‘The Comfort of Strangers’: Hospitality on the Victorian Goldfields, 1850–1860

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe and understand the nascent state of hospitality on the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s. The primary sources for such an account are the journals of miners, public officials, and other travellers spanning this decade. The gold rushes transformed hospitality in numerous ways; the number of travellers requiring hospitality increased exponentially, and significant commercialisation occurred to meet this increased demand. Despite mining representing a new wave of occupation of their lands (pastoralism being the first) Aboriginal people were often renowned for their hospitality on Victorian goldfields.