American Demons

Three Square Meters of Hope

Official silence - What happened before

In the spring of 1808, a discovery of gold in the Sydney area alerted the colonial administration of New South Wales. Governor William Paterson fears the devastating consequences of a gold rush. For fear of a breakdown in public order, he orders official silence.

But word spreads like wildfire. Everyone is on their feet immediately. The gold rush accelerated the settlement of Australia. Suddenly hundreds crowd the banks of rivers and streams. Gold panners set up in the streams. They look annoyed at the people behind them. Nobody gets more than three square meters of hope. For this he pays the government twenty shillings. People come together in claim cooperatives. Soon there will be no free men in Sydney and therefore no more workers.

The alluvium contains clay to which gold adheres. The gold is easy to pick and bag. Gold is contained in quartz, it sands at the bottom of the stream. Nobody cares about the value of the quartz. Nobody cares about the profits from the mining of granite, limestone, marble, coal, kaolin, copper, lead. It doesn't matter what salt production and fishing bring. The gold seekers ignore fields full of meteorite fragments. Gold fever attacks the brain. It creates a stupid rhythm of life.

The fever brings civilization to a standstill. The new views are ancient. Where before you just argued with someone, you will now immediately break their jaw. Everything is subject to the free flow of emotions. This puts deaths on the agenda. Deportees are already mixing with free immigrants. Convicts can easily escape as their guards are chasing the gold at full speed.

Deserters meet deportees. Now luck decides your rank and how much respect you can gain. Anyone who has gold is considered more important than an officer without gold. Anyone who knows secret "gold spots" will be interesting. Crime increases credibility. Former inmates sell prison gossip as surefire tips to the highest bidders. They lead unsuspecting people to the end of the world and to their death.

Those who were disappointed in the first round of the gold rush move on. The madness moves with them further and further into the wilderness. Soon it gets to the point where people start digging in random places. Desperate people reactivate abandoned claims. Townships are created. Ex-convict Josh Singer will be paid £140,000 for a place that costs him £73. Singer interprets the sudden wealth as a commission from God to found his own church - the Singer Church.