On their arrival at Bendigo they soon revealed the secrets of the white hills, at the northern end of the valley, and started the White Hills rush. They achieved this, by refusing to accept defeat on the hard, rock like surface on which many a digger had blunted his pick and left.

After the easy gold started to disappear, and all the get rich quick diggers had moved on to greener pastures, those that remained began to work on the hard quartz. The ability of the Cornish in Bendigo and Victoria to mine in quartz became legendary to the extent that even cornishmen who had never been down a mine were considered to have great powers. As a result Bendigo ,the Quartzapolis of the state,became a Mecca for unemployed miners leaving Cornwall in their hundreds.

It has been estimated that in 1880, 48 % of the male adult population were miners and 80% were Cornish. They came with their families bringing their hopes and dreams of getting a job and starting a new life. Areas such as Long Gully were soon known as little Cornwall.

While the miner is a symbol of Cornwall, he is on the Cornish coat of arms, most families never wanted their sons to go down the mines if there was an alternative. While this was not achievable in most cases, some however did escape, resulting with the Cornish being well represented in engineering, building trades, teaching and commerce.

In what could be considered one of the greatest community services, that of local government, the Cornish born and their descendants, were well represented particularly on Bendigo and Eaglehawk councils.

The city of Bendigo has never been noted for erecting monuments to its benefactors, of the four erected to individuals in central Bendigo, two of them are Cornish born.