The Australian Gold Rush
By Shay
The Gold Rush In Australia Begins
A little amount of gold was found in NSW in a couple of days at the colony but the authorities hushed it up. Between 1851 and 1861 Australia had produced one third of the world's gold and by the end of that century, Australia was the largest producer of the world. Edward Hargraves discovered gold near Bathurst, and the word quickly spread. There was so much people digging at the gold fields that their was a storage of people doing other work such as farming, building, baking and etc. Governor Flits Roy was getting worried because there would be violence and lawless at the goldfields. He ordered that gold seekers must pay for a licence (that costs 30 shillings) in order to dig for gold
Were Is Gold Found?
Gold is found in rocks and under water. Many people came looking in Australia. They called it "The Gold Rush". It was a difficult life digging or panning for gold.
A little amount of people became rich but a big amount did not.
The largest Australian Golden Nuggets
In October 1872 Hotelmann's Nugget was found. That time was the world's largest specimen of reef gold. It's weight was 286 kg and measured 150cm by 66cm. There are more than one giant gold nuggets: The Hand of Faith (27.2 kg ), the Welcome Stranger (73.4 kg) and the Welcome (69.9 kg) nuggets.
The Eureka Stockade
On 11th November 1854, about 10,000 diggers met to demand the three miners to be released and pardoned, to demand the licences to be dropped
And that all males should be allowed to vote for what they think because back in their days they weren't allowed to vote until they licenced miners were there for 6 months. The Governor refused to pardon the diggers. At a second mass meeting, on the 29th November, they made and displayed their flag, the Eureka flag, blue with white and 5 stars representing the Sothern cross. They all burnt their licences and elected leaders and built a stockade.