Setting the Scene: Ballarat 1851-1854

In June 1851 the first payable gold was discovered in Victoria. By August of the same year, gold had been discovered in the creeks and gullies surrounding the present day site of Ballarat.

S.T. Gill
The Newly Arrived Enquiring 1854
watercolour on paper
Collection: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery

The first miners to reach Ballarat concentrated their efforts on searching for shallow alluvial deposits. By 1852 the alluvial deposits had been exhausted. Parties of miners began to dig deeper, seeking the rich reserves in underground rivers and stream beds.

Eugene von Guerard
That's the style, Mary! 1854
oil on canvas
Collection: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery

The discovery of gold resulted in a huge increase in the population of Ballarat and surrounding districts. Conditions on the goldfields were crowded and the miners led a hard life. Firewood and drinking water were in short supply, disease was commonplace and the miners paid a high price for food, clothing and mining equipment. For some the hardship produced great wealth. Most miners, however, had to endure enormous hazards and financial burdens, often for little reward.

S.T. Gill
Deep Sinking, Bakery Hill. Ballarat 1853
lithograph
Collection: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery

Changes to the serene pastoral landscape of the district were also immense. Describing the early Ballarat diggings W.B.Withers noted that

the green banks of the Yarrowee were lined with tubs and cradles, its clear waters were changed to liquid yellow... and its banks grew to be long shoals of tailings...in a few weeks the green slopes where the prospectors found the gold... changed...to the appearance of a fresh and rudely made burial ground.

(W.B.Withers, History of Ballarat , facsimile edition., 1980, p.36)

Eugene von Guerard
Old Ballarat as it was in the Summer of 1853-54 (1884)
oil on canvas
Collection: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery

Last revised: March 04, 1999.

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