Eliza’S Gold

By Nastaran Amiri

Eliza Smith is a young girl living in an Australian gold field in the 1800s. She writes about her life at the gold field in her diary. Things arent going as well as she had hoped when gold becomes scarce as new people move into the gold field. Eliza becomes friends with three girls who are very different from her, each with their own story. They have many adventures together, from escaping bush rangers to finding treasure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Nov 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781493125692

Nastaran Amiri

Nastaran Amiri is a fourteen year old Muslim girl. She is from Afghanistan and was born in Iran. At the age of twelve she wrote Jane’s War. Nastaran used to attend Rosehill Public School and is currently in year eight at Macarthur Girls High School. She lives in Sydney and her favourite subjects at school are English, drama and history. She is an avid reader and her influence for writing comes from reading countless novels throughout her childhood.

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Copyright © 2013 by Nastaran Amiri.

ISBN:                  Softcover                             978-1-4931-2568-5

                            Ebook                                   978-1-4931-2569-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 11/06/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

1-800-455-039

www.xlibris.com.au

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503221

CONTENTS

BENDIGO 1856

Tuesday 14th of April, 1856

Later on

Friday 17th of April, 1856

Monday 20th of April, 1856

Tuesday 21st of April, 1856

Friday 24th of April, 1856

Monday 27th of April, 1856

Later on

Wednesday 29th of April, 1856

Thursday 30th of April, 1856

Continuing

Continuing

Saturday 2nd of May, 1856

Monday 4th of May, 1856

Continuing

Tuesday 5th of May, 1856

Later on

Friday 8th of May, 1856

Monday 11th of May, 1856

Tuesday 12th of May, 1856

Later on

Wednesday 13th of May, 1856

Friday 15th of May, 1856

Monday 18th of May, 1856

Wednesday 20th of May, 1856

Thursday 21st of May, 1856

Friday 22nd of May, 1856

Monday 25th of May, 1856

Wednesday 27th of May, 1856

Wednesday 3rd of June, 1856

Friday 5th of June, 1856

Monday 8th of June, 1856

Tuesday 9th of June, 1856

Thursday 11th of June, 1856

Monday 15th of June, 1856

Wednesday 17th of June, 1856

Friday 19th of June, 1856

Monday 22nd of June, 1856

Wednesday 24th of June, 1856

Saturday 27th of June, 1856

Monday 29th of June, 1856

Wednesday 1st of July, 1856

Thursday 2nd of July, 1856

Friday 3rd of July, 1856

Sunday 5th of July, 1856

Tuesday 7th of July, 1856

Thursday 9th of July, 1856

Saturday 11th of July, 1856

Monday 13th of July, 1856

Tuesday 14th of July, 1856

Wednesday 15th of July, 1856

Friday 17th of July, 1856

Monday 20th of July, 1856

Wednesday 22nd of July, 1856

Later on

Sunday 26th of July, 1856

Tuesday 28th of July, 1856

Thursday 30th of July, 1856

Saturday 1st of August, 1856

Tuesday 4th of August, 1856

Thursday 6th of August, 1856

Sunday 9th of August, 1856

Tuesday 11th of August, 1857

Wednesday 12th of August, 1856

Friday 14th of August, 1856

Saturday 15th of August, 1856

Sunday 16th of August, 1856

Wednesday 19th of August, 1856

Friday 21st of August, 1856

EPILOGUE

HISTORICAL NOTE

For my parents, who supported me and

encouraged me from the beginning.

I wouldn’t have come this far without them.

Thank you my friends and community for all the support.

Thank you Anshika Sharma, Haini Wu and Hakima Yosufi,

for helping me with the photos.

And Aikjot Sandhu for helping me with the drawings.

BENDIGO 1856

Tuesday 14th of April, 1856

I am not really sure how to start this, Granny gave me this diary today. She said since we are leaving I can write everything in here and give it to her when we come back. I hope we do come back. Granny said I should introduce myself and treat the diary like a real person. My name is Eliza Smith and I am eleven years old. I have a five year old sister named Katy and my parents. Next week we are leaving to go to Bendigo, to a gold field there. I don’t really want to go, I don’t want to leave all my friends behind. I was finally beginning to grasp the concept of what my teacher had been trying to teach since the beginning of the year, but now we are leaving and I will get muddled all over again. Especially numbers, I loathe numbers, they are all a big mess to me. I don’t mind writing all that much, except if I have to write after washing clothes.

Later on

I have just returned from visiting my friend Sarah. We had tried to bake a cake for her mother, we had gotten all the ingredients perfect, and everything was going well. Then Sarah’s older sister left the house, she has many nice possessions, and when she leaves we like to have a look. This time we found a pair of silk gloves, new stockings, and a pink hat. We had forgotten all about the cake, when a horrid smell drifted into the room. Without saying anything, we both raced into the kitchen. There was smoke everywhere. We opened all the windows and threw the cake away, we began wiping frantically to rid all evidence of what we had done. We cleaned the kitchen and got rid of the smell just before Sarah’s mother returned home. She was very pleased with us and said what good girls we were for cleaning the kitchen for her. She then began making a cake, and after she finished we both got a big slice.

