Earth, Wind, Fire, Water — Gold: Bushfires and the Origins of the Victorian Gold Rush Douglas Wilkie Originally published in History Australia, vol.10, no.2, August 2013 Abstract Many historians have noticed the coincidence of the 1851 Black Thursday fires in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales (Victoria) with the beginning of the Victorian … Continue reading Earth, Wind, Fire, Water – Gold!
Goldrush History
Duchene / Hargraves
ALEXANDRE JULIEN DUCHENE was not even four years into a fourteen year sentence in Van Diemen’s Land in 1840 when Major D’Arcy Wentworth, the Police Magistrate at Launceston, described him as ‘a man of most exemplary conduct’. Edward Hammond Hargraves, was less than two years into enjoying his claim to have started the Australian gold … Continue reading Duchene / Hargraves
Exodus and Panic
Exodus and Panic: Melbourne's reaction to the Bathurst gold discoveries of May 1851 This article was shortlisted for the "Best Peer Reviewed History Article" in the 2015 Victorian Community History Awards. Originally published as: Douglas Wilkie, 'Exodus and Panic: Melbourne's reaction to the Bathurst gold discoveries of May 1851', Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 85, no. … Continue reading Exodus and Panic
Historia Incognita 