Why did the Australian gold rush happen?

Answer 1

Gold was commonly mined by using one of the following methods:

• Panning involved the use of a solid pan. An amount of potentially gold-bearing dirt was placed in the pan with some water, and gently swished and shaken around, a process which would bring the smaller particles of gold to the surface.
• Cradling involved a wooden box loosely resembling a cradle. The cradle was used for sifting through larger amounts of sediment to find gold, and was popular from the early times of the goldrushes. It required at least two men to work. The cradle had a grate and a sieve. The dirt and sediment to be sifted through was emptied onto the grate in the cradle. The cradle was rocked quickly back and forth (in the action of a cradle) while water was poured over the sediment to help work it through. The grate stopped coarser stones from going through, while the fine material was sifted out the other end. The gold would be left behind for easy collection.
• Sieves were also popular. They were like a pan but with a mesh base through which the water would drain, to help separate gold from similar sized particles.
• Windlass was one of the slower methods of mining for gold. Two people were required to operate it, one at the surface and one in the mine shaft. The person in the shaft filled a bucket with potential gold-bearing soil and rocks, and the person on the surface operated the windlass to wind up the bucket. The contents of the bucket were then sorted through, perhaps in a cradle or a pan.
• Stamper batteries were large steam-driven machines, which were used to crush the quartz in order to extract gold.

Answer 2

When someone walks around a wilderness somewhere and finds gold laying around on the ground they claim a certain amount of territory around the area where they made the find in order to protect it from being exploited by others. However when a claim like this is made the news gets out quickly and other are attracted to the area to try their hand at becoming rich as a result of finding gold. It does not require a great deal of skill to find gold in some areas and this is a further incentive to many people that would have very little or no other chance of ever becoming wealthy. But you have to be quick to get the best claims so many people try to get to the gold areas as quickly as possible in order to get to the best claims first.

Answer 3

people hearing that gold was found on John Sutter's ranch in California