What tools were used in the gold rush and how?

Answer 1

Tools used in the Australian gold rush included utensils for digging and carrying gold-bearing soil. They included basic equipment for survival, for constructing some sort of shelter, or simple protection, such as:

• gold pan - for actually panning for gold in the creeks and rivers
• shovel - for digging away the dirt, or shovelling soil into cradles before sifting
• pick - usually used underground to chip away at the impacted dirt and hard rock
• rope - often used on a windlass for winding buckets of soil up out of the gold mines
• saw - needed for sawing away branches, whether to use as tent poles or for any number of other uses
• axe - for chopping wood, removing tree roots, etc
• wheelbarrow - for carrying dirt away from the mines
• knife - for cutting ropes
• gun - for protection

Answer 2

During the California Gold Rush, miners used a variety of tools to extract gold from the ground. These included a gold pan for sifting through sand and gravel, a sluice box for separating gold particles from other material, and a pickaxe or shovel for digging. Miners also used cradles, which were wooden boxes mounted on rockers, to wash away dirt and capture gold. Additionally, hydraulic mining techniques were employed, which involved blasting water at high pressure to wash away hills and expose gold deposits.