Australian gold rush
- Home
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Explore the scroll
- Before the gold rush
- Chinese workers
- Australian gold rush
- Chinese miners
- Anti-Chinese violence
- Lambing flat riots
- A safe haven
- Isolated and homesick
- Rise of merchants
- Market gardens and musicians
- Vendors and cooks
- Laundries and factories
- The general store
- Trouble in the homeland
- Opium
- Revolution in China
- Republican victory
- Healing the sick
- The strength of traditions
- Religion
- Developing the north
- Riverboat trade
- Entrepreneurs
- Politics and racism
- Invasion
- The support effort
- The Second World War
- The war effort
- The People's Republic of China
- Melbourne Olympics
- Colombo Plan
- Multiculturalism
- Professions
- Rising to the top
- Australia's Bicentenary
- Towards the future
- Final inscription
- How to read the scroll
- Creating the scroll
- The people
- Acknowledgements and bibliography
Australian gold rush
The 1850s gold rush attracted many Chinese people to Australia in search of a fortune. In this scene, Chinese and European diggers methodically search for gold using various devices and techniques.
When gold was discovered
When gold was discovered in Australia, the volume of Chinese immigration significantly increased. The highest number of arrivals in any one year was 12,396 in 1856. In 1861, 38,258 people, or 3.3 per cent of the Australian population, had been born in China. This number was not to be equalled until the late 1980s. The majority of Chinese immigrants to Australia during the gold rush were indentured or contract labourers. However, many made the voyage under the credit-ticket system managed by brokers and emigration agents. Only a small minority of Chinese people were able to pay for their own voyage and migrate to Australia free of debt.
The Chinese immigrants referred to the Australian gold fields as 'Xin Jin Shan', or the New Gold Mountain. The Californian gold rush was in decline by the 1850s and had become known as 'Jiu Jin Shan', the Old Gold Mountain.
