'All the meat that we got at the diggings was intolerably tough, partly because the squatters were killing off first what they called their hospital flocks - the scabbiest sheep and those worn to skeletons with foot-rot; and partly because it was obliged to be eaten immediately, on account of the heat and the flies...'

'..the store presented the same appearance as a busy shop in London would do on the same evening. I suppose there were never less than fifteen people before the counter up to twelve o’clock, pitching down their bank notes, taking up their change, which, I observed, they seldom counted, and departing. The mode of doing business, too, was original: if the vendor hadn’t the small change required, he threw in a piece of tobacco or soap, or anything else that was handy, irrespective of the wants of the customer. This was always accepted with a good-humoured nod and an "all right"..'

Image (top): Butcher's Shamble, Forest Creek Artist: S.T.Gill Text (top): Land, Labour and Gold or Two Years in Victoria Author: William Howitt Image (bottom): Gold Buyer Forest Creek Artist: S.T.Gill Text (bottom): The life and adventures of a gold-digger Author: John Sherer

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