- Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
Peter Davies
La Trobe University, Archaeology and History, Faculty Member
- La Trobe University, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Department Memberadd
- Dr Peter Davies is a historical archaeologist and senior research fellow at La Trobe University. His main research in... moreDr Peter Davies is a historical archaeologist and senior research fellow at La Trobe University. His main research interests include the industrial archaeology of resource industries, urban archaeology, environmental archaeology and material culture studies. He is currently co-Chief Investigator of two ARC projects: Lost Mines: The Troubled Legacies of Former Mining Landscapes; and Fire, Flood and Food: People and Landscape Change in Northern Victoria. Peter has extensive experience in analysing and managing large urban artefact assemblages and associated datasets. He has also conducted extensive research on the historical archaeology of water management, forestry, agriculture and mining landscapes. In 2016 he received the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence at La Trobe University, while his most recent book, Sludge: Disaster on Victoria’s Goldfields (with Susan Lawrence) was short-listed for the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. His book An Archaeology of Australia Since 1788 (published by Springer in 2011, also with Susan Lawrence) remains the standard reference work on the subject.edit
People and water intersect in the movement of sediment downstream in rivers. Social processes and geomorphological processes become entangled as each system moves in ways that trigger corresponding responses from the other. Long-term... more
People and water intersect in the movement of sediment downstream in rivers. Social processes and geomorphological processes become entangled as each system moves in ways that trigger corresponding responses from the other. Long-term dialectical relationships emerge that span multiple human generations. The power of sediment and water to change physical environments is in constant tension with the power of human actions informed by social, cultural, legal, economic and engineering imperatives. The Pacific Rim gold rushes that began in the mid-nineteenth century provide an opportunity to examine how the interplay of people, water and sediment unfolds over historic time. The mass discharge of mining sediment in California and Victoria that began over 150 years ago was a catastrophic human alteration of river systems. Subsequently, mining sediment has had a long and complex entanglement with society and rivers in both regions and continues to be an active agent in reshaping riparian environments. Mining sediments also have a toxic legacy as associated contaminants, including mercury and arsenic, that are discharged into waterways and dispersed in windblown dust. The changes to river systems caused by gold mining committed societies and rivers to new trajectories of mutual engagement. Anthropogenically induced sedimentation that resulted from mining is an issue that will continue to impact watersheds for generations to come.
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Ballarat’s mining history is celebrated but less known is the environmental damage to local waterways. Ballarat’s gold mines were amongst the richest in Australia and they all sent their waste into the Yarrowee River. An... more
Ballarat’s mining history is celebrated but less known is the environmental damage to local waterways. Ballarat’s gold mines were amongst the richest in Australia and they all sent their waste into the Yarrowee River. An interdisciplinary approach that integrates documentary evidence with insights from archaeology and geomorphology reveals the effects of mine waste on the river during the nineteenth century and how those effects continue to be felt. Deposits of mine tailings remain on the floodplains from Ballarat East downstream to Inverleigh and the junction with the Barwon River. Historical perspectives provide crucial context for understanding lasting changes to the Yarrowee and its catchment and how the effects of gold mining continue to have lasting impacts on heritage, ecosystems, and river health.
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Groundwater supply systems constructed by gold miners in Victoria during the nineteenth century were highly significant in the historical development of water law and water licensing in Australia. Alluvial gold mining required large... more
Groundwater supply systems constructed by gold miners in Victoria during the nineteenth century were highly significant in the historical development of water law and water licensing in Australia. Alluvial gold mining required large volumes of water to separate gold from washdirt, but surface flows often failed in seasonally dry conditions. Drought in the mid-1860s prompted miners on the Ovens goldfield in northeast Victoria to exploit groundwater to increase supplies, despite limited scientific understanding of this resource at the time. Analysis of historical plans held by Public Records Office Victoria has revealed numerous 'source of supply' tunnels dug by miners to extract groundwater in the area. By the early 1880s, miners were using up to 31 ML of groundwater per day, with much of the water transferred between creek and river catchments. These activities represent an early, large-scale and significant intervention in the hydrogeological environment, several decades prior to economic development of the Great Artesian Basin in northern Australia. Understanding the nature and scale of groundwater use in this period provides vital social and historical context for modern debates about groundwater modelling, extraction and management.
