<P> The population of Melbourne grew swiftly as the gold fever took hold . The total number of people in Victoria also rose . By 1851 it was 75,000 people . Ten years later this rose to over 500,000 . </P> <P> Surface alluvial gold was the first to be exploited . It is reported that in 1851, when the first miners arrived on the Mount Alexander goldfield, near Castlemaine, nuggets could be picked up without digging . Then followed the exploitation of alluvial gold in creeks and rivers, or deposited in silt on river banks and flats . The gold - seekers used pans, sluice boxes and cradles to separate this gold from the dirt . </P> <P> As surface alluvial gold ran out, gold seekers were forced to look further underground . Miners discovered so - called deep leads, which were gold - bearing watercourses that had been buried at various depths by centuries of silting and, in some Victorian goldfields such as Ballarat, volcanic action . They also began to exploit the underground gold reefs which were the original sources of the gold . Deep mining was more difficult and dangerous . Places such as Bendigo and Ballarat saw great concentrations of miners, who were forming partnerships and syndicates to enable them to sink ever - deeper shafts . Coupled with erratic and vexatious policing and licence checks, tensions flared around Beechworth, Bendigo and Ballarat . These frictions culminated in the Eureka Rebellion in Ballarat in 1854 . Following that uprising, a range of reforms gave miners a greater say in resolving disputes via Mining Courts, and extended electoral franchise to them . </P> <P> As gold - rush immigrants flooded into Victoria in 1852, a tent city, known as Canvas Town, was established at South Melbourne . The area soon became a massive slum, home to tens of thousands of migrants from around the world who arrived to seek their fortunes in the goldfields . Significant "Chinatowns" became established in Melbourne, Bendigo and Castlemaine . </P>

Who came to victoria to mine for gold in the 1850