The Golden Age

Geoffrey Serle

• Publisher: Meanjin Digital
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780522865813
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

An outstanding account of a decade whose highlights included separation from New South Wales, the gold rushes, the Eureka Stockade, the establishment of parliamentary government, and the attempts to 'unlock the land'.

1 The Early Gold Rushes, 1851–1852

THE FIRST DISCOVERIES

LATE IN MAY 1851, the startling news of the gold rush over the Blue Mountains in New South Wales reached Port Phillip. Distance and wintry weather deterred many, but within a fortnight at least two hundred men had packed their swags and left on the three weeks’ trudge to the Bathurst area; possibly more than one thousand eventually joined in the rush, overland or by ship. Excitement quickly mounted in Melbourne and Geelong. Old stories of discoveries assumed fresh meaning, and rumours of new finds were ‘thick as blackberries’. All over the District shepherds and bullockies kept their eyes on the ground, and new rumours started of deposits of silver, copper and coal. In the first week of June about two hundred men were prospecting in the Plenty and Yarra valleys, and others were optimistically excavating Studley Park, Collingwood Flat, and the South Melbourne and Flagstaff Hills.* A party left Geelong ‘to commence a diggins’ in the You Yangs; an enterprising shopkeeper bought up all stocks of picks and shovels; a Richmond manufacturer sold out of flower-pots when a story circulated that gold had been found in a fragment of his wares.1

* Quartz pebbles were occasionally picked up from the road-metal on Melbourne’s streets. According to ‘Garryowen’ (Chronicles, p. 811) later in the year suburban publicans ‘salted’ their neighbourhoods with faked gold, and profited from the thirsty diggers. Another hoaxer started hundreds (mostly women and children) digging in Lonsdale Street (Geelong Advertiser, 27 Oct. 1851).

The more thoughtful and responsible citizens became gravely worried. Not all believed that the discovery of gold would in itself be a great blessing, but without it, the colony seemed to be doomed. Was the ironic consequence of separation to be ruin and stagnation? Already labourers were leaving in hundreds for New South Wales, business was depressed, and property values were falling. Prices of commodities were rising sharply as speculators held stocks in the hope of shortages. Hundreds of the working-class met in Melbourne and Geelong to discuss the formation of co-operative milling and baking societies, as a protest against the ring’ which had suddenly cornered the wheat market and almost doubled the price of flour—gold-lust indeed. In the face of ‘impending ruin’ the leading men of Melbourne met on 9 June, and agreed to offer a reward for the discovery of a profitable mine within two hundred miles of Melbourne.

Before the meeting closed one of the audience claimed the reward—the first of a dozen or more unsuccessful claims within the following month. Sackfuls of glittering mica, pyrites, and lumps of quartz with mere traces of gold were hopefully deposited with the committee, whose inexpert advisers cautiously tested and rejected the samples. Following one of the numerous announcements of ‘genuine’ discoveries, almost the whole population of Kilmore set out for King Parrot Creek. As one false alarm followed another, depression deepened. The day of formal separation, 1 July, passed and then, on the 7th, the Geelong Advertiser excitedly announced James Esmond’s discovery in the Midlands at Clunes. It was soon reported, also, that L. J. Michel and his party had made a genuine find at Anderson’s Creek near Warrandyte, sixteen miles from Melbourne. Excitement ran high at the separation celebrations on 15 July when La Trobe took the oaths of office and held his first levee. Next day when the Mayor, on behalf of the Gold Discovery Committee, announced that the two finds were unquestionably genuine, the tension was relieved at last. According to the optimists, Victoria was made; here were prospects of wealth for all, and in place of transportation there would be ‘a healthy emigration’ of hard-working miners and navvies rather than paupers.2

