Pennyweight Gully, near Castlemaine. Photo taken by Marion Littlejohn

Many townships sprang up during the Gold Rush era of Colonial Victoria, but many of these towns withered and died as soon as their gold ran out, to the point that many are now ghost towns. However there are several exceptions to that. Many prosperous Central Victorian towns can trace their beginnings back to the discovery of gold. Towns such as Stawell, Ararat, Maryborough, Castlemaine and St Arnaud were larger at the time gold was being mined, but they still survive decades, even a century after the gold ran out. Ballarat and Bendigo are today major regional centres, and although there are still gold mines in or near both, they do not rely on gold to continue to grow. So what are the things that decided whether a town would grow, survive or die after the gold ran out? We think the answer involves the Industrial Revolution in Australia.

In our previous post on the Industrial revolution in Australia, we discussed how the people coming to the goldfields brought the knowledge and skills of the Industrial Revolution, and very soon were putting this knowledge to practical use in the search for gold. Here at Sovereign Hill we have many examples of these technological advances, and the benefits and/or downfalls of the use of machinery in gold mining. More importantly we also have some examples of steam technology being used for purposes not directly linked to finding gold. It is these other industries that give us the clue as to why Ballarat thrived, but towns nearby (Clunes, Smythesdale, Creswick etc) struggled after the gold mining phase of our history dwindled.

It was because as the large deposits of gold became more difficult to get to,

Soho Iron Works. Ballarat Gold Museum Collection

heavy machinery was required to keep going deeper, and to process the quartz and gold ore much quicker.

Transporting heavy machinery was fairly easy after 1862, when the railway line was completed between, Geelong and Ballarat. But before this time all the machinery used for gold mining had to be brought overland, which could take weeks. Weston Bate says “It would have taken at least a fortnight to have a part made in Melbourne or Geelong … So as soon as a reasonable volume of work was assured, foundries were established at Ballarat” (Luck City 1989). The Victoria foundry was the first Ballarat foundry, opened in 1856 and by 1861 there were ten, eight specialising in mining equipment. At first these foundries mainly focussed on repairing parts, but before long they were able to manufacture parts, then boilers, engines, pumps, basically anything that was needed in the mining industry, or by the residents of Ballarat.

Phoenix Foundry Machine Shop. University of Ballarat Historical Collection.

It wasn’t long before the agricultural and forestry industries around Ballarat began to mechanise and the foundries had a whole new market for their expertise. Manufacturing continued in Ballarat after serious gold mining ceased, around 1915-16, and continues in Ballarat to this day. In fact manufacturing still provided over 10% of the employment in Ballarat in 2011, which made it the third largest behind the retail and health care sectors.

We quoted Professor Weston Bate during this blogpost. Sovereign Hill hosts the Professor Weston Bate lecture each year, in honour of Professor Bate and his contribution to the study of local history and its importance to Australia’s national story. For more information or to book, click here.

If you would like to learn more, read our previous post on the Industrial Revolution in Australia, or look at our webpage on the Industrial Revolution in Australia. It has a link to a great video we made.

If you want to know more about foundries, the Gold Museum has an interesting Blogpost on the Phoenix foundry you can have a look at.

There are a couple of other reasons for Ballarat continuing to develop after the gold mining period ended. Maybe you can think of some. If you can, let us know by commenting on this Blogpost, or you could contact us.

“Damper and Mutton”

“Tea and Damper” by A . M. Ebsworth. From Digital Collection of the State Library of Victoria.

Following a previous blog post, we have tried to find a few examples of recipes from the gold rush period of our History. Robyn Annear (Nothing But Gold, 1999), says that one who lived through it called the early years of the Gold Rush (1851-1853) the “damper and mutton stage of the colony”. The foods most readily available were sheep (mutton) from the squatters and flour, sugar, tea and dried fruit as these would not go off quickly. This brings us to our first recipe – damper.

Damper and its variations.

