Eureka! The Australian Gold Rush

In 1851, miners fled to Australia when the world’s greatest treasure was discovered: gold. Even more gold was uncovered along the state of Victoria; teachers were known to abandon their classrooms, sailors to jump out of their ships, and people to resign from their jobs, all to try their luck in the goldfields. This is known as the Australian Gold Rush. Nevertheless, how did this actually start?

Prior to 1851, small deposits of gold were discovered but: “take the gold away or we shall have our throats cut!”. The government feared that news of a gold discovery would lead to a convict uprising. Ironically, their tunes changed when the California Gold Rush began and America’s wealth exploded off the charts; the government proposed a grand reward. Edward Hargraves eventually received the reward after claiming to have found a deposit of gold and not long after, gleaming gold shook the globe.

During the Australian Gold Rush, life on the goldfields was extremely harsh: most diggers never found anything. In the unhygienic goldfields, water was profoundly scarce leading to mental illness and deadly diseases. There was actually a much better chance of success as a shopkeeper than a miner as the miners, who had already spent most of their money on transport, needed everyday essentials and what better way to acquire them other than the shopkeeper? The miners also had to pay a pound just for a month’s mining license in a 2.4 m2 patch of land. The lack of political representation, the absurd amount of tax, and the abuse of power by the police later led to a violent and bloody uprising.

In 1854, 150 disenfranchised miners in Ballarat clashed against government forces under the Southern Cross in a stockade. However, the colonial troops ruptured the barricade where they bayoneted everyone including women and children. Subsequently, the public was against the government and justification was served. Licenses were abolished and a miner’s right was redistributed, which allowed a miner to vote for a year for a reasonably fair price. Later when Mark Twain visited Australia, he commented: “ This is a victory from a lost battle”.

Before the 1850s, Australia was no more than a convict paradise but the discovery of gold in Australia had an international reputation. The changes brought by the gold rushes transformed Australia and set its course of development for decades to come. After the fateful find of gold, the colonies would unite to become Australia as we know it today.

Before gold rush:

After Gold Rush: