Women & Children on the Goldfields
By: Natasha E
Introduction
Some women used to work as shopkeepers or used to care for their children and cook for their husbands .Women wore old fashioned clothes everyday and every night. Women used to dance or sing for the diggers (miners).
Roles and Responsibilities
Women's responsibilities were taking care of the home, their children and their husbands by cooking and washing their clothes and cleaning the house. Unmarried Women sang and danced for the miners so they could get gold.The ladies used to knit clothes for the men so if there clothes were ripped they would knit it for them.The women also made mud bricks to build to have better and stronger houses.
health
When the women got pregnant on the goldfields there was only one doctor and 100 woman that were pregnant. So it was hard for the doctor and many pregnant woman back then in the goldfields. It was very hard for the children because there was no medicine if they got a flu and just had a running nose.On the goldfields some people got food poisoning because of flies. The mutton went off in the sun and if children ate a lot food they would have to go to the toilet and poo a lot over and over again.
Education
Children moved schools often as parents kept moving to find richer goldfields.Often there was no schooling because there was no schools built.Schools were made from tents and the roof was made from canvas material.The children had no technology they only had a black board, they did not have smart boards.