Hargraves, have presented that gentleman with the sum of £500, and the appointment of Commissioner of Crown Lands, for the purpose of exploring such districts as he may judge desirable of investigation for further discoveries of gold’.
Hargraves himself is of course extremely gratified, not just with the remuneration and the position as Commissioner, with its handsome salary of £250 per annum, but with something else that rivals it for pleasure. The position also comes with a uniform, boasting a great deal of gold lace and a peaked cap, and on those goldfields he is always to be accompanied by two mounted policemen. Heaven !
Yes, there is an ongoing outcry from the squatters at the government’s seeming accommodation of the mass of labourers who continue to leave their jobs to go to the diggings, but when their man on site, Samuel Stutchbury, reports that ‘there is no doubt that auriferous deposits exist throughout a very great extent of country, and that very shortly the export of gold from this will rival that of San Francisco’, it is obvious that there is not a lot they can do.
‘It would be madness,’ Colonial Secretary Deas Thomson gravely tells pastoralist James Macarthur, ‘to attempt to stop that which we have not physical force to put down’.
CHAPTER TWO
VICTORIA
Population and wealth will flow in upon us in copious, rapid and continuous streams . . . A high and noble destiny awaits the long despised Australia, and she must now be treated by her haughty mistress, not as a child, but as an equal. In every point a great change must be, or Australia will know how to vindicate her rights.
The People’s Advocate, 23 July 1851
Early June, 1851, Melbourne stirs
Devastating!
For those in the town of Melbourne and its regional surrounds, the news of the finds of gold in the north, up Bathurst way, is producing terrifying results. For though the new colony itself has been prospering, with over six million sheep now fattening and breeding on more than 1000 stations, animal raising is a labour-intensive exercise, and much of that labour is not long in downing tools, upping sticks and heading north to try their luck. So, too, in the principal towns of Melbourne and Geelong – the latter the heart of the rich farming land – as within days everyone from ex-convicts, policemen and judges to labourers, shepherds, carpenters, common merchants and men of the civil service have all thrown it in and are streaming to the goldfields near Bathurst. The consequence is that ships must go unloaded, furnaces unstoked, foundries and factories unmanned, and flocks unattended, while the few remaining authorities must find replacements for the departed police and judges wherever they can. So desperate is the situation that they even going so far as to employ the hated Vandemonians from across Bass Strait – always the lowest class of men, far more used to being hit with a truncheon than wielding one on the side of justice.
Most appalled with the turn of events is the squattocracy, the wealthy squatters who have already made a fortune by paying a pittance to collective thousands of men to run vast flocks of sheep upon the rolling grass flatlands. Many of their workers have simply gone in the night. Elsewhere, it is reported that farmers who had just sown their crops for the next season’s harvest have also walked off their land and headed to the goldfields. Something must be done to prevent all the able-bodied men from going.
Early June 1851, Ophir under siege
A bare fortnight after the first mass of diggers arrive on site at Ophir, what was once a wonderfully secluded wooded gully, with a bubbling creek and ample birdlife, is being transformed by every new arrival. The undergrowth is trampled to make space for tents. Trees have been cut down both for firewood and to ensure that when their root-systems are exposed by the holes being dug all around they won’t fall upon the
Hargraves himself is of course extremely gratified, not just with the remuneration and the position as Commissioner, with its handsome salary of £250 per annum, but with something else that rivals it for pleasure. The position also comes with a uniform, boasting a great deal of gold lace and a peaked cap, and on those goldfields he is always to be accompanied by two mounted policemen. Heaven !
Yes, there is an ongoing outcry from the squatters at the government’s seeming accommodation of the mass of labourers who continue to leave their jobs to go to the diggings, but when their man on site, Samuel Stutchbury, reports that ‘there is no doubt that auriferous deposits exist throughout a very great extent of country, and that very shortly the export of gold from this will rival that of San Francisco’, it is obvious that there is not a lot they can do.
‘It would be madness,’ Colonial Secretary Deas Thomson gravely tells pastoralist James Macarthur, ‘to attempt to stop that which we have not physical force to put down’.
CHAPTER TWO
VICTORIA
Population and wealth will flow in upon us in copious, rapid and continuous streams . . . A high and noble destiny awaits the long despised Australia, and she must now be treated by her haughty mistress, not as a child, but as an equal. In every point a great change must be, or Australia will know how to vindicate her rights.
The People’s Advocate, 23 July 1851
Early June, 1851, Melbourne stirs
Devastating!
For those in the town of Melbourne and its regional surrounds, the news of the finds of gold in the north, up Bathurst way, is producing terrifying results. For though the new colony itself has been prospering, with over six million sheep now fattening and breeding on more than 1000 stations, animal raising is a labour-intensive exercise, and much of that labour is not long in downing tools, upping sticks and heading north to try their luck. So, too, in the principal towns of Melbourne and Geelong – the latter the heart of the rich farming land – as within days everyone from ex-convicts, policemen and judges to labourers, shepherds, carpenters, common merchants and men of the civil service have all thrown it in and are streaming to the goldfields near Bathurst. The consequence is that ships must go unloaded, furnaces unstoked, foundries and factories unmanned, and flocks unattended, while the few remaining authorities must find replacements for the departed police and judges wherever they can. So desperate is the situation that they even going so far as to employ the hated Vandemonians from across Bass Strait – always the lowest class of men, far more used to being hit with a truncheon than wielding one on the side of justice.
Most appalled with the turn of events is the squattocracy, the wealthy squatters who have already made a fortune by paying a pittance to collective thousands of men to run vast flocks of sheep upon the rolling grass flatlands. Many of their workers have simply gone in the night. Elsewhere, it is reported that farmers who had just sown their crops for the next season’s harvest have also walked off their land and headed to the goldfields. Something must be done to prevent all the able-bodied men from going.
Early June 1851, Ophir under siege
A bare fortnight after the first mass of diggers arrive on site at Ophir, what was once a wonderfully secluded wooded gully, with a bubbling creek and ample birdlife, is being transformed by every new arrival. The undergrowth is trampled to make space for tents. Trees have been cut down both for firewood and to ensure that when their root-systems are exposed by the holes being dug all around they won’t fall upon the
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