Australian Gold Rush

SUMMARY
This essay discusses relations of Papuans with foreign incomers from first known contact up to 1884, when a British Protectorate was proclaimed over south-east New Guinea. The area covered is that of the future Protectorate together with Torres Strait, both initially part of a single cultural continuum. A variety of significant personalities, Papuan and foreign, are portrayed.
The scene is set by a characterisation of Papuan society as viewed by white men in the later nineteenth century, particularly of aspects that coloured relationships between Papuans and foreigners. Early explorers and their contacts with Papuans are next discussed, starting with Torres in 1606, followed by Cook, Bligh of the Bounty, Flinders and others, and then by the 1840s surveying voyages of HM ships Fly, Bramble and Rattlesnake, with the unique story of Barbara Thompson, discovered by the Rattlesnake after living marooned for some years among the Kaurareg people of Torres Straits.
A new phase begins in the 1860s with the development of the Torres Strait bêche-de-mer and pearl-shell fisheries, and the subsequent arrival of the London Missionary Society, each contributing to the transformation of Torres Strait societies. From 1873-4 interest expands to the mainland and islands of south-east New Guinea, including missionary and trading activity, the Papuan response, periodic naval intervention, the 1878 Port Moresby gold-rush, and especially the labour trade interlude of 1884, with the atrocities of the Hopeful.
A separate chapter narrates the build-up of British and Australian interest in New Guinea, culminating in 1884 with the proclamation of the Protectorate. This is followed by an analysis of ensuing murders which cast light on the interplay of Papuans and foreigners. The essay concludes with remarks on the many-sided question of how “civilisation” confronted “savagery” in Papua - a recurrent theme of contemporary observers.

Between the 1850s and 1890s, the gentle ripples of Australia’s early Greek presence surrendered to the first real wave of Greek migration. Gold was the initial stimulus. Greek seaman — particularly those on British vessels — jumped ship and left for the diggings with other “new chums”. Greeks dug, panned and sweated for the precious metal amongst bustling hopefuls from across the globe — the road to a multicultural Australia had been unintentionally initiated. Greek migration to, and settlement in Australia, reached a point of change during the gold rush era: the first collective Greek settlements appeared, family groups increased, occupational diversity began to emerge — together with what was to become the Greek café phenomenon — chain migration was stimulated, and eventually formal Greek communities were established. Gold encouraged and shaped the Australian colonies’ progress towards nationhood, it also secured, as this paper evidences, the Greek diaspora’s presence as part of the nation’s future.

During the Lambing Flat Gold Rush of 1860-1861 the gullies to the east of the town of Young were heavily contested by desperate gold fossickers. Blackguard Gully in particular was the scene of bitter rivalry between European and Chinese miners, and was the focus of the anti-Chinese riots of January and June 1861.

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.

The emergence of Australian English (AusE) is the biblical tale of Babel in reverse, with many regional dialects becoming one. To understand how AusE achieved such remarkable homogeneity, the factors that create dialect — linguistic history, communicative isolation and cultural identity — must be examined in the context of the three most important historical developments in Australia. Were these present in the composition of convicts and First Fleet settlement, what was the effect of the Gold Rush, and how did the experiences of Australian soldiers during World War One (WWI) reinforce homogeneity throughout a landmass 30 times the size of Great Britain?

This article examines debates over Chinese indentured labor in the Australasian colonies at the height of the gold rushes. It does so through the testimony of Chinese gold miners who protested the seizure of their gold by customs officials in Sydney Harbour. As a result of these protests, a " New South Wales Select Committee into the Seizure of Gold from Chinese Miners " was established in 1857 to investigate customs law and " coolie " rights. The findings of this committee uncovered Chinese and white settler memories over failed coolie transportation schemes, revealing the ways in which the legacies of coolie migration continued to shape understandings in the Australian colonies of law, labor rights, and fair taxation well after the cessation of such schemes in the 1840s. The archive of Chinese grievance against the colonial state, preserved in testimonies given to the select committee, reveal the long shadow of slavery in the British Empire, the complexities of multiracial communities, and the role of law and legal institutions in shaping both. In 1857, a scandal erupted in Sydney over New South Wales (NSW) customs offi-cials' seizure of gold from Chinese gold miners. These men were returning to China with gold earnings without paying a newly introduced duty tax. Much more than a dispute over unpaid taxes, the act was a violent expropriation of the Chinese miners' gold. This article focuses on arguments made by NSW authorities in defense of the seizure, including the accusation made by customs officials that Chinese miners were taking part in a conspiracy to reintroduce a " coolie " trade. A little known footnote in the history of the Australian gold rushes, this scandal has never been studied before. Here I use it to probe the legacy of the coolie trade in the Australian colonies and how it informed debates in NSW over free and unfree labor. Chinese miners protested the confiscation of their gold forcing the colonial government to conduct a formal investigation. A select committee into the seizure was established by the NSW legislative assembly as a result. 1 I show how their findings uncovered settler memories over failed Asian indentured labor schemes in Australia, revealing how the legacies of forced Asian migration continued to shape understandings in the Australian colonies over labor rights and fair taxation well after the cessation of such schemes in the early 1850s. In the process, two populations—Chinese indentured laborers and Chinese gold miners—became closely entwined symbols of a new social order that saw Chinese migrants deeply embroiled in a transitional moment in colonial systems of labor. The petitions of the Chinese and the hearings of the select committee also offer rare documentation of the claims of the Chinese.

