Social & Economic Impacts of the Gold Rushes (PDF)

Social & economic impacts of the gold rushes Gold panning dishes and sieve.Date unknown. Reference number: 1/2-029023-G Gold in Australia 1851 - NSW and VIC Massive influx from Britain, Europe, USA and China Population of Australia tripled in just 2 decades, from 43...

Social & economic impacts of the gold rushes Gold panning dishes and sieve.Date unknown. Reference number: 1/2-029023-G Gold in Australia 1851 - NSW and VIC Massive influx from Britain, Europe, USA and China Population of Australia tripled in just 2 decades, from 43,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million in 1871 driven mainly by the rush to ‘strike it rich’ in the goldfields. Further goldfields were opened up - TAS, SA, QLD, WA Gold was to have a major defining effect on Australia’s history: Increased population - social, cultural and economic change. Men who worked on farms quit in search of gold. Women were left to work on the land in these cases. Extensive rail lines were built to connect places.  Panning for Gold Carruthers, K (Miss) : Photograph of two men panning for gold.1880s. Reference number: PAColl-7287 Gold in New Zealand The first gold discoveries of real size were in the Nelson area, which attracted nearly 2000 people between 1857 and 1859. Then in May 1861, Gabriel Read, a gold prospector from Tasmania, found gold in a gully in Otago which now bears his name. He described the gold as “shining like the stars in Orion on a dark frosty night”. When his news became public, thousands of miners flocked to the area to try their luck. Many of these miners explored in other parts of Otago, and new goldfields were established in the Dunstan area near Alexandria, in Wakatipu near Queenstown and in the Taieri area south of Dunedin. Later rushes developed in the Wakamarina area of Marlborough, and then spread to the West Coast of the South Island. By this time, more than 30,000 people had flooded into New Zealand. Later, more discoveries were made in the Thames-Coromandel area in the North Island. Gabrielʼs Gully – Mining Camp View of the gold mining camp at Gabriels Gully, Tuapeka.1862. Reference number: MNZ-0336-1/2-F  Although Gold was a great source of revenue – those supplying goods and services to the miners actually made more money than the miners themselves. Nineteenth Century Gold Rushes Thames-Coromandel Nelson 1856 Marlborough 1864 West Coast 1865-1 868 Central Otago 1861-1863  Source Interpretation I have been on the goldfields about four months. I am sorry that I was not their sooner but the time that I heard the reports it was in the depth of winter. I see the accounts of diggers being found dead in the frost and snow with trying to cross rugged mountains covered with snow nor yet any in(h)abence near. So I thought it would be better to start at spring so I did and arrived thair (there) on the 20(th) of Oct 61. On traveling from poort (port) to the dig(g)ings I met a great number coming back with bad nuse (news) from them but on I gose (goes) with moy (my) mates to try my luck again. I thought that I could not allways be unlucky as I was on the other dig(g)ings at Nelson. So I arrived on the fields with my mates 5 in number the first 5 weeks we (h)ad very bad luck the wheather bad stormey and weat(wet) and we wair(were) hallways(always) exploaring(exploring) for gold camping in whet(wet) from one plase(place) to another till five weeks whair(were) gon(e) and we (h)ad knot gained the quantaty of gold to pay our expences then two of my mates left us in disgust to think of thair toile and hardship for nothink. They said they would go back home while they had money to take them. Questions to answer: 1. Describe the conditions on the goldfields 2. How reliable is this as a historical source – what problems might there be with it?  Demand for meat and hides led to huge growth Banks, retailers, in cattle and sheep engineering firms European industry established population trebled Investment of capital Consequences of the Gold discovery Influx of free migrants in mining led to smaller Australia - settlements huge growth transformed from but ‘tent towns’ a convict settlement Something to find out 1. What happened at Lambing Flats in 1860 and 1861? 2. How did the gold rushes transform Australia from a penal settlement to a ‘land of opportunity’? How significant was the discovery of gold to the Australian economy? Chinese on the goldfields - Fear of the Chinese - Taking ‘Australian gold out of Australia’ - Cultural differences - Stereotyped - Anti-Chinese riots