_Effect Of Discoveries._
"Like stragglers from an army, orderless,
The adventurers toward their haven press;
Their ardent minds, ignoring present care,
Imagine future "lobs" of which they share.
Through their hot brains what splendid visions speed
Of golden _claims_ directly on the _lead_,
Enabling them thro' hoary Age to sail
With hawsers moored to Competence's tail!
* * * * *
How chang'd the landscape since the paleface came,
How hard to recognise it as the same!
The earth no longer wears her garb of green,
But grave-like holes may everywhere be seen;
The forest fell'd to cook the miners' food,
The sadden'd Natives scatter'd and subdu'd."
_The New Rush._--J. RODGERS.
The wonderful effect of the valuable discoveries made during the first
few months of gold-seeking soon became apparent in Melbourne and
Geelong, owing to the rapid departure for the diggings of great numbers
of the townsfolks, who abandoned their ordinary vocations in order to
get a share of the profuse rewards there meted out by Mother Earth to
the industrious or the lucky.
The Victorian population at this time was only 77,000, of which 30,000
were concentrated in the two principal towns. Nearly all these people
became mad for gold. The whole of the colony was stirred to its inmost
depths, and underwent a total revolution in all its social relations.
Almost the first manifestation of the change was shown in the sudden
appearance of an immense motley throng upon the roads that converged to
the gold-fields. Thousands of men of every walk in life--rich and poor,
old and young, sturdy and weak--were enticed from the comforts and
delights of the domestic hearth, and from the conveniences and
amusements of town life, by the allurements of the glittering prizes
which Dame Fortune was lavishly dealing out to the pioneer prospectors,
and which seemed to dangle before the expectant eyes of everyone. What a
strange and entertaining sight the thickly-thronged roads must have
presented to the observant student of human nature! Many a tramp
hopefully toiling along with swag on back; bands of mechanics with
lumbering drays and bony nags to assist in transporting the heavy
necessaries; parties with light hand-carts and wheel-barrows
energetically pushing and pulling their primitive vehicles; shopmen in
spring carts; doctors and lawyers in first-class gigs and buggies.
The whole of these, from beggar to barrister, from pickpocket to parson,
were to be seen hieing along dusty roads and journeying through hitherto
untrodden forest, all impelled by the one covetous desire to the one
end--the gold-fields, where, perchance, they might reap a golden harvest
without the laborious years of working and the wearisomeness of waiting,
which are the usual checks to success in other pursuits.
[Illustration: THE RUSH TO THE DIGGINGS.]
Ere these fortune-hunters reached the Eldorado of their wishes, many
obstacles had to be overcome. The roughness of the road, the yielding
nature of the bush tracks, and general unevenness of the ground,
occasioned many a poor horse to knock under and leave his master or
masters in a sorry plight. Their fellow-wayfarers seeing such a
predicament would sometimes lend a helping hand; and it was not uncommon
to see thirty or forty men dragging a dray up some of the steep hills by
means of ropes, or carrying on their backs portions of a heavy load.
A number of the travellers were free and independent. These, carrying
all their property with them, usually made a day's journey of about
twenty miles; then, after an _al-fresco_ meal, they lay down in the
open-air, with their blankets wrapped like martial cloaks around them,
and were lulled to sleep by the breezy murmurs of the wild bush. Others,
ignorant of the obstacles they had to encounter, rushed away from town
insufficiently supplied with provisions, and the few public-houses on
the way became quickly packed to confusion by these half-famished
wanderers, demanding food and drink.
Many of the first arrivals on the fields soon found out that the life of
a digger was not all honey, and, after a few bitter experiences, either
went back to their old employments in the town, or adapted themselves to
the requirements of the new order of things by supplying the diggers'
camp with provisions--an occupation which was generally quite as
lucrative as that of the average digger. Meanwhile, the fame of the
Victorian gold-fields had circulated throughout the adjacent colonies.
Very soon the tide of emigration was turned from the Turon mines, and
flowed in the direction of Ballarat and its vicinity. It poured into the
auriferous creeks in the shape of an immense living mass, every unit big
with expectation, and bent on ferreting out and appropriating some
fragment of the golden lodestone.
