While the gold rush had a detrimental effect on many Aboriginal Communities due to the further loss of their land and environment as well as the introduction of European diseases to their communities, Aboriginal Australians played a pivotal role during this era. Some Aboriginals, seeing the opportunity to profit from gold became miners themselves. Already proficient at digging deep shafts to mine for opals and other crystals, they never had a need for gold until the scramble to find it occurred in Australia. Many gold finds have been attributed to the Aboriginal people who would work as guides assisting European diggers in their search for gold on the Australian landscape. Their expertise as guides and trackers was unsurpassed and they would help find food, guide people from one place to another, track lost children, bushrangers and miners trying to escape licence searches.

 

Aboriginal communities would also trade with the diggers, selling possum skins, cloaks, fish and animal game and farming families would sell their produce. In addition, some miners would build shelters, copying the craft of the Aboriginals and learning from them their knowledge of bush food and the land. They were also involved in entertainment on the goldfields, holding corroborees which were very popular events in some regions.

 

Aboriginal people also took up many jobs as stockman on farms and sheep stations, filling the holes that had been left by employees who had resigned to try their luck on the goldfields. They also became police officers in Victoria. Called ‘Native Police Officers’, they would check for mining licenses, protect miners from bushrangers and rode along with the Government Gold Escort from Melbourne to Ballarat. Native officers played an extremely important role, particularly in Ballarat. At one stage almost the entire state law enforcement consisted of Native Officers.