Dear Mother and Father, As you know I have been in Ballarat for two months now. I thought I would inform you of some things that happen on the goldfields. We get up early at 6 am and have a quick cuppa and some oats. We then head off to the diggings to get the best spot and start to mine. I have been panning, it is hard work but it is rewarding. I usually finish at 4 pm and I might walk to the general store and buy groceries if I have the money. Once every second week I will ride my horse to the outskirts of town and buy a few candles. The candles are made of different kinds of fat so it stinks up the entire town. For dinner we will usually have mutton and potatoes and a cup of tea. Life here is hard. You only wash twice a week and the mines make every part of your body ache. For entertainment I will play Gaelic football and cricket. But I also love to dance and my favourite dance is the heel toe polka. The entire town will jump around and laugh until late at night. They recently opened a bowling alley in town and that is a special place to take the wife if I have had a good week with the gold. You will be pleased to hear we have a church here now and attend services on Sunday. Drinking is the ruin of most men on the goldfields. I have a group of friends and we all look after each other. Especially when Mi gets racially teased. We will look after him and he is a really nice person. The group consists of Jack, Sean my mate who travelled to the goldfields with me from Sydney, Mi and James. We have our houses next to each other and we mine next to each other. I have had ups and downs during my time here so far. My biggest difficulty was when I didn’t have enough money for a miners licence. Luckily Sean bailed me out when he bought me one and later I did the same for him. Another difficulty was when the Eureka Stockade came about. I was one of the men to hoist the flag in the air. I was in the front lines and I was so close to being shot. But I struck it rich when I found a nugget just south of Ballarat. I found it when I was riding my horse down to a little town north of Melbourne. It was small and I panned all the alluvial gold around it and I earned 100 pounds. Sean had the yellow jaundice and he lost 6 weeks of work at the diggings before he was able to work again. I had to pan as hard as two men. The weather has been real dry and hot and the dust gets into everything. One day when I have made my fortune we will be home to see you all, I am sure it will be soon. Yours affectionately Alexander