The United States had only seized control of the region off Mexico two years earlier during the Mexican War, a year later the village of Yerba Buena was officially renamed San Francisco. Prior to the discovery of gold San Francisco was a sleepy village with 820 residents, 200 houses, two wharves, two hotels and one paper. Within a year it had become a major town catering to the needs of the 40.000+ people who swarmed onto the gold fields, San Francisco shot up out of the ground overnight. It was covered by thousands of tents and shacks filled with prospectors from the four corners of the globe, its famous waterways literally clogged with close to 500 abandoned ships, gold fever causing sailors and officers to head for the hills with their passengers. Those who made the epic sea voyage were known as 'Argonauts' after the Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts, who likewise went in search of a golden fleece.

As a result of the Gold Rush California's population exploded, in 1849 there were c15.000 persons by 1853 it had risen to 300.000. Within two years of gold being discovered California was declared the 31st State of the Union and San Francisco incorporated a City, wealth from the worlds largest vein of gold made it rich beyond the dreams of avarice. Grand European style theatres and opera houses opened attracting talent from across the world, the city streets were lined with restaurants and shops as pretty middle class suburbs sprouted and the new rich spent their money building elegant villas and mansions on Nob Hill. The approaching Trans Continental Railway which would link the Pacific & Atlantic seaboards resulted in massive European investment, people from as far away as China arriving to work on the western railway and pan for gold on the side.

Along with the explosive growth of the city and surrounding regions came a staggering surge in crime, local law enforcement was out numbered and unable to cope with the sprawl and scum of the Earth who ran riot in a consequence free environment. When not out in the gold fields the dark element would congregate in a cesspool around Pacific & Kearny Streets, the epicenter of crime and vice known as the Barbary Coast. Named after the Barbary States which straddled North Africa; Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia which between 1550-1816 were infamous for state sponsored piracy. Accomplished seamen in fast ships with raiding parties venturing as far afield as Ireland where they attacked and looted seaside villages, rounded up young woman and men to be sold in slave markets. Merchant vessels which sailed the Mediterranean were regularly attacked and looted by the Barbary pirates, countries forced to pay protection money for safe passage until the United States, England and France sent in their navies to destroy regimes who promoted and profited from this commercial terrorism.

In the San Francisco context it was an apt discription, this enclave of dubious men who failed to find their fortune on the gold fields took to crime to survive, pluming the depths of depravity along the way. Located east of modern day Chinatown and north of the city's financial district it was an area law abiding citizens avoided, its narrow streets lined by saloons, opium dens, brothels and boarding houses from which radiated the vast majority of city crime. The area was controlled by vicious gangs and at the rotten heart of it was Australians, ticket of leave and escaped convicts who were at liberty to do their evil best. The exact number of Australians who went to California is unknown, but by 1849 so many were congregating on the Barbary Coast it was commonly called 'Sydney Town', the ruffian larrikins as they were called forming gangs known as the 'Sydney Ducks' and 'Sydney Cove's'.

[1] "Gold Dust & Gunsmoke, Tales of Gold Rush Outlaws, Gunfighters, Lawmen and Vigilantes", by John Boessenecker.