Miners of Ballarat

IN the city of Ballarat by the end of September, nearly a 1000 miners were digging for gold on the Ballarat field - By 1853, there were more than 20,000 miners of many nationalities working on the field.

In that same year, 10,000,000 grams of gold were transported under police escort to the Melbourne Treasury. Probably as much again was never recorded but sold secretly and illegally. Over the next four (4) years, more than 77,700,000 grams reached Melbourne under escort. On June 10th 1858, the great Welcome Nugget was found. It weighed 68,956 grams and contained an estimated 68,272 grams of pure gold.

Ballarat's last mine closed down in 1918. The total recorded yield from the Ballarat Goldfield amounted to 20,592,000 Troy ounces (Ballarat Historical Society Publication No. 1) and based on a gold price of $A500 per ounce the total value would be around $10,000,000,000. A remarkable figure when it is realised that a large amount of the gold discovered in the district was never recorded.

 

Ballarat was the scene of Australia's most famous civic insurrection. On 3 December 1854 at Eureka, miners clashed with police and detachments of the 12th and 40th regiments. In all, 28 men were killed and a large number wounded.

 

Ballarat was proclaimed a township in 1852, created a municipality in 1855, a borough in 1863, and was proclaimed a City on 9 September 1870.

 

Note: 31.1034 grams = 1 ounce

1 troy ounce = 31.1034768 grams

Done