It is estimated that Australia has 9,507 tons of gold resources. Among them, the proven economic gold resources are 54 15 tons, of which Western Australia accounts for 62%, reaching 3 124 tons; South Australia ranks second; NSW ranked third. The proven gold resources with secondary economic significance are 1269 tons, of which Western Australia accounts for 7 1%, reaching 82 1 ton; Queensland is about 105 tons; About 63 tons in NSW; The Northern Territory is about 94 tons. The hidden gold resources are 2823 tons.
After the gold mine was discovered. Driven by the "Gold Rush", groups of Chinese went to Australia for gold, which opened a new page in the history of Chinese emigration to Australia. However, this page of history is more bleak and tragic than the first page, leaving a history of blood and tears of Australian Chinese gold panning.
Gold discovery in Australia
According to historical records, the earliest discovery of gold deposits in Australia was in 185 1 year. In fact, in the first half of the19th century, Australians didn't know about gold at all. Despite 1823, a government surveyor (J. MCBRIEN) once reported that Jinsha was found in the Fish River 15 east of bathurst, New South Wales. From 1839 to 1842, gold deposits have also been discovered in New South Wales. However, the local government was afraid of leaking the news, did not spread the news, and did not organize manpower to mine. Until 185 1, an Englishman living in Australia, Edward H. HARGRAVES, officially mined gold. Hargreaves was born in England and arrived in Australia in 1832. He has been engaged in a variety of occupations, including commerce and fishing. 1848 after the news of the discovery of gold mines in California reached Australia, he went to the United States to search for gold, and he gained a lot in a few years. During his stay in the United States, he paid close attention to the topography of gold mines. After research, he found that the landform of New South Wales, Australia is very similar to that of California, so he concluded that there must be gold mines in the new province. So he returned to Sydney, Australia by 185 1 17, and immediately went to the mountains near bathurst for observation and exploration. The result made him overjoyed. On February 12 of the same year, he officially searched for gold in Xiaqiuxi. This is the beginning of the discovery and mining of gold in Australia, which has since opened a new chapter in the history of gold mining in Australia. Later, in recognition of his achievements in discovering and mining gold mines, the Australian government awarded him a bonus of 1 10,000 pounds as an encouragement (Note 3). On the other hand, Hargreaves became a famous figure at that time.
The discovery and exploitation of gold has indeed become an epoch-making event in Australian history. Since then, with the development of the gold rush, people from all over the world have poured into Australia, and the population of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and other provinces has increased dramatically, which has promoted the development of local industry and commerce and pushed Australian society into a new era. At the same time, the colonists plundered a lot of gold from here and shipped it back to their own country. According to the records, only 1852, 1 1 one day this month, three ships sailed for London, carrying 7 tons of gold. No wonder Marx later wrote in Das Kapital that almost all the gold in European capital countries was obtained from Australia and the United States (Note 4).
China contract workers who were cheated across the sea.
Around 1852 (the second year of Qing Xianfeng), the news of Australian gold production spread all over the coastal areas of Fujian and Guangdong in China. These small stories were originally spread by recruiters and brokers of Australian shipping companies in Hong Kong. They exaggerate and publicize the bright future of the new golden mountain-Duran peanuts, with the aim of luring poor farmers in China to work as cheap laborers in Australia and mine gold for them.
At this time, the decadent Qing Dynasty in China was at the end of its tether. China's economy is on the verge of bankruptcy, and the black hands of the imperialist powers have reached in. However, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty continued to exercise his power and oppressed and exploited the poor more cruelly. In addition, peasant uprisings are surging everywhere, and wars are frequent. Poor farmers in the coastal areas of South China, either forced by life or trying to escape the disaster of war, tried to leave their hometowns and get rid of difficulties. At this time, foreign speculators and recruiters set up so-called "pig houses" in Xiamen, Fujian and Hongkong to recruit China workers. They hire hooligans and bullies, and deceive the poor by means of money inducement and forced pulling. According to historical records, the owner of the "Pig House" stipulated that no matter what methods traffickers use, they can get China people and send them to the door of foreign firms, and they will be paid by the head. At first, every "little pig", whether cheated, abducted, robbed or tied, had to pay Yin and Yang 3 yuan money. Later, it rose to 8 to 10 yuan, sometimes as high as 90 to 100 yuan. Those China workers who were tricked into recruiting signed contracts with recruiters or brokers. Most of them last for three years, and it is stipulated that after China workers arrive in Australia, their labor income will be used as redemption fee. It will be three years before you can be free and earn your own salary. This is the origin of the so-called "contract system" or "selling pigs". These China workers are called "China contract workers".
