Gold
Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia

A cultural history of gold and its impact on the development of Australian society.

Iain McCalman (Edited by), Alexander Cook (Edited by), Andrew Reeves (Edited by)

9781107403536, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 October 2011

394 pages
24.4 x 17 x 2.1 cm, 0.63 kg

Review of the hardback: 'The volume is handsomely illustrated … often evocative … analysis is enriched by contributions from archaeologists and art historians, and by micro studies of visual sources … collection thus represents in microcosm the preoccupations of many historians in Australia today …' The Round Table

Throughout history, gold has been the stuff of legends, fortunes, conflict and change. The discovery of gold in Australia 150 years ago precipitated enormous developments in the newly settled land. Immigrants flooded in from Asia and Europe, and the population and economy boomed in spontaneous cities. The effects on both the environment and indigenous Aboriginal peoples have been profound and lasting. In the most unexpected ways, gold has shaped modern Australia. In this book, a team of Australia's most prominent historians and curators have collaborated to produce a cultural history of gold and its impact on the development of Australian society. Like a handful of tailings, Gold brings together a collection of stories that have been left out of standard Australian histories. In between runs a critical analysis of the relationship between gold and social change, race relations, gender, the environment, entertainment and industry.

Part I: 1. Making an edgier history of gold David Goodman
2. 'The finger of God': gold's impact on New South Wales Paul Pickering
3. Gold-rush Melbourne Graeme Davison
4. Labour and trade unionism in Victorian goldmining: Bendigo, 1861–1915 Charles Fahey
5. Mullock heaps and tailing mounds: the environmental effects of alluvial goldmining Barry McGowan
Part II: 6. 'Men of all nations, except Chinamen': Europeans and Chinese on the goldfields of New South Wales Ann Curthoys
7. Undesirable persons: race and West Australian mining legislation Patrick Bertola
8. Golden opportunities? Immigrant workers in Western Australia's eastern goldfields, 1900–65 Bill Bunbury
Part III: 9. Eyewitness? Drawings by Oscar of Cooktown Kim McKenzie and Carol Cooper
10. Golden reflections: depictions of Aborigines on the North-West Australian goldfields Ian Coates
11. Lasseter's stories: tending the ghosts of desert gold David Raftery
12. Isla del Oro: seeking New Guinea gold Hank Nelson
13. Jukurrpa - golden dreams Derek Elias
Part IV: 14. Mrs Charles Clancy, Lola Montez and Poll the grogseller: glimpses of women on the early Victorian goldfields Margaret Anderson
15. After the gold rush: material culture and settlement on Victoria's central goldfields Susan Lawrence
16. Vegetable plots and pleasure gardens of the Victorian goldfields Suzanne Hunt
Part V: 17. Edward Snell: sketching a fortune Tom Griffiths and Alan Platt
18. Antoine Fauchery: a French artist's view of the goldfields Dianne Reilly
19. Cinderella's jewellery: the gold-rush brooches of Western Australia Dorothy Erickson
20. A broad brush dipped in gold: the expansion of Australian vision Anita Callaway.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], Australasian & Pacific history [HBJM]