Victoria’s gold rush history is full of weird and wacky tales
A BENGAL tiger that charged into a Ballarat shop, a young boy whose dream prophesied the discovery of a huge nugget and miners who cross-dressed to dodge licence fees. These are the weird and wonderful stories of Victoria’s gold rush.
Melbourne
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IN the three years after gold was found in Victoria in 1851, the population of Melbourne boomed from about 29,000 to more than 150,000.
Bendigo, Castlemaine, Daylesford and Creswick were soon teeming with prospectors seeking their fortune.
Tent cities popped up overnight and societies of transient miners including former convicts, indigenous people, immigrant Chinese and free settlers became melting pots of culture.
Along with the infamous Eureka Stockade and the tensions that led to it, goldfields history has hidden a trove of weird stories.
INSIDE THE SLUMS OF 1930s MELBOURNE
THE ESCAPED TIGER
Animals were often imported for work or entertainment on the goldfields and sometimes things didn’t go as planned.
In one such incident an elephant imported for use on the goldfields was spooked by barking dogs and ran amok, tearing down tents until its keeper pacified it.
In another incident in 1855 a Bengal tiger, brought for entertainment, was being carried through Ballarat in a crate.
As one Scottish prospector wrote in his diary about the event:
“(The) cart capsized and the box split in two pieces and out sprang the Bengal gent.
“This was just at the foot of Bakery Hill a little past Coe the Bakers, and opposite Hopkins Store.
“The tiger sprang into the store and went through the shop into the kitchen where it found a leg of mutton which it seized and commenced devouring it.”
According to this account the shopkeeper hid in a box while the tiger stalked the shop.
In another account in the Argus newspaper shortly afterwards, two men entered the store and managed to lasso the tiger’s legs and bring it under control.
THE 5M SNAKE IN THE MINESHAFT
This unlikely story emerged in the Ballarat Star newspaper in November 1860.
A miner named John Smith was being lowered by fellow workers to the bottom of a shaft when he encountered an enormous black snake, rearing and threatening to bite.
Panicked, Smith whacked it with his shovel and thought he had broken its back, but the snake persisted and ran up his trouser leg, reappearing at his sleeve.
He then went at the snake with a knife, lopping off a part of its tail, but that angered the serpent further and it coiled around Smith’s neck as he called to his mates to haul him up.
According to the report: “Arrived at the surface, Smith’s mates coiled the wounded end of the snake round the drum of the engine, with a view of compelling him to loosen his hold, but it was found that the great strain brought the flywheel to a standstill.
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“A greenhide bucket was then put over the snake’s head, to prevent his biting; Smith was laid flat on the ground, and the snake was cut away from the man’s neck by the aid of a cross cut saw.”
When they measured the snake, it was 16 feet 9 inches — 5.1m long.
Or so the story goes.
It was also reported that, although Smith was bitten, a shot glass of hot gin averted any serious consequences.
RESCUE DIVERS AND THE CRESWICK MINE FLOOD
In December 1882, in what remains the country’s worst ever mining disaster, a torrent of water flooded a mine drive where 41 men were working a night shift.
Pumps were operated from the surface and 27 of the men managed to find higher shelter within the mine while a rescue attempt was made.
A telegram was sent to Melbourne and four sea divers from the HMVS Cerberus were sent to Creswick to free the men from their air pocket.
But when they arrived in the early morning they discovered the air pipes for their diving suits were only 100 ft long.
It would have taken 1500 ft of pipe to reach the trapped men.
Despite the best efforts of rescuers, 22 of the 41 men died.
Miraculously, five of the trapped men made it out.
THE GOLDEN PLATYPUS
In March 1861 a fossicker called John Knott and his young son went out prospecting at an old mining hole near Kangaroo Flat.
That morning to boy had told his mother about a dream he had in which he found a large gold nugget.
When the boy was driving his pick into the earth in an area that had been gone over countless times by other prospectors, he found something.
He called his father and when the two of them pulled the gold out, they found it to be a huge nugget 30cm long, 15cm wide and weighing about 11kg.
As a newspaper report later observed, the nugget bore uncanny resemblance to a platypus.
It was worth 1500 pounds — about $150,000 in today’s money.
CROSS-DRESSING LICENCE DODGERS
The requirement for all men to have a mining licence on the goldfields gave rise to some creative ways to dodge inspectors.
An account left by R. M. Serjeant tells of how he returned to his tent in a gully where police were going tent to tent checking licences.
The tent they were now approaching was his — and his mate Joe was certainly inside because smoke was coming from the stove, and Joe didn’t have a licence.
But as the police made themselves known at the door, a woman presented herself and told them they would have to speak to her brother about the licence.
The police swallowed it and left her alone.
Of course, it was Joe in a dress.
Women were not required to hold mining licences on the goldfields.
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