Life on the Goldfields By Sophie Gray
"The largest ones are called by the old colonists, bull dogs are extremely angry creatures no one would like to get close to one of them. About an inch and a half long, black, or a sort of an old black colour, with a red tail. They bite like a crab even sometimes when they get really angry they can even make you bleed till you die. Luckily not very commen. They don't like the English ones either - scared immediately at the sight of a human being- not a bit of it Australian bull ants have even more pluck, and will turn and face you. More, should you retreat, they will run after you with all the imaginable. Often when I has tempted to slightly disturb the end of my journey home . the ant-hills are the worst bit of the trip they bite like crazy some of them even worst then the bull dogs on the way from Melbourne to Richmond, I have been selected , as soon as they discovered the life I was going to be living after the attack, I was going to take my self away to another place in the world where I would be safe and not having to do as much work.
I left London in 1852 with my brother bound for the Victorian gold fields. Although the surroundings around me were not what I was expecting, I was able to quickly get use to the land I was going to be living in for a long time. I proved to be one of the best woman working on the goldfields. As my part of being part of the adventure I was required to cook, keep the camp fire going and wash all the gold, all the while when I wasn’t having to do all that busy working I was writing my own special diary . What I wrote in the diary was important facts and figures about life on the goldfields and keeping stories of the adventure for when I get older .When I got older my own book got published in 1853 my own book proved to be a huge success, winning a lot of awards and my own book is was selling out very fast.