A Woman on the Goldfields: Recollections of Emily Skinner 1854-1878 edited by Edward Duyker

Book Description

Secondhand. Good condition. Wear to book corners and edges, particularly tail edge. Mark on top front endpage and half-title page. Scratch from price sticker removal on front endpage, now covered with blank ex libris bookplate sticker. Dust jacket has light creasing at edges and spine. Tear to top edge front cover. Dust jacket is now enclosed in protective covering.

Emily Skinner - vibrant, observant, eternally young-at-heart - emigrated from Britain to Australia in 1854. Not only did she keep a shipboard journal—the story of her trip from the old world to the new—but she later recorded her reminiscences of a colourful life as a miner's wife.

Here, published for the first time, is Emily's account of a voyage halfway around the world to marry her sweetheart. She evokes the wild storms, sea sickness, the malaise and boredom, the gossip and intrigue. Her impressions of the young town of Melbourne follow, as well as her recollections of what is now the town of Beechworth and the surrounding goldfields of the Ovens and Buckland valleys. Her simple joy at the strangeness and novelty of the young colony is evident as she brings to life the raw energy of the 'rough and ready' goldmining settlements where the population lived under canvas amidst the deep shafts and coveted claims. (Trove)