Gold Rush
INTRODUCTION:
The Australian gold rush affected Australian society in many ways. One example can be the Eureka Stockade, Australia’s only armed protest by gold miners
POPULATION:
The gold rushes in the second half of the 19th century would completely change the face of Australia. Before 1851, Australia’s combined white population was approximately 77,000. Most of those had been convicts sent by ship over the previous seventy years.
The gold rush completely changed that however. In the two years that followed Edward Hargraves’ discovery at Bathurst, Australia’s population increased to over 540,000. 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia’s ports during the year 1852 alone.
The flow of convicts to Australia’s shores stopped. It suddenly seemed like a foolish idea (and indeed no longer a punishment) to give a free boat ride to Australia’s rich gold fields to anyone who had committed a crime.
MULTICULTURALISM:
People from all over Europe, America, the Middle East, and China were attracted to the Australian gold rush. Most of them brought nothing but a will to work hard and the skills they had attained in their home countries. Many of them never saw any gold but their skills proved to be invaluable to the formation of Australia as a country that could stand up on its own.
WHITE AUSTRALIAN POLICY:
The origins of the 'White Australia' policy can be traced to the 1850s. White miners' resentment towards industrious Chinese diggers culminated in violence on the Buckland River in Victoria, and at Lambing Flat (now Young) in New South Wales. The governments of these two colonies introduced restrictions on Chinese immigration.
Later, it was the turn of hard-working indentured labourers from the South Sea Islands of the Pacific (known as 'Kanakas') in northern Queensland. Factory workers in the south became vehemently opposed to all forms of immigration which might threaten their jobs; particularly by non-white people who they thought would accept a lower
The Australian gold rush affected Australian society in many ways. One example can be the Eureka Stockade, Australia’s only armed protest by gold miners
POPULATION:
The gold rushes in the second half of the 19th century would completely change the face of Australia. Before 1851, Australia’s combined white population was approximately 77,000. Most of those had been convicts sent by ship over the previous seventy years.
The gold rush completely changed that however. In the two years that followed Edward Hargraves’ discovery at Bathurst, Australia’s population increased to over 540,000. 370,000 immigrants arrived in Australia’s ports during the year 1852 alone.
The flow of convicts to Australia’s shores stopped. It suddenly seemed like a foolish idea (and indeed no longer a punishment) to give a free boat ride to Australia’s rich gold fields to anyone who had committed a crime.
MULTICULTURALISM:
People from all over Europe, America, the Middle East, and China were attracted to the Australian gold rush. Most of them brought nothing but a will to work hard and the skills they had attained in their home countries. Many of them never saw any gold but their skills proved to be invaluable to the formation of Australia as a country that could stand up on its own.
WHITE AUSTRALIAN POLICY:
The origins of the 'White Australia' policy can be traced to the 1850s. White miners' resentment towards industrious Chinese diggers culminated in violence on the Buckland River in Victoria, and at Lambing Flat (now Young) in New South Wales. The governments of these two colonies introduced restrictions on Chinese immigration.
Later, it was the turn of hard-working indentured labourers from the South Sea Islands of the Pacific (known as 'Kanakas') in northern Queensland. Factory workers in the south became vehemently opposed to all forms of immigration which might threaten their jobs; particularly by non-white people who they thought would accept a lower