Curio

State Library of New South Wales
G. Oliver's Prince of Wales Hotel and C.L. Morris' Newmarket Sale Yards (auctioneer and agent), Home Rule

G. Oliver's Prince of Wales Hotel and C.L. Morris' Newmarket Sale Yards (auctioneer and agent), Home Rule

1872
Glass photonegative

The rush to Home Rule in May 1872 supported about 5000 miners, mostly from worked-out leads in Gulgong. According to the Gulgong Guardian, 8 May 1872:

As the report of the supposed new find was circulated in every paper in the colony, strangers from all quarters began to arrive. Every unemployed person, male or female, young or old … were massing around the wings of the Home Rule Lead. Daily the numbers swelled.

Prince of Wales Hotel

By Paula McKay

After digging like old beggars underground, 

lately head-down quenching thirst,

these men with weary faces draw you in

and hold you to the sun-dried dirt.

Ragged creatures, features bold, hard edged 

with creases combed across the brow,

show you how it must have been;

backs bent in hope, in mud and grime

the search for gold surpassing everything.

   

A country's history drawn in earth and rocks,

these adventurers now are hero-sons

of what's new-printed on the brain;

this image that remains, their epitaph.