Australia Transforms from a Convict Colony

Edward Hargraves is credited with discovering the first payable goldfields in 1851 at Ophir near Bathurst, NSW. However, surveyor James McBrien had noticed gold particles by the Fish River east of Bathurst in 1823.

Edward Hargraves (October 7, 1816 – October 29, 1891) was famous for starting the Australian gold rush. in 1851

The Australian authorities were aware of gold being found but scared of rebellion, unrest and crime waves that may result from the convict population striking it rich.

After the Ophir gold finds, one of the biggest gold rushes in history occurred.

Between 1851 and 1861, about 500,000 people came to Australia from many places around the world, hoping to strike it rich.

Gold miners on minehead, Gulgong [?], New South Wales, ca. 1872, SLNSW

Australia was rapidly transformed from a convict colony to a place of growing industry, expanding population and increased wealth. Gold became Australia’s largest export.

For thousands of European migrants, the gold rush was a chance to break free of a rigid class system: the opportunity for economic prosperity and social mobility. Chinese prospectors mostly wished to find great wealth and return to China.

Simmons's miners' office, mining and law agent, public accountant and greengrocer (next to Chinese boarding house, Gulgong), American & Australasian Photographic Company

The Gold Rush had severe impacts on the lives of Aboriginal people. As Aboriginal people used stone tools and did not have an “iron age” or “bronze age”,  gold was useless to them.

For Aboriginal people, the physical environment was created and shaped by the actions of spiritual ancestors as they travelled across the landscape. Each person belonged to a territory and clan group and had spiritual connections and obligations to that country.

The hoards of men arriving from around the world, digging up the sacred lands, must have been distressing and confusing for Aboriginal people. 

However, some Aboriginal people became very successful during the various gold rushes. Kitty Pluto, born on Kandju country, discovered gold in 1915 on the land, which became the township on the Batavia Goldfield in the 1930s and was officially named Wenlock in 1938.

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 18 July 1940

For nearly two years Kitty was the
only women, black or white, on the
lonely goldfield, and she became some
thing of a local heroine because of the
way she worked on the claim. Almost
very day from daylight to dark she
toiled — wielding a pick and shovel

underground, turning the windlass for
lifting heavy buckets of ore from the
nine, and washing dirt.

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Thursday 18 July 1940

Kitty Pluto, photographed on or about the place where she picked up the first piece of gold which led to the development of the present workings at Lower Camp Batavla. Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Thursday 28 January 1932

Another Aboriginal, also with a planetary name, is Jupiter Mosman, who, as a 12 year old boy, was with a small group of prospectors, including Hugh Mosman, James Fraser, and George Clarke, when their horses bolted after a flash of lightning.

 Jupiter found both the horses and a nugget of gold in a creek as he searched for the horses.

Ten major gold reefs were eventually mined at the town that became Charters Towers in Far North Queensland.

The above photograph of the late JupiterMosman was taken only a few months prior to his death at Eventide Home, Charters Towers, in December. 1945. Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1874 - 1954), Thursday 18 February 1954