It is at first sight rather puzzling that the European in Australia took so long to discover the country’s wealth of gold. The slowness with which settlement reached the gold regions provides a large part of the answer. Moreover, there had been almost no knowledge of mining before the 1840s, when copper and other base-metal mining developed in South Australia and New South Wales, and probably no official, settler or convict had had experience of the few and remote gold-producing areas of the world. The aborigine had given no lead, for in his simplicity he had not regarded gold, if he had distinguished it at all, as sufficiently attractive for personal adornment. Nevertheless, James McBrien, a surveyor in New South Wales, had noted in his field-book the presence of ‘numerous particles of gold’ as early as 1823. By the early 1840s Count Paul de Strzelecki and the Reverend W. B. Clarke had actually produced samples, and the latter had freely talked about his numerous finds. Then in 1844 the eminent English geologist, Sir Roderick Murchison, made his famous prediction that Australia was a gold-country, and later received specimens from settlers which verified his claim. The presence of gold was widely known in the mid-forties, and it is likely that scores of shepherds found specimens, but most only noticed quartz outcrops, and if they found an alluvial nugget did not attempt to dig. None of the many ‘finds’ in New South Wales (including Port Phillip) and South Australia in the forties was rich enough to excite more than passing interest. A very few were genuine nuggets, but so many proved to be other minerals that scepticism came generally to prevail. However, the New South Wales shepherd, McGregor, who over the years patiently chipped out a valuable store during his daily tasks, may not have been a lone opportunist.

The presence from the mid-forties of many tin, lead and copper miners made it likely that payable deposits would soon be found and worked, and after the Californian rush of 1848, somebody was bound to bring to Australia the practical experience that would inevitably trigger off the rushes. Early in 1849 the outbreak very nearly occurred: in January, Thomas Chapman, a shepherd near Amherst in the Pyrenees, brought to Melbourne and sold thirty-eight ounces of gold which were displayed in a jeweller’s shop. Several parties hurried to the area, but none had any success before they were dispersed by the native police. Chapman had mysteriously disappeared, and La Trobe’s enemies were quick to suggest that he had bribed him to leave the District. The Superintendent broke up the ‘rush’ on the grounds of trespass on crown lands, being possibly unwilling to encourage any attempt to discover and exploit a goldfield. On the other hand, contrary to tradition, the evidence that Governors Gipps and FitzRoy of New South Wales attempted to suppress news of gold discoveries, ‘in the interests of prison discipline and a quiet life’, is unconvincing. In the hope of discovering and developing resources of copper, gold and other minerals, FitzRoy had succeeded by 1850 in gaining the appointment of a geological surveyor.

In the Port Phillip District, early in 1850, William Campbell found deposits on Cameron’s run near Clunes, but kept the discovery quiet in the belief that an announcement might ruin Cameron. (Late in 1851 police had to be called to prevent diggers from excavating Campbell’s own front garden at ‘Strathloddon’.3) Despite vague reports of gold in Gippsland and the Pyrenees, local interest generally declined in 1850. Then, early in 1851 Edward Hammond Hargraves returned to New South Wales from California, found payable deposits near Bathurst and demonstrated the proper washing techniques, thus establishing himself as a national hero. Circumstances had conspired to hold the prize for his taking. ‘Great men’ commonly have more than their share of luck: it was only faith in a ‘hunch’ and enormous luck (and an advanced technique of public relations) that enabled Hargraves to take almost all the glory.4

After the first Victorian discoveries, two months had still to pass before the rush really began. In mid-July when Esmond returned to Clunes with the first cradle to be used in Victoria, he found about fifty men getting meagre returns from the use of tin pots and dishes. By the end of the month there were some three to four hundred at Clunes and as many at Anderson’s Creek, but the latter field proved so poor that it never attracted more than the first few hundred people. The great bulk of Victorian gold was to be found in the wide arc to the north and west, between 50 and 150 miles from Melbourne.

The first important discovery was by T. Hiscock at Buninyong early in August. All those at Clunes were immediately attracted, but few managed to pay their way and many left in disgust. Knowledge of the proper washing technique was slow to spread, and some were still trying to pick out grains of gold with pins. There was little yet to attract any large numbers, especially in a bitter winter with snow on the midland ranges and widespread flooding. Moreover, it was no light task to carry bedding, tools and a month’s food-supply over the fifty miles from Geelong. Few camped out as yet at Buninyong and every inch of floor-space at the one hotel was covered. Then, late in August, ten miles from Buninyong, the first riches were uncovered at what quickly became known as Ballarat. Many diggers soon began to average more than an ounce a day (gold was then selling at about £3 an ounce), but there was little surface alluvial and it was necessary to sink between ten and forty feet deep. About 20 September the Cavanagh brothers (the first to break through to the ‘second bottom’) arrived in Geelong with 60 lb. of gold,* and the exodus from the towns began in earnest. Ballarat reached its first peak of population (between six and ten thousand) in mid-October. The people of Geelong regarded Ballarat as their goldfield, and saw it as a guarantee of the town’s future greatness and its predominance over Melbourne.5

