Life on the Goldfields
By Jessica berry
Life on the Goldfields
The different types of mining
Panning:
At this stage, people were looking for small nuggets and flecks of gold lying in creeks, or buried in shallow underground streams or rivers. This can also be called alluvial gold.
Reef gold
Shafts
The tools used
The Californian rocking cradles, pick axe, Gold pan, shovel, puddling, dolly stick and windless. These are just some of the tools used. The Californian rocking cradles were used to find the gold, nuggets, even really small specks.
Chinese diggers
There were many nationalities on the goldfields: English, Irish, Germans, French and Americans. But the Chinese were different because they dug circles because bad spirits hid in corners. In 1853 there were 3,000 Chinese people on the Bendigo fields. With their baggy trousers, large coolie hats, pigtails, and louds carried on long bamboo poles. The Chinese looked very different.