In addition to the "contract system", there are also people who use the credit system to traffic Chinese workers. In other words, the air ticket of Chinese workers to Australia is credited from the recruiter or broker. After China workers arrive in Australia, they have to use most of their labor income to repay their air tickets and other expenses in a certain period of time. In fact, this is also a disguised "contract". In addition, a small number of Chinese workers raised Pan Chuan in China by borrowing usury, and remitted their wages back to China to repay their debts after working in Australia.
After China workers boarded the recruiter's boat, it was like falling into a "floating hell". The sailors on the ship are armed to the teeth and brave. They beat them at will and even shot and killed China workers. Sometimes the whole ship is locked in the cabin and is forbidden to move freely. At that time, most shipowners violated the international shipping regulations, overloaded and deducted food and water from passengers. And try to squeeze the overloaded passengers into the cabin. The ship's ventilation equipment is very poor. Some China workers were run over, some starved to death, some were killed or thrown into the sea, and some were abandoned on a desert island. Some workers in China were so miserable that they committed suicide (Note 5).
The Blood and Tears Footprints of China's Gold Rush
Because there are many gold mines in Victoria province, people named Mekburn, the capital of Victoria province, as the New Golden Mountain to show its difference from San Francisco.
185 1 year later, a large number of Chinese workers arrived in Victoria province by boat. As soon as the ship landed, they went to the gold mining area in droves. At that time, Balarat in the southwest of Victoria Province was the place where Chinese workers were most concentrated. According to the statistics of 1853, there were 2,000 Chinese workers in Balale's contraceptive program, which increased to 25,000 after three years. At one time, among the residents of Balalle, Chinese were the majority. The sovereign mountain in this area was named Dajinshan by South China University of Technology because it is rich in gold. Agrari and Avocat, north of Balalle, are also called "Guangdong Veins" because of their rich gold.
As the influx of Chinese workers caused local anxiety, they urged the Victorian authorities to legislate to restrict the entry of Chinese workers in 1855. In addition to limiting the number of Chinese workers to every 10 pound berth 1 person, a poll tax of 10 pound was imposed on every China resident who entered the country, and the captain was instructed to collect it. Since then, in order to avoid paying poll tax, the shipowner has sailed the ship carrying China workers to South Australia, which does not need to pay tax. After landing, China workers walked more than 300 kilometers by land into the gold mining area in Victoria. It is said that from 1855 to 1858, as many as 20,000 Chinese workers landed in South Australia and went to Victoria on foot. Historians describe the scene of Chinese workers "entering the mountains" like this:
They went ashore one after another. Wearing blue or black shirts, they first camped on the grass in the suburbs of Adelaide. From one direction to another, they explained the situation on the road to the mining area. There are about 100 people in each team of Chinese workers, and each person has to pay 2 pounds for guide and 130 pounds for carrying tableware.
They marched southeast from Los Angeles. They live in the open air all the way and are often attacked by aborigines, poisonous snakes and wild animals. They are in pain. When they arrived in Wellington, they had to wade.
Murray river followed the old path of Australian workers searching for gold five years ago.
"Some people came to the robe by boat and then turned to the inland east. Loeb is a small coastal city. Because a large number of China workers often pass by, the business and market here are very prosperous. Ships from China to Australia are also loaded with tea, silk, tung oil and other bulk goods. After stopping here, they loaded a lot of wool for export. 1857 or so, there are often more than 3,000 Chinese workers waiting to enter the mountain. " (Note 6)
Chinese workers who came from all over the country worked hard immediately after they settled down in the gold mine. They wore pointed round hats, shouldered simple hoes, shovels and dustpans for gold mining, and swarmed over mountains and mountains, wandering on rugged and desolate mountain roads, looking for gold everywhere. Once they found different colors of soil and confirmed that there were mineral deposits, they settled down and built simple huts (mostly made of rubble walls and bark roofs, or bamboo and wood, bark walls and roofs). This room is so short that people can't stand straight in it. Workers in China have to lie on the floor or weave a bed with tree strips to avoid frost, rain and snow.
