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The Gold Protectors

by Edgar Penzig

The Gold Protectors

The Gold Protectors

The Gold Protectors
Unfortunately, many Australians have no idea of what an exciting history of goldfields we have in our own country. While our American cousins had about 30-odd million people in the mid-Victorian period, Australia only had about three million. Yet in spite of that, we had the world’s richest alluvial gold diggings, the world’s largest pure gold nugget and the world’s largest mixed gold and quartz nugget, which stood 4' 9" high, 2' 2" wide and averaged 4" thick. It weighed in at 630 pounds and contained an estimated gold content of 3000 ounces. It was valued at the time of its discovery in 1872 at Hill End, NSW as being worth £12,000.

Now, naturally with some of the biggest gold finds on record, not only were our local fields flooded with native-born colonials, but thousands and thousands of diggers from all over the world.

There were Americans, Germans, Italians, Canadians, Danish, French, Swiss, Norwegians, Irish, Scots, Welsh, English, South Africans and more - from just about every land on earth.

These were the days when fortunes were made or lost on the turn of a shovel or life’s dreams shattered by the blow from a pick. They were also the days of the thief, the lout, the brawler, the thug, the larrikin and the bushranger, all of whom attempted to get rich on the efforts of others. Therefore, to protect themselves, nearly every miner carried a weapon or numerous weapons. This reminds me of one of the first colonial artefacts I ever purchased. It was a bowie knife and the blade was etched: For the Gold Searcher’s Protection.

If the miner could not afford a pistol or revolver, he at least had a sheath knife, which was mainly of the bowie type and, like 99 per cent of Bowies, was made in Sheffield, England. If it had a large blade, say nine, ten or 12 inches, then it became a working tool. Canvas could be cut with it and meat sliced and eaten from the tip of the blade, which was also used down the mineshaft to remove small nuggets from the surface of the wall. Then, after the evening meal, miners could be seen sitting on tree stumps cleaning between their teeth with the tips of large Bowie knives. Somehow I don’t think this would have been too good for the enamel.

The Australian diggings were certainly wild places. Note this comment from a Mrs Clancy, who describes a typical night on one of the fields in Victoria:
Imagine some hundreds of revolvers almost fired simultaneously. There was murder here, murder there, revolvers cracking, blunderbusses bombing, rifles going off, balls whistling, a man groaning with a broken leg, another shouting because he couldn’t find the way to his hole, and a third equally vociferous because he has tumbled into one.

Now, the reason so many diggers fired off their weapons late at night, was so they could reload with fresh powder. If the firearms were left loaded for several nights or so, the damp air was liable to seep into the chambers, etc and then when needed the revolver could have suffered a misfire.

Because of the influx of diggers, firearms were soon in short supply and Colt 1849 model .31 calibre pocket revolvers, which had been previously selling in Sydney or Melbourne for £2-10-0 each, were fetching £30 on the diggings. Likewise, Colt 1851 model .36 calibre Navy revolvers, which normally retailed for £5, were going for £35 (which was roughly a year’s wages for a working stockman of the period).

However, many Yankee miners arrived armed with their own Colt percussion revolvers, which many appeared to be the large 1848 model .44 calibre Dragoon, plus their own Bowie knives. One such American was Charles Ferguson, who with about 30 other Yankees fought at the battle of the Eureka Stockade and called themselves The Independent Californian Rangers Revolver Brigade. These Americans are said to have fired the first shots of the battle.

The Gold Protectors

The Gold Protectors
Likewise, many American miners who came to Australian after the end of their Civil War also arrived with their own personal protection. When the women folk started to arrive on the diggings, they too were often armed with small pocket or muff pistols and even small knives or daggers.

All this was needed because, as well as the imported villains infesting the goldfields, the diggings also abounded with ex-criminal Vandemonians, Sydney Ducks (Australian louts who had been run out of San Francisco) and prostitutes from Melbourne and Adelaide. Of course, many diggers would have been lucky enough to be armed with the fine English Adams and Tranter percussion revolvers of the period.

Things were so bad on the Mount Alexander diggings in 1852, that the Gold Commissioner (who had no troopers to pursue villains with) authorised all to shoot on sight anyone who tried to enter their tents. (How different this authorisation from the Commissioner was compared with today, when politicians and the judiciary sternly inform the public that they have no right to self-protection against criminals and the voices of minority radical groups have effectively succeeded in disarming the honest citizens of Australia.)

On the Victorian Red Hill diggings, an observer noted:
The ground was no longer red, but grey with diggers, who were clustered on it like ants on a mound. Hundreds lay on their backs, with outstretched arms, gripping perhaps a pistol in one hand, a sheath knife [bowie] in the other, and claiming to own at least all the ground they could encompass.

Just one little story from 1855 illustrates the dangers of the diggings. An Irish Canadian named John McCrae jumped a gold claim that was being ‘shepherded’ by a group of Irishmen. (Shepherding meant they just sat on their claim waiting for more industrious miners to dig deep shafts and strike gold and then if it appeared to run in their direction, they would commence digging operations.) The Irishmen ordered McCrae off their patch of ground, but he refused to go. However, he then agreed to arbitration on the matter. But when the decision was handed down in his favour and he attempted to take possession, the Irish attacked him with picks and clubs, forcing him to flee. McCrae ran until he was exhausted, then he stopped and drew his revolver, firing a shot at his assailants, which missed. His second shot hit one of the Irishmen in the face. McCrae was then overwhelmed by his attackers, who badly beat him before putting a rope around his neck and threatening to hang him on the spot.

Some other miners then came to his rescue and persuaded the angry Irishmen to take him before the local court, which was done. The following morning, several thousand diggers armed with pistols, revolver, shovels, picks and sticks descended on the disputed claim and, after rounding up all the Irish who were involved in the affair, marched them up to the police camp.

Now after reading just a small fraction of what occurred on just a few of the many goldfields in our country, wouldn’t it be great if they were used as background material for Australian films or television series or even documentaries? Like our bushranging period, we could make films for hundreds of years without ever once resorting to fiction. However, unfortunately, I’d hate to be hanging by the you-know-what’s waiting for that to happen.