The Australian Gold Rush
By Hannah
What is Gold?
Gold can be found in the ground and in rocks.
Gold is the only yellow metal found in the world.
Lots of people became rich from finding gold but some didn't.
Searching for gold
During the gold rush you had to have a licence to search for gold. The licence had cost 30 shillings (about a whole weeks pay) and it had to be renewed every month.
Edward Hargraves was the first to discover gold on February 1851 in near Bathurst.
Life on the Australian gold fields
When the gold rush began thousands of people left their homes and loved ones and they headed to the gold fields.
They did not have shops and roads there so they had to bring their own supplies. They could use a horse to travel there or a young bull.
Chinese on the Gold fields
In 1853 the news about the gold rush spread to China. The reason the Chinese had left to go to the goldfields was that they were dying of starvation. There was a law to say that any Chinese that wanted to look for gold had to pay 10 pounds. The Chinese were only aloud to find gold that had been swept away by other miners in the rivers. The Europeans were mean to the Chinese about their pigtails, strange clothes and being racist about their religion.