Year 5 · History · 3 minutes

The Australian gold rush

Gold brought the world to Australia, at a cost to the First Peoples whose Country it was, and is.

Key terms

Gold rush
A time when news of gold made many people rush to the diggings hoping to get rich.
Digger
A person who dug and panned for gold, living in a tent on the goldfields.
Licence
A payment every digger had to make each month, whether they found gold or not.
Stockade
A fort of posts that angry diggers built at Ballarat in eighteen fifty four.
Country
The land of Aboriginal peoples, which the goldfields still are today.

Transcript

0:00

In eighteen sixty nine, two miners in Victoria hit something hard, just below the ground. It was a giant nugget, holding about seventy two kilograms of gold. So how did Australia catch gold fever?

0:17

It began in eighteen fifty one. Edward Hargraves came home from the California gold rush, sure there was gold here too. Near Bathurst, he teamed up with local men, who found gold worth digging for. Within weeks, hundreds of diggers rushed in.

0:35

Then even more gold turned up in Victoria, at Ballarat and Bendigo. Shepherds and sailors dropped everything and raced to the diggings.

0:46

The news sailed around the world. Ships packed with hopeful diggers arrived from Britain, Europe, America and China. In twenty years, the number of settlers jumped from about four hundred and thirty thousand to one point seven million.

1:05

But life on the diggings was tough. Diggers lived in tents and worked all day in the mud, with a pan, a shovel and a wooden cradle. Not for babies. For washing gold out of the dirt. A lucky few got rich. Most did not.

1:24

And the goldfields were not empty land. They were, and still are, the Country of Aboriginal peoples, who were pushed even further off their land as mining tore it up. Some traded with the diggers, or guided them through the bush.

1:40

Tens of thousands of Chinese miners came too, and were often treated unfairly. Victoria made every Chinese person arriving by ship pay a tax of ten pounds. To avoid it, many landed in South Australia, and walked more than four hundred kilometres to the goldfields.

2:02

Every digger had to pay for a licence every month, gold or no gold. In eighteen fifty four, angry diggers at Ballarat raised a new flag, the Southern Cross, and built a stockade. Soldiers attacked, and more than twenty people were killed, most of them diggers. But afterwards, the hated licence was scrapped, and many diggers won the right to vote.

2:27

So, the gold rush brought the world to Australia. It made the colonies rich, but took land from Aboriginal peoples. And at Eureka, diggers stood up for a fairer say. And that giant nugget? Too big for the scales. A blacksmith had to break it up first.

Sources

Every fact in the video, and where it comes from.

