Over the last couple of decades, we’ve come to know a lot more about women’s lives on the Victorian goldfields thanks to the work of historians, archaeologists, curators, as well as local and family historians who’ve dedicated years of research, particularly to the central Victorian goldfields. Resources like Trove and Ancestry, along with the digitisation of some archival records, have made it somewhat easier to find evidence of women’s lives, but most of the time you’re still dealing with fragments.
In November 2020 I gave a talk to the staff and volunteers of Old Treasury Building in Melbourne, and explained how I pieced together some of the fragments that document the life of Eliza Oakey, an entertainer on the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s and ’60s, and the connection she has to one of Old Treasury Building’s near neighbours, the Imperial Hotel.
You can watch a recording of this talk here.
Old Treasury Building, designed by John James Clark and built between 1858 and 1862, is one of Melbourne’s finest 19th century buildings. Open to the public (depending on Covid restrictions), visitors can admire the architecture, see the gold vaults built to store gold from the Victorian goldfields, and visit a range of exhibitions on the history of Melbourne and Victoria.