GYMPIE

GYMPIE• WE CHOSE GYMPIE BECAUSE… • Lots of entertainment at Gympie. • It has a good supply of water. • There has been a lot of good gold finds at Gympie. • There are a lot of towns along the way. • It has lots of hotels to stay at. • It is a very rich goldfield. • Sixteen thousand prospectors went to Gympie. • For a while it was called Nashville, after finder James Nash. • Four million ounces of gold found in Gympie. • Thirty kilogram nugget found there. • Shaft mining and reef mining popular there. • Lots of markets. • Nine tons of gold mined in just one shaft.• ‘ Big cake’ finds weighing nine hundred and seven kilograms. • Eighth greatest gold mine in Australia. • Thirty-two thousand ounces of gold found in one year.

Item Why

2 Donkeys To carry things in

Axe To chop firewood

Map To navigate

Wheelbarrow To carry things

Matchbox To light fires

5 cans of salted beef and pork To eat

2 pans, picks and shovels To mine gold with

Waterskin(full) To drink

2 Tents To sleep in

2 Bags To carry things in

Oil To cook with

Pot To cook with

Clothes To wear

1 can of corn and soup To eat

Why We Chose Our Items

• Reef mining • Items • Shovel • Windlass • Pick • Bucket

• Method • With the shovel dig a hole up to 50 metres deep and secure the windlass. Send

someone down to pick at the rock.

Mining methods

• Items • Pan • Shovel • Water

Method Gently swivel the pan around, spilling the water out along with the light dirt. The

heavier gold will sink to the bottom.

Panning

• Items • Cradle • Shovel • Water • Pick

• Method • Shovel dirt into the cradle and fill it up with water. Rock the cradle from side to side

with the long handle and on the same principle of panning, the gold will sink to the bottom and any gold flakes will get caught in the riffles.

CRADLING

Problems and solutionsProblem Solution

1 Run out of supplies along the way

1 Try and make it to the nearest town for more

2 Get robbed by a bushranger(s) 2 Go to the police station straight away

3 Get lost along the way 3Try and find the nearest town for directions

4 Donkeys die 4 Catch the nearest train from a train station

Map

Gympie

This is the route we are going to take

Gympie

Gympie is the town that saved Queensland, after only one decade of existence Queensland was facing certain bankruptcy, but James Nash (the discoverer of gold in Gympie) put an end to it. About 16, 000 prospectors went to Gympie to mine for gold in 1867, and for a while they called it Nashville after James Nash. Four million ounces of gold has been mined at Gympie, and it lasted all the way to 1950. The first gold mined at Gympie was found at Mary River which runs through the middle of Gympie. The largest nugget found there was called the Curtis nugget after the discoverer George Curtis, and it weighed 30 Kg.

Gold in Gympie

When Edward Hargreaves discovered gold in 1851 the gold rush began in a frantic rush to Ophir to strike it rich. Within a week two thousand tents were at the goldfield and still counting. In a desperate attempt to get his people back, the government offered 8000 pounds to anyone that found payable gold in Victoria. Soon after the Kalgoorie find the Victorian gold rush began. Then gold finds by James Esmond at Clunes in June, 1851 and at almost the same time gold was found at Anderson’s creek and after that at Buninyong by the local blacksmith, Thomas Hiscock. On the 24th of August, 1851 , James Reagan and John Dunlop found gold at a place that the Aborigines called ‘Balla Arat’. Other discoveries were made at an alarming rate: Mount Alexander, Dasyleford, Creswick, Marybourough, Bendigo and Mc Ivor(now called Heathcoote.) Later gold was found in Gympie, QLD. Before long Chinese diggers started flooding into the colony in search for gold. European miners hated the Chinese diggers because they were too different in dress, culture and they worked for longer hours than any European digger. This forced the colonies to make the immigration restriction act of 1901, later known as the ‘White Australian’ policy. All Asians had to pass a difficult test read out in the European language and of course, many failed. The government introduced gold licenses in 1851, which were hated by all the miners. Gold licenses cost 2 pounds and they lasted one month. On December 1st, 1854 1,500 men built a stockade on Eureka hill because they were angry about the unfair price of gold licenses. At dawn the following day 257 troopers fought about 150 diggers. Within 10-20 minutes 22 diggers and 3 troopers were killed. Although the diggers lost the battle, they won the war. The cost of gold licenses were lowered and the miners given fairer rights.

Gold/ Gold Rush