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Nick1986
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Topic: The Gold Rush Posted: 14-Oct-2011 at 20:22 |
In the 1850s the Old West wasn't the only place with gold in them thar hills. At the same time Down Under, immigrants left their homes and headed for Victoria. The population of Melbourne doubled and new cities were formed like Ballarat. Unlike Californian gold, which took the form of small grains, Aussie gold came in the shape of nuggets, the largest of which was almost 60cm wide
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Nick1986
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Posted: 16-Oct-2011 at 08:48 |
Many of the Australian prospectors were Cornishmen who came from generations of tin-miners. They adapted their mining technology by diverting the river into sluices which could be panned for nuggets
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Nick1986
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Posted: 16-Oct-2011 at 19:58 |
Working gold mine in Ballarat
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Nick1986
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Posted: 17-Oct-2011 at 19:32 |
Victoria's mining towns earned its inhabitants the nickname of "diggers." During WW1 many of these miners enlisted and dug an extensive network of trenches at Gallipoli
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Nick1986
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Posted: 01-Nov-2011 at 20:10 |
Here's a photo of the aforementioned 60cm nugget, the Welcome Stranger
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Nick1986
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Posted: 09-Dec-2011 at 20:37 |
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Nick1986
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Posted: 27-Dec-2011 at 21:39 |
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Nick1986
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Posted: 19-May-2012 at 19:28 |
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Nick1986
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Posted: 20-May-2012 at 19:58 |
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Nick1986
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Posted: 21-May-2012 at 19:11 |
Victoria was a lawless place in the 1850s, full of military surplus muskets and pistols. Unlike the Old West, however, guns were rarely used unless the diggers encountered bushrangers http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/2810/firearms-in-gold-rush-victoria-1850s
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Centrix Vigilis
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Posted: 21-May-2012 at 19:13 |
I'm an American. So the period of personal impact is usually centered on that experience. However I was not unaware of the Australian phenomena. Just felt no interest was here. Nick has changed that. What makes it interesting, for me, is the large number of historical sociological parallels..not entirely synonymous but reasonably similar. Impacts on transportation sytems and route developement-communications-industrial advancements and developements to support it-regional settlement and development-legal systems-law enforcement within the camps and later. Prostitution-religious expression and condemnation of the typical behavior associated with mining camps (excessive drinking and or drug use-that was the norm of the day). Bigotry and prejudice-treatment of ethnic minorities-banking-exploitation by market capitalist tycoons etc. etc. All of these it shares with it's American counterpart. Possibly in southern African one might find similar as well (I claim ignorance here). And the stories and legends, of robbers and claim jumpers and 'big strikes' are just as fascinating and entertaining as the American. So Nick get's the
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Nick1986
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Posted: 22-May-2012 at 19:36 |
Thanks Centrix
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Nick1986
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Posted: 10-Oct-2012 at 07:52 |
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Nick1986
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Posted: 20-Dec-2012 at 07:09 |
A second gold rush occurred at Halls Creek, Western Australia, in 1885 as the government offered a reward for the first prospector to find gold in that state
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Nick1986
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Posted: 23-Dec-2012 at 13:37 |
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Mountain Man
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Posted: 23-Dec-2012 at 21:41 |
Originally posted by Nick1986
In the 1850s the Old West wasn't the only place with gold in them thar hills. At the same time Down Under, immigrants left their homes and headed for Victoria. The population of Melbourne doubled and new cities were formed like Ballarat. Unlike Californian gold, which took the form of small grains, Aussie gold came in the shape of nuggets, the largest of which was almost 60cm wide | You are misinformed. American gold came in many forms, from grains to nuggets to "wire" to hugely rich ore.
The California gold rush began in 1849 with the discovery of gold in the stream at Sutter's Mill. Gold that has washed a long ways downstream is usually grainy, because anything larger needs more water pressure to carry it long, but if you head upstream, as the original miners did, you find larger and larger free nuggets.
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Nick1986
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Posted: 30-Dec-2012 at 19:10 |
Originally posted by Mountain Man
Originally posted by Nick1986
In the 1850s the Old West wasn't the only place with gold in them thar hills. At the same time Down Under, immigrants left their homes and headed for Victoria. The population of Melbourne doubled and new cities were formed like Ballarat. Unlike Californian gold, which took the form of small grains, Aussie gold came in the shape of nuggets, the largest of which was almost 60cm wide |
You are misinformed. American gold came in many forms, from grains to nuggets to "wire" to hugely rich ore.
The California gold rush began in 1849 with the discovery of gold in the stream at Sutter's Mill. Gold that has washed a long ways downstream is usually grainy, because anything larger needs more water pressure to carry it long, but if you head upstream, as the original miners did, you find larger and larger free nuggets.
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Water pressure and erosion would explain why Californian gold was originally found as dust: larger pieces would have broken up as they traveled downriver. Oz, by contrast, is a dry country whose streams and creeks often run dry at certain points in the year
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lirelou
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Posted: 30-Dec-2012 at 22:41 |
Actually, CV, if by prejudice against minorities you mean Chinese, who often were far from minorities in mining camps, the prejudice may lie in superior performance. The Chinese miners may have known about certain mining methods for recovering gold long before Americans; i.e., the use of soapy agents to recover gold dust. (And who ran the washing services in mining towns? Likewise, they could spin off lots of other businesses, i.e. restaurants, that made money in mining camps. And Chinese miners were allegedly more expert in the use of explosives, according to something I read some time back. For which reason, they were hired as 'powder monkeys' on the railroad construction crews.
So what may have fueled anti-Chinese sentiment was not so much racism per se, as a pernicious feeling that the Chinese miners were more successful than they ought to have been. Even the Chinese name for America, Gold Mountain, suggests that the majority were successful.
Australia had similar anti-Chinese riots in mining camps.
Edited by lirelou - 30-Dec-2012 at 22:42
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