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| − | [[Image:Nerrena Fossickers in the Creek Nerrena.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Nerrena Fossickers in Nerrena Creek outside Ballarat]]
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| − | The '''Victorian [[gold rush]]''' was a period in the history of [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]] in [[Australia]] between approximately [[1851]] and the early [[1860s]].
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| − | During this decade, Victoria produced more than one third of the world's gold output.
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| − | == Background ==
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| − | By [[1840]] the city of [[Melbourne]], in the far south of Victoria, was nearly five years old. Population growth in Melbourne and the surrounding countryside had been steady, and the population had reached around !@#$%^&*())(*&^%$#@!@#$%^&*())(*&^%$#@!??><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
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| − | In July [[1851 in Australia|1851]], Melbourne's 29,000 residents celebrated as they broke away from New South Wales and the Colony of [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]] was born. Weeks later it was announced that [[gold]] had been found in Victoria. The first discoveries were by Louis Michel at [[Warrandyte, Victoria|Warrandyte]], 30 [[kilometres]] north-east of Melbourne, [[James Esmond]] at Clunes in July 1851, and [[Thomas Hiscock]] at Buninyong, near Ballarat, on [[2 August]] [[1851]].
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| − | On [[20 July]] [[1851]] [[Thomas Peters, gold-finder|Thomas Peters]], a hut-keeper on William Barker’s ''Mount Alexander'' station, found specks of gold at what is now known as Specimen Gully. This find was published in the Melbourne ''[[The Argus (Australia)|Argus]]'' on [[8 September]] [[1851]], leading to a rush to the [[Mount Alexander]] or Forest Creek diggings, centred on present-day [[Castlemaine, Victoria|Castlemaine]], claimed to be the richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world.
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| − | These discoveries were soon surpassed by bigger ones at [[Ballarat, Victoria|Ballarat]] and [[Bendigo, Victoria|Bendigo]], and more finds in a number of other locations around Victoria followed.
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| − | {| class="prettytable" style="float:right"
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| − | !Year
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| − | !Population of Melbourne
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| − | |1835||0
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| − | |1840||10,000
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| − | |1851||29,000
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| − | |1854||123,000
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| − | The population of Melbourne grew swiftly as the gold fever took hold. The total number of people in Victoria also rose. By 1851 it was 75,000 people. Ten years later this rose to over 500,000.
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| − | First to be obtained was the 'easy' gold(alluvial); that which was to be found on the surface. It is reported that miners when first arrived on the Mt Tarrengower fields nuggets were picked up without digging. This was followed by exploitation of [[alluvial]] gold usually in creeks and rivers. The seekers used gold pans, puddling boxes and cradles to separate this gold from the dirt and water.
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| − | When this ran out underground [[mining]] began. This was much harder and more dangerous than the panning and puddling. The mines ranged from single person, to teams and eventually large mining companies. The miners followed the underground reefs of gold. At [[Walhalla, Victoria|Walhalla]] alone, Cohens Reef produced over 50 tonnes (1.6 million tr oz) of gold in 40 years of mining. As of February 2004, that would be worth $800 million.
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| − | == Major and long lasting impact ==
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| − | The gold rush had a large influence on Melbourne, on Sydney, on Victoria, and on Australia as a whole. It touched every aspect of society and elements of it are still clearly visible today. The influx of wealth that gold brought soon made Victoria Australia's richest state by far, and Melbourne the continent's largest city.
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| − | [[Image:ProspectorsHut Dargo.jpg|right|thumb|Prospector's Hut, Upper [[Dargo, Victoria]] ([[Gippsland]]), [[1870 in Australia|1870]].]]
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| − | Australia's population changed dramatically as a result of the rushes. In 1851 the Australian population was 437,655, of which 77,345, or just under 18%, were Victorians. A decade later the Australian population had grown to 1,151,947 and the Victorian population had increased to 538,628; just under 47% of the Australian total and a seven-fold increase. In some small country towns where gold was found aboundant, the population could grow of over 1000% in a decade (e.g. Rutherglen had a population of ~2'000. Ten years later, it had ~60'000 which is a 3000% increase). The rapid growth was predominantly a result of the gold rushes.<ref>{{cite book | last = Caldwell | first = J. C. | authorlink = | editor = Wray Vamplew (ed.) | title = Australians: Historical Statistics | date = 1987 | publisher = Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates | location = Broadway, New South Wales, Australia | id = ISBN 0-949288-29-2 | pages = pages 23 and 26 | chapter = Chapter 2: Population}}</ref>
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| − | Although most goldfields were exhausted by the end of the 19th century, and much of the profit was sent back to the United Kingdom, enough remained to fund substantial development of industry and infrastructure.