This explanation is from James Bonwick, quoted in Nothing but Gold (1999);

Taking a washing tin dish, and clearing off the dirt a little, six or eight pannicans of flour are thrown in; a half table spoonful of carbonate soda, the like quantity of tartaric acid (together these are Baking Powder, sort of), and a spoonful of salt are then mixed together in a pannican and then well mingled with dry flour. Water is then poured in, the whole thoroughly knuckled, rolled into a good shaped loaf, and tumbled at once into the warmed camp oven. Fire is applied beneath and a couple of hours or less will turn out a loaf fit to be set before a queen.

Now if you didn’t have a camp oven you could just throw it into the coals of your fire. The damper will make a hollow sound when it is cooked. Some diggers didn’t have carbonate of soda or tartaric acid, and just used water and flour. This method makes a very hard crusted loaf, with usually a gluey centre.

Johnny Cakes were a form of this damper, lacking baking soda. They are thought to have originated in the United States, and may have been called “journey cakes”, although the US versions of the recipe seem to use cornmeal instead of flour.

You simply make up the batter, so it is fairly stiff. Roll it up into small cakes and cook in a fry pan. If you add mutton dripping to your pan you get a “fat johnny cake”

“Mutton and Damper”

“Butchers Shambles” by S. T. Gill. From the collection of the State Library of Victoria

Along with your damper you might have meat, usually mutton, sometimes beef. The beef may have been salted to help it keep longer. This was called salt beef. We call salt beef corned beef nowadays, because of the ‘corns’ of salt used to pickle it. For most of the diggers, meat was a rarity in their home countries. But the novelty of “meat 3 times a day” didn’t last long. Wives and camp cooks needed to be extremely creative to add variety to their families’ and campmate’s diets. William Howitt also complained about the quality of the meat. He was convinced that squatters were sending their worn out stock to the diggings. He grumped about his chops  “Wretches they are, worse than India rubber or gutta percha”.  Amazingly another complaint about the meat was that it was too fresh! Fresh meat is tough meat, and usually the meat you were cooking would have been quite alive days, hours or even minutes earlier.  This would have led to some very creative recipes using the same ingredients in different ways to spice up the meal time.

Caroline Chisholm

Caroline Chisholm by A C Hayter 1852. From the Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales.

Caroline Chisholm was extremely worried about women becoming depressed because of the lack of variety in colonial diets. She wrote several tracts to advise potential migrants, and in one of them she discussed the trials and tribulations of ‘bush cookery’. Early settlers were lured to Australia with the phrase “Meat three times a day” – and the meat was usually salt beef (‘corned beef’). Caroline described how to meet the challenge of preparing the same meat every night of the week – and keeping the husband happy.

“The great art of bush-cookery consists in giving a variety out of salt beef and flour, minus mustard, pepper, and potatoes. Now, the first thing that a wife has to do in the bush is examine the rations, and think and contrive how to use them. Every woman who values her husband’s health and comfort will give him a hot meal every day.

To commence with the flour: this should be divided into three parts – one for dumplings and pancakes, two for dampers* (bread made into large cakes, and baked on hearths.)
Divide the meat into seven portions. Take the best piece for Sunday: for as there is more leisure on that day, men congregate together, and get a habit of grumbling if the wife does not make the best use of her means. Let the Sunday share be soaked on the Saturday, and beat it well with a rolling pin, as this makes it more tender; take a seventh portion of the flour, and work it into a paste; then put the beef into it, boil it, and you will have a very nice pudding, known in the bush as ‘Station Jack.’
Monday. Cut the meat into small pieces; put them in the frying pan to stew; throw away the first water, then shake some flour over the meat and when sufficiently done, turn it out upon a dish; then take the remainder of this day’s flour (for you should be very particular and have no guess-work), mix it with water, not too much, and make it into a pancake. When fired, put the stew on top of it, and this will prevent any loss of gravy; keep it hot until your husband comes home, and he will have a palatable dish called ‘The Queen’s Nightcap’.
Tuesday. Chop the meat very small; mix it with this day’s flour, adding thereto a due portion of water, then form the whole into small dumplings, and put them in a frying pan. This dish generally goes by the name of ‘Trout-dumplings.’
Wednesday. Stew the meat well in a small pot; when near done, take the portion of flour allowed for the day, make it into a crust, cover the meat with it, and in half an hour you will be able to serve up ‘A Stewed Goose.’
Thursday. Boil your beef, and make your flour into dumplings.
Friday. Beefsteak pudding; if Catholic, fish for your dinner.
Saturday. Beef ‘a-la-mode.’ “

‘Tis all in the name, apparently.

