Later colonial landscapes 1850–80

The gold rushes, first in Bathurst in New South Wales and then much more vigorously in a number of places in Victoria, disrupted the orderly settlement of Australia, causing a flood of unregulated immigration. The gold rushes attracted many artists from Europe, particularly a number of landscape painters of German and Swiss origin. Unlike the earlier arrivals from Britain, who preferred to work in watercolour, these artists mainly painted in oil. They came for the gold of the land but stayed to make art of the land.