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Bucket dredging to mine and extract gold and tin from rivers is a global industry that has had a range of negative effects on physical environments. These include the destruction of riparian soil profiles and structures, artificial... more
Bucket dredging to mine and extract gold and tin from rivers is a global industry that has had a range of negative effects on physical environments. These include the destruction of riparian soil profiles and structures, artificial channel straightening and loss of in-stream biodiversity. In this paper we evaluate the immediate effects and long-term consequences of bucket dredging on rivers in Victoria and New South Wales during the period 1900-1950. High quality historical sources on dredge mining are integrated with geospatial datasets, aerial imagery and geomorphological data to analyse the scale of the dredging industry, evidence for disturbance to river channels and floodplains and current land use in dredged areas. The study demonstrates that the environmental impact of dredging was altered but not reduced by anti-pollution regulations intended to control dredging. An assessment of river condition 70-100 years after dredge mining ceased indicates that floodplains and river channels continue to show the effects of dredging, including bank erosion, sediment slugs, compromised habitat and reduced agricultural productivity. These findings have significant implications for river and floodplain management.
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In a world once dominated by organic material culture, wood products were pre-eminent. Forests and woodlands provided timber for buildings and houses, ships and furniture, carts and tools. Small wood provided heating fuel, charcoal, and a... more
In a world once dominated by organic material culture, wood products were pre-eminent. Forests and woodlands provided timber for buildings and houses, ships and furniture, carts and tools. Small wood provided heating fuel, charcoal, and a host of minor products. Industrial logging began in the nineteenth century, as colonial lands of the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia were opened up to European exploitation and trade. Archae ologists have researched and revealed numerous aspects of timber-getting in this period, including log transport, milling technology, the social structure of lumber camps, and the solitary lives of charcoal burners. The forests of the world today are a product of how they were treated and managed in the past.
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Industrial-scale metal mining has long been a feature of developing economies. Processing ores to recover minerals has generated large quantities of waste rock, tailings and contaminants. Mining-related deposits, along with associated... more
Industrial-scale metal mining has long been a feature of developing economies. Processing ores to recover minerals has generated large quantities of waste rock, tailings and contaminants. Mining-related deposits, along with associated soil and water geochemistry, river modifications and other environmental changes, are a product of the nature, scale and intensity of past operations. These artefacts of historical mining create anthropogenic landscapes that extend far beyond individual sites due to the dispersal of mine waste by rivers and pose enduring threats to human and ecosystem health. Their presence and significance, however, are often overlooked by heritage and environmental managers. To be acknowl-Geoarchaeology. 2023;1-17. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/gea | 1 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
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The River Loddon & Tributaries Water Supply Company was established in central Victoria in the late 1860s and operated for almost 100 years. The company’s mining water system dominated supply for sluicing operations around Fryerstown and... more
The River Loddon & Tributaries Water Supply Company was established in central Victoria in the late 1860s and operated for almost 100 years. The company’s mining water system dominated supply for sluicing operations around Fryerstown and was linked to the government’s Coliban System of Waterworks. The Loddon Company provides an important case study in the costs and complexities of managing water on the goldfields and the often difficult relations between private suppliers and public water authorities.
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Goldfields commons were established in numerous locations in nineteenth-century Victoria. These large parcels of Crown land provided accessible grazing for gold miners and kept land around the goldfields in the public domain. In addition... more
Goldfields commons were established in numerous locations in nineteenth-century Victoria. These large parcels of Crown land provided accessible grazing for gold miners and kept land around the goldfields in the public domain. In addition to the 80 or so goldfields commons declared, there were several hundred town and farmers commons as well, covering in total more than one million acres of the Victorian countryside. The Inglewood Gold Field Common was broadly typical of this wider pattern. Established in January 1861, it initially encompassed more than 50,000 acres of mallee woodlands, grasslands and auriferous outcrops. Correspondence preserved in Public Record Office Victoria reveals the many ways that miners and local residents utilised the common, and how managers and users tried to negotiate and resolve the problems they encountered. These ranged from complaints by local squatters about loss of their land to claims by selectors, plagues of rabbits and the important local role of Chinese market gardeners. The Inglewood Gold Field Common was officially abolished in 1898, but much of the land remains in public hands today.
