Responses to Gold

- How did people imagine Australia’s future in light of the gold discoveries?
- What anxieties did the gold-rushes inspire?

In this response I will focus on the David Goodman article Making an Edgier History of Gold

During the Australian gold rush, the future seemed bright and prosperous to many hopeful diggers, who flocked to the fields of Victoria in the anticipation of making their fortunes quickly and easily. A digger in 1857 declared: “let the lands be opened in order that we may settle down in peace and quiet, and make the land flow with wine and milk, and become lords of the soil” (p 30). But the truth was obvious from the beginning to those who were concerned with the moral health of society; to some social commentators of the time it was “by no means –self-evident that prosperity would be the result of an increase in the supply of gold” (p 25).
The influx of new settlers to the area, combined with many owners abandoning their businesses in order to take up the search for gold, meant that the importation of foodstuffs rose exponentially. The gold rush created a booming population, but one that was, for a large part, dependant on foreign imports. This dependence was seen as a sign of “national vulnerability” (p 26). Furthermore, anxiety surrounding the increase in what was seen as immorality was growing; to some “gold digging seems an addiction, provoking a level of excitement which meant that men lost any sense of other goals or values” (p 27).
Added to this was the fact that Victorian work ethics were quickly vanishing with the growing belief that luck would guide the diggers to prosperity, rather than the traditional belief that wealth came with hard work. Coupled with the atmosphere of drunkenness and the “frenzied pursuit of individual wealth”, what society feared most occurred- the apparent abandoning of social class. In 1854, Dr John Milton made the observation to a Legislative Council that there were many gentlemen in the city court cells, in “rags” or “labourers garb” because they had been attempting to find wealth on the gold fields. The disproportionate ratio of men to women was also a concern for Victorian sensibilities; the male dominated atmosphere was seen as one that was abound with drunkenness and immorality to the neglect of all else.


Left/Above: [photograph] 1886 Teetulpa Gold field. Men flocked to the gold fields in the hope of finding prosperity. However, wealth was difficult to find. Settlements on the fields imported foodstuffs as the populations had greatly increased, and many business owners had abandoned businesses in order to mine. Miners came from all socialy classes, and were often indistinguishablly dressed in similar "labourers garb".

Image source: http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/pictureaustralia?action=PADisplay&mode=display&rs=resultset-1242845&no=12