The Australian gold rushes of the 1850s and 60s were the catalyst for great changes in Australia. Almost overnight it became the go to land of riches and opportunity for emigration from all over the British Isles. Nowhere, more so than from the the coal fields and industries of Durham and Northumberland. Overtime the movement was by no means in one direction with the return of homebound migrants with or without fortunes.
A setting enacted by thousands of individual endeavours that shaped the destiny of families for generations. The talk is given as a tribute to the pioneer minded lead miners from the Northern Dales and the basis for my Churchill Fellowship trip to Australia in 2000 and since. To share some stories of success and failure, fortunes made and lost, heart break and hardship and of the enduring spirit of the “battler” .