At that time, the mining tools used by Chinese workers were very simple. Most of them dig wells with hoes and shovels to dig sand, and some people go down to the wells to scatter sand on the ground. Someone is at the wellhead, holding it in a wooden basin, shaking it constantly and flushing it with water. Because Jinsha is heavier than sediment, coarse Jinsha remains at the bottom of the basin after the sediment is washed away, which is called "gold panning". China workers get up early in the dark and try to dig and wash. They were so tired that their backs ached and their legs ached that they didn't want to stop to have a rest. They have no technology and simple tools. Under normal circumstances, workers in China can only dig residues in mines that have been mined and abandoned by whites, so they are contemptuously called "dregs diggers" and "tailors" by whites. Through hard work, China workers who "seek gold" can occasionally find the remaining sand. Later, white people often used "China color" to describe a person's good luck, which is the basis. Nowadays, when Australians buy prizes, they often ask China people to point out their numbers or buy them. They call it "the luck of the Tang people". Workers in China are burdened with heavy debts and expectations of their elderly parents and lonely wives and children in their hometown. After years of hard work, they finally got their reward. Many of them sent their gold back or brought it back to China. According to the data, during the period from July 1856 to June 30/857, the gold exported from Melbourne alone to China reached11903 ounces, which was worth about 500,000 pounds at that time. This had to arouse the envy and hatred of white people, and buried the bane of the atrocities against China later.
Workers in China are tired of mining gold in barren hills. In addition to suffering from well collapse and some people dying at the bottom of the well, they have to resist the intrusion of wind, frost, rain and snow and the attack of poisonous snakes and beasts, as well as the provocation and attack of rude whites and savage natives. while
At that time, there were many aborigines in the mountains, and Chinese workers were often killed, which was terrible.
Records of Gold Miners: Experiences and Lessons
Most Chinese who went to Australia in the early days were farmers, workers or small businessmen. It is a pity that their cultural level is extremely low, so it is naturally difficult to record the gold rush life at that time in writing. However, Professor Liu Weiping, a professor of history at the University of Sydney and an expert in overseas Chinese history, came across Tan's book Lessons from Experience.
Tan, a native of Nanhai County, Guangdong Province, was born in 1855 (the fifth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty). Because of his poor family, he heard that Australia is rich in gold. 1877 (the third year of Guangxu reign in Qing dynasty), he went to Australia with his father and brother, worked as a gold miner at first, and later switched to business and made a fortune. 1925, Tan, who was over 70 years old, personally recalled his hard life in Australia and asked someone to write The Talk of Experience. The facts recorded in the book are true records of the life of Chinese workers at that time, so they have become the most precious first-hand historical materials for overseas Chinese.
When the Tan family first arrived in Australia, it was the late gold rush era, and the experience of Chinese living in Australia was even more terrible. "Lessons from Experience" revealed the society at that time. Now, the life records of Tan and his son in gold panning in Australia are summarized as follows:
"Liu Weiping Dangbu (according to: Cook Town, northern Australia) native gold, there is no shortage of treasures, and there is no prohibition on mining. My father and son are eager for each other. Guangxu left his hometown on December 5, and set sail in Hong Kong on the ninth day. In the twelfth year, I was in low port (yes 1877). I'm disappointed. It is reported that the rumor is untrue and the wrong words are heard by mistake. Gold is hard to find and water and soil are incompatible, so many people cause diseases. The China people you saw along the way were colorful, poor or sick, and the sound of lamentation was endless. The advanced people don't sing dusk, but think about it, and the latecomers don't listen to their worries. But now that I'm here, I'm going to explore it That is, hoe the ground, prepare shovels, and everyone uses food, or take it, or take it, raise it left and clap it right. On the fourth day of the first month of the third year, the couple went into the mountains and walked together. 