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

During this excitement La Trobe was choosing his official advisers. Earl Grey had instructed him to select as many of his Executive Council as possible from officers of the existing administration. However, the candidates were undistinguished, and few able private citizens could be tempted to take office. Captain William Lonsdale, the original officer in charge of the settlement in 1836 and later Treasurer of the District, was appointed as Colonial Secretary. Genial, easy-going and popular, but clearly of second-rate ability, Lonsdale knew his own limitations; he was conscious especially of ‘not possessing sufficient command of language’ to act as chief spokesman for the government in debate.6 La Trobe eventually persuaded him to accept provisional appointment, and for two years before a replacement arrived from England, Lonsdale agonizedly struggled to hold down a post for which he was not fitted: a sad close to a worthy career.†

* One at least of the Cavanagh brothers had been in California. Experience there led them to sink through the ‘false bottom’ of pipeclay; after a few feet they struck gravel and then a layer of rich washdirt covering the ‘true bottom’.

Clarke of the Geelong Advertiser (30 Sept. 1851) questioned 567 men who were using 143 cradles; their gains averaged over 1¼ oz. per man per day. Later (15 Oct. 1851) he thought 70% were doing well. On the other hand, La Trobe on his first visit was led to believe that the average gain was less than ⅓ oz. per man per day, although he twice saw 8 lb. washed from a single dish (La Trobe to S. of S., 10 Oct. 1851).

† Capt. William Lonsdale (1800–64), Police Magistrate of Port Phillip 1836–40, Sub-Treasurer 1840–51, Colonial Secretary of Victoria 1851–3, Colonial Treasurer 1853–5. In 1855 he retired to England.

William Foster Stawell, the Attorney-General, was one of the many younger sons of the Anglo-Irish gentry who became prominent in Victoria. Despairing of a career in the overcrowded legal profession in Ireland, he had migrated in 1842 and after trying his hand at squatting, reverted to the bar where he quickly distinguished himself. At this time he was a bachelor aged thirty-six; one of ten children, he was eventually to father ten, founding one of the most notable Australian families. He far outstripped nearly all his political contemporaries in ability, and until responsible government was attained he was the strong man of the administration on whom La Trobe especially relied. His friends were to claim that he saved the country ‘at a time when the bonds of society were loosened, when most of our people had gone mad, and the rest were paralysed with fear’.7 His enemies admitted that ‘rash and intemperate as he is, wrong-headed, impulsive, haughty, unreasonable and quibbling, he is both an able man and a conscientious one’.8 His arrogant and emphatic manner marked a ‘constitutional intolerance of delay, opposition or injustice’,9 yet he was a modest man with less than his share of vanity. Stawell had recently come under the influence of Bishop Perry after a mildly dissolute youth, and for the rest of his life was to be an active and devout churchman. In politics he considered himself a liberal, regarding the 1832 Reform Act as a great victory over reaction. Certainly he was...

Table of contents

• The Golden Age
• Preface
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Prologue: The Port Phillip District in 1850
• 1 The Early Gold Rushes, 1851–1852
• 2 ‘There’s a Good Time Coming, Boys!’
• 3 ‘Shout for the Diggings, Shout Hurrah!’
• 4 Diggers and Government, 1852–1853
• 5 The Trials of a Governor
• 6 Sir Charles Hotham and Eureka
• 7 Transition to Responsible Government
• 8 Economic Redirection
• 9 The First Parliament, 1856–1859
• 10 The Second Parliament, 1859–1861!
• 11 The Chinese Minority
• 12 Religion and Education
• 13 The Arts and Sciences
• 14 Conclusion
• Appendix 1 Population
• Appendix 2 Migration
• Appendix 3 Unassisted Migration
• Appendix 4 Mining Population
• Appendix 5 Gold Production
• Appendix 6 John Dunmore Lang’s Declaration of Independence
• Abbreviations
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index