"All this, Jim, was a wonderful jump forward for New South Wales, and the town of Sydney boomed. But it was equally bad for the other provinces of Australia, and Victoria, being the nearest, suffered most. Almost every man able to wield a pick or rock a miner's cradle, deserted his work and rushed to Bathurst. The gold was so easy to separate from the quartz that a man could get rich using no other tool than an ordinary hammer.
"Shepherds and even sheep-owners deserted their flocks, farmers let their land go to weed, merchants abandoned their shops, manufacturers allowed their machinery to rust, school-teachers locked the doors of schools, and workmen of every line of labor flocked to Sydney and toiled along the widely beaten track to Bathurst.
Australia's Treasure-House.
One of the shafts of the Kilgoorlie Gold Mine, more than 1000 feet below the surface.
From "Mines and Their Story," by Bernard Mannix Sidgwick and Jackson.
Courtesy of Kilgoorlie Gold Mining Co.
