Australian Goldrush
Erin
Gold is Found
Gold is found in rocks and in the ground. Gold is a rare metal.
People came from all over the world to find gold,
It was called the Gold Rush.
Some people found gold and became rich but lots of people did not find gold.
Small Nuggets of gold were found in NSW in the early days but the authorities kept it quiet. In February 1851 a man named Edward Hargraves found gold near Bathurst and the word spread.
Searching for Gold
During the gold rush diggers needed to have a licence to dig in any goldfields.
Licences were 30 shillings a month. Miners had to work every day to have a chance of being lucky but were not allowed to mine on Sunday. Gold was found just under the surface.
Between 1851 and 1861 Australia produced one
Third of the world's gold. 100 years have passed and Australia was the largest producer of the gold in the world.
The Victorian goldfields
A man made up a prize of 200 guineas for the first person who found gold in
Victoria. Around the same time gold was found at Clunes, at Andersons Creek near Warrandyte and at Buninyong. James Reagan and John Dunlop discovered the richest goldfield the world has ever seen, it was at a place called Balla Arat(Ballarat). September 1851 there were
About 10,000 people digging for gold near Ballarat. By 1852 the word had spread to England, Europe, China and America.
Goldrush in Western Ausralia
In June 1893 gold was found near Mount Charlotte. A rich gold field was found at Coolgardie found by Arthur Bayley and William Ford. By 1898 Coolgardie was the third largest town in western Australia after Perth and Fremantle. In 1902 gold started to get deeper underground getting as low as 1500 feet below the surface.
Chinese on the goldfields
When Chinese came to the goldfields they stayed in teams with a head man in charge.
Chinese did not want to dig underground because the did not want to annoy the mountain gods. All miners thought Chinese cultures were different, so everyone treated Chinese people heaps different.