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Bucket dredging for gold was widespread in Victoria in the first half of the 20th century. During the early years of operation, dredges operated under minimal regulation and caused substantial damage to riverine environments. As the... more
Bucket dredging for gold was widespread in Victoria in the first half of the 20th century. During the early years of operation, dredges operated under minimal regulation and caused substantial damage to riverine environments. As the industry peaked between 1908 and 1913, technological improvements and new legislation led to tighter controls on dredging operations. The industry declined in the 1920s but revived in the post-WW2 period, where a small number of very large dredges where closely supervised by authorities.
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Mobilisation of large volumes of bedrock, regolith and soil has long been a characteristic feature of metal mining. Prior to the 20th century this was most efficiently achieved through harnessing the motive power of water. Large-scale... more
Mobilisation of large volumes of bedrock, regolith and soil has long been a characteristic feature of metal mining. Prior to the 20th century this was most efficiently achieved through harnessing the motive power of water. Large-scale water use in mining produced waste sands, gravels and silts that were flushed downstream, triggering changes in stream and floodplain morphology and function. During the 19th century the shift from artisanal to industrialised mining resulted in a rapid increase in the scale and extent of environmental change. This paper presents results from a multidisciplinary research program investigating the environmental effects of 19th-century gold mining on waterways in southeastern Australia. Archaeological and geospatial landscape survey are combined with historical data modelling and geomorphological analysis to examine the extractive processes that produced sediment in headwater regions and how this influenced fluvial processes operating on downstream waterways and floodplains. Our case study of the Three Mile-Hodgson Creek system on the Ovens (Beechworth) goldfield in northeast Victoria indicates that miners mobilised up to 7.3 million m 3 of sediment in this small catchment alone. Results of the research suggest that tailings dams and sludge channels in this catchment are important archaeological evidence for early attempts to manage industrial waste.
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Transnational mobility of people, goods, ideas and capital was a key feature of the British Empire in the long nineteenth century, as millions of migrants created new colonial societies at the expense of Indigenous peoples. Archaeological... more
Transnational mobility of people, goods, ideas and capital was a key feature of the British Empire in the long nineteenth century, as millions of migrants created new colonial societies at the expense of Indigenous peoples. Archaeological biographies of individuals provide crucial insight into these wider processes of social, material and environmental transformation. James William Robertson (1823-1876) was an agent of change in this imperial-colonial domain. In 1852 he migrated from his birthplace of New Brunswick, Canada to the gold rush colony of Victoria, Australia where he developed interests in mining, water control and sawmilling. A decade later Robertson departed for the mining boom in Otago, New Zealand, where he expanded his business interests and entered public service as mayor of Queenstown and a provincial legislator. This paper uses the archaeology and history of Robertson's life to trace his role as an agent of change at local, regional and international scales. His story links distant corners of the British Empire into a global story of colonialism, capitalism and environmental change.
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Human activities over the past 200 years have fundamentally transformed the shape of Australia’s southern Murray Darling Basin (SMDB). The arrival of British colonists in the 19th century disrupted millennia of human management of the... more
Human activities over the past 200 years have fundamentally transformed the shape of Australia’s southern Murray Darling Basin (SMDB). The arrival of British colonists in the 19th century disrupted millennia of human management of the region and brought widespread changes to biota and soils. The subsequent development of mining, transport and irrigation infrastructure re-engineered the region’s landscapes to meet human objectives and ambitions. This paper offers an integrated regional history of anthropogenic change across the SMDB, identifying historical processes driving complex ongoing interactions between human activities and the natural environment. We examine three broad domains of engineering and geo-disturbance in the region, including the development of transport corridors, micro and macro-scale water management, and landforms remade by erosion and sedimentation. We use the archaeology of the recent past to integrate insights drawn from physical geography, fluvial geomorphology and related research into the enduring landscape changes of modern Australia’s food bowl.