  1. 1
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Stranger
    • The Welcome Stranger was found on 5 February 1869 at Moliagul, Victoria, by Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates, about 3 cm below the surface near the roots of a tree; it yielded about 2,316 troy ounces (about 72 kg) of gold (gross weight about 110 kg; other sources give 66 to 71 kg) and is described as the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found. It was broken on an anvil by a blacksmith at Dunolly because no scales could weigh it whole.
  2. 2
    monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/technology/industry/display/32657-welco…
    • The Welcome Stranger was found on 5 February 1869 at Moliagul, Victoria, by Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates, about 3 cm below the surface near the roots of a tree; it yielded about 2,316 troy ounces (about 72 kg) of gold (gross weight about 110 kg; other sources give 66 to 71 kg) and is described as the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found. It was broken on an anvil by a blacksmith at Dunolly because no scales could weigh it whole.
  3. 3
    monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/technology/industry/display/31118-welco…
    • The Welcome Stranger was found on 5 February 1869 at Moliagul, Victoria, by Cornish miners John Deason and Richard Oates, about 3 cm below the surface near the roots of a tree; it yielded about 2,316 troy ounces (about 72 kg) of gold (gross weight about 110 kg; other sources give 66 to 71 kg) and is described as the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found. It was broken on an anvil by a blacksmith at Dunolly because no scales could weigh it whole.
  4. 4
    adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hargraves-edward-hammond-3719
    • Edward Hargraves returned from the California goldfields in January 1851 and, with John Lister, found specks of gold near Bathurst/Orange in February 1851; Lister and the Tom brothers found payable gold in April (an 1890 committee named them the true discoverers of payable gold). The field was named Ophir and by 15 May 1851 over 300 diggers had arrived.
  5. 5
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hargraves
    • Edward Hargraves returned from the California goldfields in January 1851 and, with John Lister, found specks of gold near Bathurst/Orange in February 1851; Lister and the Tom brothers found payable gold in April (an 1890 committee named them the true discoverers of payable gold). The field was named Ophir and by 15 May 1851 over 300 diggers had arrived.
  6. 6
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_gold_rushes
    • Gold was found in Victoria later in 1851: Clunes (July), Buninyong and Ballarat (August), Bendigo (by December). Sailors deserted ships and shepherds, shopmen and tradesmen left their jobs for the diggings.
    • The colonial (non-Indigenous count) population of Australia grew from about 430,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million in 1871 as migrants arrived from Britain, continental Europe, North America and China. Aboriginal people were excluded from published population figures.
    • Diggers used pans, shovels and wooden cradles to wash gold from dirt, lived in tents, and most did not strike it rich.
  7. 7
    oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/past-exhibitions/gold-rush/race-to-the-gold-di…
    • Gold was found in Victoria later in 1851: Clunes (July), Buninyong and Ballarat (August), Bendigo (by December). Sailors deserted ships and shepherds, shopmen and tradesmen left their jobs for the diggings.
  8. 8
    ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore-history/golden-victoria/impact-society…
    • Gold was found in Victoria later in 1851: Clunes (July), Buninyong and Ballarat (August), Bendigo (by December). Sailors deserted ships and shepherds, shopmen and tradesmen left their jobs for the diggings.
  9. 9
    resources.vic.gov.au/geology-and-data/minerals/metals/gold/gold-min…
    • Victoria produced more than one third of the world's gold in the 1850s.
  10. 10
    digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/gold-rushes-begin
    • The colonial (non-Indigenous count) population of Australia grew from about 430,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million in 1871 as migrants arrived from Britain, continental Europe, North America and China. Aboriginal people were excluded from published population figures.
    • Diggers used pans, shovels and wooden cradles to wash gold from dirt, lived in tents, and most did not strike it rich.
  11. 11
    abs.gov.au/methodologies/historical-population-methodolog…
    • The colonial (non-Indigenous count) population of Australia grew from about 430,000 in 1851 to 1.7 million in 1871 as migrants arrived from Britain, continental Europe, North America and China. Aboriginal people were excluded from published population figures.
  12. 12
    deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Gold_rush_brings_more_peo…
    • The goldfields are on the Country of Aboriginal peoples (e.g. Wadawurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung), who were further dispossessed as mining destroyed much of their Country; Aboriginal people also traded with miners, shared knowledge of the land, and guided and helped lost diggers.
  13. 13
    press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/aboriginal-history/black-g…
    • The goldfields are on the Country of Aboriginal peoples (e.g. Wadawurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung), who were further dispossessed as mining destroyed much of their Country; Aboriginal people also traded with miners, shared knowledge of the land, and guided and helped lost diggers.
  14. 14
    blogs.slv.vic.gov.au
    • By 1859 there were over 40,000 Chinese migrants in Victoria. In 1855 Victoria put a ten pound tax on every Chinese person arriving by ship; many landed at Robe in South Australia instead and walked more than 400 km to the goldfields (about 17,000 took that route).
  15. 15
    robe.sa.gov.au/explore/history/chinese20history
    • By 1859 there were over 40,000 Chinese migrants in Victoria. In 1855 Victoria put a ten pound tax on every Chinese person arriving by ship; many landed at Robe in South Australia instead and walked more than 400 km to the goldfields (about 17,000 took that route).
  16. 16
    foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/vic4_doc_1855.pdf
    • By 1859 there were over 40,000 Chinese migrants in Victoria. In 1855 Victoria put a ten pound tax on every Chinese person arriving by ship; many landed at Robe in South Australia instead and walked more than 400 km to the goldfields (about 17,000 took that route).
  17. 17
    oldtreasurybuilding.org.au/gold-licence
    • Diggers had to pay a monthly licence fee (30 shillings at first, later one pound a month) whether they found gold or not; police ran 'licence hunts'.
  18. 18
    oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
    • Diggers had to pay a monthly licence fee (30 shillings at first, later one pound a month) whether they found gold or not; police ran 'licence hunts'.
    • The diggers raised the Southern Cross (Eureka) flag at Bakery Hill on 29 November 1854 and then built a stockade. On 3 December 1854 soldiers and police attacked the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat. At least 27 people died, most of them diggers (at least 22). The fight was over in minutes.
    • In 1855 the licence was abolished and replaced by a miner's right costing one pound a year; men over 21 who were British subjects and held a miner's right could vote for the Legislative Council, and eight goldfields seats were added. Women and most Chinese miners could not vote.
  19. 19
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Eureka_Stockade
    • The diggers raised the Southern Cross (Eureka) flag at Bakery Hill on 29 November 1854 and then built a stockade. On 3 December 1854 soldiers and police attacked the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat. At least 27 people died, most of them diggers (at least 22). The fight was over in minutes.
  20. 20
    britannica.com/event/Eureka-Stockade
    • The diggers raised the Southern Cross (Eureka) flag at Bakery Hill on 29 November 1854 and then built a stockade. On 3 December 1854 soldiers and police attacked the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat. At least 27 people died, most of them diggers (at least 22). The fight was over in minutes.
  21. 21
    australianculture.org/enfranchisement-of-the-diggers-1855
    • In 1855 the licence was abolished and replaced by a miner's right costing one pound a year; men over 21 who were British subjects and held a miner's right could vote for the Legislative Council, and eight goldfields seats were added. Women and most Chinese miners could not vote.

