Many areas of early New Zealand life after European settlement were exclusively male, or almost so. It is likely that all of the people in this sketch of the Gabriels Gully goldfield (discovered in 1861, near the Tuapeka river) were men. There were very few women on the goldfields; many of those who were there worked as prostitutes. An 1862 estimate for the Otago goldfields was 150 women to 11,500 men.
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Hocken Library, University of Otago
Reference:
92/1313
Watercolour by John Turnbull Thomson
Permission of the Hocken Library Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, must be obtained before any re-use of this image. Further information may be obtained from the Library through its website.
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