A Day On The Goldfields

PART 1

The bright red dawn wakes me up to yet another day in the hot sun, panning through thousands of river stones, searching for my fortune. I'm one of the thousands of men who have come to Central Otago by boat in the 1860's Otago Gold Rush, searching for what seems to be forever just out of my reach-gold.

When I arrived, I had bought with me a few shillings-enough to buy a tent, a pick, an axe, a shovel and pan and some basic food supplies to get me started. It was a scramble to get the best spots. Luckily, I found a nice sheltered spot under the ferns in the bush to pitch my tent and stake a claim.

I had to build my own sluice to wash the gold out of the rocks. Looking for gold is hard work. Once I break up the rocks with my pick, I have to shovel them onto the top of the sluice where the water that runs over them should wash out any gold and collect it at the base (gold is heavier than the mud and sand, so it falls out of the running water).

Then I have to clear away that load and start over again. When I get too tired, I pick up my pan and pan for gold by the river's edge. It was easier in the earlier days, you could plant a shovel anywhere in the riverbed and pick up five or six ounces of gold just like that; nowadays, I can spend a whole day working, and only get not much more!

The thing that keeps me going is those Chinamen. We don't let them near our claims - they stay in the "undesirable" areas. But they take over the sites we abandon, nothing but tailings left, should be no gold in there 'cause we've taken it all out already, and somehow they actually find more gold in it!

Don't know how they do it, but if they can, so can I.

Strange lot those Chinamen; never drink, no women, never fight - only let off a few crackers now and then (to ward off "evil spirits" they reckon) and gamble amongst themselves a bit, can't imagine what they do for entertainment but they sure can cook.

Helped one move a couple of rocks the other day and he came round at lunchtime and gave me this white dumpling thing full of pork - best thing I'd eaten for months (sure beats porridge)!

A few of the other gold miners had struck huge amounts of gold, becoming rich, but many of us ended up losing more money to the stores that sold food and tools, then actually making a profit.

Less people were now digging at Gabriel's Valley - can't afford to stop yet, hard life though, maybe I just won't wake up tomorrow.................

Hey guys! I know this is really short, sorry about that. This was my first ever essay at Secondary School. Hope you liked it anyway and got a taste of how hard a goldminer's life was! ;P <3