Staking a Claim – Gold and the development of the Victorian Mining Law. (book review)

Title :- Staking a Claim – Gold and the development of the Victorian Mining Law.

By :- Ralph W. Birrell

Published :-Melbourne University Press, Victoria (1998), Hard back (200 pages)

Outline :- The Victorian gold fields of 1860’s around Bendigo and Ballarat encountered the first time in Colonial Australia where mining was concentrated in a small area, and organization structure needed to be implemented by the miners themselves to ensure workable guidelines to staking a claim and working the area. This was overshadowed by the Government of the day that represented the older and well established landed gentry. Gradually the system pulled itself together, thanks largely to some far sighted magistrates.

This is a good book for some “wild west” Indonesian mining sites, that eventually must settle down in order for more of the participants to get a future.