Australian gold rushes

Common card · No. 243471

During the Australian gold rushes, a significant number of workers moved from elsewhere in Australia and overseas to where gold had been discovered. Gold had been found several times before, but the colonial government of New South Wales had suppressed the news out of the fear that it would reduce the workforce and destabilise the economy. The Australian gold rushes made the convict colonies into more progressive cities with the influx of free immigrants. After the California Gold Rush began in 1848, many people went there from Australia, so the government sought approval from the British Colonial Office for the exploitation of mineral resources and offered rewards for finding gold.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Edward Roper, Public domain