CONTENTS
Chapter I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Chapter II. THE VOYAGE OUT
Chapter III. STAY IN MELBOURNE
Chapter IV. CAMPING UP - MELBOURNE TO THE BLACK FOREST
Chapter V. CAMPING UP - BLACK FOREST TO EAGLE HAWK GULLY
Chapter VI. THE DIGGINGS
Chapter VII. EAGLE HAWK GULLY
Chapter VIII. AN ADVENTURE
Chapter IX. HARRIETTE WALTERS
Chapter X. IRONBARK GULLY
Chapter XI. FOREST CREEK
Chapter XII. RETURN TO MELBOURNE
Chapter XIII. BALLARAT
Chapter XIV. NEW SOUTH WALES
Chapter XV. SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Chapter XVI. MELBOURNE AGAIN
Chapter XVII. HOMEWARD BOUND
Chapter XVIII. CONCLUSION
APPENDIX. WHO SHOULD EMIGRATE?
Chapter I.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
It may be deemed presumptuous that one of my age and sex should venture
to give to the public an account of personal adventures in a land which
has so often been descanted upon by other and abler pens; but when I
reflect on the many mothers, wives, and sisters in England, whose
hearts are ever longing for information respecting the dangers and
privations to which their relatives at the antipodes are exposed,
I cannot but hope that the presumption of my undertaking may be
pardoned in consideration of the pleasure which an accurate description
of some of the Australian Gold Fields may perhaps afford to many; and
although the time of my residence in the colonies was short, I had the
advantage (not only in Melbourne, but whilst in the bush) of constant
intercourse with many experienced diggers and old colonists - thus
having every facility for acquiring information respecting Victoria and
the other colonies.
It was in the beginning of April, 185-, that the excitement
occasioned by the published accounts of the Victoria "Diggings,"
induced my brother to fling aside his Homer and Euclid for the various
"Guides" printed for the benefit of the intending gold-seeker, or to
ponder over the shipping columns of the daily papers. The love of
adventure must be contagious, for three weeks after (so rapid were our
preparations) found myself accompanying him to those auriferous
regions. The following pages will give an accurate detail of my
adventures there - in a lack of the marvellous will consist their
principal faults but not even to please would I venture to turn
uninteresting truth into agreeable fiction. Of the few statistics which
occur, I may safely say, as of the more personal portions, that they
are strictly true.
Chapter II.
THE VOYAGE OUT
Everything was ready - boxes packed, tinned, and corded; farewells
taken, and ourselves whirling down by rail to Gravesend - too much
excited - too full of the future to experience that sickening of the
heart, that desolation of the feelings, which usually accompanies an
expatriation, however voluntary, from the dearly loved shores of one's
native land. Although in the cloudy month of April, the sun shone
brightly on the masts of our bonny bark, which lay in full sight of the
windows of the "Old Falcon," where we had taken up our temporary
quarters.
