The Australian Gold Rush

By Jack Wagon

A Gold Rush can make an ordinary person a millionaire in just one moment. It can be defined as a time of passionate colonisation of labour into a region where there has been a detection of enormous amounts of gold. Gold rushes happened in'th century in Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Canada, and the United States.

Gold rushes are generally marked with the upbeat, and optimistic feeling of something that is free-for-all. This makes it possible for anyone to become absolutely prosperous instantaneously. The definition given previously is what a gold rush was. A lot of people link gold rushes to the Californian gold rush, although it is a fact that the Australian gold rush remains to date as the richest gold rush of the world.

The Australian gold rushes began in'51 when Edward Hammond Hargraves went with his guide John Lister to Lewis Pond Creek. Here they filled and washed a few pans, and found that they contained gold. The news spread like wild fire, and over the next few days a number of other people from all occupations were seen to be digging as their life depended on it.

Hargraves did not get an immense luck from gold. However, Hargraves named the Bathurst goldfield Ophir. Afterwards, James Tom, who was a planter, stated that it was not Hargraves, but actually he, himself who discovered the gold. Even then, the decision of the government went in opposition to him. Hargraves was known as the Crown Land Commissioner of New South Wales. William Tom, and John Lister detained one more enquiry, just earlier than he died in'99, and then it came in support of the maintenance alleges that were made. (According to brother of James Tom)

The first discovery was in New South Wales, followed by Clunes, Ballarat, Buninyong, and then Bendigo Creek. Soon gold was found in all of the other Australian states. The first gold license was issued in Victoria on'51. Varying amounts of licenses were issued through out the country.

The Victorian gold rush that occurred right after the Californian gold rush was the biggest of Australian gold rushes. The gold rush was of utmost importance, because it served as a stimulus for economic and political development in Victoria, and Melbourne. By the end of'51, around 250,000 ounces of gold had been extracted.

The Australian gold rushes provided so much support for the progress of important parts of the city. Telephone lines and Railways were built. The abrupt crowd of people supported multi-culture, and racism

During'52, nearly 370,000 immigrants came into the country, and hence the economy experienced a welcome boost. In'50s, Victoria itself discovered nearly one third of the entire gold discovery of the world. Within two years, the number of people raised from 77,000 to nearly 540,000. An exciting reality to mention here is that the amount of immigrants that entered was greater than the total population of criminals during the previous 70 years that arrived there. - 29871

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