The article investigates afresh the circumstances surrounding the "anti-Chinese uprising" in the Australian Goldfields town of Clunes in 1873. 
Beginning with historical interpretations of events, it notes that scholars have heavily relied on one colonial newspaper report as their primary source (some scholars use two other sources, but many use only this single document).
The article then points that there are several primary sources which have never been cited or used by historians; and identifies 5 key overlapping documents.  Some of these colonial sources include recorded interviews by participants taken the following day after the troubles.  It then plots out the course of events as shown by all corroborating sources - and it is surprising to find there was no wild mass uprising, the troubles seeming to comprise of a rowdy 20 minute confrontation halted by police.
The article then surveys contemporaneous newspaper reports of the day at Clunes, showing the different viewpoints and perspectives taken by colonial publications according to political disposition.  It also plots how accounts were changed, dramatised and embellished as news travelled from country to city, and from newspaper to newspaper across the colonies. 
The article finishes by posing serious questions on how accounts in historical newspapers need to be more carefully cross-checked and contextualised to verify reported "news".
pp10.

Ethnic media are generally defined as media produced within migrant groups to serve their media consumption needs. Scholars have been focusing on the construction of migrant identities in relation to their media consumption practices. This chapter concerns the construction of Chineseness within Chinese ethnic media developed in Australia. It asks how the concept of Chineseness has been constructed and represented in the course of Chinese-language media development and what factors that contribute to its construction and representation in the media sphere. The analysis is informed by the data collecting from the review of literature on Chinese-language media in Australia and the analysis on the currently remained first generational Chinese newspapers in Australia, established in the 1850s in Victoria during the Gold Rush. The chapter argues that the idea of Chineseeness in Chinese ethnic media is unfixed and inherently contested; it is largely dictated by its commercial interest and political imperatives. The findings of this chapter contribute to a more nuanced understanding of Chinese-language media in Australia and by extension factors within and beyond media sphere that shape the identity politics of Chinese diasporic communities.

Many historians have noticed the coincidence of the 1851 Black Thursday fires in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales (Victoria) with the beginning of the Victorian gold rush but a possible relationship between these events has not been investigated in any depth. This article will demonstrate that the gold rushes in Victoria occurred when they did in mid-1851, not simply as a reaction to gold discoveries at Bathurst, nor because of prevailing economic circumstances, but largely as the result of a sequence of events over the preceding two years. Foremost among these events was the combination of fire and flooding that occurred before the outbreak of the gold rush.

Also available through Taylor & Francis at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14490854.2013.11668463

A study of India’s (failed) attempt to make a transition from monometallic silver to a gold currency in the 1860s, alongside the movement in Europe. Would transition to the gold standard in many parts of the world still have taken place if the Indian initiative for gold had indeed succeeded?  Would Europe have found a convenient drain for its silver and abandoned bimetallism if India had moved on to gold?

The words ‘exodus’ and ‘panic’ have often used by historians to sum up Melbourne’s reaction to the discovery of gold near Bathurst in May 1851. However, this was not the way many saw it at the time. This paper investigates the origins of misconceptions about Melbourne's reaction to the 1851 gold discoveries in New South Wales.

Reviews of Duchene/Hargraves

Reviewed by Babette Smith, OAM, Adjunct Lecturer in History, University of New England; author of 'Australia’s Birthstain'; 'A Cargo of Women: Susannah Watson & the Convicts of the Princess Royal'; and 'The Luck of the Irish'.

