The Miner's Right / by Rolf Boldrewood

[Kim Allen Scott]

The Miner’s Right takes its title from the sometimes hated license issued to those gold seekers in Australia who had to pony up a pound a month for the right to dig for the metal.  Although that policy on the part of Victoria’s government resulted in a rebellion at Ballarat, this story takes place in the years following that tragedy and at the goldfields of New South Wales.  The hero of the tale is Hereward Pole, an English-born adventurer who, after winning the love of a beautiful Kentish heiress, makes the decision to sail to Australia and make his fortune as a miner. What follows is a sweeping tale of adventure as Hereward meets a colorful set of companions and tries his luck at the fictional diggings at Yatala and Oxley.  Told in the first person, Hereward manages to describe the actual mechanics and legal technicalities governing the gold regions with great historical accuracy, but he also wastes pages of ink mooning about his sweetheart back in England with sometimes mawkish sentimentality.  This novel by Boldrewood is not quite up to his epic Robbery Under Arms, but it has its moments and is a real joy to read.  I did NOT want to finish it, but the time constraints of inter-library loan made me complete the pleasure ahead of schedule.  If you are interested in a rousing tale of frontier adventure told in language that would have made Dickens or Trollope proud, I cannot recommended this book enough.