We first discovered these recipe names in “The Tradition of Australian Cooking” by Anne Gollan (1978), but the more detailed description quoted is from;

http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2008/05/seven-things-to-do-with-salt-beef.html

We haven’t tried any of these recipes ourselves yet. Want to have a go? Let us know how it went.

Do you have any recipes handed down from Colonial times? Feel free to share.

Jenni enjoying a lighter moment from her stay

Our intrepid volunteer, Jenni Fithall, has completed her three days and two nights living in one of the cottages at Sovereign Hill Outdoor Museum.  During her stay approximately 3800 visitors, including about 1500 school children  came to Sovereign Hill. Many of these visitors and children visited Jenni in her cottage, so apart from living as a woman of the 1850s, Jenni also had to contend with a multitude of questions, photo opportunities and a constant stream of people walking through her little two room cottage.

But that wasn’t all Jenni  had to put up with. There were random visits from our education team, and the volunteer managers wanting to interview her -sometimes before visiting hours- about her experiences. She was also constantly in front of a camera, either ours, the local media or tourists. At night Jenni compiled a video diary for us, even though she was only able to sleep about 5 hours a night, thanks to our noisy roosters – although Jenni did joke about a possible solution, in truth no animals were harmed in the time she was here.

The final fly strip. Not quite standing room yet

Noise wasn’t the only problem for Jenni. She says she had a hell of a time with flies, at one stage the entire ceiling was covered with them. We gave her fly strips so that she could manage, but as soon as they went up they were full, or “standing room only” to quote Jenni. William Howitt also commented on the flies of the goldfields.

Definitely the biggest difference between the 1850s and the present day mentioned by Jenni would be electricity. She says that even after two days using candles, if she walked into the bedroom, where it was darker, she would instinctively reach for the light switch. Jenni didn’t mind the lack of television, lets face it, a woman of the 1850s didn’t have the leisure time required to watch TV  But lighting, washing machines and refrigerators have made a huge difference to our lifestyle compared to colonial women.

We congratulate Jenni on completing her mission. We have gained a great deal of knowledge from her personal experiences, and there are already plans afoot, and volunteers aplenty, to try this experiment again. After winter, and after we fix the beds up a little more (sorry Jen).

During her stay, Jenni had a guest book for visitors to comment on her experience. There were so many positive comments, that we cannot fit them into this Blog, but here is a sample:

“What a wonderful experiment! May it continue for many years. I’d love to be a part of it. Well done to Jenni  and Sovereign Hill” -Nick Nicholls, Kangaroo Ground

“Good luck cooking with all the flies” – Eddy & Luke

“The flies are beautiful”- Alison

“Watched the cloth being floured to cover the treacle steam pudding and enjoyed a most enlightening chat about the life & times of the folks of that time. I couldn’t handle sleeping on that mattress though! Soon we will return to the comforts of our bed in Auckland, best wishes” – Michael Hall

“Was a very nice experience. Courageous to stay nights over.” – Ben and Thea from Holland

“Loved your little home, nice smells, too many flies”- Kylie, England

Thank you to all who left comments in the guest book, if you see your comment or would like to make another, there is an opportunity here.

If you would like to see what Jenni went through, we have made several videos about her time at Sovereign Hill, the videos and the links are detailed below.

Woman of the Hill part 1

Woman of the Hill part 2

Woman of the Hill part 3

Woman of the Hill making butter

Woman of the Hill, the final interview

There was so much information about this experiment, that we created a new page on our website. All the videos and links to Blogposts are here.

If you would like your students to experience a little of Jenni’s experience, try our a woman’s work is never done education session.

For more information about actual women of the Goldfields era, you could try the Gold museum Blog about Eliza Perrin or our earlier Blogs.

