The Australian Gold Rush
by Will
The Goldfields
In 1851 a little bit of NSW was made as a different colony because it was named after the Queen. A lot of the Victorians went to the goldfields and businessmen so they could keep the people from leaving the new colony .They offered a prize of 200 guineas .Towards the end of August James Regan and John Dunlop discovered the riches goldfield in the world they found it at Ballarat and other discoveries soon were found in Mount Alexander
Now its called Castlemaine .Near the end of September the was 10,000 people digging at Ballarat.
The Australian goldrush
Small bits of gold were found in NSW. In February in 1851 a man named Hargraves found a piece of gold near Bathurst and the world started to go there.
In a couple of weeks 400 people were digging there for gold and later that year in June there were 2000 people digging there. In between 1851 and 1861 Australia had one third of the worlds gold and by the end of that century Australia Had the most gold producer in the world and in the goldfields the diggers had to pay a licence to dig there
Australian and California goldrush
A Gold rush had began in Australia. In California the gold was mainly in form of fine grains they were called gold dust.
In Australia it wasn't unusual to find a gold nugget some were very large and to be found.
In October 1872 HOLTERMANN'S NUGGET was found At that time it was the worlds largest specimen of reef gold
It weighed 286kg and its height was 150cm
Women on the goldfields
Life on the goldfields was hard on the diggings. Mostly men went to find the gold and sometimes the women went as well. It was really hard for the women on the goldfields because they had to cook and wash the clothes some of the women also had to dance and sing for the diggers to entertain them and there was barely any women there.