What was the Australian gold rush?
Q: What was the Australian gold rush?
A: The Australian gold rush was a large number of gold discoveries in Australia. Thousands of people came to Australia in the hope of finding a lot of gold and becoming rich.
Q: When did the Australian gold rush start and end?
A: The Australian gold rush started in 1851 when gold was found near Bathurst, New South Wales and ended with the last rush in 1893 to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Q: How did miners find alluvial gold?
A: Alluvial gold could be found by individual miners using very basic equipment such as a spade and a dish. In most places this alluvial gold was taken in the first few months. To get at the gold that was buried deeper in the ground meant that the miners needed to work together to dig tunnels. Eventually large companies were formed to raise money so that deep gold mines could be built.
Q: What happened when new discoveries were made?
A: When new discoveries were made, miners would quickly move there in the hope of being the first to find surface levelgold. For example, when news spread about a new discovery at Buninyong, miners rushed there from Clunes, Victoria which they had been prospecting just weeks before.
Q: What is known as Eureka Stockade?
A: The Eureka Stockade is an event where miners fought soldiers and police officers to protect their rights after they became angry and upset at having to pay for licences for prospecting on Ballarat land in 1854. Many people died during this event but afterwards they no longer had to pay for their licences anymore.
Q: When did most of the rushes finish?
A: Most rushes finished by 1859 but some continued until 1893 when Kalgoorlie experienced its last major rush for alluvial deposits of Goldfields orebodies..
