12/9/1852
ABOUT ME
Good day. My name is Benjamin Baroo. I am traveling far and wide to go to Ballarat. My best friend Jared and I have decided to leave our families in Ireland and go to find our fortune in Victoria. As you see there is a massive gold rush there and we don’t want to miss out. Jared and I have grown up together and gone to the same school. We have another friend named Susie, but as you can tell by the name she is a girl and did not want to bother with the journey. Anyway my boat will be here soon and I do not want to miss it. So I will write again soon.
9/10/1852
MY JOURNEY
I travelled here from Ireland, it was a long journey on board the ship. The only thing that kept my spirit strong whilst on the boat was the thought of finding gold. Ever since I heard the news of the gold rush in Victoria I have had my heart set on getting here. Whilst on board sadly my best friend Jared died of either Scurvy or Cholera. No one knows for sure. Apart from that I’m excited to be in Ballarat and ready to start the journey of finding gold. Lets begin!
10/10/1852
IN THE MARKETS
As I wheeled my cart into the market I soon heard a man yell that the supply store was soon closing. As soon as I heard this I rushed to grab some supplies that I needed. These included: mutten, blankets, tents, tea and flour. When I had bought three legs of mutten, one blanket, one tents, three bags of tea and two bags of flour. I had £9 1s left over. Now I had to buy tools, but first I have to pick alluvial or craft mining. I will start alluvial mining and will need to buy a shovel, a pick and a pan. Now that I have bought them I have £7 5s. I have just enough money to buy a permit so I wont get taken to jail. A permit is £5.
11/10/1852
MY PERMIT
• Tis is the permit I bought for 5s to let me mine for gold.
28/10/1852
ON THE GOLD FIELDS
A few days ago I started my first day on the gold fields and I was very excited to start work. It was only day 8 when my mutton went off! So I didn’t want to starve and went back to town to bye some more. Now I only have £4 4s. I found £100 of gold! That’s 39 ounces!