Gold rushes in Australia

Gold rushes in Australia were rapid movements of large numbers of people to places in Australia where gold had been discovered. The discoveries of gold in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851—and later in other parts of Australia—led to great social and economic changes. People from all over the world came to Australia. New towns developed around gold fields, and businesses prospered. The gold rushes laid the foundation for the long boom—a period of economic growth in Australia from 1860 to 1890.

Gold discovery in New South Wales.

Prospectors had found some gold in Australia before 1851. However, colonial authorities had either ignored or chosen not to pursue the discoveries. Colonial interest in gold increased following the discovery of gold in the United States in 1848.

On Feb. 12, 1851, prospector Edward Hargraves, with his assistant John Lister, found grains of gold in Lewis Ponds Creek, near Bathurst, New South Wales. In April, Lister and Hargraves’s other assistants—the brothers William, James, and Henry Tom—discovered more gold near Bathurst. They sent the news to Hargraves in Sydney, and Hargraves proclaimed the discovery of gold.

The New South Wales government rewarded Hargraves for the discovery. It acknowledged that he had headed a partnership with Lister and the Tom brothers. However, an inquiry by the New South Wales Parliament in 1890 officially declared Lister and the Tom brothers as the discoverers of Australia’s first commercially profitable gold field.

Gold in Victoria.

Soon after the discovery of gold in New South Wales, authorities offered a reward for the discovery of gold in Victoria. In July 1851, prospector Louis Michel announced that he had found gold at Andersons Creek, in the hills east of Melbourne. Around the same time, prospector James Esmond announced a gold discovery near Clunes, northwest of Melbourne. Other discoveries followed at Castlemaine, Ballarat, Buninyong, and Bendigo.

The desire for gold soon gripped Victoria. Workers left their jobs and rushed to the gold fields. Some women and children were left to support themselves as husbands and fathers went to seek gold. Miners poured into Victoria from New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania.

News of the Australian gold discoveries reached Europe in late 1851. By early 1852, miners and their families had begun arriving from overseas. Most of the new arrivals came from the United Kingdom. Others came from other European countries, the Americas, and China.

Mining life.

At first, the gold seekers mined alluvial gold—that is, deposits found in and near streams. Miners either panned the gold-bearing soil or rocked and rinsed it in a device called a cradle to wash away the soil and extract the gold. The remaining rocks and soil, called tailings, often still held gold and were later reworked. Miners also dug shafts deep below ground to reach gold in ancient, buried riverbeds. By the late 1850’s, companies that had equipment for deep mining were replacing private miners on the gold fields.

A promising gold field could quickly become a large canvas town, with tents for the miners and their families. Officials and storekeepers often lived in canvas houses.

The Chinese were among the first non-British miners to arrive on the gold fields. They soon became the target of fierce racism. Anti-Chinese riots occurred at the Buckland field in Victoria in 1857 and at Lambing Flat in New South Wales in 1861.

Government officials required all miners to purchase licenses before they dug for gold. For many miners, the license fee was more than they earned from mining. The police conducted license hunts to catch miners who were digging illegally. Many miners resented the licenses and held protests against them.

The Eureka Stockade.

On the Ballarat field in Victoria, resistance to the license fee was strong. During 1854, the miners became increasingly restless. They resented having to pay 30 shillings per month for permits to search for gold. They also resented their lack of political representation. In October 1854, the miners burned down the Eureka Hotel. They began holding protest meetings on Bakery Hill, in Ballarat. They burned their mining permits on November 29.

Victoria’s governor, Sir Charles Hotham, sent troops to stop the disturbances. The miners, under the leadership of Peter Lalor, formed an organization called the Ballarat Reform League. The miners took up arms and built a stockade (area with a defensive wall) on Bakery Hill. On December 3, government troops attacked the stockade. In the short fight that followed, about 30 miners and 6 soldiers were killed.

The government brought 13 of the miners’ leaders to trial, but a jury acquitted all but one of them. The Ballarat Times newspaper editor Henry Seekamp was found guilty of seditious libel. The paper had promoted the miners’ cause. Seekamp served a reduced prison sentence of three months.

In 1855, the government abolished the license fee and introduced a miner’s right fee of one pound per year. The government allowed anyone holding a miner’s right to vote.

Later gold discoveries.

Victoria was Australia’s leading producer of gold until the 1890’s. However, prospectors discovered gold in other colonies as well. Lambing Flat, in New South Wales, was the site of a rich find in 1860.

In 1872, the German-born miner Bernard Holtermann and his partner, the Polish miner Louis Beyers, dug up an enormous mass of gold-bearing rock at Hill End, New South Wales. This mass weighed about 630 pounds (285 kilograms) and contained 205 pounds (93 kilograms) of gold. It was the largest mass of gold-bearing rock ever found. It became known as the Holtermann Nugget, or the Beyers and Holtermann Nugget.

The richest finds in Queensland were at Charters Towers in 1872 and on the Palmer River, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) inland from what is now Cooktown, in 1873. Prospectors also made small discoveries in Tasmania and South Australia.

In 1892 and 1893, prospectors found the gold fields around Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia. A new gold rush started, boosting Western Australia’s population. The fields around Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie were the richest ever worked in Australia.

Effects of the gold rushes.

The discovery of gold brought great changes to Australia. As people rushed to the gold fields, the number of Australian colonists grew from about 437,000 in 1851 to about 1.7 million in 1871.

At first, the discovery of gold caused a number of problems for the economy. Large numbers of workers left their jobs and rushed to the gold fields. As a result, employers in many industries had difficulty keeping workers. Some colonies, such as South Australia, saw their populations decline.

During the 1850’s, the economic changes mainly benefited importers and merchants, who could sell supplies to miners at inflated prices. But gradually, the economic benefits became more widespread. Sheep and cattle grazing prospered. Wool prices rose steadily during the 1860’s. Gold stimulated manufacturing in the colonies, particularly in Victoria. Immigration provided both a market and a labor force for manufacturers.

Gold discoveries created new towns and cities in Australia. Many regional centers, such as Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria, developed as a result of the gold rushes. The movement of people and goods to and from the gold fields led to changes in transportation and communication. The Murray River system became an inland water highway. Coach companies, such as Cobb and Co., established passenger and delivery services across the continent. The telegraph linked distant towns and cities.