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PROV holds a remarkable collection of maps prepared by mining surveyors in the nineteenth century. The maps record water race networks created by alluvial gold miners, who needed large volumes of water to wash gold from the earth. These... more
PROV holds a remarkable collection of maps prepared by mining surveyors in the nineteenth century. The maps record water race networks created by alluvial gold miners, who needed large volumes of water to wash gold from the earth. These mining water systems were often very extensive, winding for miles through the hills to divert water to mining claims. The Beechworth (Ovens) goldfield was an important centre of alluvial mining in colonial Victoria and it was here that the most complex water networks were created. Many of the races and dams built by miners are preserved in goldfields landscapes today. We have integrated historical PROV maps of water races at Beechworth into a geographic information system (GIS) to analyse and understand the location and extent of historical water networks. This combination of historical maps and digital technology offers a powerful new tool to help understand the relationships between competing water users and the changes they brought to colonial mining landscapes.
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Matrons were often powerful figures in the daily workings of benevolent asylums and other institutions of refuge. Responsible for hygiene, subsistence and the moral oversight of inmates, matrons occupied a strategic point in the... more
Matrons were often powerful figures in the daily workings of benevolent asylums and other institutions of refuge. Responsible for hygiene, subsistence and the moral oversight of inmates, matrons occupied a strategic point in the relationship between institutions and wider society; they embodied notions of institutional care, refuge and reform. Matron Lucy Hicks was typical of this pattern. As matron of the Hyde Park Asylum for Infirm and Destitute Women in Sydney, Australia, from 1862 to 1886, she exercised enormous influence over the inmates and the daily operation of the institution. Archaeological and documentary evidence reveals important aspects of the life of Matron Hicks and her family, and her role as intermediary between governing authorities and pauper inmates.
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Chicory was widely grown in Victoria's Western Port region from the 1870s to the 1960s. The roots of the plant were dried in kilns and used as an additive or substitute for coffee. While most production occurred on Phillip Island, there... more
Chicory was widely grown in Victoria's Western Port region from the 1870s to the 1960s. The roots of the plant were dried in kilns and used as an additive or substitute for coffee. While most production occurred on Phillip Island, there was also a substantial chicory industry on French Island for much of this period. Today there are about 30 chicory kilns remaining in the Western Port area, forming a distinctive element in the rural landscape. This paper describes the archaeology of the kilns on French Island, and the evidence they reveal about experimentation and adaptation to local conditions.
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Water wheels were widely used on the Victorian goldfields during the nineteenth century to drive mining machinery in areas where sufficient water was available. One of the largest wheels constructed was the Garfield water wheel, with a... more
Water wheels were widely used on the Victorian goldfields during the nineteenth century to drive mining machinery in areas where sufficient water was available. One of the largest wheels constructed was the Garfield water wheel, with a diameter of 70 feet (21.3 m), which operated from 1887 to 1904 near Chewton in central Victoria. It drew water from the Coliban System of Waterworks, a government-funded supply scheme that delivered water to mining communities in a region that was otherwise too dry for hydraulic power. In this paper we use the archaeological and historical evidence of the Garfield wheel to argue that water wheels offered a reliable and efficient alternative to steam power for many mining parties on the goldfields, and their use reveals the complex choices made by miners in terms of cost, industrial needs and environmental resources.
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Although slate writing equipment is a common feature of archaeological assemblages from historical sites in Australia, archaeologists have paid these items relatively little attention. The main period of production spanned the period... more
Although slate writing equipment is a common feature of archaeological assemblages from historical sites in Australia, archaeologists have paid these items relatively little attention. The main period of production spanned the period 1770-1900. Thereafter, there were calls to remove slates from the schoolroom because they were regarded as unhygienic. Archaeological evidence indicates, however, that slates persisted in use well into the twentieth century. This paper examines the role of writing slates and pencils in colonial Victoria, their function in education, and their presence beyond the turn of the century. Slates remained in use due to their economy and convenience, the lack of supplies of cheap paper, and the persistence of older models of classroom teaching.
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By the 1870s and 1880s Melbourne had emerged as Australia's primary centre of manufacturing. Factories and workshops produced a wide array of commodities, from drinks and foodstuffs, to furniture, machinery and building materials. Recent... more
By the 1870s and 1880s Melbourne had emerged as Australia's primary centre of manufacturing. Factories and workshops produced a wide array of commodities, from drinks and foodstuffs, to furniture, machinery and building materials. Recent archaeological investigations at Casselden Place suggest that Melbourne was also an important destination for the import of commodities from international markets. Glass and stoneware containers from the site indicate the diversity of beverages, medicines, perfumes, condiments and other items routinely acquired by working people of an inner-city neighbourhood in the later-nineteenth century.
