How The Gold Rush Transformed Australia | Time Travels

Every Australian school kid knows the discovery of gold in 1851 transformed Australia

but actually it was kept a secret for decades. Convicts cutting a road near Bathurst were rumoured to have struck gold as early as 1814

So why weren't they shouting about it from the hills? Well, there was a bit of self-interest going on here on the part of the farmers and landowners

whose interests were so strongly represented in government. They reckoned that if they announced the discovery of gold

then all their workers and the convicts would run off and start looking for it

which makes a lot of sense. Except when the gold rush was announced in California

loads of them ran off anyway to America. California was soon overrun by hundreds of thousands of prospectors

from all over the world. The Englishman Edward Hargraves was among those who tried his luck

and, like so many others, left with nothing to show except a tan

But in 1851, back in New South Wales, his luck changed. There wasn't very much, not even enough to fill a tooth

but Hargraves knew that gold, like gold prospectors, was never found on its own

This was a momentous discovery. And the story goes that when he made it, he jumped to his feet

turned to his prospecting partner, John Lister, and said, this is a historic day for New South Wales

I'll be made a baronet, you'll be made a knight, and my horse will be stuffed, put in a glass case

and sent to the British Museum. Well, none of those things actually happened

but Hargraves knew how to talk up a story. He even talked the New South Wales government into awarding him for his discovery And in May 1851 the colonial secretary of New South Wales announced that gold had been discovered near the town of Bathurst

For the new colony of Victoria, this was a disaster. Almost overnight, the streets of the capital city, Melbourne, were deserted

Ships laid idle at anchor. The New South Wales gold rush threatened the very existence of the new colony

If the discovery of gold was the stimulus package New South Wales needed to prosper

it had the opposite effect on the other colonies The mass exodus to the gold fields in the north

was depleting the population of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania Victoria countered with a reward of its own

for the first person to find a commercial quantity of gold Ironically, gold had been discovered the year before in central Victoria

but the farmer wanted to keep it quiet because he didn't want his sheep disturbed

The 200 quid reward changed his tune and triggered a gold rush that would soon dwarf the one in New South Wales

Central Victoria would prove to be the richest alluvial goldfield the world had ever known

Nuggets the size of house bricks were being found Tons of gold were being extracted

There was fever in the air. I'll show you what the fuss was all about

In here is the welcome nugget. It weighs an extraordinary 69.9 kilos

and at today's prices, it's worth three million Australian dollars. It was found by a Cornishman called Richard Jeffery

and it was the headlines created by finds like this that brought diggers here from all over the world

This isn't the original, by the way, it's a replica. The original was melted down and turned into sovereigns

In two years, Victoria's population grew from 70,000 to more than half a million

One in every 50 people in Britain migrated to the colonies. Overnight, there was a new class of new Australians

not convicts, but free thinkers and dreamers who came flooding in from all corners of the globe

They were intelligent, educated, idealistic and incredibly diverse. diverse. There were diggers from Italy, Germany, China, America, Canada, Ireland. Some of them

had fought wars in their own homeland, others had been expelled for their political activities

but ironically, they all thought that the convict colony could offer them freedom and the sniff of

wealth. For some, striking it lucky remained just a dream. While others dug up war

wealth beyond their wildest imaginations Free from the strictures of class and parish back in Europe the diggers who hit pay dirt could live like kings Some only for a day but kings nonetheless The goldfields became a place of extravagance and excess There was one

miner who bought all the champagne in a Melbourne hotel and tipped it in a horse trough so that

everyone could have a slurp at it. And there was another one who trotted around on his horse

literally in golden horseshoes. Society was transformed. With all the money that was being thrown around

it's hardly surprising that sex and scandal soon followed. Scandal arrived in 1855

Her name was Lola, and yes, she was a showgirl. Lola Montez promoted herself as an exotic Spanish dancer

Except Lola wasn't Spanish, Lola wasn't even Lola. She was plain Eliza Gilbert from the Irish county of Limerick

But she grew into the sort of girl that limericks are written about

Lola was a bit of a gold digger too, and when she turned up in Ballarat

it must have been like Madonna was in town. She did this dance called the spider dance

where she had little bits of black material sewn on the various parts of her clothing

which she'd attempt to brush off during the dance. Can you imagine how well that went down with the lads in Ballarat

And like all good celebrities, she punched the journalist when she was here

Well, she didn't actually punch him, she horsewhipped him in the bar of the United States Hotel

The tour of Australia received mixed reviews. The beautiful and notorious performer died just five years later, aged 42