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Description: | Song on the Australian gold rush.Emigration from Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century was generally associated with paupers and criminals and only taken up when faced with extreme hardship. America however, was regarded as a rather more fashionable destination than some of the colonies and in the 1830s and 1840s a number of emigration societies were formed. The discovery of gold in Victoria, Australia in 1854 also brought a rush of emigration to what had previously been an unpopular destination. Generally, it was single men who made the hazardous journey via ship to Australia, lured by the promise of gold. On Tyneside a number of men chose to leave their native shores, most likely in the face of unemployment, or gruelling industrial labour with long hours and low pay.This song was written by the famous music hall artist and composer Edward Corvan, or as he was famously known, Ned. Corvan was born in Liverpool and moved to Newcastle at the age of four. Following the death of his father at an early age, Corvan was raised by his widowed mother who struggled to feed the family of four on her meagre earnings. After a brief career as a sail-maker Corvan joined Billy Purvis's Victoria Theatre. Here he tried his hand at a number of things, but found most success in the performance of local and comic songs. Ned then went on to join the Olympic were he enjoyed great success with songs such as 'Astrilly'. With this popularity he travelled the North singing his Tyneside songs, eventually settling in South Shields where he operated Corvan's Music Hall. After a number of years he gave up the establishment and returned to local singing. Corvan died on the 31st August 1865 at the age of 35.This song is part of the John Bell Collection. ; A collection of broadsheets on various subjects, with manuscript notes in the hand of John Bell. | Publisher: | W. Stewart The Side, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear | Rights holder: | rights holder : Newcastle University | Subjects: | miners & travel & gold rush & emigration & Australia travel and adventure | Temporal: | start=1801;end=1840; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:N0209103 | Go to resource |
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