By Peter FitzSimons

Eureka: The Unfinished Revolution
Published By : William Heinemann, North Sydney, N.S.W. Australia, 2012

The trouble with the Eureka story is that it is very involved and complex.  As Education officers at Sovereign Hill, we well know how difficult it is to maintain the interest of an audience when we try to explain the details leading to the bloody storming of the stockade. There are so many important twists and turns that the story teller often falls in a repeating pattern of “and then …. and then… and then…”

Not so Peter FitzSimons in his recent book Eureka: The Unfinished Revolution. 

This book is very well researched and covers all the events of the saga in surprising detail. But it is the obvious enthusiasm of the author that holds the reader’s attention. This is not a dry historical paper but a rollicking story. It has been said that you shouldn’t let the facts get in the way of a good story but FitzSimons has been able to sew a lot of  facts together in a compelling way.  He often uses the first person “Gather round lads and look at this!” (p327), and the present tense “There is revolution in the air” (p339) to make us feel part of the narrative.  He also injects personality into the main characters, “

“Up on the stage, Father Smyth looks worried, knowing far better than his superiors how hot the mood on the diggings is…” (p361)

“Lalor invites Carboni to speak, and he does not have to be asked twice” (p366)

This book is not for primary school students but it is a must for teachers of secondary students. FitzSimons’ attention to detail provides a deep appreciation of the complex series of events leading up to Australia’s biggest rebellion.  He is therefore able to explain how the diggers became so indignant about the way they were being treated and why the authorities felt they had to take control.  This book feels like historical fiction but it is not, it is very well researched and this reader often found himself looking up the footnotes to find out the origin of small details.

But why is it the unfinished revolution? Well, you will either have to read it or join our after school Webinar The Importance of Narrative in History Teaching with Peter FitzSimons and Doug Bradby on 2 May to find out.

Woman of the Hill 2

Jenni doing the dishes and talking to visitors

The first night of intrepid volunteer Jenni Fithall’s experiment with colonial living is over and we (two of the Education officers) called in to check up on her.

Sovereign Hill:

Morning Jenni, how did you sleep?

Jenni:

Terribly! The rooster started crowing at about 3.30 am, and all the rest joined in. They would stop for about 20 minutes, and I would drift off to sleep. Then they would start again. It was nice laying in bed watching the glow from the fire.

SH:

Any other excitement overnight?

Jenni:

Well I had a bath. It took for ever to warm up enough water for it. I set the bath up in here (Kitchen/Dining room). I now know why they (Colonial people) only bathed once a week, it was so much work, and that’s only for one person!

SH:

We notice there’s a lot of flies around, do you need another fly strip? (The one hanging from the ceiling, is covered with flies, and there is still a swarm flying around the room).

Jenni:

No I have a spare one. Marion (Education officer) and I put one up about 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon, but last night the ceiling was black with flies. (They are really bad, no wonder disease was rife in these communities)

Jenni is cooking her breakfast, some sliced potato and an egg over the fire. She has some other food cooked from yesterday covered with tea towels, at least it is quiet as the Museum is not open to visitors yet.

SH:

Do you expect many visitors today?

Jenni:

Oh yes, there was a constant flow of people coming in yesterday. And there are plenty of school children staying at the museum so I expect I will be very busy talking to visitors and completing all my chores.

If you would like your students to experience a little of Jenni’s experience, try our a woman’s work is never done education session.

For more information about women on the Goldfields, you could try the Gold museum Blog about Eliza Perrin or our earlier Blogs.

If you would like to see what Jenni went through, we have made several videos about her time at Sovereign Hill, and the links are detailed below.

Woman of the Hill part 1

Woman of the Hill part 2

Woman of the Hill part 3

Woman of the Hill making butter

Woman of the Hill, the final interview

There was so much information about this experiment, that we created a new page on our website. All the videos and links to Blogposts are here.

Food on the Goldfields

Butchers Shambles, by S. T. Gill.
Image: Gold Museum Collection 86_628

What types of foods were eaten during the gold rush? What utensils were used to cook with? What was life like for a cook in the gold rush? What things did they cook on? Was it hard for a cook? Did the children or men ever help the women? These were the questions sent to us by a year 9 girl recently. These are very good questions and we’re not sure we can answer all of them here. But evidence of the eating and cooking habits of diggers can be found in their letters home, diaries, newspapers and in some of the paintings and sketches from this time.

