Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 625

The total amount of gold produced in the years 1853 & 1854 was as follows : In 1853 the number of ounces was 1,964 : 153 - In 1854, 1,732 : 098 ounces showing a decrease of 232 : 055 ounces of gold in 1854.

POPULATION
The total population of the Colony of Victoria by the census returns of March 1854 was 232 : 872 of these 94 : 891 were inhabitants of Melbourne & Geelong, and 6000 of other towns; with a mining population of 67 : 000 and an agricultural population of 58 : 000 and hearing the following relative proportions to each other there being for every hundred of the town population 67 miners and 58 agriculturalists. Since the taking of the census, & up to the close of the year, the population had been increased by immigration, & at end of 1854 the total population of Victoria might be estimated at 276. 520; during the last ten weeks of 1854, the increase being about 1500 weekly, & during the first three weeks of 1855 about 1133 weekly there is a great disparity between the sexes, over the whole
colony the male population in proportion to the female being as two to one while in towns to every 100 of the male population there were 85 females, in the agricultural & pastoral districts, 58 females, & in the mining districts 28 females.

STEAM MACHINERY AT BALLARAT JAN 1855

On Monday 22nd of January the Steam machinery of Wm. Otway, for grinding auriferous quartz erected at the foot of the Black Hill, Balaraat [Ballarat], was set in operation. The steam engine, which is of ten horse power, drives six circular basins, which are each traversed by two Brushers, weighing each one ton; these travel constantly round & round, through a portion of water containing mercury, & reduce every
obstacle, be it quartz or other washing stuff, to minute particles. Beneath is a receptacle which collects all the miniater [miniature?] portions of the stuff, & in this a force pump works, which at each stroke drives the stuff through a Column of Mercury, detaining all the particles of gold & discharging the wastage, which runs off with the current of water. It is calculated that about four to five tons of quartz will be daily crushed and the gold perfectly extracted by each of these mills -

POPULATION 30TH JUNE 1855
According to the census returns which have been published in the Government Gazette the population of the Colony of Victoria to the 30th of June 1855 amounted to Three hundred & three thousand, five hundred & twenty seven persons.

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 625

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 625

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