“James Graham Smith’s
writing begins with his landing in Melbourne from Glasgow with his mates. What
follows are his adventures gold digging, contact with bush rangers,
ex-convicts, troopers, squatters, gentry, love, theft, murder, mystery,
mateship, hard times and good, and the interesting every day folk who came to
Ballarat from all over the world in the search for gold. The period Smith
writes about is from 1852, and includes the events before, during amid after
the battle at the Eureka Stockade.”
Gold plays an important part in the history of Victoria,
particularly around Central Victoria and even more particularly around Ballarat
and Bendigo. Without gold, a village
like Clunes (the home of Huc & Gabet, and just a hop, skip and jump away
from Ballarat) would probably not even exist, or if it did, it probably
wouldn’t have some of the awesome civic buildings that it has today*.
James Graham Smith was one of the early arrivals to Ballarat
and fortunately he had the inclination to write about his experiences later in
life. Sadly, he didn’t live long enough
to see his meisterwerk in print. The Eureka Stockade was one of the experiences
that Smith experienced and it was also an important event in the history of Ballarat
and Victoria… and Australia. (For those
not up with the whole Eureka Stockade thingy, click here.) Smith didn’t just write about Eureka, he also
wrote about the everyday life on the goldfields which is something of great
interest to many Australians for whom their ancestors experiences are a vague
blur on the family tree. I always imagine
1850s Victoria was a bit like Deadwood but with less glitz and glamour and from
what I can tell James Graham Smith has avoided using Deadwood type expletives…
although I’m sure he would have wanted to.
* Goldrush prosperity = awesome civic buildings
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