LIFE ON THE GOLDFIELDS
Risks as a digger
The Eureka Stockade.
The goldfields were no safe place. Diggers had to carry a weapon with them virtually anywhere they went. Every day diggers would face dangerous risks often ending in riots such as; angry protests, reports of gold found, invading of mining area and theft. A large amount of diggers died having to put up with these risks.
Angry protests would always end in a fight. The Eureka Stockade was a huge riot which broke out when hundreds of diggers protested against the authorities for the way they had been treated. It was short and ineffective.
Diggers were punished when claiming to have found gold whether they had or not because of the riots that usually broke out after a finding of gold. One convict was given 100 lashes of the cat-o-nine tails when he said he had found gold.
Leaving your tent alone during the day while at the goldfields was a huge risk. People would sneak around to the tents during the day stealing anything they could find. Thieves would often get away with it.
With so many men having gone so long without being with a woman, it was a huge risk to leave your wife only when at the goldfields. Desperate men saw females on the goldfields as 'sitting ducks'. Rape and sexual harassment was a huge problem during the gold rush.
Later on, when mines were developed and technology at the time was not great, there were major risks of travelling into mines. Unstable and poorly constructed mines were death traps. One example of a mine disaster was the Creswick Mine Disaster where 22 people lost their lives at Australasian mine No. 2, because the mines had been mapped out poorly and had dug into an old mine causing it to collapse.
Angry protests would always end in a fight. The Eureka Stockade was a huge riot which broke out when hundreds of diggers protested against the authorities for the way they had been treated. It was short and ineffective.
Diggers were punished when claiming to have found gold whether they had or not because of the riots that usually broke out after a finding of gold. One convict was given 100 lashes of the cat-o-nine tails when he said he had found gold.
Leaving your tent alone during the day while at the goldfields was a huge risk. People would sneak around to the tents during the day stealing anything they could find. Thieves would often get away with it.
With so many men having gone so long without being with a woman, it was a huge risk to leave your wife only when at the goldfields. Desperate men saw females on the goldfields as 'sitting ducks'. Rape and sexual harassment was a huge problem during the gold rush.
Later on, when mines were developed and technology at the time was not great, there were major risks of travelling into mines. Unstable and poorly constructed mines were death traps. One example of a mine disaster was the Creswick Mine Disaster where 22 people lost their lives at Australasian mine No. 2, because the mines had been mapped out poorly and had dug into an old mine causing it to collapse.