It’s nearly time for dinner now, I better go.

Friday 17th of April, 1856

Mother said I have to begin helping her pack everything up. We started with the kitchen, we set aside a few pieces of cutlery to use during the next few days. We spent most of the morning in the kitchen. We stopped for lunch, when Sarah came over, she said she had nothing to do and was dreadfully bored and asked if she could please help us with packing up. Mother quickly agreed because she could use an extra pair of hands. After we finished off in the kitchen, Sarah and I went to my room. Mother gave us a few boxes to put my things in. I left a few pairs of clothes, my hair brush and a few other things aside because I needed them for the next few days. I had a small bag to put my things in for the journey to Bendigo. I found my old doll, a dress that I had outgrown many years ago, and a skipping rope which I no longer needed. I decided to give them to Katy, she would love them and the dress fits her perfectly. After we finished with my room, mother said we could go outside and play.

We went down to the shops, we stood outside the bakery and looked at all the expensive cakes that we could never afford. After a few minutes, the baker shooed us away. Afterwards we went to the sweet shop, we could afford half a bag of sweets each. Money was a bit short at the amount, we had spent a lot for our tickets to Bendigo, a tent that was big enough for all four of us, and we also needed money for father’s gold mining licence. Soon after that we grew bored and returned home. Sarah went back to her house and I didn’t have anything to do. Mother saw me sitting around doing nothing, she told me to get up and help her carry the boxes of all our possession to the pawn shop, we didn’t need a lot of things at the gold field, so we decided to sell them. It is difficult to take all our furniture all the way to Bendigo, and we will be living in a tent so we wouldn’t have any space for furniture. We took a few boxes to the pawn shop and when father returned home, he helped us with the furniture. When we finished, the house looked very empty. In a few days it will be completely bare, the night before we leave we are sleeping on the floor.

Monday 20th of April, 1856

I haven’t written for a while because I have been very busy the last couple of days, I visited Granny, it was my last visit. It was sad leaving her, but I could always come back and visit if we found gold at Bendigo. I also said goodbye to Sarah and some of the other girls in my class. I hope I will be able to make new friends at the gold field.

We have sold every piece of furniture and many other things we couldn’t take with us to Bendigo. We made a lot of money but most of it would be gone after we do our shopping in Bendigo. I am beginning to feel homesick, even though we haven’t left yet, I don’t want anyone else to live in our house. My room doesn’t look the same, it is almost empty and it doesn’t feel like it’s mine. All my possessions and little trinkets, paintings that used to hang on the wall and the quilt that mother had made, were all packed away or sold. All I have in my room is a small bag with some of my things in it, and a blanket and pillow. Mother said when we get to the gold field she will buy some new material to make clothes. I wish she would buy me pretty dresses once in a while. She always buys plain material, either black, brown, dark blue, white or grey and always designs them very simply with no additional frills and buttons. She says it’s very practical and functional, I don’t really like those two words, mother always uses them.

While father mines for gold, mother will be washing and mending clothes for the men at the gold field and cooking. She’ll make a good profit out of that because most of the men had to leave their families behind and go to the gold field, and they work all day mining for gold. They won’t have too much time to wash clothes and cook food. Katy and I have to go to the local school and after school I have to help mother with chores. It is going to be rather boring and at times irritating living in a tent surrounded by other people, with not one bit of privacy. Even though my bedroom is small right now, it is still much bigger in comparison to the small corner of the tent that I will be allocated. Though father says it won’t be long until he finds gold and then we can buy a new big house, toys and clothes. I hope that is true, if not will we have to live at the gold field forever?

I have to go now, mother said we have to go to sleep early tonight so we can make an early start tomorrow.

Tuesday 21st of April, 1856

We are currently on board the train, we will reach Bendigo momentarily. This morning I woke up to find Katy jumping up and down telling me to hurry up and get up because we are leaving and everyone is waiting outside for me. I screamed and quickly got up and ran outside and no one was there, I came back inside to find mother and father asleep and Katy laughing at me. She had tricked me, it was still dark and we wouldn’t be leaving for a few hours. I tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t so I had to sit in the darkness waiting for mother and father to get up. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally heard mother moving around in the kitchen making breakfast. I changed into an old dress which I will dispose of at the goldfield due to the many stains and tears it has acquired over the last year, because of my clumsiness. I grabbed my bag and wrapped my blanket and pillow into a small bundle. I then had a quick breakfast consisting of toast and milk which was close to expiring, but still safe to drink. We still had some food left over and mother wrapped it up for later on in the day.

I have to go now, we have just reached Bendigo.

Friday 24th of April, 1856

The last few days have been very busy, we bought a tent, a small cupboard and other bits and pieces. The second we reached the gold field, mother put us to work. We set up the tent, organised the