The 1850s, an unfair corrupt place. People would get punished for the smallest things. Money was everything. If you didn’t have it, you’d be left for dead and treated like dirt. Many people would bribe police officers to ignore their criminal activity. The government were unfair and made people pay for licenses. Licenses were 30 shillings and in those days that was a lot of money. Businesses thrived in the harsh conditions because there were limited places to get things and people could charge as much as they want. There was a big difference between rich and poor. The poor had barely enough money to survive and the rich had enough to buy what they please. Many of the poor were Chinese. Chinese were treated even worse than the European people. There was a riot between the Chinese and European people. The governments solution was to ban the Chinese from landing in Victoria so the Chinese solution was to land in Robe and walk 500km to Ballarat.

This term my class have been learning about the gold rush and Eureka stockade. We went to Sovereign hill for camp. We also made a diorama of the Sovreign hill. We did it be making one building with a partner and putting them all together to make a huge diorama. We learned so much about life on the diggings in the 1850s. We went in the mines and Sovreign hill and learned about what happened in them like the welcome nugget being foung and racism about the chinese.

                                       What do you know about the 1850s?