Image and sound credits

  • Unearthing the Welcome Stranger Nugget, 1869: William Parker, State Library Victoria, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • The Welcome Stranger, engraving from a photograph, 1869: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • An Australian Gold Diggings, c. 1855: Edwin Stocqueler, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Edward Hargraves, 1851: Thomas Tyrwhitt Balcombe, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Gold diggings at Ophir: from Samuel Sidney, The Three Colonies of Australia, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Ballarat goldfields, 1854; Forest Creek, 1852; Cradling: S. T. Gill, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Diggers on the road to a rush: from E. C. Booth, Australia Illustrated (1873), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Clipper ship Red Jacket: Currier lithograph, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Australian emigrant ship, 1873: Australian Town and Country Journal, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Bendigo, 1853: Ludwig Becker, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Group of diggers, c. 1858: Richard Daintree and Antoine Fauchery, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Warrenheip Hills near Ballarat, 1854: Eugene von Guérard, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Old Post Office Hill, Forest Creek, 1858: Richard Daintree, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Chinese gold digger starting for work, c. 1860s: Richard Daintree, State Library of Queensland, public domain
  • Gold licence of Raffaello Carboni, 1854: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Swearing allegiance to the Southern Cross, 1854: Charles Doudiet, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • The Eureka Flag on display: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Troops arriving at the Government Camp, Ballarat, 1854: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Eureka Stockade Riot, 1854: J. B. Henderson, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Anvil illustration: generated with AI (GPT Image)
  • Map data: Natural Earth (public domain)
  • Paper textures: ambientCG (CC0) · Torn paper edges generated with AI
  • Sound effects: Freesound contributors (CC0)
  • Music: generated with ACE-Step · Voice: Gemini TTS

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