Racism on the Goldfields

With so many immigrants from different countries assembled on the goldfields, it wasn't long until threats to social stability were magnified in the form of racism.

One of the main driving forces behind this racism was competition on the goldfields. For example, initial racism centred on gold-seekers from the United States. With their experience gained on the Californian goldfields, the Americans were active and successful in Australia, not only in finding gold but in business too. This created some unease, especially from the British who had claimed Australia as theirs. Foreigners like the Americans were constantly arriving on their land to search for gold at potential places they had not discovered themselves. Subsequently, the British were not happy with these gold-seekers and racism based largely on fear of competition erupted.

Originally, most of the racism on the goldfields involved the British's disquiet over the presence of diggers from the United States an

Overall, however, the results of the racism against Chinese diggers were much more severe than a ten-pound tax. On many occasions, racism spilled over into hatred and hysteria with crimes committed against the Chinese. Riots were particularly frequent and in most cases, European diggers attacked Chinese camps, burned their tents, smashed equipment, beat and kicked them. Such riots occurred at Buckland River (Victoria) in 1847, The Crocodile Creek Goldfields (Queensland) in 1867 and at Lambing Flat (NSW) in 1861. In addition to this, the Chinese were often chased by the other diggers who cut off their pigtails. These ongoing results of racism lead to the separation of the Chinese from the rest of the goldmining societies. Chinese villages were typically set apart from the townships and a man known as a Chinese Protectorate was usually needed to make sure that his people were looked after and that others kept away from them and didn’t hassle them.

Like the European diggers, the Chinese also had their own views about each other. One Chinaman wrote, “Many of the European diggers are dirty, careless, lazy, rowdy and unfriendly.” Although many Chinese people thought that, they kept their opinions to themselves.

In my opinion, this statement stands true today, as the Chinese people have pride and great respect for being in Austr

Some topics in this essay:
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