Eureka - The Unfinished Revolution (3 page)

Charles Joseph La Trobe, Superintendent of the Port Phillip District (1839-51), first Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria (1851 – 54).
(State Library of Victoria)

Jolimont, La Trobe’s modest prefabricated residence in Melbourne, is referred to by locals as ‘The Chalet’ because of its Continental form. (George Alexander Gilbert/ State Library of Victoria)

Edward Hammond Hargraves, rewarded as the first discoverer of payable gold at Ophir, New South
Wales, in 1851. (State Library of New South Wales)

Panning for gold.
(Samuel Thomas Gill/Rex Nan Kivell Collection National Library of Australia)

New South Wales’s first gold digging at FitzRoy Bar, Ophir, is soon in full swing after the newspapers announce Hargraves’s discovery in May 1851.
(From Sketches in Australia by George French Angas/State Library of New South Wales)

Optimistic diggers making their way to Ballarat in 1854.
(Samuel Thomas Gill/ National Library of Australia)

Goldmining techniques: panning, puddling (where clayey dirt is broken down with water in a tub) and cradling.
(Edwin Stocqueler/Rex Nan Kivell Collection/ National Library of Australia)

Cradling at Forrest Creek, the fabulously auriferous goldfield that opened up in September 1851.
(Samuel Thomas Gill/Rex Nan Kivell Collection/National Library of Australia)

Deep sinking, digging in teams to depths of 150 feet, can mean toiling for up to six months before any prize is won.
(Samuel Thomas Gill/National Library of Australia)

‘Shepherding’ can result in disputes as to whether the ground is being properly worked on or is, in fact, available to be claimed by others.
(Samuel Thomas Gill/Rex Nan Kivell Collection/National Library of Australia)

Sir Charles Hotham, Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria (1854-55), and first Governor of Victoria (1855).
(State Library of Victoria)