ABSTRACT
When Alice May and George Allen reached Melbourne in June 1870, they found themselves in a booming, bustling minimetropolis that was the economic hub not just of Victoria but of the surrounding colonies as well. The town s prosperity had golden foundations. In 1851 gold had been discovered in the Yarra River, just sixteen miles upstream from Melbourne. Within weeks a fullscale rush was under way. Soon fortune seekers began flooding in from all corners of the globe. Most paused only long enough to purchase tools and provisions before heading to the diggings, but a wiser few realized that money could be made by catering to the prospectors’ needs. As new settlements sprang up in Victoria’s hinterland in the wake of successive gold strikes, Melbourne businesses supplied them with all the necessities of life. The town grew fat on the profits of trade and its population soared from 77, 000 to nearly a quarter of a million in less than two decades.
