Diggings

The Diggings was a colloquial term for the gold rush locations in Australia during the 1850s. Gold miners - the diggers - would describe their journey "to the diggings" and say they were "at (or on) the diggings." Because of the speed at which a "rush" to a particular location might occur, or at which it might be abandoned at news of another rush, the term diggings tended to apply to general areas.