months at Sofala and Bathurst. Mungo effortlessly leaps a proper orchestra and Raising money in Ballarat A night at the circus offered trick acts done on from his horse, jumps over horseback, acrobatics, wire-walking and clowns. At the a length of cloth and lands good food and drink. In Subscription Ball Ballarat 1854, artist S.T.Gill back on the horse as it made fun of the guests by painting the women as Bendigo diggings, one of the acts in Brown’s Circus was circles the ring.