Gold Escort

Description

With the Victorian gold discoveries of the 1850s came a vast exodus to the diggings, leaving South Australian farmers and businessmen without labour and prompting an observer to describe Adelaide as a 'town to let'. One man, however, saw a way to save the colony from bankruptcy. Alexander Tolmer, Police Commissioner, believed that a government escort service to Adelaide from the Victorian fields would bring back the gold won there by the 'crow-eaters'. The passing of the Bullion Assay Axt made it still more profitable, as Adelaide gold prices became more attractive than those in Melbourne. A fascinating book and the endpapers have detailed maps of the gold routes through South Australia and Victoria.