Return respecting the Gold Fields....

> click here to see the full size image.

John Ferres, at the Government Printing Office Melbourne, 1851. Folio; an excellent copy, unbound as issued. Uncommon, especially in such fine original condition: the first official Victorian paper on gold, containing much of interest on this period.

The first gold finds in New South Wales had led to an initial rush of Victorians northwards, but rumours of riches at now famous gold-towns like Bendigo and Ballarat quickly reversed the flow, as an influx of miners into the state led to its population tripling in three years.

This official paper on the Victorian gold fields is a particularly important document, as it represents the first government position in some detail. It does give many hints of the drama of the rush; even the tables of statistics are revealing, with the number of licenses issued in Ballarat, for example, a sign of things to come: 532 in September 1851; 2261 in October; and 1885 in November.

The report includes a transcript of La Trobe's August 1851 proclamation of the necessity for licensing, as well as the series of supplementary notices signed by Lonsdale and others as regards the technical provisions: there is, for example, a description of the Gold License itself. It was this latter, and the heavy-handed and expensive system of licensing throughout the gold fields, which would lead to the Eureka Stockade only a few years later.

• AUD 650.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: 200_789

• bookseller: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)