The gold rush
In December, 1851, E.E. Griggs wrote from Sacramento City, California to the Rev. J. Orr in Portaferry:
'It appears that her majesty's dominions are not destitute of gold; and if the reports from Australia are true, a great rush will be the result; in fact many have already left this [California], for that land of promise."
UAFP serial no: 9701195 Copyright John McCleery, Belfast.
M. Le Bris,'La fievre de l'or' (Gold fever), (France, 1998, p46.)
John's words proved prophetic. The spectacular increase in Irish immigration in the period 1850 to 1860 - which included some experienced Californian 'forty-niners' - was related to the gold rushes. Ballarat, for example, was transformed from a desolated sheep-run into a prosperous town in less than twenty years, thanks to the influx of gold-diggers.
The discovery of gold in 1851 transformed the area around
Ballarat from a tranquil sheep run into a landscape
dominated by tents and, by the 1870s, into an elegant city.
Ballarat from a tranquil sheep run into a landscape
dominated by tents and, by the 1870s, into an elegant city.
There is a certain degree of romanticism attached to the gold rushes of the 1850s and 60s. Obviously, the chance of 'striking it rich' was the main inspiration for romantic notions, but so too, was the contribution made by the many colourful characters attracted to the gold fields, men who elevated their campsites and shanties by endowing them with names evocative of home, such as the Harp of Erin, the Shamrock and the Brian Buro. Another evocative name, this time in Australian history, is that of the Eureka mine.
Writing in 1940, H.V. Evatt claimed 'A democracy was born at Eureka', and he credited the Irish with fathering it. The initially reluctant leader of the Eureka protest was Peter Lalor, the brother of James Fintan Lalor, the Irish patriot, and the list of the dead featured a great many Irish names. Whether the involvement of the Irish in what was essentially a mining dispute can live up to the claims made by Evatt is debatable, for while it has been claimed that the rising marked the first stirrings of organised working-class resistance against capitalism, most of the miners, Irish or otherwise, were working in the gold mines with the desire to become very rich capitalist themselves.
A few miners did strike it rich in the gold mines of Australia but for most, their experience was similar to that of Hugh Maguire of Strabane, Co. Tyrone:
As far as my own success upon the diggings I must candidly say that up to the present time it has fell far short of what I expected. I was fourteen months in the diggings … yet I have been only able to come to Melbourne with about sixty-five pounds sterling. (PRONI D1420/2)
The sign on the roof reads:
'Ballan General Store Gold Purchased'.
'Ballan General Store Gold Purchased'.
The rapid rise in population caused by the influx of gold seekers and their followers was still insufficient to populate the vast ranges of Australia, which still had a dearth of general and domestic labour. Miners were too preoccupied with digging for gold, and besides, they were mostly male, exacerbating the gender imbalance:
Women are the only scarce people that is here, in a city of some 10,000 Inhabitants, you will not see more than twelve or twenty women in a day there are only about 300 in the whole city.
(Copyright John McCleery, Belfast. UAFP serial no. 9701190.)
In an effort to attract more people, the Australian authorities continued to offer subsidised passages. But it was still an act of bravery to emigrate to the other side of the world. Apart from the rigours to be endured and the hard work involved in getting established, the journey itself was fraught with difficulties.
