Jonathan Down Under

13-year-old Jonathan Cole, a veteran of the California gold rush, is in a tight, out-of-the-way spot. Jonathan's widower father, unlucky in California, has gold fever and can't stop; so now he and undersize Jonathan are in dismal Ballarat during the 1851 Australian gold-rush, “a strange land, not easily understood.” Still, the one person who seems “real” to Jonathan, ingratiating American digger David Mackay, runs off with Pa's gold. Then, things Australian start to look up!