|
"Put it away, Mr Clarke, or we shall all have
our throats cut!" said the Governor of NSW, Sir George Gipps when
he was shown gold by the Reverend Clarke in 1844. This was not
the reaction you might expect! Clarke had found the gold near
Lithgow in NSW, but Gipps feared that everyone would abandon their
jobs and start a gold-rush, so he asked Clarke not to publicise
the news.
Four years later, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that
gold had been found in California, USA. Reaction to the news spread
like bushfire. People from all over Australia began packing their
possessions and heading overseas to seek their fortunes. What
would you have done?
So many Australians emigrated that Gipps' fears were realised:
The country's economy suffered as shopkeepers abandoned their
shops, farmers left their land and sailors abandoned ship to journey
to California - the so-called 'land of riches'. In 1849, the new
Governor of NSW, Governor Charles Fitz Roy recommended that the
state's mineral resources be investigated, and he asked the British
government to send over a geologist to tackle the problem.
When the Australian miners returned home from the Californian
gold rush, successful or not, they had learnt about how gold was
found, extracted and purified. So when Fitz Roy lifted the ban
on publicity about gold findings, many people were able to apply
the knowledge they had gained overseas to finding gold at home.
In February 1851, the first payable gold was discovered
at Summer Hill Creek in NSW. Payable means that it is from a source
large enough to make money. The discovery was made by Edward Hargraves,
who had recently returned from California. He claimed that he
had noticed similarities between areas of NSW and California's
gold-bearing regions and had therefore known exactly where to
look when he had arrived home. It is more likely that before he
left for America, he had a rough idea where gold could be found
but hadn't known how to extract it. Whatever the real story, Hargraves'
discovery paved the way for the first Australian gold rush.
Although gold was initially found in NSW, it wasn't long before
people discovered it in other states. Victoria was the first and
by the end of that 1851, gold mines had been established at Ballarat,
Bendigo, Castlemaine and McIvor. More sites were being discovered
every day and the effect on the landscape was incredible:
We have begun to destroy the beauty of this creek. It will
no longer run clear between its banks, covered with wattles and
tea-trees, and amongst its shallow parts overgrown with foreign-looking
shrubs, flags, and cypress-grass. A little while, and its whole
course will exhibit nothing but nakedness, and heaps of gravel
and mud.
Entire towns sprang up almost overnight, as
prospectors flocked to the site of the latest gold discovery.
Sometimes, the 'towns' were little more than mile upon mile of
tents, with miners jealously guarding the little patch they had
staked out. These short-lived settlements would often disappear
as the cry of 'Rush-ho!' took everyone off to the next source
of instant riches. If, however, there was a large deposit of gold
in a particular area, the settlements would grow in size and permanent
buildings would begin to appear. Many towns such as Kalgoorlie,
Coolgardie and Ballarat were founded in this way.
Usually gold was found in small specks, but the gold rush fever
was intensified by the occasional discovery of large nuggets.
The largest of these was the 'Welcome Stranger', which was worth
the equivalent of about fifty years' salary for most people. The
nugget weighed an amazing 78.4 kilograms!
Instant fortunes also brought trouble. Unlike towns which had
grown slowly, mining towns lacked all the usual refinements like
roads, police and even clean water. This led to widespread crime
and disease in many areas and the first mining settlements gained
the reputation of being rowdy and unsafe. Meanwhile, existing
towns were soon swamped with prospectors if gold was discovered
nearby. Many local tradesmen would also abandon their businesses
to try their luck. This left little or no competition and the
remaining shops would raise their prices sky-high. What effect
do you think all this had on the locals?
In response to the increasing lawlessness and corruption in gold-mining
towns, a new law was introduced. No gold could be removed from
anywhere without a licence, which cost 30 shillings a month.
This sum of money was a fortune to any ordinary person, but not
to a successful miner. A report from the Queen's Theatre in Melbourne
in 1853 said '...the actors were obliged to appear before the
footlights to bear a pelting shower of [gold] nuggets - a substitute
for bouquets...' Miners who struck it rich were literally
throwing their gold around!
With millionaires being made overnight, its not surprising that
so many people gave up the security of their normal jobs for a
chance to make their fortune. The problem was that there was only
a limited amount of gold. Even though new goldfields were often
discovered, there were always more prospectors than opportunities
and many people went away disappointed. What do you think would
have happened if there had been enough gold for everyone?
Today, the gold industry is well established and instead of hundreds
of gold miners panning for gold in riverbeds and creeks, the work
is done by huge machines that sift through mountains of rock,
extracting microscopic amounts of the precious metal. As little
as three grams per tonne is now considered a payable amount. The
largest Australian goldmine is near Kalgoorlie in WA. The Kalgoorlie
'Super Pit' operates 24 hours a day and is several kilometres
across - so big that it can be seen from space!
Gold has many properties which make it valuable. It is the most
malleable metal on Earth - it can be worked and rolled
into any shape, or beaten until it is thin enough to be transparent!
There is gold in your computer, TV, telephone and VCR - it is
used in electronic circuits because it is a very efficient conductor
of electricity. Gold even travels into space because of its ability
to reflect heat and radiation - it is used in the construction
of satellites and as a thin coating on the visors of spacesuit
helmets to protect astronauts!
So, although about three-quarters of the world's gold is still
used in jewellery and it continues to play its traditional role
as an indicator of wealth, it is not just a pretty face! Gold
has an important part to play in many aspects of our modern society
including medicine, information technology and science.
|
|
|
Explore:
 the
collection of gold-related objects held by Museum Victoria, including
a large number of ore samples and models of mining equipment.
Links:
The Gold Vault
Learn more about the uses of gold in the Gold Vault - part of
the website of the Australian Gold Council.
www.australiangold.org.au/vault/index.cfm
Ballarat Gold Museum
Check out the Sovereign Hill website, with its Gold Museum, information
on the Eureka Stockade and more.
www.sovereignhill.com.au/flash/shtml
Golden Threads
Learn about the Chinese miners who were part of the gold and tin
rushes in NSW.
amol.org.au/goldenthreads/exhibition/goldtin.asp
|
Things to do:
Take a virtual tour
Visit 'A Golden Heritage' and step back in time - tour some Victorian
towns and buildings from the goldrush era. 
Visit the Rock Files
What are the ten key minerals produced in Australia? Find out
some amazing facts in the Rock Files, from the Minerals Council
of Australia.
|
