Presented by Colleen Blancato

INJUSTICE on the Goldfields in

Australia in the 1850s

Exciting but difficult Dangerous and uncomfortableRough lifestyleTo reach goldfields, diggers walked or rode long distances over rough tracksMake own shelters

IT WASN’T EASY TO STRIKE IT RICH!!!!!!

Life on the goldfields

I solation and separation £Native Aboriginal people £J obs for women £Unhealthy living

conditions£

S tealing by bushrangers £T roopers £I llegal supply business £Chinese immigrants £Eureka Stockade £

Isolation and Separation from families

Staking a claim – Governor Fitzroy of Victoria issued miners with licences which allowed them to stake a 12 foot (3.6 metres) squarew claim for 30 shillings per month and to keep the proceeds of any gold found.

SUCH CLAIMS MADE NO CONCESSIONS TO THE FACT THAT ABORIGINAL PEOPLE COULD BE SAID TO HAVE PRIOR RIGHTS TO THIS GOLD BY VIRTUE OF HAVING OCCUPIED THE LAND FOR AT LEAST 40 000 YEARS

Native Aboriginal People displaced

Jobs for women•male-dominated society•Women ‘had their place’ – support their husband and raise a family•Women often worked hard on their own claims•Did not have the right to vote

Unhealthy living conditions• weather extremes and lack of shelter•Back-breaking, dangerous and monotonous work•Serious illness from poor sanitation, dust in shafts or the change in temperature, and injuries from cave-ins, explosions and underground fires•Scurvy was rife due to lack of fruit and vegetables•Dysentery and ‘sandy blight ‘were common

Stealing and robberies by bushrangers

Frank Gardiner

Ned Kelly

Ben Hall

Captain Thunderbolt

Troopers•Mounted policehunted diggers for their licences

•Diggers often charged and arrested for not carrying licence

•Often chained alleged offenders to a tree

Alcohol ban before 1854Led to ‘ sly- grog’ shopsDifficult to policeOften led to corruption

Illegal supply business- ‘sly grog’

Chinese immigrants•Sterotyped as inferior and threatening•Widely held prejudices led to violent anti-Chinese riots•Lambing - Flat riots•Restrictive laws – Chinese children taxed as adults from age of 12-Ship-owners paid £10 for every Chinese passenger-Forced to live in separate villages

Eureka Stockade