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The archaeology of modern cities has grown enormously over the past half century, driven in large part by developer-funded urban renewal. This activity has utilised a diverse array of methodological approaches, research paradigms and... more
The archaeology of modern cities has grown enormously over the past half century, driven in large part by developer-funded urban renewal. This activity has utilised a diverse array of methodological approaches, research paradigms and scales of analysis — a diversity increasingly reflected in the pages of Post-Medieval Archaeology. In this paper, we review the development of urban archaeology, with a particular focus on material remains from the past two or three centuries. We emphasize the role played by commercial archaeology and the growing importance of community engagement, along with changing theoretical models and the emergence of new analytical technologies.
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Bitumen paper pipes were invented in Europe during the 1850s and used in a variety of mining and industrial applications on the Victorian goldfields, including water supply, fluming and drainage. Although promoted as a technological... more
Bitumen paper pipes were invented in Europe during the 1850s and used in a variety of mining and industrial applications on the Victorian goldfields, including water supply, fluming and drainage. Although promoted as a technological breakthrough, bitumen pipes failed to meet expectations and soon became obsolete. Their brief history reveals the international nature of technology transfers in the 19th century, and the drive to use traditional materials in innovative ways.
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A recent discovery at the 19th-century Hyde Park Barracks Destitute Asylum in Sydney provides the earliest securely recorded zooarchaeological evidence for the house mouse (Mus musculus) in Australia. While M. musculus probably arrived... more
A recent discovery at the 19th-century Hyde Park Barracks Destitute Asylum in Sydney provides the earliest securely recorded zooarchaeological evidence for the house mouse (Mus musculus) in Australia. While M. musculus probably arrived with the first European settlers in the late 18th century, securely dated examples from the colonial period are rare. Our find consisted of a wooden matchbox containing the well preserved skeletal remains of three mice, in a context dating securely to the period 1848-1886. The material is noteworthy for the excellent preservation of the bones, which include skulls, articulated vertebrae, ribs, innominates (pelvis) and distal hindlimb. This paper briefly describes the evidence for the arrival of Mus musculus in Australia; the archaeological and historical context of the find; the nature and condition of the mouse skeletons; and possible interpretations.
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The notion of childhood as a distinct phase of life separate from adulthood was well established in western society by the nineteenth century. A great diversity of toys were manufactured for the enjoyment and socialisation of children in... more
The notion of childhood as a distinct phase of life separate from adulthood was well established in western society by the nineteenth century. A great diversity of toys were manufactured for the enjoyment and socialisation of children in this period. Archaeologists in Australia, however, have generally neglected these artefacts and the children who played with them. Nevertheless, toy fragments are often a significant part of the archaeological record, and these items have an important role to play in understanding childhood and family life, as well as site dating and exchange patterns. This paper uses toys recovered from Henry’s Mill, a sawmill settlement in south-west Victoria, to examine the material culture and life experiences of childhood in a rural community during the early twentieth century.
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A B S T R A C T A significant but previously unquantified factor in anthropogenic change in Australian rivers was the release of large volumes of sediment produced by gold mining in the 19th century. This material, known historically as... more
A B S T R A C T A significant but previously unquantified factor in anthropogenic change in Australian rivers was the release of large volumes of sediment produced by gold mining in the 19th century. This material, known historically as 'sludge', rapidly entered waterways adjacent to mining areas and caused major environmental damage. We interrogate detailed historical records from the colony of Victoria spanning the period 1859 to 1891 to reconstruct the temporal and spatial distribution of sediment volumes released by mining activity. Based on these records, we estimate that at least 650 million m3 of material was released into rivers in the 19th century, exceeding natural sediment yield to rivers by an average 140 times. Although the sediment yield per river is not high when compared with examples around the world, the widespread impacts of sludge distinguishes the case of Victoria. The sludge affected three-quarters of catchments in the state due to the large number of small mining operations spread over hundreds of creeks and gullies across the colony. The impacts of sludge to rivers and farmland filled newspapers for more than 50 years and generated numerous parliamentary inquiries. Today, the impacts are largely forgotten and unrecognised, as are the continuing impacts on aquatic systems. The estimates generated in this study provide a basis for understanding the continuing impact of historical mining on Victorian rivers.
