Women in the Goldrush Era

When Edward Hargraves found gold in Summer Hill Creek in 1851, the Australian goldrushes began. Although some women accompanied their husbands to the diggings, others found themselves and their families abandoned and many of these deserted wives grouped together to share houses for their own protection, taking in washing and doing housework to support themselves.

Women were scarce on the goldfields with one woman to every four men. For those women who went with their husbands life was indeed hard. They had to help push barrows and pull carts, rock the cradles for gold, sometimes act as lodging house-keepers, cooks and nurses and take care of their children. Many died of the goldrush diseases, fevers, and infections from the putrid water.

However, some people were able to see that there were ways of becoming rich at the goldfields other than digging for gold. One such person was Agnes Butine who, along with her husband, Hugh Butine, had a large property near Bruthen in Victoria where they also ran a pub and a general store. Mrs Butine became a bullock driver and carrier who never missed a chance to trade and also operated pack horses between Melbourne and the Bendigo goldfields. She was the first to take a packhorse team into the isolated settlement at Walhalla, the first to slaughter a beast there, and acted as butcher for some years. After her husband's death in 1867 she continued the bullock teams and died in 1896. The sly grog shops that provided alcohol for the miners were often run by women. Entertainers such as Lola Montez also performed for the miners when small theatres were built.