In November intelligence was received in the colony that the Australian gold discoveries had created a widespread and profound sensation in England, and that thousands of persons were preparing to emigrate to the Antipodes.
THE FIRST MELBOURNE GOLD CIRCULAR
Was issued by Messrs. Stubbs and Son, on 17th November, publishing the result of sales on the nth and 15th, of Ballarat and Mount Alexander gold, at rates from £"3 is. 7d. to £ 3 2%. id. per oz. Specimens, i.e.—(fold nuggets brought (1) £3 10s., and (2) £3 17s. per oz. It was now at length established beyond doubt that goldfields existed at Clunes, Buninyong, Ballarat, Mount Alexander, Mount Mercer on the Leigh, the W a n d y Yallock Gullies, Anderson's Creek, and that there were unmistakable indications of the coveted metal at the sources of the Barwon, Moorabool, Werribee, and Devil's Rivers, an area of some 10,000 square miles. O n the 19th November, the Government escort from Mount Alexander brought 6,846 ozs. and £ 3 5 4 5 in cash; whilst one from Ballarat conveyed 2117 ozs. to Melbourne, 619 ozs. to Geelong, making in one week in round numbers 10,000 ozs. gold, which at £ 3 per oz. represented £30,000. Of this quantity, 462 ozs. and ,£2,750 belonged to the Government as the proceeds of digging licenses. Three thousand persons had gone from Ballarat to Mount Alexander in a fortnight. The shine was beginning to be taken out of Ballarat by the superior richness and larger extent of the Mount Alexander district, and on the 29th November the former place was cast into the shade by the arrival of the Mount escort, with 11,424 ozs., leaving behind (as was said) 6000 ozs. to prevent the overloading of the conveyance. A s it was, it broke down twice on the road. The quantity brought by the Ballarat escort was 1745 ozs. or both 13,169 ozs. which at £3 would make ,£39,507. Such extraordinary yields induced a relapse of the yellow fever in Melbourne, and every one was again thinking of nothing else than a trip to the diggings, utterly regardless of previous disappointments. In fact the gold-bitten were so numerous that during the last five months of 1851, I m a y safely assert that not 50 males, between the ages of 15 and 60, remained in Melbourne and its neighbourhood without visiting either Ballarat or Mount Alexander. Happening to form one of the 50, the finger of scorn was often pointed after m e in the streets, and I was put down as a poor, spiritless, unplucky sort of creature, without the courage or energy to do as almost everyone else did. I managed, however, to bear all the taunts with resignation, and lived to laugh at many a returned " digger" who also lived to regret not having done as I had done. The Government was at its wits' end how to keep the public employes at their posts, for there was a general inclination towards wholesale desertion ; and after some shilly-shallying it was determined to raise the pay of several branches of the Public Service, to wit—the Customs Boatmen, from 3s. to 5 s.; Constables, 3 s. 3d. to 5 s. ; Messengers, 2s. 6d. to 4 s.; Turnkeys or Prison Warders, 4 s. to 5 s.; Mounted Troopers, 3 s. to 4 s.; Letter-carriers, 4 s. to 6s.; and Labourers, from 2 is. per week to 4 s. per diem. &c. T h e shipping of gold had commenced, and one of the first houses to do so was Dalgety and C o , who exported to England 6000 ozs. by the " Himalaya." O. Brown and Co. were the purchasers of £10,000 worth. A s lucky diggers flocked into town, the publicans commenced their harvesting. The nugget m e n were seized as with a mania for extravagances of the most reckless and farcial character. O n e of them, who was spreeing at the Imperial Hotel, in Collins Street, ordered a pair of gold stirrups to be manufactured. A m a d m a n at Geelong had his horses treated to golden shoes; and instances were known where ^5-note sandwiches were swallowed without disagreeing with the gourmands in w h o m such an abnormal and unpalatable appetite was engendered. I have heard it stated as a fact that once a bunch of merry-makers were having a night of it in a Bourke Street Tavern, when one of them, more fastidious in his longings than his mates, after mixing a jorum of strong rum punch, thrust in by way of a relish a £5-note, and after stirring it up with the sugar swallowed the pulp, protesting that nothing in the world agreed with him better than a costly drink. This was a clumsy, though no doubt an unconscious, travesty
