Author Topic: Australian Miners  (Read 658 times)

Offline Brian E 1

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Australian Miners
« on: Sunday 08 August 21 19:05 BST (UK) »
Might a forum reader(s) have knowledge about Australian miners, in the mid to late 1880's.

In particular was there recruitment that brought them to the UK or maybe to elsewhere via the UK ?

I have traced who I believe may be my GGGF, born in Buninyong, Victoria, Australia through a shipping passenger manifest, where surprisingly a majority of the passengers on his particular passage were, like him, male / single and recorded their occupation as miner.
( I am intrigued as to why quite so many (with the same occupation) would have been travelling together).

I feel there, most probably, may have been some incentive / inducement to have seen so many travelling together.

Any information appreciated.

Thanks

Offline goldie61

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Re: Australian Miners
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 08 August 21 22:08 BST (UK) »
The obvious answer is the Australian Gold Rushes from the 1850s onwards.

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/gold-rushes
Between 1851 and 1871 the Australian population quadrupled from 430,000 people to 1.7 million as migrants from across the world arrived in search of gold.

Plus thousands of websites about it.
Lane, Burgess: Cheshire. Finney, Rogers, Gilman:Derbys
Cochran, Nicol, Paton, Bruce:Scotland. Bertolle:London
Bainbridge, Christman, Jeffs: Staffs

Offline majm

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Re: Australian Miners
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 08 August 21 22:31 BST (UK) »
Welcome Brian,


I may be mistaken, but are you looking at why miners were leaving the Australian colonies and migrating TO Britain in the 1880s .... if so, could there be significant Industrial changes to the manufacture of Steel that required experienced underground miners to go to Britain... all within the British Empire...

JM

Might a forum reader(s) have knowledge about Australian miners, in the mid to late 1880's.

In particular was there recruitment that brought them to the UK or maybe to elsewhere via the UK ?

I have traced who I believe may be my GGGF, born in Buninyong, Victoria, Australia through a shipping passenger manifest, where surprisingly a majority of the passengers on his particular passage were, like him, male / single and recorded their occupation as miner.
( I am intrigued as to why quite so many (with the same occupation) would have been travelling together).

I feel there, most probably, may have been some incentive / inducement to have seen so many travelling together.

Any information appreciated.

Thanks
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Offline goldie61

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Re: Australian Miners
« Reply #3 on: Monday 09 August 21 02:51 BST (UK) »
Oops. Did I read it the wrong way round?  ;)

By the way, welcome to Rootschat!
Lane, Burgess: Cheshire. Finney, Rogers, Gilman:Derbys
Cochran, Nicol, Paton, Bruce:Scotland. Bertolle:London
Bainbridge, Christman, Jeffs: Staffs


Offline Jackiemh

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Re: Australian Miners
« Reply #4 on: Monday 09 August 21 05:10 BST (UK) »
Welcome to rootschat. I
I have looked up in trove.nla (free) for any ads for miners to work in England but there were too many to look at.
However, I did look at findmypast's newspapers for Australian miners -
one paper mentioned them working at a gold mine in Wales in 1887 for about a year.
There were also mentions of them working in India around that time.
Jackie
Bateman, Baylis, Bellotti, Boag, Bower (Stillgebauer), Cattermole, Chester, Dullage, Felix, French, Fursse, Garrett, Gilbert, Harding, Haynes, Hazelwood, Plume, Putland, Rudge, Strickson, Vine, Warren, Whitehead, Whitehorn, Wiltshire, Youthed and many more

Offline Peter L. Mitchell

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Re: Australian Miners
« Reply #5 on: Thursday 12 August 21 11:38 BST (UK) »
Hi Brian.

Welcome to this wonderful site!

The Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) has just made access to passenger lists available online so you might find some information there: https://prov.vic.gov.au/

If your GGGF was born in Buninyong then there should be a record available on the Victorian Births Deaths and Marriages site ($20 per record, and they arrive in the email within 5 minutes) here:

https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history

If he was in Buninyong then it's likely that he was a gold miner. I have found the Linton Historical Society very helpful: https://www.lintonhistory.org.au/

Ballarat Historical Society might also be helpful: http://www.ballarathistoricalsociety.com/

My GGF was a Durham coal miner who came out in 1861 and he worked at Happy Valley, which is a few kilometres south of Buninyong and east of Linton. There was a big mine at the town of Piggoreet, which is also east of Linton. Perhaps your relative worked there?

You will find that Victorian birth record of the 1880s are very detailed, and they record parents' names, where they came from, and mother's maiden name and age when born. This can be very useful in helping you to search further back in the GRO.

When searching I have found that ancestors sometimes varied the spelling of names, so it's worthwhile trying a number of different ways of spelling names if at first you don't succeed.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your search!

Peter

p.s. If you give us his name we might be able to give you more help.