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Mining waste was a significant environmental problem in nineteenth-century Victoria, an Australian colony dependent on gold mining for its economic prosperity. Sludge from alluvial (placer) workings and hard-rock mining flowed into rivers... more
Mining waste was a significant environmental problem in nineteenth-century Victoria, an Australian colony dependent on gold mining for its economic prosperity. Sludge from alluvial (placer) workings and hard-rock mining flowed into rivers across the colony causing significant damage and disruption to downstream communities. The sludge problem was eventually resolved by the passage of legislation early in the twentieth century. The struggle to control sludge reveals changes in public perception over a fifty-year period, from acceptance of sludge as an inevitable consequence of industry to the identification of sludge as pollution that should be eliminated. Significantly, at a time when the cost of dealing with noxious waste from other industries was still being borne by the public purse, the anti-sludge legislation held the mining industry responsible for its own pollution and required gold miners to return clean water to river systems.
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This paper reports on preliminary research into gold-mining-related mercury contamination in nineteenth-century Victoria. Data drawn from contemporary sources, including Mineral Statistics of Victoria and Mining Surveyors Reports from... more
This paper reports on preliminary research into gold-mining-related mercury contamination in nineteenth-century Victoria. Data drawn from contemporary sources, including Mineral Statistics of Victoria and Mining Surveyors Reports from 1868‒1888, are used to calculate quantities of mercury used by miners to amalgamate gold in stamp batteries and the rates of mercury lost in the process. Some of the mercury discharged from mining and ore milling flowed into nearby waterways and some remained in the waste residue, the tailings near the mills. We estimate that a minimum of 121 tons of mercury were discharged from stamp batteries in this period. Although the figures fluctuate through time and space, they allow a good estimate of how much mercury was leaving the mine workings and entering Victorian creeks and rivers. Better understanding of historic mercury loss can provide the basis for improved mapping of mercury distribution in modern waterways, which can in turn inform the management of catchment systems.
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The integration of remote sensing technologies, GIS and mobile mapping platforms is producing new insights into the archaeology of historic water management systems. Our case study of the gold rush in 19th-century Victoria, Australia, has... more
The integration of remote sensing technologies, GIS and mobile mapping platforms is producing new insights into the archaeology of historic water management systems. Our case study of the gold rush in 19th-century Victoria, Australia, has identified ditches, dams, mining claims and sediment sinks at site and landscape scales that are normally obscured by dense vegetation. New technologies including LiDAR provide solutions to these challenges and make possible the analysis and interpretation of these spatially diffuse but historically linked sites. For the first time it is possible to record and analyse a complex archaeological landscape in northeast Victoria that is the result of alluvial mining activity in the later 19th and early 20th century. This approach offers a significant advance in Australasian archaeological science and provides an important model for other researchers examining industrial landscapes. Crown
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Analysis of a large collection of textile fragments from the Hyde Park Barracks Asylum for Infirm and Destitute Women in Sydney (1862–86) has provided new information about women’s institutional clothing in 19th-century Australia. The... more
Analysis of a large collection of textile fragments from the Hyde Park Barracks Asylum for Infirm and Destitute Women in Sydney (1862–86) has provided new information about
women’s institutional clothing in 19th-century Australia. The remains of numerous clothing items recovered from sub-floor cavities, along with leather offcuts, buttons and other items, offer important clues about how the inmates dressed and how uniforms functioned in a context of institutional
refuge.
women’s institutional clothing in 19th-century Australia. The remains of numerous clothing items recovered from sub-floor cavities, along with leather offcuts, buttons and other items, offer important clues about how the inmates dressed and how uniforms functioned in a context of institutional
refuge.
