Australian Life 



five-pound notes, and adorned the barmaids with 

 necklaces made of virgin nuggets. The theatre 

 where Lola Montez sang and danced her way into 

 the hearts of thousands of red-shirted men not 

 one woman in the whole house and the stage 

 where she stood bowing amid a golden shower of 

 nuggets and specimens; these have been pulled 

 down, but a monument marks the spot where the 

 digger and the soldier tried conclusions the site 

 of the Eureka Stockade. 



Twenty years after the gold discoveries, Bal- 

 larat was a city of wood and canvas. On ' ' The 

 Corner," not far from the present Square of 

 Statues, was a busy share mart, where men stood 

 all day in the open air, buying and selling mining 

 scrip. The roar of quartz batteries lulled the 

 children to sleep each night, and between the 

 shops and houses were reared the "poppet heads ' ' 

 and heaps of tailings that marked the situation of 

 active mining operations. When a rich discovery 

 was made, the throng of open-air speculators on 

 1 ' The Corner ' ' stretched across the wide street, 

 and undeterred by the fall of night, these gamblers 

 continued to buy and sell their shares by the 

 flickering light of an occasional candle. ' c Coined 

 into sovereigns," your ancient guide will tell you, 

 "the gold taken out of Ballarat would stretch in a 

 long line across the continent. But," he will 

 add, with a mournful shake of his head, " very 

 little of it has remained in the place. ' ' 



But Ballarat does not live in the past. The 



