Gates of Gold: The Discovery of Gold, its Legacy and its Contribution to Australian Identity (Gold! Hidden Stories of Australia’s Past,)

Gates of Gold, the first book in the series Gold! Hidden Stories of Australia's Past, tells about the discovery of gold and the legacy it left that changed the face of Australia defining and shaping its identity. Learn about:

• how, in the lead up to the discovery of gold with the trail blazing of the British into Victoria and beyond the lives of First Nations people were irrevocably changed.
• The catastrophic impact on First Nations people and how they found ways to survive even when the odds were pitched so much against them.
• How Australia became like a whirlpool of molten gold sucking in men and women from all over the world creating a population explosion with diverse communities and religions, different races, and different ideologies.
• The coming of the Chinese, who contributed greatly to the Australian story, but whose migration to the goldfields gave birth to racist, anti-Chinese sentiment.
• The seeds of the Australian uprising and how the Eureka Stockade on the goldfields in 1854 was a battle inspired by political purpose.
• A landscape transformed, a country upset, turned upside down, and a once pristine environment redesigned.
• How the prevailing attitudes of the Europeans in the nineteenth century justified their actions prior to the discovery of gold and its aftermath.

If you relish the uncovering of hidden stories, iconic episodes or truth telling to do with Australia's past, then this book and the others in the series are for you.

Marji Hill, artist and author, is a highly respected international author as well as a seasoned business executive, researcher, and coach. She fostered the spirit of reconciliation in all her writings since she was Research Fellow in Education at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra. Marji has produced more than seventy (70) books mostly on Australia's First Nations people. Her publications include the bibliography Black Australia and in 1989 she was Project Coordinator Australian Aboriginal Culture the official Australian Government publication on First Nations people. In 1988 Six Australian Battlefields, which she co-authored with Al Grassby, was published by Angus and Robertson and a decade with Allen & Unwin. Her nine-volume encyclopaedia, Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Australia's Aboriginal Peoples was published in 2000. In 2009 she published The Apology: Saying Sorry To The Stolen Generations.Marji's recent publications extend to self-improvement and self-help with publications like Staying Young Growing Old and Inspired by Country an art book.Painting has been a lifetime passion for Marji. Her formal art training took place in the 1980s at the ANU School of Art & Design. She has had eight solo exhibitions and she has participated in various group shows.One of her paintings was included in the 2004-2005 Art Gallery of Ballarat's Travelling Exhibition Eureka Revisited: the Contest of Memories. Other paintings were commissioned by the Citigold Corporation. Jupiters Lucky Strike celebrates the discovery of gold by First Nations boy, Jupiter Mosman in 1871 at Charters Towers in North Queensland. Another, a portrait of Jupiter Mosman, resides in the World Centre in Charters Towers.Marji's paintings are held in many private collections both in Australia and overseas and she is represented in the Art Gallery of Ballarat and the Australian Catholic University collections.Marji has travelled extensively both within Australia and internationally, working as a consultant, doing speaking engagements, motivating people, and developing her art career.She resides on Queensland's Gold Coast where she pursues her interests of writing, painting, mentoring, publishing, and internet marketing.