Life on the goldfields

1. Life on the goldfields By Sam Jackson, Bill Roberts, Robbie Bushell and Tim Smith

2. Contents • People • Transport • Housing • Law and order • Clothing • Health • Food • Equipment • Bibliography

3. People • People were very mean, nasty and cruel to the Chinese and the aboriginals because they were different. The white people teased, threatened and insulted different people to them. • It was terrible for the children on the goldfields. Most families could not afford to by shoes for there kids only the rich families. Many children on the goldfields caught sicknesses because they didn’t wear proper clothes. • Most of the diggers on the goldfields were English. Most English were very stubborn

4. People • In 1857 at the Buckland Valley riots broke out between miners and 22 Chinese miners were killed. • On the goldfields there were ex convicts, Polish soldiers, Dutch sailors, English doctors, police (troopers), Sly grog sellers, Chinese labourers and native Australians. There were also countries from all over the world that came to the gold fields like Europeans, North America, South America, Indians and Africans.

5. Transport • People on the Goldfields mostly traveled by foot for four million man miles through swamps, deserts and mountains each day. All the poor families could only get to places by foot because they couldn’t afford horses because they were very expensive. The rich families that found gold Traveled by horses and carriages. Some people came to the goldfields by donkeys or bullocks because they can carry large amounts of weight. • People from other countries came to the goldfields by ship because there was no other way to get over seas.

6. Transport • Most of the miners used wheelbarrows to transport gold to other destination on the gold fields or to carry stuff to their tents like food and equipment. • In the mines the other miners used steam trains to get out of the mine or to transport gold to the end of the mine.

7. Housing • The housing on the goldfields usually was tents or huts covered by bark roofs. Eventually there was a change of housing changed there were stone buildings and bark huts. The mattresses were stuffed with leaves. The miners sat on logs and sometimes sang songs around the camp fire because they didn’t have any TVs or computer games. The Chinese slept in tents but they didn’t sleep near the other cultures because they had there own little place surrounded by fences.

8. Housing • The Aboriginalsin the goldfields slept in tents like the Chinese people did but in a different area because then the Chinese would get mixed up and so would the Aboriginals because they are sleeping in the same area.

9. Law and Order • Before the gold rushes there was only 44 soldiers and a handful of police to control all the miners. • In 1852 each goldfield was run by a commissioner, assassin, clerke and inspector of police. • When the miners got out of hand they sometimes established an army or a special police force.

10. Law and Order • Miners were fined the equivalent of ten dollars for not having a licence, thirty dollars if caught again and if caught a third time the miners were fined sixty dollars. • Much of the police force was made up of ex- convicts from Van Diesman’s land (Tasmania) and most of the police force to try their luck as a miners.

11. Clothing • Because the miners worked for long hours their clothes got really worn out. • They really only wore White shirts, straw hats, frock coats, gloves, underpants, hard wearing pants, rain protection. Some wore boots some wore shoes but most of them could not afford shoes or boots so they had to go barefoot. • The Chinese wore baggy pants and large coolie hats.

12. Health • There was little medical help on the goldfields so the health of the diggers wasn’t very good. • Diggers didn’t shower or bathe very often especially in summer because the water was very dirty and in short use. • There was a doctor though that was called Doctor Eadie that created the sarsaparilla pill that was a cure for all goldfields ailments.

13. Food • Food on the goldfields was very poor and most of the people ate damper. Damper was a food that miners made themselves. • Fruit and vegetables were rare and not many people ate them there for the miners they were deficient for fruit and vegetables. • The miners, diggers and panners had to catch there own food for example: trout, tuna, meat etc. • It was a treat to them to eat mutton because it was expensive.

14. Food • People became alcoholics very easily and spent a lot of money on rum, bourbon and whisky. The miners, diggers and panners got the alcoholics from a sly grog dealer. Alcohol was a big problem on the goldfields. • Some of the people on the goldfields had biscuits. Cakes, scones and puddings were popular desserts. • The diggers ate any type of meat that they could find on the goldfields. • The bread back then was 50 cents and a meal was 40 cents. • The diggers kept there food fresh by either salting the food in short time of killing.

15. Equipment • The people on the goldfields usually used pans because they were easy to use and they weren’t hard to use and where light weight. They also used cradles, sluices, chisels and dynamite. • The miners used picket axes in the mines to crack rock. Spades were a good tool to use when you wanted to dig for gold. • The puddling tub was a larger version of a pan but used the same way.

16. Bibliography • www.sbs.com • www.minerals.nws • www.sovereignhill.com.au • www.nets.net.au/external/sovhill • Book Australia, ST Leonard's NSW. Nicholson.J(1994).gold! a little ark