    “Was Edward Hammond Hargraves, known to Australians as ‘the discoverer of gold’ in fact pre-empted by an ex-convict Frenchman named Alexandre Duchene? Douglas Wilkie’s research demonstrates he was. In a fascinating untangling of fact from fiction he deconstructs Hargraves claims and character by tracking him from his first decade as a free settler during the forties in New South Wales, through his time on the Californian goldfields and the familiar story of his return and the subsequent gold rush

    “Far from noting geological features in California that were similar to Bathurst, as he later wrote, Hargraves almost certainly heard Alexandre Duchene’s story of his 1849 discovery and his rejection by the authorities in Victoria when both men were on the same goldfield in California. … Duchene’s find in Victoria started a ‘rush’ which was quickly squashed by Lieutenant Governor La Trobe. The Frenchman received no reward and his application for appointment as Gold Commissioner was rejected. A year later, Hargraves by comparison triggered an unstoppable ‘rush’ and gained credit as well as reward for his ‘discovery’. No small factor in his success was how he ensured that the rush started on a grand scale before he negotiated with the authorities.

    “This is no simple story however.  The detail Wilkie has uncovered reveals a complex situation in which politics, economics, greed and self-aggrandisment all played their part. Politically the separation of Port Phillip from New South Wales (1850) was a factor of local significance. London on the other hand was concerned that nothing should disrupt the profitable wool trade. At a personal level, achieving stability, let alone making a fortune, was a precarious business for free settlers in New South Wales who had arrived since the penal colony ended. Wilkie vividly portrays their interrelated land speculation, business opportunism, profits and bankruptcies, particularly on the Central Coast where Edward Hargraves was active.

    “Duchene, Hargraves and their claims about gold form a picaresque narrative of people surviving on their wits. Infused with Wilkie’s humour and founded on deep scholarly research, it is a treasure trove of detail. For the specialist like this reviewer, every morsel of information is relished and potentially valuable. For instance, Wilkie’s examination of European settlement on the Central Coast not only casts light on the tenor of Australian society in the forties, it also provides useful context for understanding early land speculation in New Zealand.

    “Mark Twain described Australian history as ‘full of lies’. Unfortunately we didn’t deconstruct the lies early enough.  For too long we accepted a conformist pioneer story that emphasised exploration, ‘tame’ Aborigines, valiant European battles against an unfriendly wilderness and a parade of hollow heroes. Historians detected the lack of authenticity but could not explain it. Douglas Wilkie has researched deeply enough to expose a version around the discovery of gold that is both factual and more colourful than the superficial respectability previously offered.”

Reviewed by  Dr Julie Kimber, Senior lecturer in History and Politics, Swinburne University; Co-editor, Journal of Australian Studies:-

    “Douglas Wilkie’s book is an intricate portrait of the parallel lives of two men who would play a significant role in the gold rushes on the east coast of Australia: Alexandre Julien Duchene, unheralded and largely unknown; and Edward Hammond Hargraves, a controversial figure, whose name remains etched in the school books of the nation. In tracing their lives, Wilkie delivers to us a vast portrait of the European personalities who populated the early colonies of eastern Australia, among them prostitutes and politicians, petty villains and political prisoners.

    Wilkie begins by unpicking long accepted elements of Hargraves’ biography—laying bare, in minute detail, contradictions in his story and offering up alternatives to its distortions. In doing so we see Hargraves as both fabulist and opportunist, a man on the make intent on leaving his mark. The story moves to Duchene, a Frenchman transported to the colonies, and documents his attempts first to be reunited with his wife, and second, to make his fortune.

    Through dogged archival research, Wilkie broadens his focus and by examining the connections between these two otherwise unconnected men we can discern the complicated lives of early settlers, the vagaries and misfortunes, and the opportunities of dubious integrity offered up by the colonial project.

    This is a story of how ordinary lives shape a society and how differing political realities shape the fortunes of ordinary lives. It is a fascinating story for a number of reasons, not least because of where this takes the reader: its geographical scope extends from the streets and court rooms of Britain, to the colonies of Australia and New Zealand, and to the gold rushes in North America.

    Duchene/Hargraves is a story rich in intrigue and innuendo, the inevitable consequence of the ‘narrow habitations’ of the European colonies of Australia. It is brought to life by Wilkie’s historical imagination and his prodigious research. And, because of its intimate lens and expansive nature, it will be of great interest to those curious about the east coast’s transition from convict to “free” society.”

Reviewed by Beth D Kicinski, Content and Design Manager, Ballarat and District Industrial Heritage Project (Federation University Australia):-

    “Duchene/Hargraves is a true readers’ book. And not just any old readers, but those who seek to lose themselves in the dark corners of intrigue. This is not the typical dry history of the genesis of Australia’s industrial heritage, but an absorbing “Who Dunnit?” styled unfolding of the past. What is revealed is an ensemble cast whose lives intersect in the most remarkable of ways to create a complex narrative of hope and disillusionment. Like all truly memorable crime thrillers Duchene/Hargraves resolves the central storyline through carefully constructed reveals, but happily leaves several incidental moments of the story unresolved. The reader is left with possibilities of more.