16 meters (that is, miles, the same below), the sun sets and it stops. You can know the bitterness of an alumni meal. If you retreat two days later, it will be levied early in the morning, and people will follow suit. I dare not live alone, nor dare I go alone. I'm afraid of losing support and being calculated by savages. So I am also the reason for those people who are sweating and panting and dare not park at will. When the water reaches 20 meters, the group will unload the burden, carry the bucket to cook and do their own thing. Take two days off and love will start again. The rougher it gets, the rougher it gets, until the 26th. Tired and sleepy, people will stop if they have difficulty in moving. Take another three days off. After walking 40 meters, it began to rain cats and dogs, and the pit water rose. If you want to help but don't have a boat, you will sigh at the sea. This is a hurricane and rain, and it is sharp. Watch the water dry. The grain has been used up. I was forced to go back to the valley for a party to solve the food problem. The water dried up and stopped at 52 meters. This trip has been counted for a month. This is Pingyang, Wan Li, all the way to Kangheng Avenue. To 72 meters, called the foot of the mountain, is also cloudy. In this resting place, there is a towering mountain. I don't know if it's tens of millions, and it's up and down, embarrassing and embarrassing. I asked the passenger that it was 82 meters. Some people abandoned their luggage lightly, while others shed tears for Ruan Ji. My hands are bruised, my shoulders are bleeding, and my bloody clothes are stuck and I can't take them off. I was forced to change clothes and the pain was unbearable. Alas, I am innocent and subjected to corporal punishment. I can't help caressing my shoulder and breathing too much. Pause for a few days and then continue until 96 meters. However, when I was hungry, I saw an English bakery begging for food from the British. I was fortunate to sympathize with them and talk to them. It's 100 meter, and it's already March. I just picked up the sand and never saw the gold, so I was worried. As soon as Brother Guo Liang spoke, he did not hesitate to give advice, but began to dig, and there was not much mining, and it was only a dime a day, just enough to make ends meet. It's time to hate people. My life is ill-fated, my feet are gangrenous and I can't walk well. When you smell gangrene, you burn the stone with fire. When the stone gets hot on it, the blood will heal. If I try, it will work miracles. But I still haven't fully recovered, so I have to follow him. I wanted to stop at 120 meters, but I heard that 130 meters of golden seedlings are extremely prosperous and the crowd is surging. When it reached130m, it was already June. You can get six or seven points a day by choosing the land. Father and brother fell ill one after another, moaning on the pillow, and were extremely anxious. Fortunately, when Pan Chen's brother disobeyed, he knew it was black nail disease. If he is treated by law, his illness will disappear. Be kind, be ungrateful. It seems that this is a virtue, and I seldom see anyone today. As for caring for the party, times are hard and there are many people who can't return. When this wind reached China, all relatives were very worried. I don't know how many people came from China and then came back. When my uncle heard the news, he booked my house and got 160 yuan, which was remitted from the provincial Wanquan Pearl Store to the Gudang Wanquan An Store, equivalent to 32 pounds of British gold, thinking that my father and son would have to pay the boat fare home. My father had a hard time because of bad luck and illness. From 1 1 month to 106 meters, the father and son were trapped here. For several years, they had no choice but to return to their old jobs and go back to gold mining ... until they reached the Miqi River (this is Mitchell River, in northern Queensland), where they watched Wang Yang live together. At that time, it was nine o'clock in the evening, and suddenly someone heard the news, fired a warning shot and imposed martial law for one night. If you face an enemy, you will stay until dawn, and then avoid it immediately. It's been five years, and I have seen that gold mining is the same as catching the moon at the bottom of the sea and taking care of the land. The helper's pub can get two Jin a month. Excluding expenses, I actually saved 25 pounds, 16, 6 pence, and I have been here for six years, so I didn't cheer up. ……"
After he left the gold mine, he did some work, such as raising pigs in the garden, planting sugar cane in the wasteland, logging, managing workers, opening a shop and so on, as well as his family background, telling his children the rules of doing business. As can be seen from Tan's pamphlet, the hard work of gold mining and panning at that time did not yield much. At the same time, we can also see that behind the successful history of a few people in China, there are many bloody deeds of old age and death or unjust death!
A hundred years ago, China people paid attention to gold mining areas.
