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How did the gold rush transform Australia? (Site 1)

The Australian Gold Rush
Edward Hargraves wanted to get rich. When word spread about the California Gold Rush in the late 1840s, he went west to try his luck. Hargraves didn’t strike gold. In fact, he left California a failure. But he soon got a second chance in Australia.

A prospectors’ hut of bark and canvas in the 1850s Australian gold fields
Hargraves observed the landscape and geology of the California Gold Rush region. He thought the same features existed in parts of Australia, so he became a gold prospector in the countryside northwest of Sydney. It was hard work. But in 1851 his perseverance paid off. Hargraves discovered a small piece of gold in a water hole near Bathurst, in the state of New South Wales. Hargraves called the site Ophir. Word spread, and within four months there were 1,000 diggers at Ophir hoping to strike it rich.

Gold fever followed, and it spread across the country. Additional finds were made in New South Wales. But before long, there were also huge strikes in the state of Victoria, at Ballarat and Bendigo Creek. Gold was found at even more sites nearby. In subsequent years, prospectors struck gold across Australia—in Queensland, the Northern Territories, and Western Australia.

The find in Victoria was huge. During the 1850s, one-third of the world’s gold came out of that state. During that same period of time, the population of Victoria grew to seven times what it was at the start of the decade.

People from around the world poured into Australia. The country’s population in 1851 was 430,000. By 1857, there were 1.7 million people. Most immigrants came from Britain. But there were also immigrants from the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Hungary. The largest group of immigrants came from China. About 40,000 Chinese immigrants came to Australia during the gold rush years. Most of them returned to China within a few years.

The rush of immigrants into Australia changed the country. The population more than tripled and the economy boomed. The new immigrants brought new skills and professions to the country. The rush of people to the gold fields resulted in improvements in both transportation and communications. Australia’s first railroad was built in the 1850s because of the people and goods that needed to be moved in and out of the gold fields. Gold was responsible for the first telegraph as well. The economy continued to grow. Imports increased, as did the market for locally produced farm and manufactured goods.

The gold rush also had an important influence on the Australian character. Australians recognize national traits such as independence, a sense of adventure, loyalty, fairness, and the willingness to work hard to achieve a goal. In particular, the challenges of the gold rush culture encouraged workers to develop close bonds and even a defiance of authority. All of these characteristics, passed down from the gold rush “diggers,” are traits Aussies wear proudly today.

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