Life on the Goldfields
Contents
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People
Transport
Housing
Law and order
Clothing
Health
Food
Equipment
People
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On the goldfields there were ex
convicts, Polish soldiers, Dutch
sailors, English doctors, police
(troopers), Sly grog sellers,
Chinese labourers and native
Australians. There were also
countries from all over the world
that came to the gold fields like
Europeans, North America, South
America, Indians and Africans.
People
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People were very mean, nasty
and cruel to the Chinese and
the aboriginals because they
were different. The white
people teased, threatened and
insulted different people to
them.
It was terrible for the children
on the goldfields. Most families
could not afford to by shoes
for there kids only the rich
families. Many children on the
goldfields caught sicknesses
because they didn’t wear
proper clothes.
Most of the diggers on the
goldfields were English.
Transport
People on the Goldfields mostly
traveled by foot. All the poor
families could only get to places
by foot because they couldn’t
afford horses because they were
very expensive. The rich families
that found gold traveled by
horses and carriages. Some
people came to the goldfields by
donkeys or bullocks because they
could carry large amounts of
weight.
 People from other countries
came to the goldfields by ship.
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Transport
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Most of the miners used
wheelbarrows to
transport gold to other
destinations or to carry
their belongings such as
tents, food and
equipment.
Housing
The housing on the goldfields
usually was tents or huts
covered by bark roofs.
Eventually there was a
change of housing there
were stone buildings and
bark huts.
 The mattresses of the
miners were stuffed with
leaves. The miners sat on
logs and sometimes sang
songs around the camp fire –
there were no TVs or
computer games way back
then.
 The Chinese slept in tents.
The Chinese people had their
own area to sleep and it was
usually surrounded by
fences.
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Law and Order
Before the gold rushes
there was only 44
soldiers and a handful of
police to control all the
miners but in 1852 this
changed.
 In 1852 each goldfield
was run by a
commissioner, clerk and
inspector of police.
 Some areas had a special
army or police force just
in case the miners caused
trouble.
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Law and Order
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Every miner needed a
licence. Miners were fined
the equivalent of ten
dollars for not having a
licence, thirty dollars if
caught again and if
caught a third time the
miners were fined sixty
dollars.
Much of the police force
was made up of exconvicts from Van
Diesman’s land
(Tasmania) and most of
the police force to tried
their luck as a miners.
Clothing
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Because the miners worked for
long hours their clothes got
really worn out.
They really only wore White
shirts, straw hats, coats,
gloves, and hard wearing
pants. Some wore boots some
wore shoes but most of them
could not afford shoes or boots
so they had to go barefoot.
The Chinese wore baggy pants
and large coolie hats.
Health
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There was little medical help
on the goldfields so the health
of the diggers wasn’t very
good.
Diggers didn’t shower or bathe
very often especially in
summer because the water
was very dirty.
Food
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Food on the goldfields was very poor
and most of the people ate damper.
Damper was a food that miners
made themselves. It is like bread –
cooked over an open fire.
Fruit and vegetables were rare and
not many people ate them therefore
the miners didn’t get the vitamins
and minerals their bodies needed
The miners, diggers and panners had
to catch their own food for example:
trout, tuna, meat etc.
The diggers ate any type of meat
that they could find on the
goldfields.
The diggers kept there food fresh by
either salting the food in short time
of killing.
Alcohol was a big problem on the
goldfields.
Equipment
The people on the
goldfields usually used
pans because they were
cheap, easy to use and
they were light weight.
 The miners used picket
axes in the mines to
crack rock. Spades were
a good tool to use when
you wanted to dig for
gold.
 Mining companies used
dynamite.
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