The bush surrounding the diggings was quickly thinned of its timber--its
red gum, stringy bark, and box trees serving as good fuel for the
culinary fire of the digger. Even the tallest and most massive giants of
the forest were not spared, and soon the scene was completely shorn of
its pristine sylvan beauty. Verdant hillocks and grassy mounds, which in
primeval days had been the peaceful browsing and grazing grounds of the
kangaroo and its species, and the happy hunting grounds of their
scarcely human enemy, the aboriginal black, were speedily changed into
yellow-coloured upheavals, which from a distance presented to the
interested spectator the lively appearance of great ant-hills warming
with busy workers, who now dropped into pits cut in the slopes, and anon
reappeared bearing heavy loads, with which they impetuously rushed to
the turbid waters of the nearest gully.
On the diggings everyone was subjected to the sway of the golden metal,
and the effect of the spell on the different temperaments was as
interesting as they were varied. In some of the diggers the sympathetic
springs of life's action seemed to be completely clogged; the demon of
avarice held complete dominion, and rendered these men forgetful of the
commonest offices of humanity. But over others the spell was not so
potent, or its sordid effect so marked--an occasional pausing or ceasing
from work in order to exchange civilities, or to do a friendly action,
betokening that a desire for the amenities of life was not entirely
obliterated even among the rough hairy diggers in their most
cupiditative pursuit.
A year later the fame of the enormous yield of the Victorian gold-fields
had astonished the whole world, and quickly attracted numerous
ship-loads of emigrants from every centre of civilisation. This great
influx set in about September 1852, and doubled the population before
the end of the year. During 1852 and 1853 Victoria became the most
populous of the colonies by the arrival of nearly 200,000 persons, the
arrivals in Hobson's Bay averaging about 1800 weekly.
Many of the more sober-minded of the colonists were greatly concerned in
mind by this tremendous inundation; but the go-ahead or
hopefully-inclined trusted that the great successive waves of fresh
inhabitants from the thickly-populated portions of the old world would
be the making of the colony. The influx was certainly an immediate boon
to the sheep-farmers of the period. The state of the colony in the early
days was well described by London _Punch_ in the lines--
"The land of the South that lies under our feet,
Deficient in mouths, over-burdened with meat."
But now the order of things was reversed, and, owing to the
ever-increasing number of mouths to be fed, the prices of all articles
of consumption went up enormously.
CANVAS TOWN.
House accommodation became wholly inadequate to meet the requirements of
the great multitude, and holders of tenements made enormous profits by
letting portions of their mean dwellings at extraordinary high rents.
Many respectable and even monied persons were obliged to live in tents,
while large numbers passed both day and night with no other roof than
the blue sky overhead.
A unique suburb sprang into existence on the south side of the Yarra. It
was improvised by the surplus population who could not obtain shelter in
over-crowded Melbourne. Its name--Canvas Town--describes its
construction. It was pleasantly situated, commencing on a grassy slope,
and was laid out in streets and lanes; the principal thoroughfares being
crowded with boarding-houses and shops, all of canvas. The Government
charged the occupant of each impromptu dwelling five shillings per week
for the right to camp on the site. All sorts of people mingled together
in this primitive township, and many new chums here took their first
lessons in roughing it.
RAG FAIR.
Another novel and interesting scene was the market which sprang into
existence on the wharf where most of the arrivals landed. The exorbitant
rates charged for cart-hire and store-rent precluded many from removing
their heavy luggage, which remained day after day piled up in huge heaps
by the water-side. At length some of the emigrants devised a plan for
its sale. An impromptu bazaar was opened; the sea-chests were placed
back to back, and arrayed in lines with the up-turned lids strewed with
the contents, so that the merchandise was fully exposed for inspection.
A brisk trade soon sprang up, in which abundance of wearing apparel and
household furniture was sold at "alarming sacrifices," as the exigencies
of the times demanded the immediate disposal of all cumbrous articles.
