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Hundreds of thousands of diggers rushed to Australian lands, upturned soil, polluted rivers and waterways and felled countless tress in the pursuit of gold. The often forgotten legacy of the gold rushes is a landscape that was permanently scarred.
Environmental devastation on the diggings
While some authors and diggers lamented the destruction of Australia's beautiful landscape, many were oblivious to devastating impact of the gold rushes on the environment.
First impressions of Australian land
With a lack of photographic evidence, we rely on artistic deptictions and written descriptions of Australia's landscape before the gold rush.
The mining mistakes of a golden history
The damage done to the Australian environment during the gold rushes will be felt for decades to come.
The affect of the gold rushes on agriculture
The burgeoning population of Australia couldn't eat their gold, so agriculture thrived, despite the fears of Australian pastoralists.
Introduction of Exotic Plants and Animals
Agriculturalists, eager to take advantage of Australia's abundant natural resources, encouraged the immigration of European flora and fauna, with sometimes disastrous effects.
Deforestation
The first environmental casualty of the Australian gold rush were trees, which were initially felled to clear space and provide fuel.
Rehabilitation and Reforestation
A dwindling timber supply was the wake up call to authorities, that gold mining was wreaking havoc on the environment. Slowly, reforestation programs were implemented and environmental action groups emerged.
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Australian soldiers were called diggers, as many men who fought for Australia in WWI were diggers from the goldfields.
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"Gold is not found in quartz alone; its richest lodes are in the eyes and ears of the public."
Samuel Butler.
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It is estimated that at least 20% of all the gold mined since 1500 has been wrung from the earth during only fifty years' worth of gold rushes in the nineteenth century.
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A 150th anniversary is a sesquicentenary.
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In the first few years of Victoria's life as an independent colony, the Victorian Government sold £4,500,000 worth of Aboriginal land.
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The Incas called gold the "sweat of the sun", while the Aztecs and the Mayans called it "the excrement of the sun".
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A census of the Kimberly gold fields showed unqualified practitioners such as faith healers, tonic sellers and clairvoyants out-numbered legally qualified doctors three-to-one.
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Australia now mines about 300 tonnes of gold annually – worth about $4.5million – making it the third-largest producer in the world, after South Africa and the United States. Gold is Australia’s second largest export after coal.
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In 1965 archaeologists discovered the "Ramlah Hoard" – a collection of gold dinars and ingots dating from 761 to 976 – at Ramlah, near Jerusalem.
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Gold fingerprinting technology, developed in Australia to help police trace the origin of stolen gold, is now being used to determine the origin of archaeological artefacts.
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