Raffaello Carboni wrote that, “Foreigners From All Quarters Of The Globe And Of The Diggings, Came To Inquire From Me What Was The Matter Concerning So Much Excitement As Then Prevailed On Ballaarat. I translated for them the news from our ‘Ballaarat Times’, or from the ‘Geelong Advertiser’s’ clever correspondent.” Raffaello was a translator for non-English speaking residents of the gold diggings during the Eureka Affair of 1854. His personal letters after Eureka to William Henry Archer and Father Patrick Smythe in December 1854 (after the battle) are partly in English, partly Italian, with asides in the margins where he uses some French and German language. Raffaello was multilingual, as probably were others too, amongst the European diggers on the goldfields. Australia as early as the momentous gold rushes of the 1850s was a truly multicultural country. Over 30 different nationalities could be found and heard on the Eureka Diggings at the time of the rebellion. This presentation is about people of different nationalities who were on the Victorian goldfields between 1851 and 1871. Although it concentrates on the central goldfields of Victoria, it applies equally to other goldfields and locations where non-English speakers gathered.
Presenter: Dr Dorothy Wickham
Click here to go to Book: Foreign footprints on the Victorian goldfields
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