The low prices increased the popularity of this "Rag Fair," as it was
called, and the business became at last so considerable that, in
response to the complaints of shopkeepers, the City Council issued an
order for its stoppage.
In striking contrast to the efforts made by these new chums in getting
rid of their superfluities in order to buy a suitable outfit for the
diggings, were the dissipations and freaks of many returned diggers,
who, having been lucky on the gold-fields, were now recklessly
squandering their quickly-acquired wealth. These extravagant displays
tended to quicken the movements of new arrivals in their preparations,
and to keep up a constant flowing of the population between the rich
diggings and the town.
NEW CHUMS AND OLD CHUMS.
The picturesqueness of life on the gold-fields was heightened by the
appearance on the scene of the immigrants, who brought with them the
many peculiarities of their national traits. The bluff Englishman and
the mirthful Irishman, the cautious Scotchman and the volatile
Frenchman, the industrious German and the 'cute Yankee--all could be
seen working in close proximity; while the indefatigable Chinaman
toiling close at hand, generally in claims abandoned by his more robust
European neighbours, added not a little to the varied attraction of the
scene.
These representatives of different nationalities brought with them their
own distinctive notions of rights and freedom; but their common
occupation and necessary intercourse modified many objectionable
peculiarities. Differences of class, too, were laid aside; the
illiterate labourer ranked on the same footing as the scholarly
adventurer, provided they both possessed a strong arm and a stout heart.
In short, the motley throng on the gold-field formed a vast republic of
labour.
The general greeting to men of aristocratic birth or manners was
superciliously conveyed by the title of "swell," "genteel cove," or the
slang term "Joe." These gentlemen-diggers being mostly unfit for
roughing it, were sometimes engaged by the lords of labour to light the
fires and wash tin-plates and pannikins. Of course this reversion of the
usual order of things had an inflatory effect on the common labourers,
whose superior bone and sinew made them for the time the better men. As
an instance of it, we quote from McCombie:--
"A squatter had come to the diggings to hire shearers, and seeing a
party of men who seemed to be idle, he asked if they would engage for
the sheep-shearing. After a little hesitation one of the party replied
that they would if they had their own terms. On being asked to state
them, he replied, in a bantering tone, _the wool upon their backs_. The
squatter turned away, but was soon recalled. He quickly obeyed the
summons, supposing the men had thought better of his offer. The
spokesman of the party now told, with a knowing leer, that his mates and
himself were in want of a _cook_, and they had come to the resolution to
offer him a pound a day if he would condescend to accept the office."
Again, the appearance of anything like fine manners or "swell" clothes
was instantly reprobated. Innocent offenders in these respects were
quickly reminded of the incongruity between Continental and Victorian
ceremonies and fashions. New chums frequently presented themselves on
the diggings clothed in London or Paris costumes, and thus advertised,
they were welcomed with noisy merriment, and at once named "Joeys"
amidst ironical cheers. An anecdote of this nature follows; it is
extracted from _Glimpses of Life in Victoria_:--
"A very pleasant, gentlemanly young fellow, lately arrived, and
inexperienced in the customs of the colony, ventured one day among the
diggings wearing the conspicuous tall hat which he had always been used
to wear at home. He was instantly assailed by cries of 'Joe! Joe!' which
were re-echoed on every side and reiterated by hundreds of voices, as
one man after another popped up his head from the hole in which he was
working and joined in the mocking chorus. Quite unconscious that he was
the observed of all eyes, he walked unsuspectingly on, but the clamour
still increased, and many a finger pointed at him at length caused him
to guess pretty correctly the cause of the commotion. He had much ready
wit and self-possession, and did not deliberate long on the course to
pursue, but taking off his hat he turned from side to side and made a
series of profound bows to the noisy community. The effect was all that
he could have desired, for the piercing shouts were presently exchanged
for a hearty cheer, and he was suffered to continue his way unmolested."
From what has been said it may be gathered that in the early muscular
days of the colony work made the man, and want of it the fellow. The
feeble-bodied digger was nowhere in the race for wealth, and many a
solitary sickly one dropped out of existence unknown to any of his
friends, and not even missed in the ever-varying excitements of the
times.