    “This book is a firm move away from histories of the first and the greatest to stories of people who were just doing what people do. In Alexandre Duchene we see the way in which “the other” has become an integral part of us; and the sensitive re-presentation of the recognisable figure of Edward Hargraves subtly interrogates the role of such diabolical heroes in the Australian identity.

    “Douglas Wilkie’s dedication to researching with carefully balanced heart and mind these two important figures in Australia’s nineteenth century history is obvious throughout Duchene/Hargraves. He cross-examines the evidence with the thoughtfulness of a well-tried barrister. He self-consciously pushes at, but never breaks, the boundaries of believability. And his rich use of carefully-referenced factual information makes this a proper go-to resource that will sit proudly in any library.”

Note: I am a Ballarat resident of Wathaurong descent. It should be acknowledged that because of my family history and lived experience, subconscious biases may arise in my work. Select an example of colonial art and examine in relation to representation, memory and the stories of Australia's colonial history and treatment of Indigenous peoples " " The concept of " historical memory, " often expressed as " collective memory, " " social memory, " or for political scientists, " the politics of memory, " refers to the ways in which groups, collectivities, and nations construct and identify with particular narratives about historical periods or events. Historical memories are foundational to social and political

[English abstract below]

Cet article explore la façon dont Birds of Passage (1983), le premier roman de l’écrivain australien Brian Castro, interroge les notions de subjectivité, de nation et de langage à travers la pratique de la traduction. Il montre que Birds of Passage est un roman post-monolingue qui défie l’équivalence affirmée par la tradition romantique entre « langue maternelle » et subjectivité authentique. En outre, l’article prouve que la représentation de l’autotraduction, en tant que pratique mais aussi métaphore, est au coeur de la réflexion de Castro sur l’identité australienne contemporaine.

This article explores how the Australian author Brian Castro’s debut novel Birds of Passage (1983) interrogates questions of subjectivity, nation and language through the practice of translation. It argues that Birds of Passage is a post-monolingual novel challenging the Romantic equation of authentic subjectivity with expression in a “mother tongue.” The representation of self-translation, both as a practice and a metaphor, is shown to be fundamental to Castro’s reflection upon contemporary Australian identity.

The 19th Century Victorian goldrush, particularly the deep-quartz mining that was practised in Bendigo from the 1870s to c. 1910, created one of the worst industrial health disasters the world had seen. Mine inspectors have been accused of contributing to this tragedy, but just how responsible were they? This paper examines the career of one mine inspector, the author's great-great-grandfather, and suggests that despite their best efforts they were for an extended period hamstrung by a lack of legislated power.

In December 1873 the Victorian goldmining town of Clunes, about thirty kilometres north of Ballarat, was the scene for what is remembered as a major uprising against Chinese miners. This event is cited in assorted histories of Australian society in the nineteenth century, often being placed in terms of size and violence close behind the riots at Lambing Flat in 1861 and Buckland River in 1857.

""""The Australian Gold Rushes have been written about in hundreds of books, both by eminent historians and by enthusiastic, but often ill-informed amateurs.

Geoffrey Blainey has become the acknowledged authority on the Australian mining industry.  Most people are familiar with his book 'The Rush That Never Ended'. But long before that rush started in 1851 there was another rush that almost became the rush that never ended. But it didn't. It was stopped in its tracks. It became 'The Rush That Never Started'. And soon, 'The Rush That Was Quickly Forgotten'.

Historians of Colonial Victoria have overlooked the transition that occurred between the era of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales (1835-1851) and the era of the post-gold rush Victoria.

This PhD Research Project will provide new insights into the relationships between Port Phillip and Sydney during the transition years between the late 1840s and 1851.  It will also rewrite the story of the beginnings of the Australian gold rushes.

Submitted for examination on 17 February 2014.

Passed by the Examiners in May 2014. Deposited in the University of Melbourne May 2014.

The thesis is available for purchase at http://historiaincognita.net/2015/05/06/1849-the-rush-that-never-started-forgotten-origins-of-the-1851-gold-rushes-in-victoria/

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Known as a poor man's goldfield, Lambing Flat became notorious for racist violence in the 1860s. How long did the violence last and why is it remembered as the Birth of White Australia?  How can we understand conflicting sources and changing narratives over time? Historian Dr Karen Schamberger has studied the Lambing Flat Riots as part of her PhD thesis, and in particular its interpretation locally as well as nationally. She argues that it's time to write the Chinese miners' accounts back into the history of these events.