It is generally believed that the first diggers on the goldfields lived on Mutton and Damper (Old sheep and camp bread) at first. This could be true, as it would take time to grow vegetables, and at first diggers were not allowed to plant gardens. Sheep would have been plentiful, as Squatters had already established large holdings of land, with huge herds of sheep. This all makes sense, but are we being too general, and can we find evidence of this being the case?

Firstly lets look at the picture above, “The Butcher Shambles” by S. T.  Gill. Gill was a contemporary artist who visited the Victorian Goldfields, and we can use his sketches to interpret what life was like at the time. This picture shows the butcher calmly reading his paper, while the sheep carcases he has butchered hang from his veranda.  Gill must have forgotten all the flies, and luckily we can’t smell pictures.

Letter from James Petford.
Gold Museum , Petford Letters Collection

This letter by James Petford, held by the Gold Museum of Ballarat says much the same. His handwriting and spelling is very hard to decipher, so here is a translated excerpt:

…The 2 pound coffee which cost 3 [pence] is now 6 pence. Meat according butter [now] 2 [and] 6 per pound and rising now. I do not know where it will end… You wish to know about the price of fish called ‘garfish,’ [which is] about the size of a Yarmouth herring. [It is] pence per [???]. Others in proportion, fowls [are] about 3 [and] 6 per pair. I have not seen a fire grate since I’ve been here. There is a sewer [?] hole left at the bottom level with the flour, and we burn wood, which is very dear [at] 18 shillings for a small cartload. Our chief vegetable is potatoes. [At] 7 pounds for 6 very likely we shall get them cheaper when we have got a marketplace…

While this is very difficult to understand, we can make out that he is obviously upset about the prices ao food and the primitive cooking conditions. It was written just before Gold was discovered in Buninyong (August 1851), and may have been written in Adelaide but it shows the diet was restricted to what could be sourced locally.

There were some exceptions to the rule though. Diann Talbot says in The Buckland Valley Goldfield that stores sometimes sold tins of oysters, sardines and lobster as well as jars of pickles which would have added greatly to the diggers diet.

Women who came to the goldfields would have done most, if not all the cooking for their family. Their increased knowledge of recipes, and determination to bring other forms of food with them would have made their cooking more popular than that of most male cooks. Indeed Caroline Chisholm is recorded as developing several different recipes for salt beef. Station Jack, Queens Nightcap, Trout Dumplings and Stewed Goose were all made with salt beef, in differing ways to make them seem different.

Want the recipes? What about the answers to the other questions? Then watch this space, as our intrepid volunteer Jenni Fithall spends the next two nights (19th &20th March 2013) living in one of our cottages.

By Charles Napier Hemy Ra, ARA, RWS, 1841 – 1917

Edited by Peter McGann
Published by Viglione Press, Black Rock, Victoria 2009

This fantastic little book is a great way to personalise students experiences of our History, and provides an opportunity to debate the classification of a source as primary or secondary. Charles Napier Hemy was a renowned maritime artist of the late 19^th century. At the age of 10 he accompanied his father on a trip around the world, culminating in a visit to the Goldfields of Victoria in 1851-2. In 1904 Charles sat down on board his yacht Van Der Meer in Falmouth harbour and wrote a journal of his recollections of his travels under sail, and adventures on the Goldfields.

Now we can never know how reputable the memory of a 63 year old man is about his childhood, but even if some stories are inaccurate, it is still a wonderful recollection of life on the Victorian Goldfields.

These memoirs were never published by Hemy, and were meant more for his own family’s benefit. But in 2007, Peter McGann met Margaret Powell. They were both descendants of Charles Hemy, and were intrigued by their ancestor’s schoolboy essays, and memoirs. Together with his daughter, Rebecca McGann, Peter decided to publish the memoirs of Charles’ trip to Australia.

