The Goldfields

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In 1851 Gold was discovered in Victoria.  From some accounts first at Ballarat, followed by bendigo and many places in North Central Victoria.
Martin Prist Pascoe and his family were of the many who tried their luck.  A miner from Cornwall, England, Martin toured Ballarat, Creswick and beyond.  Did he make a fortune, who knows?  Some years earlier James Clarke at times was successful around Creswick with a location sporting the name "Clarke's Hill".
Life was hard for the miners, living in tents was common, the elements relentless, "what a life".  Young children died from exposure and disease.  Miners were killed or injured whilst underground leaving their family's needy.  Some though made their fortune, finds of gold at times was in the kilo's.
Australia is a harsh land.  The heat in the summer months severe, floods were common in the winter and spring.  Victoria, a very different climate from Cornwall and Ireland.
For the Pascoe's, mining copper in Cornwall was a part of life for them so they adapted to the new land and ways of mining.
It seems that the early Pascoe's followed in the path of the "Gold" finds.  Martin Prist Pascoe began this journey around the Ballarat and Creswick areas tracking North East to finally pass from this world in Rutherglen.  Martin's siblings followed in a rough way, in the same direction with many of them passing through or remaining in Violet Town.  Gold had been found in that area, so it is easy to assume that that was an attraction to that area.







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