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Library Raises $50,000 for Goldminer's Diary

26 June 2009

The Library's public appeal for donations to purchase an extraordinary diary written by a gold-digger in 1855 has raised more than $50,000.

The diary charts six eventful months in the miner's life, telling of the murder of a local butcher, the arrival of new prostitutes, a fire that killed 11 people, and, incredibly, the escape of a Bengal tiger in Ballarat's Main Street.

The author is thought to have hailed from Dunbartonshire in Scotland, and the mystery of his identity has drawn much interest both locally and internationally. In Scotland, West Dunbartonshire's mayor is offering a reward to anyone who can identify the author or find another of his sought-after diaries.

The director of the State Library of Victoria Foundation, Michael van Leeuwen, believes the diary gives a unique insight into the details of daily life on the Victorian goldfields.

'The author of this diary took time out every day to record his experiences,' he says. 'Sometimes they were mundane and sometimes extraordinary. But here, more than 150 years after the events were recorded, we have a detailed and very personal account of what it was like to live and work in this time of feverish goldrush activity.'

'We are very grateful for all the support we have received to make this purchase possible. We would like to especially acknowledge donations from our Foundation members and those from companies working in goldmining today, who clearly feel a connection and affinity with the diary’s author - Lihir Gold Limited; Newcrest Mining Corporation; and Rio Tinto Australia.'

The diary is now available to all Victorians. Its pages have been scanned and will soon be available in full with accompanying transcripts via the State Library website. The diary itself is on loan to the Sovereign Hill Gold Museum, where it will be on public display from 29 June until August 2009.

The appeal raised $54,000 in total. The remaining funds have been used to acquire another rare account of life on the goldfields, The province of Victoria and the gold-yielding regions, published in Calcutta in 1858. This book has not appeared in any Australian library catalogues until now.