The Gold Rush

Gold Rush: earlier discoveries

• Convicts found gold and were flogged

• Authorities were worried about a rush

• Well have our throats cut!

Gold Rush

Gold Rush: around the world

• Other rushes:

• California rush 1848-49

• 1851 Victorian gold rush began

• biggest of several Australian gold rushes

• many miners from Victoria later travelled to join a gold rush in NZ

• this rush kick-started New Zealand's economy

Gold Rush: Victoria

• The Victorian gold rush

• was highly significant for the development of Victoria and Melbourne

• This included

• • • political development

• • • economic development

Gold Rush: Bendigo buildings

Gold Rush: Ballarat buildings

Gold Rush: impact

• With the Australian gold rushes came

• construction

• • • first railways

• • • first telegraph lines

• migrants other places and cultures (beginning of multicultural Australia)

• outbreaks of racism

• the Eureka Stockade and changes to the system for election of parliamentarians in Victoria (and later Australia) vote for all adult males

• the end of transportation of convicts

Gold Rush: transport

• Many city people left for the diggings

• Establishment of rich country towns

• Development of transport

Gold Rush: Chinese Miners

• Organised into groups, worked hard

• Worked on mines others had left

• Saved money, started businesses

Gold Rush: Many Cultures

• The people who rushed to the goldfields

• Came from all over Australia

• Came from all over the world, inclding

• • • Chinese

• • • Irish

• • • Russiona

Gold Rush Chinese migrants

• 2,000 buried at Beechworth Cemetery (in Victoria)

Gold Rush Chinese migrants

• largest non-British group of migrants during this period

• in 1852 there was 400 Chinese immigrants

• in 1855 more than 4,000

Gold Rush: Victoria

• The Victorian gold rush

• began just when Victoria became independent

• thousands of miners arrived quickly

• • • only 50 police and soldiers in colony

• • • hard to find police criminals and misfits

• Victorian government needed money

• Victorian government controlled by rich farmers

• • • introduced system of licences for gold diggers

Victorian Gold Rush: Licences

• Mining Licences

• expensive

• not everyone found gold

• police harassment

• series of events led to unrest

Gold Rush: Eureka Stockade

• The Stockade

• People from around the world

• Agreed to stand together

• http://www.eurekaballarat.com

Birth of the Eureka Flag

Gold Rush: Eureka Stockade

Gold Rush: Eureka Stockade EUREKA DECEMBER 3, 1854 (Oil on Canvas) Artist: George Browning A.M. (1918-2000)

Gold Rush: Eureka Stockade

• many killed or arrested

• leaders found not guilty by jury

EUREKA DECEMBER 3, 1854 (Oil on Canvas) Artist: George Browning A.M. (1918-2000)

Gold Rush: Eureka Stockade EUREKA DECEMBER 3, 1854 (Oil on Canvas) Artist: George Browning A.M. (1918-2000)

Eureka Stockade: outcomes

• Change in the Victorian law about who could vote

• Leader Peter Lalor voted into Victorian parliament

• parliament awarded a pension of 4,000 pounds when he retired in 1887