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Extract

Title
Sloping to the diggings
Description

There were fears that the wheels of government would be brought to a screeching halt as public servants planned to leave their posts for the goldfields.

Date
2 December 1851
Published Source
Australian National Dictionary Centre, The Gold Rushes and Australian English: a resource for researchers, teachers and students, Australian National University, 2005, http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/res/aus_words/gold/index.php. Details
Rights
This material is provided by the Australian National Dictionary Centre, a joint project of the Australian National University and Oxford University Press Australia.

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Transcript

GOVERNMENT CLERKS.— The Government, we are afraid, will be in rather an embarrassed state at the end of the year. We have received information that no less than twenty-four clerks intend sloping to the diggings, when their agreements terminate, on the 31st December, 1851. The police will also be in a very defective state, as many of the efficient members of that body have expressed their determination also to "leave." THE WATERMEN are turned waterwomen: we observe water-carts about the town driven by women—their husbands having gone to the "diggings." We strongly suspect that in a few days, the women of the town will perform most of the out-door labour. Geelong Advertiser, 2 December 1851

Created: 16 October 2006, Last modified: 13 February 2007