A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852–53

An 1853 best-selling account of the Australian goldfields for prospective emigrants, possibly hiding the scandal of the author's illegitimate pregnancy.

Ellen Clacy (Author)

9781108039802, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 November 2011

316 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.4 kg

Mrs Charles (Ellen) Clacy (1830–1901) was a clergyman's daughter who, in 1852, travelled to the Australian goldfields. Published in 1853, on her return to England, this work, the first edition of which sold out almost immediately, is essentially a guide for prospective emigrants. It includes, within the lively narrative, practical advice on the cost of living, the labour market, gold-digging regulations, and marriage prospects. Mrs Clacy published several subsequent books, but her life remains obscure. Research suggests an illegitimate pregnancy or an absconding husband, unmentioned in the upbeat and respectable narrative, but possibly echoed by the highly coloured 'tale' of an anonymous emigrant woman, whose lover (twice) leaves her pregnant at the altar to go to the goldfields, with tragic consequences. However this relates to Mrs Clacy's actual circumstances, her writing vividly depicts the mixture of opportunity and hazard in nineteenth-century Australia, illuminating the country's early social history.

1. Introductory remarks
2. The voyage out
3. Stay in Melbourne
4. Camping up - Melbourne to the Black Forest
5. Camping up - Black Forest to Eagle Hawk Gully
6. The diggings
7. Eagle Hawk Gull
8. An adventure
9. Harriette Walters
10. Iron Bark Gully
11. Forest Creek
12. Return to Melbourne
13. Ballarat
14. New South Wales
15. South Australia
16. Melbourne again
17. Homeward bound
18. Conclusion
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]