Victorian gold
The gold rush and its impact on cultural life

ST Gill
born England 1818, died Australia 1880

Iron bark 1852–53
lithograph
21.0 x 16.5 cm (sheet); 17.0 x 10.7 cm irreg. (comp.)
The University of Melbourne Art Collection
Gift of the Russell and Mab Grimwade Bequest 1973
1973.0353

"All the aristocratic feelings and associations of the old country are at once annihilated … It is not what you were, but what you are that is the criterion – as, indeed it ought to be – by which you are judged; and although your father might have been my Lord of England-all-over, it goes for nothing in this equalising colony of gold, beef and mutton. Work is the word; and if you cannot do this, you are of no use here. "

J Sherer, The Gold Finder in Australia, London, 1853, p. 10.

Cited Stone, D and Mackinnon, S, Life on the Australian Goldfields, Melbourne, 1976, p. 117.

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