ROYAL CHARTER: Collins Street and Bourke Street, Melbourne, and the Welsh Community

Disgrifiad

The image shows two of the main streets of the city of Melbourne, Collins Street and Bourke Street. These streets contained several of the city's hotels as well as government and official buildings such as the post office, police station, town hall and banks. Single storey buildings of wood as well as brick and stone of multiple levels can be seen. These buildings stand in contrast to the canvas city of southern Melbourne, called so because of the large number of tents set up to accommodate the Gold Rush miners.

It was here in Melbourne that the Royal Charter arrived in July 1859 in a record time of 59 days, and from which it would depart in August on its last fateful voyage back to Liverpool.

The streets appear very wide and open, with plenty of room for the horses and carts. You will note that there are also wide pavements on either side for pedestrians.

Melbourne had been founded in 1837 and named after the then British Prime minister Lord Melbourne. The population of the newly founded town was quite small, but with the discovery of gold in the region in 1851 people from across the world rushed in to seek their fortune. The population of Melbourne had been only about 29,000 in 1851 but grew to over 500,000 by 1861.
In the 1850s, the state of Victoria was responsible for about one third of the world's gold output.

There had been few Welsh colonists before 1851, but by 1863 there were enough to merit an Eisteddfod.

One visitor to the city from Britain in 1851 found it to be very much like home - and confirm this comment, you can see a 'Staffordshire House' and 'The Old White Hart' in this image.

How was life in the gold fields different to life in the city? What became of the Welsh communities that established themselves there?

For more information see:
Australian Gold Rush
http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-gold-rush

The Welsh in Australia
http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=1095

City of Melbourne
http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx