Description:
This paper is based on an historical investigation into a township whose existence relied totally on the gold-mining industry and focuses on the decade 1861–1871. As a society we need to know more about the nature of daily life during the deep-lead mining phase, and the domestic and working lives of families on rich deep-lead Victorian goldfields in a time of intense social change. Piggoreet was a township within the Springdallah goldfields about which the only published history is a thirty-two page booklet written in 1926. Yet it had high-yielding mines which provided employment for its families, numerous enough to have more than three hundred children enrolled in the school at the end of the 1860s. After establishing the background to Piggoreet becoming a township, this paper describes one decade during which the deep-lead gold-mining industry was at its peak. It draws on a database created from an extensive range of primary and secondary sources to reveal the functional, social and economic life of the community. The now-disappeared township can be reconstructed using the database as well as a range of other government, church and community resources as evidence. The database has enabled analysis and interpretation of the mass of information. Some idea of the physical structure of the township becomes possible, and the symbiotic relationship between the gold-mining industry and the families reliant on it is revealed. - See more at: http://prov.vic.gov.au/publications/provenance/provenance2013/piggoreet#sthash.TpdYUOmf.dpuf
Description:
Although little material evidence survives other than mullock heaps and the occasional ruined building, a large body of archival documentation exists to help reveal the history of the deep lead gold mining communities at Springdallah. This thesis reconstructs the discovery, rise and progress of that goldfield, 30km south-west of Ballarat, through a study of family formation and community building, facilitated by micro-study tools including prosopographical and genealogical databases. At its prosperous and productive peak in the 1860s and 1870s, the communities relied totally on the mining industry for their existence. This thesis positions the alluvial deep lead gold mining industry firmly within the long but disparate historiography of Australian, and particularly Victorian, gold seeking. Unlike the many regional histories that celebrate the growth from goldfields to city status, it focuses on the miners who worked the deep leads of buried river beds, and how they and their families effected material and social change to benefit the communities they created. The findings of this thesis reveal that, in contrast to the strong Cornish presence on many Victorian goldfields, miners at Springdallah came mainly from northern England, south-west Ireland, and the lowlands of Scotland, often with extensive kinship networks. The study demonstrates that this network of communities attracted workers, usually with coal and lead mining experience, who had skills suited to conditions in the deep lead alluvial gold mining industry. According to the findings of this thesis, miners gained power within the Springdallah communities by becoming members of committees, councils, and boards of local and wider institutions. This study found that the Springdallah families were youthful, adapted well to their changed circumstances, were agents of change within their communities, and quickly took advantage of Victorian land legislation, particularly the 1869 Land Act, to take up farming properties both locally and in the north and east of the State.
Description:
Although little material evidence survives other than mullock heaps and the occasional ruined building, a large body of archival documentation exists to help reveal the history of the deep lead gold mining communities at Springdallah. This thesis reconstructs the discovery, rise and progress of that goldfield, 30km south-west of Ballarat, through a study of family formation and community building, facilitated by micro-study tools including prosopographical and genealogical databases. At its prosperous and productive peak in the 1860s and 1870s, the communities relied totally on the mining industry for their existence. This thesis positions the alluvial deep lead gold mining industry firmly within the long but disparate historiography of Australian, and particularly Victorian, gold seeking. Unlike the many regional histories that celebrate the growth from goldfields to city status, it focuses on the miners who worked the deep leads of buried river beds, and how they and their families effected material and social change to benefit the communities they created. The findings of this thesis reveal that, in contrast to the strong Cornish presence on many Victorian goldfields, miners at Springdallah came mainly from northern England, south-west Ireland, and the lowlands of Scotland, often with extensive kinship networks. The study demonstrates that this network of communities attracted workers, usually with coal and lead mining experience, who had skills suited to conditions in the deep lead alluvial gold mining industry. According to the findings of this thesis, miners gained power within the Springdallah communities by becoming members of committees, councils, and boards of local and wider institutions. This study found that the Springdallah families were youthful, adapted well to their changed circumstances, were agents of change within their communities, and quickly took advantage of Victorian land legislation, particularly the 1869 Land Act, to take up farming properties both locally and in the north and east of the State.