Race to the Goldfields of Australia Game

 
Race to the gold diggings of Australia board game, ca 1855. National Maritime Collection, 00006083

This board was part of a children's game entitled 'A race to the gold diggings of Australia' and is part of the National Maritime Collection. This game highlights the preoccupation with gold prevalent in America, England and Australia during the 1850s, where the gold rush generated a sense of excitement and adventure. 

Play the Race to the Gold Diggings of Australia Game

Rules of the game

• You will need a dice and counters (and if you have them, ship models)
• Select your ships and place them on the line marked 0. Roll your dice and move your ship the number of spaces indicated. The first player to get to 80 wins the game.
• If you land on line 3, Plymouth add 3 more
• If you land on line 6, Lizard Light add 1
• If you land on line 13, Madeira add 3
• If you land on line 15, Canary Isle add 1
• If you land on line 18, Cape Verd Isle add 1
• If you land on line 24, 25, 26, Sierra Leone add 7
• If you land on line 28 Ascension lose 1
• If you land on line 32, St Helena add 3
• At the Cape of Good Hope add 10 for the trade wind.
• If you land on line 43, Madagascar lose 2
• If you land on line 46, Mauritius add 3
• If you land on line 68, 69 Batavia lose 5
• If you land on line 65 the Ship is wrecked, and the player thrown out of the game.
• You cannot land on any of the tenth lines and the turn that brings you there is forfeited. 

Follow up activities

Look up the places mentioned in the game and see if you can find them. 

On a world map, chart the possible route the ship would have taken if it were following the same route as the game's players.

Challenge: some of the place names may have changed, what are they now?

Most of the ships heading to Melbourne would not have visited one stop, which one and why?

Make your own game about arriving in Melbourne, staying in Canvas Town and making your way to the goldfields of Ballarat (you could even make your game have the players go to work at a site and return to Melbourne from the goldfields). 

How would you decorate the centre of your board? You could use the Race to the Goldfields as a guide. Some ideas to start you thinking:

• The experiences the goldminers would have faced
• Looking for accommodation
• Finding / buying food
• Transport to the goldfields
• Bushrangers stealing your supplies / or on the way home your gold
• Buying a licence
• Finding a site
• Finding gold
• Health
• Snakebite