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| − | The [[Eureka Stockade]], an armed protest or revolt over what the miners perceived as unfair policing and "taxation without representation", is widely regarded as important in Victoria and Australia's democratic development.
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| − | The gold rush is reflected in the architecture of Victorian gold-boom cities like Melbourne, [[Castlemaine, Victoria|Castlemaine]], [[Ballarat, Victoria|Ballarat]], [[Bendigo, Victoria|Bendigo]] and [[Ararat, Victoria|Ararat]]. Ballarat has [[Sovereign Hill]] — a 60 acre (240,000 m²) recreation of a gold rush town — as well as the Gold Museum, while Bendigo has an large operating gold mine system which also functions as a tourist attraction.
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| − | The gold rush also left the legacy of a myriad of other quaint Victorian towns in the Goldfields tourist region like [[Maldon, Victoria|Maldon]], [[Beechworth, Victoria|Beechworth]], [[Clunes, Victoria|Clunes]], [[Maryborough, Victoria|Maryborough]], [[Daylesford, Victoria|Daylesford]], [[Stawell, Victoria|Stawell]], [[Beaufort, Victoria|Beaufort]], [[Creswick, Victoria|Creswick]], [[St Arnaud, Victoria|St Arnaud]], [[Dunolly, Victoria|Dunolly]], [[Inglewood, Victoria|Inglewood]] and [[Buninyong, Victoria|Buninyong]]. With the exception of possibly Ballarat and Bendigo, many of these towns were substantially larger than they are today, with much of their populations dissapearing at the end of the gold rush.
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| − | At the other end of the spectrum are near or actual ghost towns, such as [[Walhalla, Victoria|Walhalla]], [[Mafeking, Victoria|Mafeking]] and [[Steiglitz, Victoria|Steiglitz]].
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| − | [[Image:Cassilis historical area.jpg|thumb|right|As with many gold towns, after deposits of gold had been exploited, the town of [[Cassilis, Victoria|Cassilis]] ceased to exist. This picture shows the remains of part of King Cassilis Mine]]
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| − | The last major gold rush in Victoria was at [[Beringa, Victoria|Beringa]], south of Ballarat, in the first decade of the [[20th century]]. Gold mining later virtually ceased in Victoria, not because there was no more gold but in the main because of the depth and cost of pumping. The [[First World War]] also drained Australia of the labour needed to work the mines. However, as of 2005 the recent increase in the gold price has seen a resurgence in commercial mining activity; mining has resumed in [[Bendigo, Victoria|Bendigo]], [[Ballarat, Victoria|Ballarat]], and exploration proceeds elsewhere, for example, in [[Glen Wills, Victoria|Glen Wills]], an isolated mountain area near [[Mitta Mitta, Victoria|Mitta Mitta]] in north-eastern Victoria.
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| − | == See also ==
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| − | *[[Gold rush]]
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| − | *[[Welcome Stranger]]
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| − | *[[California Gold Rush]] ([[1848]]-[[1855]])
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| − | == References ==
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| − | <!--<nowiki>
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| − | See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how
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| − | {{FootnotesSmall|resize={{{1|100%}}}}}
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| − | ==Further reading==
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| − | *''Nothing but Gold'' Robyn Annear ISBN 1-876485-07-8
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| − | *''Walhalla Heyday'' G.F. James & C.G. Lee ISBN 0-9596311-3-5
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| − | *''Walhalla: Valley of Gold'' John Aldersea & Barbara Hood ISBN 0-9750887-0-X
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| − | == External links ==
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| − | *[http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/windows/gold/index.asp Victorian Museum ]
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| − | *[http://www.walhalla.org.au Walhalla]
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| − | *[http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/ Sovereign Hill]
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| − | *[http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/museum/index.shtml Gold Museum at Ballarat]
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| − | *[http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/stories/s1032324.htm Report on resumed exploration]
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| − | [[Category:Australian gold rushes]]
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| − | [[Category:History of Victoria|Gold rush]]
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| − | [[Category:1850s]]
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| − | [[Category:1860s]]
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| − | [[Category:19th century in Australia]]
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