The book is a fairly easy read, scattered with newspaper articles, pictures and maps of the Victorian Goldfields. It is the memoir of a ten year old boy, but some of his adventures are anything but the usual childhood experiences. It is also dotted with newspaper articles, pictures and maps from the era which are worthy of more research. We don’t want to give away the plot, but we think this book would certainly be interesting for other 10 year old children to read. It’s rare to get a personal account of such a major event in Victoria’s history.

If you are interested Trove has links to Libraries that have a copy and online sites that have stock available. Just click here

Ever wondered what it would be like to have lived during the 19^th Century? Would you like to experience it for yourself? Well you don’t have to, because we have someone to do it for you. Jenni Fithall is a volunteer at Sovereign Hill Museum, Ballarat. She belongs to the “Friends of Sovereign Hill” (FOSH), a group that helps to bring the Museum to life for visitors.

Sovereign Hill Volunteer Jenni Fithall, who will be living in one of our cottages for 3 days in March 2013

Jenni has decided to try living in one of the cottages on Speedwell St for two nights and three days in March. Our Education Officers recently interviewed Jenni, to find out how she felt about her upcoming adventure.

Sovereign Hill

What do you hope to achieve?

Jenni

I want to experience what it really would be like to be a woman of the mid 19^th century. I want to know how they coped with life. As a volunteer I spend about 5 hours in a cottage, once a week or thereabouts, cooking and talking with visitors, but I know that isn’t realistic as to just how hard and full on a day actually would have been. I may live to eat my words but I think I will rise to the challenge of living in that way. I hope to show that a 21^st century woman like me can cope just as well as our predecessors.

Sovereign Hill

What do you expect to be doing?

Jenni

Normal day-to-day living. Cooking, cleaning, being self-sufficient and making do with what I’ve got. The plan is to do most of the cooking on day one including making bread and maybe butter, washing day 2 and ironing day 3, as well as all the other chores a woman would be expected to do on a day-to-day basis.

Sovereign Hill

What do you hope will be the good part of this experience?

Jenni

The whole experience for starters. I think it will give me even more empathy toward my ancestors and what they went through. I will enjoy how good the food will taste after being cooked on an open fire and I’m really looking forward to living by candlelight at night time although I am sure I will be hitting the sack reasonably early by the end of day 2.

Sovereign Hill

It’s more that they lived frugally?

Jenni

I don’t like frugal, but I like the simplicity and physicality of life in the old days. For example, I like the thought of going to bed when the sun sets (though definitely not the getting up when the chooks get up) as well as the romance of candlelight and things like that. It’s a better atmosphere.

Sovereign Hill

What do you think will be challenging?

Jenni

I think it’s going to be a bit of a slog, getting everything done, keeping a fire going all the time. I’m worried I’ll sleep too well and the fire will go out and that the wood will be damp making the fire difficult to restart. Making starch from potato scraps and stuff like that could be difficult as will the sewing/repairing clothes bit as I am not that way inclined. The big challenge will be not just coping but thriving without electricity. I will have to cope with knowing that I can’t just go home after a day of “dress ups” and have a soak in the spa, but make do, splashing a bit of hot water around in a tub for my wash, and instead of having a choice of what to eat, I will have limited produce.

Sovereign Hill

Are you happy for School kids and the other visitors to come and see you?

Jenni

Yes, I would love everyone to visit me. Drop in any time, but remember I only have a small cottage and can only fit 4 or 5 visitors at a time. And I expect presents (she says with a grin).

What kind of pressys? Lollies, flowers and encouragement will all be appreciated thank you.  Just joking about the lollies and flowers but encouragement would be good.

We wish Jenni all the best in this adventure, and if you happen to be visiting Sovereign Hill during her stay on 19, 20 and 21^st of March, feel free to stop in and say hello, as she has said, she will appreciate small groups and lots of encouragement.

If you would like your students to experience a little of Jenni’s experience, try our a woman’s work is never done education session.

If you want to know a little more about women in the goldfields, try this Blog on “Eliza Perrin, An ordinary woman of the goldfields” from the Gold Museum, Ballarat.

If you would like to see what Jenni went through, we have made several videos about her time at Sovereign Hill, and the links are detailed below.

