What was life like for the women and children?
Other women travelled to the goldfields later when their husbands had found enough gold to build more comfortable huts and send for their wives and children. They often kept a few hens and goats so that their children would have better food. As the number of women on the goldfields increased, life became more settled. They shared all the discomforts of life on the diggings and worked as hard as the men: washing, cooking, chopping wood and helping with the search for gold as well.
Many children went to the goldfields with their parents and by December 1852 there were almost 12000 children on the Victorian diggings. Most of them spent their childhood helping their parents search for gold. They carried wood, looked after the tent or hut, cared for the horses and fossicked among the ‘tailings’ or left-over gravel and sand. Older children were expected to work as hard as adults.
Some parent sent their children to school on the diggings. Goldfields schools started in tents, some of which were big enough to holdup to a hundred children, sitting at long wooden benches. The children’s parents paid a fee so that their children could go to school. As you could imagine the standard of education from these schools was not very high. Children moved from one goldfield to another. If there was no teacher there, they had to wait until one turned up. Teachers, like others on the goldfields, lived in tents. They had almost no equipment and if the pupils moved, the teacher too had to pack up and move to a new place. If a goldfield became well established and diggers stayed there for several years, more permanent or lasting schools were organised
Many children went to the goldfields with their parents and by December 1852 there were almost 12000 children on the Victorian diggings. Most of them spent their childhood helping their parents search for gold. They carried wood, looked after the tent or hut, cared for the horses and fossicked among the ‘tailings’ or left-over gravel and sand. Older children were expected to work as hard as adults.
Some parent sent their children to school on the diggings. Goldfields schools started in tents, some of which were big enough to holdup to a hundred children, sitting at long wooden benches. The children’s parents paid a fee so that their children could go to school. As you could imagine the standard of education from these schools was not very high. Children moved from one goldfield to another. If there was no teacher there, they had to wait until one turned up. Teachers, like others on the goldfields, lived in tents. They had almost no equipment and if the pupils moved, the teacher too had to pack up and move to a new place. If a goldfield became well established and diggers stayed there for several years, more permanent or lasting schools were organised