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
Gold rushes
Ten Thousand Fathoms Deep
Eighteen fifty-one was the year in which Port Phillip was separated from New South Wales and became Victoria. It was also the year in which the great Victorian gold rushes started. Many historians, and even a greater number of non-historians, believe these two events occurred within weeks of each other simply by coincidence. However, the … Continue reading Ten Thousand Fathoms Deep
The Sink of Iniquity
Education in The Sink of Iniquity A history of education in the Amherst and Talbot districts between 1836 and 1862. "This is an impressive piece of historical research. The author has taken a discrete area of early Victoria very directly affected by the gold rushes and has examined the history of schooling in that … Continue reading The Sink of Iniquity
Historia Incognita 