Victoria’s new golden vision

The Victorian Gold Discovery Committee wrote in 1854:

The discovery of the Victorian Goldfields has converted a remote dependency into a country of world wide fame; it has attracted a population, extraordinary in number, with unprecedented rapidity; it has enhanced the value of property to an enormous extent; it has made this the richest country in the world; and, in less than three years, it has done for this colony the work of an age, and made its impulses felt in the most distant regions of the earth.

Key knowledge: - To what extent did the gold rush influence social, economic, - political and cultural life in Victoria?

- What fears and hopes did the gold rush bring to colonial society?

- How was the future progress of the colony imagined by the people of Victoria between 1851 - 1861?

TimelineGold was first discovered in Australia on 15 February 1823, by assistant surveyor James McBrien, at Fish River, between Rydal and Bathurst (in New South Wales). The find was considered unimportant at the time, and was not pursued for policy reasons.

Gold found and forgotten about..

Gold in Victoria ….Found in 1850 by a Mr Campbell - However, not disclosed until 1851

Found across Victoria, Ballarat & Bendigo

‘Gold Fever’

Melbourne - Melbourne had been described as being like a ‘very - inferior English town. The streets were unpaved, unlighted, - muddy, miserable, dangerous…’

However, there had been much progress: Houses, churches warehouses, schools instead of the

original tents and huts.

First Melbourne Hospital built in 1846

Mechanics Institute

Melbourne cont. Gold stretched Melbourne’s resources to its limits.

1852 - 1854 - referred to as crisis years.

Accommodation crisis 1852 Melbourne had highest rental rates in the world.

A canvas town (present day Arts Centre) to house new arrivals.

Two or three ships arriving daily, up to 300 ships docked in Port Phillip bay at one time.

Prices for consumer goods were high

number of merchants doubled.

Melbourne of 1852 has been compared to third world cities such as Jakarta - Infrastructure cannot cope with the population.

Melbourne cont. Lack of proper sewerage system

‘Smellbourne’ Dysentery, typhus, measles - 80% of dead

were Melbourne’s children

However, Melbourne was to become the capital of one of the wealthiest colonies in the world.

Production of 1/3 of the world’s gold output

By 1854 - Growth was ‘marvellous’

Modernisation

‘Civilised’ city

(however, there was not a safe sewerage system until the 1890’s and children continued to die in large numbers from

disease)

Impact of gold on the district (now Victoria)….

Changed Australia from a convict dumping ground to an enviable home

The ‘Metropolis of the Southern Hemisphere’

Federation and Racism

Victoria became one of the wealthiest colonies in the Empire Challenged the dominance of New South Wales.

Twice the business was generated in Victoria than NSW and Victoria’s population was 46% of all other Australian colonies.

Rivalry between NSW and Victoria helped stimulate the m move to Federation.

Miners from Victoria moved interstate and took with them their radical political views and racist attitudes

from their contact with the Chinese.

Gold Rush and the environment

“almost entirely destructive” Tree-less hills, mounds of mining waste,

mud and dust Devastated creek beds

No vegetation or greenery.

Deforestation, pollution, erosion, siltation (pollution of water)

A Digger’s Life

hard life dawn to dusk, 6 days a week

heat, dust and thirst mud and water

dangerous, disputes, thieves and bushrangers

Shelter in tents, food expensive, disease No guarantee of finding gold

Mainly young men, travelling alone or small groups - no responsibilities of family or work

Diggers and Moral Decay

- young men away from the constraints - might - give in to ideas of anarchy and immorality. - Uneven sex ratio (however, there were women on - the goldfields)

Domesticity being abandoned for searching for wealth.

Orphans and abandoned children

Very masculine society

Women as ‘God’s police’

Cultural and educational institutions

The Gold rush incited fears by conservatives that the ‘order of society’ was at risk.

‘greed, excitement and anti-domesticity’ the ‘gold disease’

To counteract society falling apart - establishments and institutions influenced by British and European heritage.

1854 - The University of Melbourne, The State LibraryThe Exhibition building - Built with the wealth from gold.

Demonstrated that Melbourne was ‘civilised’

Sir Redmond Barry One of the figures associated with the development of

cultural institutions of the 19th century. He emigrated to Port Phillip from Ireland in 1839

Established himself as a respected lawyer and 1852 - appointed a judge of the high court

Involved in the Philosophical institution, the Horticultural Society, The Melbourne Club and the Melbourne Hospital

Barry believed that culture and education had a civilising effect on the working man.

Uni Melb

Based on Britain’s Oxford and Cambridge - Also introduced ‘modern’ subjects such as politics, science

and literature. However, unlike traditional English universities,

it was a secular institution. Students were not required to be members of the church of England (a ruling that effectively

banned Catholics) 1881 - Women were admitted

“The [Melbourne] university was conceived not only as an academy, but as a machine for the

production of loyal English gentlemen, and hence as an instrument of social control in a disordered

society.”

Eureka Stockade

1854 - 30 diggers and five soldiers killed in a dawn clash

A Rebellion against the government tax (miner’s licence) the corrupt administration on the field and the lack of democratic rights.

The Ballarat Reform League formed - Based on Chartism

Diggers put on trial for high treason - but were not convicted Resulted in a ‘Gold Commission’ in which the miner’s license was abolished

and miners were given the right to vote.

Peter Lalor (leader at Eureke) was elected to Parliament representing mining electorates - Parliament sat for first time in 1855

Impact of Eureka Speeding/being integral in Australia’s democratic process

Gold Rush: politicised immigrants Chartists from England, discontented Irish, European

revolutionaries and American republicans

Melbourne workers were among the first in the world to win the eight-hour working day in 1856

Land and independance Hunger for land

Poverty for diggers 1857 - Goldfield finds dwindling

Rights to land The Selection Acts (land reforms) introduced in 1860