• Gold
• Political Activism
• Nationalism
By 1901, Australia had grown as a population as gold had been discovered and migrants moved to Australia to mine this mineral, as well as political activism and women’s suffrage and everyone standing up and fighting off the British and raising the Southern Cross flag. With the gold discovered, people migrated from all over the word to come mine in Ballarat and Bathurst. These miners would receive large sums of money for the gold they would mine out.
The discovery of gold in the early 1850’s contributed to the growing Australian National Identity as it led to people migrating to Australia and led to wealth for miners and identity and belonging. The money gained through mining for migrants they usually sent back to their families they left in their home countries. Historians believe that “many gold immigrants who arrived in the 1850s actually slowed down the development of national unity”(2). This turned Melbourne into the” second biggest city in the British Empire after London and larger than many European capitals of the time.”(3)Some people where making lots of money off of the gold they were making and some people were living in these mines and dying because of the poor living condition. The bushmen represented the Australian identity as this was what we were in the times of the gold rush. These bushmen represent the Australian national identity as this is our background and who we as Australian’s were represented by in the 19th century. Although everybody was living happily and in harmony, the women’s suffrage was occurring and women didn’t have the right o vote which lead to political activism.
The growing political activism of the late 1800’s lead to the Eureka stockade’s occurrence. This was caused by a rebellion by the Victorian government to the British Empire. In this period of time there was no taxation
Bibliography: -G.Carrodus, T.Delany, B.Howitt, R.Smith, T.Taylor, C.young (2012) Oxford Big Ideas Australian curriculum history 9. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne