By Meridian Harrap
Welcome to the gold rush. The gold rush started in 1865 And was a big hit for all the miners. Lots of people got money from the gold they found and became very well known. But, not everything was easy.
All these things were vital for the mining especially the permit, if you were found without a permit miners would be beaten up and all your gold would be taken off you. On my first go I went without a permit and got lucky that I wasn’t caught. I made a permit on my second go just to see the difference, there was none.
There are two types of mining you could do. Alluvial mining was working on your own and on the top of the earth, you wouldn’t need a lot of equipment, shaft mining was where you worked in big groups together and had to dig for gold, you’d also need more equipment.
Alluvial tools were smaller and easier to use then Shaft mining tools. Shovel: to move dirt away to look for gold. Pick: to hack at the tough ground and make it easier to shovel through. Pan: to sort through the gold and dirt. The cradle was used for the same thing.
Shaft mining tools were a lot bigger than the alluvial tools and were also used for different things. Bucket: to put the gold or dirt in. Pick: to hack through the hard ground underneath the earth. Cradle: to sort the gold from the dirt. Windlass: to pick up rocks or carry things down a back.
Not everything was easy, sometimes you’d run out of food or tea and would have to stop, go back to down and collect some more so you can carry on with your work
For the alluvial goldfields I earned 39 ounces of gold which in total is 90 pounds.
After all your hard work you would hopefully be able to of succeeded and go home with some gold but not everyone was lucky. When I worked in the shaft I got 78 ounces of gold which in total meant 172 pounds.
THANK YOU READING I HOPE YOU HAVE LEARNED A LOT ABOUT THE GOLDRUSH
By Meridian Harrap