This painting depicts Ballarat before colonisation by white settlers and later prospectors from around the globe. It shows beautiful and densely wooded forests.
Von Guerard Ballarat 1851
This painting from Von Guerard shows how trees were cut down around Ballarat to make way for tent villages. Trees were used to make fires, build windlasses, prop up mine shafts and build huts. Wood was quickly used.
Dirty Water
As thousands descended on Ballarat, people first panned for gold in the creeks. This created muddy water filled with silt and mud. People would also use the creeks to bathe and to cook. With few sources of clean drinking water, disease and illness would have quickly spread.
1850s Transport
With horses and bullocks pulling loaded up drays, roads quickly carved out muddy tracks through the environment. With wet weather, these became even more treacherous.
Clunes, Victoria 1850s
Clunes near Ballarat suffered much the same as Ballarat. A completely treeless landscape dotted by shafts and piles of rubble and dirt roads.
As miners struggled to find alluvial gold in creeks, they started to dig shaft mines. Ones like this, littered the landscape and many still exist today. In Bendigo alone, there are 5,600 mines such as these.
Mercury Rising
Mercury was once used by miners to extract gold from other minerals and rock. It is still contaminating creeks and rivers in California.
Open cut mines
This is Australia's second largest open cut mine called The Super Pit. The pit is approximately 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and over 600 metres deep. How will the environment here ever recover from such destruction?
Abandoned mines - Mount Morgan, QLD
As many mines closed down, open mines would often become filled with water to create artificial lakes. However, don't be fooled by the beautiful blue water, this is highly acidic and therefore dangerous for swimmers and animals.
The Devastating Effects of Gold Mining
Indigenous peoples of South American countries are being exploited to mine for gold but at what cost?
