Women & Children on the Goldfields
By Mahdi
Introduction
In the goldrush era there were not many women because the conditions on the goldfields were so poor. As time passed by people invented better homes or huts to live in. In the 1850's Edward Hargraves discovered gold.
roles and responsibilities
In 1852 Martha Glendining and her husband George Glendining moved to Australia because they were too poor . They needed money so George decided to mine so he could gain money and be rich again. Then Martha said that she should mine with him then she said ok I'll be a shopkeeper. Martha was very successful working alongside her sister as a shopkeeper.
health
Back on the goldfields there was a lot of diseases because there wasn't many doctors because everybody wanted to mine so for an example there was only one doctor for 100 people and many times he had 5 professions. Did you know that most commonly children got sick and when women got pregnant they relied on the support of other women on the goldfields.
Children and Education
Children often moved schools because their parents wanted to live on the most popular and richest goldfields. Schools weren't like ours these days some were made out of a tent. .