Woman of the Hill part 1

Woman of the Hill part 2

Woman of the Hill part 3

Woman of the Hill making butter

Woman of the Hill, the final interview

There was so much information about this experiment, that we created a new page on our website. All the videos and links to Blogposts are here.

Gill, S.T. – High Degree- Ballarat Gold Museum Collection

Many People believe that the problems with Government and licence fees began after all the easy gold was taken, and diggers were forced to take longer to find gold. This makes sense, why would anyone be upset with paying a licence fee if they are pretty sure of getting rich quick? The National Library of Australia has set up TROVE, a free digitised search service, so you can research their extensive archive of old newspapers and magazines. A quick read through some of the newspapers around in the first year of the Victorian Gold rushes, shows that many people were already angry about paying a fee, why?

Header from the Melbourne Argus-August 14th 1851

TROVE can be a lot of fun too. I already mentioned the Newspapers, but there are also digital copies of old magazines, maps, photos and much more. You can even edit articles that the computer didn’t read properly.

Early Problems with the licence system

Do you like paying out good money and receiving nothing in return? Well neither did the people of Victoria in the 1850s, and they made their feelings known through the newspapers. 

One of the reasons given for the licence fee was to encourage men to give up looking for gold, and help bring in the harvest, but this article from the Geelong Advertiser and Intelligencer in December 1851 (remember gold had only been discovered in Ballarat around August 1851), states that the diggers had no reason to pay a licence fee, as the Police force was being allowed to be “broken up”. This article also states that the Governor has called for troops, and questions why they are needed. In fact it seems the author has a low regard about the competence of the Governor and Government. These were some of the issues blamed for the Eureka uprising Four years later!

Law and Disorder

Gill, S.T.-Robbing the Mail-Australian Sketch Book- Gold Museum Collection

Another reason the Government gave for making men pay a gold licence fee, was to pay for Government services and Law and order on the Goldfields, a letter in the Argus from February 1852, is titled “LYNCH LAW AT THE DIGGINGS” and the author says that some diggers were taking the law into their own hands, and forming together to protect themselves. He says he has paid for protection with his licence fee, and if he has to do this as well, he won’t pay the licence. Weren’t the diggers at Eureka saying something similar?

Charles Napier Hemy, a famous artist later in life, spent some of his childhood on the goldfields of Victoria around 1851-2, and wrote memoirs of his experiences there. The memoirs have been published by one of his descendants. In these memoirs he recalls witnessing the Lynching (unlawful hanging) of a man found trying to steal gold ( McGann, P. Ed, 2009)

Half of the last page of the Advertiser and Intelligencer from December 1851 contains notices for “Lost or Stolen” goods (mainly horses) and offers of rewards. It seems that there was quite a bit of crime in the colony at this time.

Monster Meetings

Great meeting of Diggers – Dec 1851 – Tulloch, D. From the Pictures Collection, State Library of Victoria

Those that study Eureka will know about the “Monster” meetings that occurred in the months leading up to the fight at the stockade. But there had been monster meetings years before. The first recorded meeting I have found was held at Buninyong on the 25^th of August, and reported in the Geelong Advertiser the next day. it has been reported that at this meeting shouts of “Taxation without Representation” were heard from the crowd, a catchcry of the Eureka Diggers.  A letter republished in the Argus from John Harrison mentions a meeting on the Forest Creek (Castlemaine) diggings where he was elected a delegate. The letter goes on to describe how he had visited several of the Victorian goldfields and lobbied the Government to expel thieves from the diggings. It was dated 31^st of January 1852. Eureka was still 46 months away.

It is through articles and stories like this we can piece together how the lack of law and order affected daily life on the diggings. This problem was only to grow when the Government began rewarding Troopers for catching diggers without licences, but did not reward them for catching thieves. This was to be claimed as one of the main causes of the Eureka rebellion and some people defend the Government by saying that the events happened too quickly for the Government to react. Is four years enough time? What do you think?

