Life On The Goldfields

Life On The Goldfields

By Lauren and MarcoBy Lauren and Marco

Contents

• Housing

• Work

• Clothing

• Transport

• Food and Water

• Leisure

• Education

housing

• Some of the shelters they used were usually tents, and shopkeepers and blacksmiths sometimes owned a small house or shed.

work• Most of the people on the goldfields were men.

• A lot of them were bachelors but many did not think the rough diggings were a good place for women to live.

• But, from the beginning, there were women who went to the goldfields with their husbands, brothers or friends.

• On the diggings women worked as hard as the men, washing, cooking, chopping wood and helping with the search for gold as well.

Clothing• The men on the gold fields wore loose-fitting,

comfortable clothes. They had long trousers held up with a belt, rope or braces. They usually wore longer sleeved shirts if they were out in the sun, or sometimes they would take off their shirts when the heat became unbearable.

• The miners' clothing depended on their country. Standard clothing for many of Europeans was just loose-fitting trousers and shirt, with strong boots. The Chinese wore the clothing of their culture. Many times, miners' clothing may have become quite threadbare, they could not afford new clothing because tailors and other suppliers of clothing would charge over-inflated prices.

transport

• Some people who could not afford a small cart, carriage or wheelbarrow traveled by foot, which were called footsloggers.

• Some others also traveled by camel, horse back, and the foreign migrators traveled by sailing ship.

food and water

• Damper was commonly eaten by people on the goldfields. Mutton was another common food eaten on the goldfields, but mutton only lasted eight days because there was no refrigeration on the goldfields.

• If you wanted to have a drink of water you would have to boil it because the water on the goldfields was not very clean, so because they had boiled the water they thought that they may as well have a cup of tea.

leisure

• One of the very common games was quoits, which was a few rings of iron or rope that was thrown onto a small pole or post.

• Marbles was another game played by many children.

Education

• The children went to school in a large tent which was about the size of a modern day classroom.

• There were also schools on Sundays which were called Sunday schools. The Sunday schools combined religious education with academic education.

Bibliography

• Growing up on the goldfields by Kimberly Webber

• Google Images

• Life on the Goldfields.com

• Wiki Anwers.com