A special Women’s History Month presentation with PhD candidate Sharni Brownbridge at Sovereign Hill's Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections.
The phenomenon of ‘grass widows’ of the 1850s gold rushes offer an area of understanding on how communities of people experienced the goldfields from afar. As sweethearts left in Adelaide, or wives left in Geelong, people formed connections to the goldfields through their friends and family who went there. Women’s experiences of ‘grass widow-hood' are vital to understandings of the gendered impact of the goldfields, but also of the wide reaching effects of the gold rushes.
Sharni Brownbridge explores how women, men and families navigated the effects which the gold rushes had on family structures and what sources can tell us about them.
Sovereign Hill's Australian Centre for Gold Rush Collections (Gold Rush Centre for short) is home to an amazing collection that brings together 150,000 objects that tell the stories of this region, and its many diverse people, practices and ideas It’s a place for new ideas and for discovery.
Through unique programs and experiences, the Gold Rush Centre presents stories and objects that connect you to our heritage and culture.