/kloc-In the middle of the 0/9th century, the number of Chinese engaged in gold panning in Australian provinces increased day by day. According to statistics, in the month of 1857, there were 25,528 Uighur Chinese, and there were 33,694 in June. By the end of 1858, the number of Chinese in Victoria had increased to 42,000. But in 186 1, it decreased to 24,700, accounting for1100 of the whole province. In NSW, only 896 China people entered the country in 1856, and the number increased to 12000 in 1858. 1160 among all the people in Queensland, gold mines were discovered one after another after 1869, and a large number of Chinese poured in. By 1877, there were about 25,000 Chinese in Queensland.
At this time, Australian governments at all levels have many laws and regulations on the sovereignty of gold mining areas and the management of gold mining technology. 1873 in may, the Queensland provincial authorities issued a decree on gold mining areas, which was translated into Chinese by an interpreter named Henry. This is an important historical material in the history of overseas Chinese in Australia, from which we can also see some situations of gold mining at that time. Now recorded in the following:
"Let Huaying and others know that the rules set by Britain today are all good and beautiful, with love as the heart and equality as the law. I was afraid that lack of knowledge would lead to many disputes, so I left the rules behind. One rule: take mud, skin and heart, and take gold for every kloc-0 person, 40 feet square. One rule: where there is water, two people are partners, and the restricted place is 100 feet long and 50 feet wide. Three people are partners, and the restricted area is 100 feet long and 70 feet wide. Four people together, limited to 100 square feet. One rule: there is a puddle bottom, and each person is limited to 30 feet square. Rule 1: Take the white stone with a width of 40 feet per kloc-0/person. One rule: if someone opens a new pit, like Shihu Gold, the government will reward others with a place with more than 20 people. One rule: the government rewards others for building ponds if they have long-term money. One rule: the length of the place where the mud is taken is determined by the government. One rule: if the work is stopped, the time limit is 3 days and 3 nights. It's expired, and some people argue, but the yamen doesn't care. One rule: if a mason is sick and can't go back to work, pray for a favor ticket from the government, so there will be no competition. One rule: the Shi Hu rule is followed. 1 Where two people are in charge and two people are in charge of four people, it is because one partner is doing Zhong Shi Kung Fu, so it is not allowed to take this opportunity to compete. A rule: most places with wooden fences belong to other people's tax land. You can't dig in for thousands of years. If you don't, take it to the yamen for further study. One rule: Tang Fan and others must collect coins. If the fine is not found, it will be in hell to pay and will never be spared. "
The Chinese exclusion storm triggered by the gold rush
The influx of workers from China inevitably aroused the antipathy of local white Europeans. Because China people are hardworking, united and cooperative, they have accumulated a fortune in a short time, which is the envy of European immigrants. They think: China people robbed their jobs, China people did not come to settle down, but to make a fortune, and the excavated gold is being transported back to China. The agitation of rumors aroused the anger of white people. They shouted: "It is necessary to effectively prevent this blessed gold mine in Australia from becoming the property of Emperor China and Mongolian tribes in Asia." It turned into a wave of atrocities in China. The mob opposed the Chinese for various reasons, falsely calling them uncooperative, unhygienic and disobedient. Barra, who was the gold producer at that time? There are about 9,000 Chinese, only two of them are women, so they are framed as immoral by white people. With more and more anti-China voices, the anti-China storm has surged. 1854, European immigrants from Victoria held a meeting and decided to work collectively in Bendigo on July 4 in an attempt to drive all Chinese workers out of the gold mining area. Fortunately, the local government found it early and took measures to discourage it, so that no serious incident occurred.
This has attracted the attention of the local government. 1855 (the fifth year of Qing Xianfeng), the Victorian government set up a "Royal Gold Mining Committee" to investigate the gold mining situation, and finally passed a bill restricting the entry of Chinese, stipulating that all registered ships can only board 1 Chinese, and every Chinese who enters the country must pay a poll tax of 10 pounds every year for the captain to collect. In addition, it is stipulated that every 1 Chinese must pay a 1 pound "protection fee" every year. The Australian authorities used the money to hire 1 "protection officers" to mediate disputes. China people who enter the country beyond the tonnage limit will be fined 20 pounds per person by the shipowner, 10 pounds. This bill is the first official law in Australia to restrict the entry of Chinese, which actually kicked off the history of Chinese exclusion in Australia.
