Miner Paul Gootch wrote a letter to the Geelong Advertiser in 1852 which said: … “that way in which the Eureka diggings were discovered was on the occasion of my sending out a blackfellow to search for a horse. [He] picked up a nugget on the surface Afterwards the party I sent out to explore proved that gold was really to be found in abundance.”

American Miner Charles Ferguson met many Wadawurrung People around the Linton diggings near Ballarat. In 1851 he wrote: “There was one black fellow…who told me he knew where there was plenty of gold…and offered to take me or Walter there. We made arrangements to go with him…they were gone about two weeks. They got gold…the same place, a short time after, turned out to be a good gold district and a great quartz region, known as the Ararat diggings.”

“Few colonists expect gratitude from the aborigines, but that they are not always unmindful of these obligations which go to make up what is called civilization has been proved of late in this district. Our readers will remember the paragraph which appeared in our last issue, notifying that a party of aborigines had found a thirty-ounce nugget at the Emu. This gold realized about 120 pounds for them and shortly after they had patronized the draper’s shop, and provided themselves with good winter clothing, they determined to pay a visit to Clunes, where some months since a resident had been very kind to them. According to their version of the affair, he gave them money to purchase extra blankets when the weather was very cold, and they could not forget his kindness. Accordingly, the party, to the number of nine, hired for three pounds two vehicles, on Wednesday, and proceeded in them to Clunes, for the purpose of returning to their benefactor the sum he had placed at their disposal on that occasion. Some amusement was occasioned by the sight of the party when they drove out of Talbot, the women being decked in crinolines, good warm dresses, and bonnets, and the men clothed in wearing apparel of the latest fashions; but when the motive of their errand was known, they certainly rose considerably in the estimation of the bystanders.” From The Argus, 6^th June 1865.

The Illustrated London News, on 24^th April 1852, marvelled at how Aboriginal people could have existed for so long in a state of ‘blissful ignorance’: “generation after generation of aborigines has passed away, unconscious of the riches concealed beneath the surface of their native hunting-grounds, perchance to have made them the most powerful race under the sun.”

“From the land taken from these people, gold to the value of upwards of thirty millions of sterling has been raised. In addition to this, millions upon millions worth of produce has been taken… Of all these millions – from annual public revenue amounting 2,792,152 pounds sterling, all were content to award 1,250 pounds to [Victorian Aboriginal people]. We would feed and clothe every black in Victoria, and would do this regardless of expense. If it cost ten thousand – well! If twenty thousand – well! If a hundred thousand – still well! Were they able to strike a bargain for the land, we should gladly purchase it at hundreds of thousands of pounds. It is dishonest to withhold it, because they are ignorant and helpless. We would feed them and clothe them as long as a black was left amongst us, and when the last was gathered to that Creator of whom he at present knows so little, we should rejoice to think that at the last great day, he could not arraign us for having behaved towards him here below, like a tyrant, a coward, and a swindler.” Samuel Wilson, The Argus editor, 17^th March, 1856.

Buninyong squatter William Little wrote of how northern Wadawurrung clans traded gold to shepherds prior to the gold rush of 1851: “When erst the shepherds saw the virgin gold A-lying shimmering on fair Nature’s breast, And how the ignorant aborigines For trifles gave the precious stuff away.”

In 1876 Dicky, a Wadawurrung elder at Lal Lal near Ballarat, complained to some miners that they had “robbed him of Lal Lal which was his inheritance” and collected several shillings compensation. This was published in the Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette on 1^st November, 1978.

Miners such as J. M. Smith upon reflection deemed Aboriginal peoples’ traditional way of life wiser than what he had at first considered: “They are a curious race, and are said to be very low in the scale of humanity because they live without working and with very little fighting – which in my humble opinion shows their wisdom rather than their stupidity. The European makes a slave of himself for gold – and calls it industry – and then hops off the twig before he is able to enjoy it; he fights and murders his brethren, robs them of his wealth and devastates their country – and calls it honour and glory. The aborigines wander about a fine country, view the beauties of nature as they come fresh from the hand of their Maker and in their hearts they rejoice and glorify Him … They resist all his [non-Indigenous people’s] attempts to make them abandon their habitual ease and independence except when temped by rum and tobacco, for which they will readily work. It is vain to try to fetter them to houses or towns. They have tasted freedom and prefer God’s canopy to man’s. And for this they are called barbarians; and for this they are despised. Pshaw! The European has much to learn, although he thinks himself so very wise.”

In 1852 when group of Aboriginal diggers near Forest Creek were asked to show their licenses, they replied to the mounted police that: “the gold and land were theirs by right so why should they pay money to the Queen?”

Famous gold rush photographer and miner Antoine Fauchery, noted in the 1850s that Aboriginal people were: “Divided into nomadic tribes made up of fifteen or twenty individuals, they are seen now in the bush, now in the towns, and still more frequently on the diggings, which they visit by preference.”