1. INJUSTICE on the Goldfields in Australia in the 1850s Presented by Colleen Blancato

2. Life on the goldfields • Exciting but difficult • Dangerous and uncomfortable • Rough lifestyle • To reach goldfields, diggers walked or rode long distances over rough tracks • Make own shelters • IT WASN’T EASY TO STRIKE IT RICH!!!!!!

4. Isolation and Separation from families

5. Native Aboriginal People displaced • Staking a claim – Governor Fitzroy of Victoria issued miners with licences which allowed them to stake a 12 foot (3.6 metres) squarew claim for 30 shillings per month and to keep the proceeds of any gold found. • SUCH CLAIMS MADE NO CONCESSIONS TO THE FACT THAT ABORIGINAL PEOPLE COULD BE SAID TO HAVE PRIOR RIGHTS TO THIS GOLD BY VIRTUE OF HAVING OCCUPIED THE LAND FOR AT LEAST 40 000 YEARS

6. Jobs for women • male-dominated society • Women ‘had their place’ – support their husband and raise a family • Women often worked hard on their own claims • Did not have the right to vote

7. Unhealthy living conditions • weather extremes and lack of shelter • Back-breaking, dangerous and monotonous work • Serious illness from poor sanitation, dust in shafts or the change in temperature, and injuries from cave-ins, explosions and underground fires • Scurvy was rife due to lack of fruit and vegetables • Dysentery and ‘sandy blight ‘were common

8. Stealing and robberies by bushrangers NedKelly Frank Gardiner Ben Hall Captain Thunderbolt

9. Troopers • Mounted police • hunted diggers for their licences • Diggers often charged and arrested for not carrying licence • Often chained alleged offenders to a tree

10. Illegal supply business- ‘sly grog’ • Alcohol ban before 1854 • Led to ‘ sly- grog’ shops • Difficult to police • Often led to corruption

11. Chinese immigrants • Sterotyped as inferior and threatening • Widely held prejudices led to violent anti-Chinese riots • Lambing - Flat riots • Restrictive laws • – Chinese children taxed as adults from age of 12 • Ship-owners paid £10 for every Chinese passenger • Forced to live in separate villages

12. Eureka Stockade