Victorian gold
The gold rush and its impact on cultural life

William Strutt
born England 1825, died England 1915

Untitled (Oxen team) c. 1851
watercolour and pencil on paper
20.2 x 32.5 cm (sheet)
The University of Melbourne Art Collection
Gift of the Russell and Mab Grimwade Bequest 1973
1973.0146

"… there is no slavery to man or beast like that of getting up to the diggings. Sticking fast; loading and unloading in consequence; digging wheels out of the terrible quagmires; heaving at them with long poles for levers; shouting, flogging, swearing, straining – that is the everyday work on the roads … "

W Howitt, Land, Labour and Gold; Or Two Years in Victoria, London, 1855, p. 326.

Cited Serle, G, The Golden Age. A History of the Colony of Victoria, 1851–1861, Melbourne, 1977, p. 70.

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