The connections
between Australia and New Zealand during the gold rush period have been
obscured in national histories of both countries. Rushing for Gold edited by Lloyd Carpenter and Lyndon Fraser, is
the first book to examine the nature of trans-Tasman ties, the short-lived and
the long-lasting, formed on the back of the gold rushes.
‘Armies of
restless diggers criss-crossed the sea highways joining Melbourne to Hokitika
and Dunedin,’ says co-editor Dr Lloyd Carpenter. ‘A colourful entourage of
storekeepers and publicans, wardens, bank agents, domestic servants and
musicians followed in their wake.’
Rushing
for Gold
reveals the cultural complexities of the mining frontier: amid gold fever multiple
streams of trans-Tasman relationship were set in motion. A lowly migrant could,
overnight, become an individual of great wealth. The gold rushes impacted on
all domains of life, upending the social order, mixing up classes, races and
nationalities.
‘It was not
solely an Otago gold rush, says co-editor Dr Lyndon Fraser, ‘but an
Australasian one, where diggers chased their gold dreams in a headlong rush
back and forth across the inconvenient Tasman Sea.’
Rushing
for Gold
provides fascinating glimpses into the everyday lives of Cantonese and
indigenous miners, women, Irish-born migrants and ‘casualties of colonisation’;
further chapters reveal the depth of Maori engagement in trans-Tasman commerce
and society and explore why, and how, the Chinese survived and often thrived as
sojourners in Otago.
This
multi-perspective volume, with contributions from both academics and those
outside the academy, including local historians and genealogists, is a
must-read for anyone interested in goldfields and colonial history. Rushing for Gold unravels the mythology
of the era and reveals the richness and complexity of the trans-Tasman
relationship during this formative period.
Lloyd
Carpenter has worked as a teacher, insurance manager, sales
manager and Salvation Army officer. In 2008 he returned to the University of
Canterbury and completed a PhD on a subject he has loved since his youth: the
Central Otago gold rush. He currently teaches Māori Studies at Lincoln
University. In 2016 Lloyd will be a visiting fellow of Cambridge University’s
Faculty of History.
|
Rushing for Gold
Edited
by Lloyd Carpenter
and
Lyndon Fraser
Release
Date: March 2016
ISBN 978-1-877578-54-0, $45
www.facebook.com/OtagoUniversityPress
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