To the Goldfields!

From the award-winning illustrator of Papa and the Olden Days.

We moved to the goldfields to seek our fortune when I was nine. Arriving at Forest Creek, the noise of the valley could be heard from miles away - there were sixty thousand people digging and shouting and singing all at once. My school was a leaking tent and we slept on mattresses stuffed with leaves, but it was an exciting place to live. After all, at any moment you might dig up a huge nugget of gold!

About the Author

Rachel Tonkin is an award-winning author-illustrator who has contributed to more than 100 fiction, non-fiction and picture book titles. She has been published within Australia and overseas. Her work Papa and the Olden Days, written by Ian Edwards, was Honour Book in the Book of the Year: Younger Readers category of the 1990 Children s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards. When I Was A Kid was short-listed for the 1998 Children s History Prize, part of the NSW Premier s History Awards. In addition to this, several of her books have been short-listed for the CBCA Eve Pownall Award for Information Books: What Was the War Like, Grandma? in 1996, Grandpa's Stories in 1997 and Leaf Litter in 2007. Rachel currently lives in rural Victoria with her husband.