Women & Children on the Goldfields
by Chris
Introduction
Health
Children and education
Children moved schools often. Parents kept moving to find richer goldfields. Often there was no schooling because there was no school built. Schools were made from tents. The roof was made from canvas material.
*As the goldfields developed so did the types of housing. Bark houses were built in place of tents.
Roles and Responsibilities
Women usally stayed home to work. They made bread, butter, jam, soap and clothes.
Women unusually worked with their husbands. The women who worked with their husbands usually did panning. Some responsibilities included:
1. cooking
2. singing and dancing for diggers
3. some women were diggers
4. shopkeepers
5. caring for children
6. make bread, butter and jams
*The image below is of a woman carrying out the responsibility of caring for her child and panning for gold.