The history of the goldfields too often focuses on men – but, as new Aussie TV series Gold Diggers gets right, the settlements were filled with women.
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Articles on gold rush
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Less gold in the mines. Unrest in the camps. And a new fishery for the giant Murray cod which decimated their population. The 19th century gold rush has left a bad environmental legacy.
A ‘second gold rush’ has seen amateur and professional miners return to Victoria with modern technology.
Transported to Van Diemen’s Land aged 11, Ellen Miles went on to riot in Launceston’s Female Factory, seek fortune in gold-rush Victoria and live to nearly 90.
The ‘private’ nature of the home presents unique challenges to historians, but horrific stories of domestic abuse on the goldfields are common.
SBS’s new four part murder mystery examines Chinese experience on the Australian goldfields during the 1850s.
From an effigy hanging from a noose to an angry opponent wielding scissors, those who’ve sought to protect the precious Australian Alps have always been up against it.
English-born Berry emigrated to gold-rush Victoria, where he helped to shape modern Australian democracy.
In 1867, the US bought Alaska from Tsar Alexander II for a tidy sum of $7.2 million. Trump probably wouldn’t be able to get that kind of bargain for Greenland.
Decades before most white Australian women were granted the right to vote, a businesswoman and single mother of four took to the polls and signed a ballot paper.
Fook Shing spent 20 years as a Melbourne gumshoe. He policed the thriving Chinese community – claiming opium as an expense – but was never promoted above his entry rank of detective third class.
The discovery of gold in California 170 years ago was a turning point in global history. The gold rushes are not mere historic footnotes – they continue to influence the world in which we live today.
Canada rushed to counter a deadly lung disease afflicting gold miners in the early 20th century. The “quick fix” cure that was invented is a symbol of the lurch towards global industrialization.
What we buy has defined who we are since the Gold Rush. In the 1850s and 1860s, people communicated their social status by buying stuff - dinner sets, junk jewellery - and throwing their old things away.
Top contributors
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Associate Professor in History, Australian Catholic University
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Historian and Heritage Consultant, La Trobe University
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Associate professor in ecology, Charles Sturt University
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Associate Professor of Modern US History, University of Oxford
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Visiting Distinguished Professor, University of Alaska Anchorage
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Senior Research Fellow, Deakin University
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Emeritus Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, The University of Melbourne
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Ph.D. Candidate in History, La Trobe University
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Professor of History & Director Future Regions Research Centre, Federation University Australia
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Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Humanities, University of Stavanger
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Senior Lecturer In Computational Petrology, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
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Professor, Australian National University
