The Victorian Gold Fields 1852-3
Australian History Local History Art History Illustrated Reference Educational Reference Collectible Antiquarian Gold Rush History Colonial Australiana
Michael Cannon’s 1982 first-edition hardback, “The Victorian Gold Fields 1852-3,” is the book that antique print collectors, Australiana buffs, and gold-rush genealogists actively hunt for on the secondary market. Published in a tiny Melbourne print-run and rarely seen in original dust-jacket, this copy is clean, unmarked, and still square—exactly the condition serious collectors pay a premium for. Inside, 100 pages of heavy art-stock showcase 150 period lithographs, water-colours and daguerreotype plates that have never been reprinted in any later trade edition, making this volume the definitive visual reference for Australia’s greatest gold rush.
Cannon, one of Australia’s most respected social historians, pairs each image with first-hand diary snippets, newspaper headlines and miners’ licence tallies to recreate the chaos and colour of Ballarat, Castlemaine and Bendigo at the moment they were transforming the British Empire’s economy. The result is a coffee-table picture book that doubles as a scholarly source: art historians cite the plates when dating Victorian-era photography; schools use the eyewitness accounts for Year-9 curriculum; and family historians treasure the roll-call of forgotten diggers who suddenly struck it rich. No other single volume combines high-resolution artwork with statistically accurate production figures, so if you need to verify the exact weight of a 1853 octagonal gold ingot or the cost of a cradle on the Ovens field, this is where you look.
Because the 1982 first edition was printed on thick woven paper and never re-issued, copies in collectible condition have quietly doubled in price every five years. This example shows only the lightest shelf scuffing to the jacket and a few negligible page flecks—far better than the ex-library copies that usually surface. For investors, it is a liquid asset that shelves beautifully beside other colonial rarities; for educators, it is an engaging window into multicultural frontier life; and for anyone with a drop of Aussie gold fever, it is the most authoritative and beautiful record of the fields that made Melbourne a world city.
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