Australian Gold Rush

This is the account of Sean O’Rielly, who was from Ireland but now is lost to his family through famine. It was recorded as part of scheme to gain understanding on the goldfields. This it is not written from his perspective.1

Sean stepped off the boat that had taken him away from Ireland. He had left Ireland because the potato blight had caused so many deaths that the workhouses were overcrowded. The new scheme allowed him to immigrate to either Australia or America. He chose Australia –there was gold there.2

The journey by boat had been exhausting. Being classified as a third class passenger, he was forced to share his cabin with six other men, all of whom had severe sea sickness throughout the voyage. This was mainly due to the captain’s choice in routes – they had taken the faster option and followed the Great Circle Route that took them close to Antarctica.
The boat that he had been travelling in was a small one, wooden and took signs of wear visibly. It had been through many storms throughout the voyage. Sean was glad that he did not have to make it again.3

He shouldered his swag which contained his possessions and set off for Ballarat. Walking was the cheaper option – he had no money for anything else. He barely had any money to survive on – it had gone to his ship fare and ‘miner’s kit’.
San was about the age of 25, as most of the miners were. He wore hard wearing clothing – strong boots that finished at the knee, oilskin trousers, waterproof coat, a flannel over shirt and a cabbage tree hat. In his swag he carried enough food for a few days, his canvas and panning dish. He used his pick to carry the swag and his shovel as his waking aid.4

The roads were muddy and unmade. Many people were going the same way to Ballarat and were pushing their possessions along in wheelbarrows. Insects came and infested them – flies during the day and the hot sun overhead, burning his skin. At night as he slept, mosquitoes and fleas dined.
It also seemed that the terrain itself was against the soon-to –be diggers. It was flat, bare without water or vegetation. Then suddenly it turned into steep slopes, but it was as bare as the money pouch in Sean’s swag.5

Sean realised that most of the men going to the goldfields were Irish and he joined a group of them to travel with. When they finally reached the goldfields, they were hungry, tired and suffering from dehydration and heat stroke. 6

The doctors were mostly incompetents, seriously lacking in experience. The water from the stream was badly polluted, and many of Sean’s friends got ill from drinking it. They got dictionary and were unable to move for days.
The living conditions were something Sean never wanted to see again. A simple tent, shared between two was constructed using a few branches of wood in a simple triangular prism. The canvas was then dragged over the top and held down with more wood. To make life more comfortable, a fireplace could be placed inside the tent or the floor could be coated in leaves, so it wouldn’t be as hard. The bugs and snakes still managed to creep into the tent during the night.7

The tents were furnished in the latest gold rush style- mainly no furniture at all, just boxes for cupboards that didn’t have food and beds – a canvas stretched between a timber frames. If you were unlucky the canvas would slip and you’d end up on the floor. As one of the poorer people, Sean had candles stuck in kero cans for his light and a bed in his tent. He couldn’t afford food – most of the miners couldn’t.8

All diggers had to pay for miners licences. Sean, like many people did not have enough money to pay for it, so when the police came around looking for men, a cry of “Joe! Joe!” would begin and Sean would jump down a shaft. Sean was lucky. He was never caught by the police.
For the unlucky ones that were caught without their licences, they were punished by being dragged off to jail and having to pay a fine or being strung up on a bush for hours – and still having to pay the fine and licence.9

There were many types of mining. Sean and his friends started out panning, finding tiny gold flecks in the river. They would smile with delight every time they found one because then they might have something to eat that night. Food was very expensive. Sean and his friends hadn’t had a proper meal in three days. 10

When too many people began panning, they decided to try out another form of mining – shallow mining. They made a windlass, dug a shaft after laying a claim and began to dig. Personally Sean thought that panning was easier – you didn’t get so wet, have breathing problems because of the dirt. You didn’t have to be careful if your flame went out, or if the earth suddenly collapsed. 11

The best job when shallow mining was to be on the windlass. Usually the sickest one of Sean’s friends did this job – the rest were too busy digging underground. Using the windlass was slow and heavy work. You had to turn it around and around all day, to bring the unwanted things from the bottom to the top – like extra dirt and water. Once properly underground, you used your pick and shovel to dig out the dirt to find a quartz reef.12

One day they dug too far down and the bottom of the shaft filled with water. One of Sean’s friends was stuck down there. He drowned because his boots got caught in the mud.13

A short and small funeral was created and as son as it was finished, they went back to work. Dig, dig, dig- that was all anyone did all day. If you were lucky and struck gold – you could take it to a dealer and get money. With the money you could buy food, maybe fresh water- something that was both expensive and rare on the goldfields. The only day you didn’t work was on Sunday’s. Sean loved Sunday’s – no more digging. A day of rest. There was a band playing, sports arranged. 14

There was only one thing that annoyed the diggers more than the licence hunts and that was the Chinese. They sent all their gold out of Australia, they worked on Sunday’s – and they used far too much water. Some of the miners disliked the Chinese so much they took matters into their own hands and killed some. 15

Sean and his friends eventually struck enough gold to be able to afford a new house – one where the bugs couldn’t get in. They could also scrape by food wise. After the rebellion, Sean bought some land in Ballarat and planted some potatoes, but kept mining – this time for a company. The miner’s licences were cheaper – only a pound per year. All the diggers agreed that this was a better situation than before the rebellion.
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