Hence screenwriters wanted to explore the era when ‘whites’, Chinese people and First Nations people coexisted. When history is taught in Australian high schools, the gold rush era is barely mentioned in textbooks, says Mr Law. The screenwriter says this part of history hasn’t been talked about enough. People could whip up xenophobia and really mobilise each other in terms of driving Chinese people out. “If there was one thing that could ban different people together, it was usually anti-Chinese sentiment,” he says. Mr Law says racial discrimination, xenophobia and anti-Chinese sentiment has persisted since it was first recorded after the Chinese arrived in Australia. “Unfortunately, those threads of the story do continue through Australian history,” he says. Mr McKinnon says European miners didn’t believe the Chinese deserved to enjoy wealth and such a prominent place in the goldfields. The Chinese community faced unjust tax policies and racial riots against them throughout the gold rush era And that seemed to create hostility in terms of a group thought of as being competition to the European miners,” says Mr McKinnon. “The largest non-European group by far was the Chinese. It is estimated that by the end of the 1850s, one-fifth of Victoria’s male population was Chinese, spread out across goldfield regions such as Bendigo, Ballarat and Castlemaine. The following year, the Chinese migrant population grew to 5,000 before it reached 11,500 by 1855. Research uncovered that European miners were often jealous and envious of the way Chinese miners worked, Mr Law says.Įuropean miners were usually individualistic, while Chinese miners, worked in teams that yielded better results.Īccording to researcher Leigh McKinnon from the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, Victoria, there were only around 140 Chinese people living in the state two years before the gold rush. “But it’s such an incredibly ambitious thing to do,” says Mr Law due to the amount of research that needs to be conducted to be able to accurately depict history. Mr Law says many people within Australia’s television industry had long dreamt of bringing the gold rush to the small screen. The Chinese faced discrimination throughout the gold mining era Really, because when you’re trying to recreate an entire world, there’s so much involved in that,” says Mr Law. “It’s probably one of the most expensive dramas that Australia has made. The Californian gold rush was in decline in the 1850s and had been known as the Old Gold Mountain, which led the Chinese to name the Australian gold rush, New Gold Mountain. So, when you throw a murderer into the mix, it’s almost like pouring fuel on a fire that’s ready to ignite. Screenwriters wanted to demonstrate the tinderbox environment of racial relations between white gold-diggers, Chinese gold-diggers and the First Nations people in the gold-mining town, Ballarat, in Victoria’s west. Series co-writer Benjamin Law told SBS Chinese the story of New Gold Mountain begins with the discovery of a white woman’s body outside a camp for Chinese miners. ‘One of the most expensive dramas Australia has made’
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The four-part SBS drama series New Gold Mountain focuses on this historically significant period in time. The gold rush era of the 1850s brought together three groups – the Europeans, Chinese and Indigenous Australians – where there were accounts of conflict. However, many would face discrimination and hostility from their European counterparts. The Chinese brought mining techniques and a distinct way of life from the East to an ancient island continent. Ten of thousands of Chinese gold miners flocked to Victorian goldfields, which they referred to as New Gold Mountain, in search of gold and wealth to create a better life for themselves.
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