Miner's camp, Hill End
1872
Glass photonegative
Judging by their accommodation, these are ‘new chums’ or recently arrived miners. Their accommodation around Hill End was described in the D55, 25 May 1872.
… the hillsides east and west are thickly studded with mud huts, calico tents, stumps of old gum trees, and enormous mounds of yellow clay … the dwellings, as a rule, would hardly come up to ordinary ideas of comfort.
From 'The Argus' (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956), Tuesday 29 March, 1870
''New chums" of the "swell" class are either afflicted with an unusual softness in the head or the liquor … is of a much stronger quality than they have been used to at home, as scarcely a passenger ship arrives but some of the passengers of this class are picked up by the police in a state of helpless drunkenness. A few days ago one of these individuals was taken to the watchhouse drunk, when he stated that his father, who was a well-to-do person in Scotland, had sent him out here to cure him of fast living, and that he was going to turn over a new leaf now he had arrived in the colony. He only succeeded, however, in turning into the gutter, and on being brought before the City Bench was handed over to a friend, being still too unsteady to be trusted alone. The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Tuesday 29 March 1870, p4]
Back to list