Born Then
1851–1869

Life during the Victorian gold rush

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

Gold was found in Victoria in 1851 and the colony's population grew sevenfold in a decade. Miners protested the licence fee at the Eureka Stockade in 1854. The rush also brought tens of thousands of Chinese miners and violent pressure on Aboriginal land.

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from our model, estimated from the sources.

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