Sovereign Hill Education Service is hosting a Webinar with author Peter FitzSimons on the 2^nd of May. Peter has recently written a book on Eureka: The unfinished revolution, which starts with the discovery of gold in Australia. I wonder why he starts so far back?

We also recommend the following sites for finding out more:

Eureka on Trial – Public Records Office Victoria

Eureka Stockade – Ergo

Eureka Centre Ballarat

Law and Democracy – SBS Gold

Democracy and Protest – eGold

Eureka Research Notes – Sovereign Hill Education (PDF)

Eureka Resources – Sovereign Hill Education (PDF)

The Night We Made the Flag (our blog post)

Steam Power

The Industrial Revolution (1750-1914) is a fascinating part of modern world history.  It had far-reaching impacts and was the catalyst for dramatic social changes.  It is a great option for secondary teachers to choose as a Year 9 Depth Study in the new AusVELS History course.

The Industrial Revolution is more than dark satanic mills and small boys struggling up chimneys.  It is important not to forget the very great, albeit different, impact the Industrial Revolution had on Australia.  There are so many local connections and national achievements that can allow the teaching of this Depth Study to be more relevant and interesting to students.

Lots of students researching life and work in Colonial times or the Australian Gold Rushes come to see us at Sovereign Hill, but we can also be a destination for a study of the Industrial Revolution and its impact on Australia.

Links between gold and the industrial revolution

The Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London 1851 (image Wikimedia Commons)

Gold was discovered in Victoria in 1851 at the height of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. The same year the Great Exhibition was staged in the famous Crystal Palace in Hyde Park London. This Exhibition was organised both as a celebration of modern industrial technology and design, and to showcase British Industrial superiority.  Six million people—equivalent to a third of the entire population of Britain at the time—visited the Great Exhibition and of course many who visited were soon to join the mass migration to the goldfields.

Those who travelled to Australia in the 1850s bought with them the knowledge, experience and skills of the Industrial Revolution. Many had ridden in trains, worked in the new industrial factories and were confident that this new steam-powered age had established Britain as the most powerful nation on earth. Some of them even travelled to Australia on the amazing ss Great Britain the first iron hulled auxiliary ocean-going steam passenger ship ever built.

The pre-industrial world is demonstrated by the horse drawn water cart and stage coach that travel the streets at Sovereign Hill.

Here at Sovereign Hill students have a unique opportunity to see first-hand the impact of the Industrial Revolution on Australia. The diggings area which represents the early years on the goldfields displays pre-industrial technology. Here work is done using human or horse power.

During the 1850s, as the gold became more difficult to reach, the miners on the Victorian goldfields drew on the knowledge they had acquired in Industrial Britain. They rapidly introduced steam-powered machinery to perform work that was too difficult for human or horse power. Ballarat boomed because the Industrial Revolution had already created the technology needed to reach the gold buried deep below ground.

The hundred year old boilers, which are the heart of the steam operations at Sovereign Hill, burn tons of wood to produce the steam needed to run the machines.

Sovereign Hill has the largest collection of working steam-driven machinery in Victoria.

One of the working steam engines at Sovereign Hill

The steam-driven stamper battery which crushes quartz rock to powder so the gold can be retrieved.

At the Sovereign Hill wheelwright’s factory rows of machines, that were originally steam-driven, still turn tree trunks into wooden spoked wheels.  This is an example of an early factory demonstrating mass production techniques.

Inside the wheelwright factory where timber is mass produced to make the wheels.

Skilled workers then use the factory-produced parts to construct the wheel.

Interestingly, next door at the coachbuilders you can watch skilled artisans hand building horse drawn vehicles and/or coaches. This art of skilled craftsmen individually creating objects harks back to pre-industrial times.

If you are a year 9 class studying the Industrial Revolution, we can offer you a new education session which will lead school groups to the various locations around the museum which highlight the impact of the Industrial Revolution on Australia. The session includes some post visit resources and activities.  You can  find more information about this session and booking information on our website.

Want know more? Here is part 2 to this post.

For more resources and links on studying the Industrial Revolution with Year 9, have a look at the Teacher Librarian Help blog.

Do you have any other useful links or resources for teachers and students exploring the Industrial Revolution?  Please share them!