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From Eganstown and Deep Creek in the west, Hepburn,^ Shepherds Flat, Dry
Diggings and Yandoit in the north. Sailors Falls in the south, and Coomoora, and
Glenlyon in the east (ref figure 8), gold finds were attracting large numbers of miners.
The Daylesford area was, in fact, Victoria's most enduring goldfield and the largest in
area, covering over 300 kilometres of auriferous ground.^ Its population increased
greatly between 1852 and 1854, contributing to the doubling of the population of the
Colony of Victoria in those years.
People came from many parts of the world to the Jim Crow gold mines. They
were met with a unique sight, as this was a young British colony where whites had
only recently settled. Apart from the aboriginal population, the people were mainly
engaged in stock-raising pursuits and related activities of building, commerce, banking
and shipping. Most of the population was English or Irish and few spoke a language
other than English. When gold was discovered, waves of treasure-seeking foreigners
flooded into the country from Europe, America and China. The intention of these
immigrants was to spend a few years mining the gold then to return quickly to their
homelands. They were unlike the groups of political refligees who had arrived with
their families and possessions to make a permanent settlement in Australia. There was
no notion of 'nation-building' or of staying to raise a family. For many of the diggers
who arrived early on the goldfields, this hope became a reality and they retumed home
sufficiently wealthy to begin a new and better life. For others, among whom were
many of the Italian-speaking immigrants from Europe, the hope of wealth was to
remain an unattainable dream.
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