The Gold Rush

Gold Rush: earlier discoveries• Convicts found gold and were

‘flogged’• Authorities were worried about

a ‘rush’• ‘We’ll have our throats cut!’

Gold ‘Rush’

Gold Rush: around the worldOther ‘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: VictoriaThe 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: impactWith 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 CulturesThe 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: VictoriaThe 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