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Edward Roper
born England c. 1830, died England 1909
Humping the bluey c. 1860
ink and wash with gouache highlights on card
20.5 x 13.5 cm (image)
Collection of Denis Joachim
"A gold digger must be a Jack-o-all-trades;
he must be able to strip bark, fall a tree, and saw it, dig sods,
make embankments, put up a hut, mend your clothes, draw firewood
after chopping it, bake, boil, and roast, use a pick and a spade,
delve, dig, and quarry, load, and unload, draw a sledge, and drive
a barrow, cut paths, make roadways, puddle in mud, and splash
ankle deep in water, with occasional slushings from head to foot,
bear sleet and rain without flinching during the day, and sleep
in damp blankets during the night, thankful that they are not
entirely saturated – if ye can do all this, and have spirit
enough to attempt it, and endurance enough to carry it on for
three months, why there is gold and rheumatism in store for you."
Alfred Clarke, Geelong Advertiser, 19 September
1851
Cited Serle, G, The Golden Age. A History of the
Colony of Victoria, 1851–1861, Melbourne, 1977, p. 22.
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