The early days after the discovery of gold at Rocky River in northern New South Wales would see potential miners of all creeds, whether labourers or more 'cultured' folk, lured to this golden landscape or ours by the 'fever of gold' and by the possibility of making a quick fortune here. The obvious diversity in the character of this fluid population could and did result in confrontations - here as elsewhere - on many occasions, leading often to more violent altercations by day and night. It is not surprising therefore for this environment to encourage rogues and villains to be part of 'our' mining scene. This book is an interlinked companion to both the work and living style of that populace, and to Victorian age gold mining generally. For it tells us much about the skills, technical processes, thoughts, actions and language of those same miners, and many others 'on the fields' in Eastern Australia, as known, observed and written about by one of the nation's most famed colonial novelists.