1In July, 857, the Chinese exclusion atrocities broke out for the first time in buckland mining area, Victoria Province. Egged on by the authorities, there are about 500 white people. After the establishment of the Anti-China Alliance, white miners flocked to the crime site to besiege China people. They run amok, burning China houses, robbing China people of their property, and even brutally beating China people. As a result, three Chinese workers were killed alive, dozens of Chinese workers were injured, and the property loss of Chinese workers was about 89 thousand pounds. After the incident, the Victorian government sent troops to maintain order and the atrocities subsided. After the Chinese exclusion incident in buckland mining area. The Victorian government is aware that it is difficult to restrict the entry of Chinese only. Because Chinese can bypass Victoria, land from neighboring South Australia or New South Wales, and then travel long distances to the gold mining areas in Victoria. In addition, because ships don't call at Victoria's ports, all banks in the province are in a slump, and the trade volume is also declining. Therefore, the Victorian government authorities called on the South Australian government in New South Wales to take the same action. The South Australian government immediately expressed interest in this and passed a bill in 1857 to restrict the entry of people in the House of Commons like Victoria. However, New South Wales was rejected by the upper house, so a few years later, the number of Chinese in the new province increased dramatically. This also aroused the envy and opposition of the local white people, and the Lambping incident finally happened on 1860 12 February 12. The white riots continued until September of the following year. Two or three thousand Chinese were robbed by white people in broad daylight, and countless houses were burned, resulting in three casualties and serious property losses. 165438+ 10 In June, the new province passed a bill restricting the entry of Chinese, which did not exist three years ago. Since then, the number of immigrants in China has decreased from 1030 in 1862 to 63 in 1863. Due to the decrease of China workers coming to Australia, Australia's gold mining industry is increasingly depressed.
However, the laws restricting the entry of Chinese in Victoria, Nanyuan and New South Wales were opposed by the British government. Because the Qing government of Britain and China signed a treaty, the people of the two countries can travel freely. In order to safeguard its interests in China, Britain has to oppose the Chinese exclusion laws of Australian provinces. In addition, the gold mining industry turned from prosperity to decline, and the Chinese exclusion laws in these three provinces were automatically abolished. After that, during the period from 1867 to 10 of 1877, the feelings of Yuanzhou whites eased slightly, forming the first round of Chinese exclusion.
1870 or so, gold was discovered one after another in northern Queensland province, and a large number of public officials poured in. By 1877, there are 25,000 Chinese workers in Queensland, with an average of 1 Chinese workers for every 7 residents. It is estimated that the gold scoured by whites at that time was 6.5438+0.3 million ounces, and that by Chinese workers was 6.5438+0.3 million ounces. This situation aroused the opposition of local white residents, and the Kunming provincial authorities once again took various measures to restrict Chinese, thus forming the second round of Chinese exclusion. From 1877 to 1888, only 550 people came to Queensland.
1888 June 12 to June 14, the intercontinental conference was held in Sydney. The meeting passed a more stringent bill restricting the entry of China people, stipulating that any vessel is only allowed to carry 1 China people into Australia every 500 tons. Wxf people must have written permission to enter Australia, and wxf people must be allowed to move across provinces first. In fact, these resolutions almost shut China people out of Australia. Since then, the number of Australian Chinese has gone out. By 1888, there were only 50,000 Australian Chinese, and by 190 1, the number even decreased to 30,000.
190 1 year, the Commonwealth of Australia and Asia was formally established, and it was decided to further limit the number of immigrants by adopting dictation test, stipulating that every immigrant entering Australia must write a 50-word-long text of any European country in front of Australian officials, which actually closed the door to Australia and made it more difficult for China people to go. Later, white Australians even put forward slogans such as "Snow Australia" and "Australian Australia" to promote the "White Australia Policy" (Note 10). Since then, the land of ancient Australia has been smashed? For the prosperity and development of Australian society, Chinese who shed countless sweat and made great contributions have become the object of exclusion. At this time, the gold mines in various places are also drying up day by day, and the mining business is actually at a standstill. Chinese workers have also returned to China, and those who survived have moved to cities one after another to work in vegetable gardens, vegetable vendors, laundries, furniture craftsmen, small vendors or run retail stores. The gold rush era has also come to an end.