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Water law in Victoria has its origins in arrangements made during the gold rush to satisfy the needs of miners and town-dwellers on the goldfields. Rights of access to water and diversion practices were worked out in the peculiar... more
Water law in Victoria has its origins in arrangements made during the gold rush to satisfy the needs of miners and town-dwellers on the goldfields. Rights of access to water and diversion practices were worked out in the peculiar circumstances of the new colony during the 1850s and 1860s, where economic and social conditions were transformed by the discovery of gold. Miners needed abundant, reliable supplies of water to wash gold from the earth and to power steam engines and processing machinery. Laws regulating access to water, however, were poorly defined during this period, with a mix of English common law and American legal doctrine drawn on and adapted to conditions on the colonial goldfields. This was in response to disputes that quickly emerged over the nature and scale of water diversions, priority of access and the sale of water rights. Conflict was exacerbated by the highly variable nature of rainfall in Victoria and frequent dry seasons which often disrupted mining activity. Out of this confusion, colonial officials gradually fashioned rules to regulate access to water. The State asserted increasing authority over the distribution of water in this period, laying the foundations for the effective public ownership of water rights by the 1880s. The Victorian experience provided leadership in establishing water regulations which the other Australian colonies later followed.
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The goldrush in Victoria during the 1850s and 1860s created new awareness of the many meanings and values of water. Most mining technologies required substantial quantities of water to power machinery and separate gold from the earth, but... more
The goldrush in Victoria during the 1850s and 1860s created new awareness of the many meanings and values of water. Most mining technologies required substantial quantities of water to power machinery and separate gold from the earth, but available supplies were often inadequate. Miners responded by constructing dams and lengthy races
to capture, store and distribute water to mining claims. In the process they created extensive landscapes of water management, where the natural flow of water was layered
with industrial, legal, commercial and social flows as well. Experience in water manipulation on the Victorian goldfields played an important role in the later development of
water laws and state water management.
to capture, store and distribute water to mining claims. In the process they created extensive landscapes of water management, where the natural flow of water was layered
with industrial, legal, commercial and social flows as well. Experience in water manipulation on the Victorian goldfields played an important role in the later development of
water laws and state water management.
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The introduction of Cornish mining methods during the Australian gold rush provides a case study for examining the role of technological innovation in the context of migration. New physical and social environments encountered as a result... more
The introduction of Cornish mining methods during the Australian gold rush provides a case study for examining the role of technological innovation in the context of migration. New physical and social environments encountered as a result of migration force migrants to adapt familiar technologies to their new circumstances. Cornish migrants to Australia were able to apply their knowledge of traditional methods for working alluvial tin deposits to the exploitation of alluvial gold. These methods were heavily dependent on reliable sources of water, and in order to ensure success, the miners developed innovative technical and legal systems for managing water supplies.
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The Cornish are known around the world for their mining skills. In the 19th century the migration of Cornish mining families created a diasporic community with settlements in the United States, Mexico, South Africa and Australia centred... more
The Cornish are known around the world for their mining skills. In the 19th century the migration of Cornish mining families created a diasporic community with settlements in the United States, Mexico, South Africa and Australia centred on copper, tin and gold mines. While the Cornish are generally associated with underground mining, recent research in Australia suggests
that ancient methods for working surface tin deposits played an important role during the gold rush. The identification of Cornish tin-streaming as the source of alluvial mining technology in Australia sheds light on a little-documented branch of mining that has played a significant role in shaping the landscape of goldfields regions.
that ancient methods for working surface tin deposits played an important role during the gold rush. The identification of Cornish tin-streaming as the source of alluvial mining technology in Australia sheds light on a little-documented branch of mining that has played a significant role in shaping the landscape of goldfields regions.
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Landscape learning provides a model for examining how colonists in Australia came to terms with the natural world, and repositions the environment at the centre of investigations into settler activity. The successful management of water... more
Landscape learning provides a model for examining how colonists in Australia came to terms with the natural world, and repositions the environment at the centre of investigations into settler activity. The successful management of water was crucial in the colonising process, and settlers developed a sharp awareness of climate, soils and topography in their manipulation of land and water resources. In learning about climatic variability they built dams, races, reservoirs and many other features to capture, store and divert water, which have left extensive archaeological traces. This paper explores the archaeological remains associated with water use on the goldfields of Victoria’s Central Highlands, and the ways in which settlers learned the possibilities and limits of natural landscapes.