A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53

It may be deemed presumptuous that one of my age and sex should venture

to give to the public an account of personal adventures in a land which

has so often been descanted upon by other and abler pens; but when I

reflect on the many mothers, wives, and sisters in England, whose

hearts are ever longing for information respecting the dangers and

privations to which their relatives at the antipodes are exposed,

I cannot but hope that the presumption of my undertaking may be

pardoned in consideration of the pleasure which an accurate description

of some of the Australian Gold Fields may perhaps afford to many; and

although the time of my residence in the colonies was short, I had the

advantage (not only in Melbourne, but whilst in the bush) of constant

intercourse with many experienced diggers and old colonists--thus

having every facility for acquiring information respecting Victoria and

the other colonies.

It was in the beginning of April, 185-, that the excitement

occasioned by the published accounts of the Victoria "Diggings,"

induced my brother to fling aside his Homer and Euclid for the various

"Guides" printed for the benefit of the intending gold-seeker, or to

ponder over the shipping columns of the daily papers. The love of

adventure must be contagious, for three weeks after (so rapid were our

preparations) found myself accompanying him to those auriferous

regions. The following pages will give an accurate detail of my

adventures there--in a lack of the marvellous will consist their

principal faults but not even to please would I venture to turn

uninteresting truth into agreeable fiction. Of the few statistics which

occur, I may safely say, as of the more personal portions, that they

are strictly true.