Dust and dreams : a regional history of mining and community in south east New South Wales 1850-1914

Abstract

Until recently the focus of interest in gold mining history had been Victoria, and to a lesser extent Western Australia. The New South Wales story has, in contrast, attracted relatively little research or interest, the Lambing Flat race riots often being the only instance in which the New South Wales gold fields are specifically mentioned. Furthermore, mining history has tended to emphasise the unusual, dramatic, and colourful aspects of the gold rushes at the expense of an investigation of what mining was like most of the time. Recent scholarship produced especially for the sesquicentennial anniversary has helped broaden the focus of gold mining history beyond it’s traditionally rather narrow focus. This thesis is part of the new scholarship. Not only does it have a New South Wales focus, but also it places gold mining in a broad context, discussing other forms of mineral exploitation and examining the effects of mining generally within a regional setting. It also uses material evidence such as field surveys, photographs and maps, extensively, demonstrating its importance to the historian. The thesis contributes to this growing body of work with new questions and new research, and helps broaden the focus of Australian mining history. The thesis is a regional history of mining on the southeast New South Wales in the years between 1850 and 1914. It differs from most regional histories in that the focus is on one industry and from most mining histories in that all the mining fields within the region are discussed, large and small, gold and base metals. The region is large and includes a number of contiguous and representative fields in the Southern Tablelands, the Braidwood and Shoalhaven, Monaro and South West Slopes districts of New South Wales. There are several themes to the thesis. One is the history of mining itself, focussing on mining technology, and the ebb and flow of particular fields as a result of factors such as resource discovery and depletion, changed economic conditions, technological change, mining regulations, and weather patterns. The thesis examines in depth the changing value of mineral production in the fields, a task of considerable difficulty, since before 1875 there were no official statistics of any real value. There is attention to the environmental effects of mining. A second theme is the contribution of mining to regional development through the settlement of towns and villages and the encouragement given to ancillary industries and infrastructure. It is in this discussion that the material evidence is particularly useful. A third theme concerns the cultural development of the communities, with attention given to the relationships between working miners, their wage based colleagues, the Chinese miners, and the nature of everyday life in the communities. The thesis argues that there is a culture which embraces most forms of mining.