Editing Eureka Rebellion (section)

== Origins in the Victorian gold rush ==
{{main|Thomas Hiscock|Victorian gold rush}}

The Eureka Rebellion had its origins in the [[Australian gold rushes|Australian gold rush]] that began in 1851. Following the separation of Victoria from New South Wales on 1 July 1851, gold prospectors were offered 200 [[Guinea (coin)|guineas]] for making discoveries within {{convert|320|km|mi}} of Melbourne.{{sfn|Barnard|1962|pp=254-255}} In August 1851, the news was received around the world that, on top of several earlier finds, [[Thomas Hiscock]] had found still more deposits {{convert|3|km|mi|0}} west of [[Buninyong]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91913520 | location=Geelong | work=[[Geelong Advertiser]] | title=MORE GOLD | date=12 August 1851 | access-date=11 December 2020 | page=2|via=[[Trove]] }}</ref>

This led to gold fever taking hold as the colony's population increased from 77,000 in 1851 to 198,496 in 1853.{{sfn|Barnard|1962|p=255}} In three years, the total number of people living in and around the Victorian goldfields stood at a 12-month average of 100,351. In 1851, the Australian population was 430,000. In 1871, it was 1.7 million.{{sfn|Anderson|1978|p=102}} Among this number was "a heavy sprinkling of ex-convicts, gamblers, thieves, rogues and vagabonds of all kinds".{{sfn|The Defence of the Eureka Stockade|1970|p=6}} The local authorities soon found themselves with fewer police and lacked the infrastructure needed to support the expansion of the mining industry. The number of public servants, factory and farm workers leaving for the goldfields to seek their fortune made for chronic labour shortages that needed to be resolved.{{sfn|Barnard|1962|p=261}}

=== Protests on the goldfields: 1851–1854 ===
{{further|Timeline of the Eureka Rebellion}}

====La Trobe introduces monthly mining tax as protests begin====
[[File:The Eureka Stockade Gold License.jpg|thumb|250px|A gold mining licence issued to [[Raffaello Carboni]]]]

On 16 August 1851, just days after Hiscock's lucky strike, [[Lieutenant-Governor]] [[Charles La Trobe]] issued two proclamations that reserved to the crown all land rights to the goldfields and introduced a mining licence (tax) of 30 shillings per month, effective 1 September.<ref>''Supplement to the Victorian Government Gazette'', No 6, 13 August 1851, 209.</ref><ref>''Victorian Government Gazette'', No. 8, 27 August 1851, 307.</ref> The universal mining tax was based on time stayed rather than what was seen as the more equitable option, an export duty levied only on gold found, meaning it was always designed to make life unprofitable for most prospectors.{{sfn|Barnard|1962|p=261}}{{sfn|Blainey|1983|p=158}}

There were several mass public meetings and miners' delegations in the years leading up to the armed revolt. The earliest rally was held on 26 August 1851 at Hiscock's Gully in Buninyong and attracted 40–50 miners protesting the new mining regulations, and four resolutions to this end were passed.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4780134 |location=Melbourne |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |title=GOLD. |date=30 August 1851 |access-date=19 May 2022 |page=2 |via=[[Trove]] }}</ref> From the outset, there was a division between the "moral force" activists who favoured lawful, peaceful and democratic means and those who advocated "physical force", with some in attendance suggesting that the miners take up arms against the lieutenant governor, who was irreverently viewed as a feather-wearing, effeminate [[fop]].{{sfn|Clark|1987|p=14}} This first meeting was followed by ongoing protests across all the colony's mining settlements in the years leading up to the 1854 armed uprising at Ballarat.

====First gold commissioner arrives in Ballarat====
[[File:Forest Creek Monster Meeting.jpg|thumb|''Great Meeting of Gold Diggers Dec 15th 1851'' engraved by Thomas Ham and drawn by D. Tulloch, 1851]]
[[File:MonsterMeetingFlag.svg|thumb|Recreation of the original Monster Meeting flag raised in 1851 at Forest Creek]]

In mid-September 1851, D. C. Doveton, the first local gold commissioner appointed by La Trobe, arrived in Ballarat.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=187}} At the beginning of December, there was discontent when it was announced that the licence fee would be raised to 3 pounds a month, a 200 per cent increase, effective 1 January 1852.<ref>''Victorian Government Gazette'', No 22, 3 December 1851, 825.</ref> In Ballarat, some miners became so agitated that they began to gather arms.{{sfn|Bate|1978|p=67}} On 8 December, the rebellion continued to build momentum with an anti-mining tax banner put on public display at [[Chewton, Victoria|Forrest Creek]].{{sfn|Hocking|2004|pp=56-57}}

After remonstrations, particularly in Melbourne and [[Geelong]], on 13 December 1851, the previous increase was rescinded. The [[Forest Creek Monster Meeting]] took place at [[Mount Alexander]] on 15 December 1851. This was the first truly mass demonstration of the Eureka Rebellion. According to high-end estimates, up to 20,000 miners turned out in a massive display of support for repealing the mining tax.{{sfn|Hocking|2004|p=51}} The only pictorial evidence concerning the flag on display at the meeting is an engraving of the scene by Thomas Ham and David Tulloch that features only part of the design.{{sfn|Hocking|2004|p=51}} 

Based on the research of Doug Ralph, Marjorie Theobald and others have questioned whether there was an iconic Digger's flag displayed at Forest Creek that spread to other mining settlements.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://monstermeeting.net/the-flag | title=The Flag }}</ref><ref>https://monstermeeting.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Was-There-One-True-Diggers-Flag.pdf</ref>

Two days later, it was announced that La Trobe had reversed the planned increase in the mining tax. The oppressive licence hunts continued and increased in frequency, causing general dissent among the diggers.<ref>''Victorian Government Gazette'', No 25, 24 December 1851, 871.</ref> There was strong opposition to the strict prohibition of liquor imposed by the government at the goldfields settlements, whereby the sale and consumption of alcohol were restricted to licensed hotels.{{sfn|Bate|1978|pp=32-34}}{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|pp=10-11}}

Despite the high turnover in population on the goldfields, discontent continued to simmer throughout 1852.{{sfn|Withers|1999|p=47}} La Trobe received a petition from the people of [[Bendigo]] on 2 September 1862, drawing attention to the need for improvements in the road from Melbourne. The lack of police protection was also a major issue for the protesting miners. On 14 August 1852, a fight broke out among 150 men over land rights in Bendigo. An inquiry recommended increasing police numbers in the colony's mining settlements. Around this time, the first gold deposits at the Eureka lead in Ballarat were found.{{sfn|Withers|1999|p=47}}

In October 1852, at Lever Flat near Bendigo, the miners attempted to respond to rising crime levels by forming a "Mutual Protection Association". They pledged to withhold the licence fee, build detention centres, and begin nightly armed patrols, with vigilantes dispensing summary justice to those suspected of criminal activities. That month, Government House received a petition from Lever Flat, Forrest Creek and Mount Alexander about policing levels as the colony continued to strain due to the gold rush. On 25 November 1852, a police patrol was attacked by a mob of miners who wrongly believed they were obliged to take out a whole month's subscription for seven days at Oven's goldfield in Bendigo.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=188}}

In 1852, it was decided by the UK government that the Australian colonies should each draft their own constitutions, pending final approval by the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Imperial parliament]] in London.{{sfn|Clark|1966|p=308}}

====Bendigo Petition and the Red Ribbon Movement====
{{main|Anti-Gold Licence Association|Bendigo Petition}}
The disquiet on the goldfields continued in 1853, with public meetings held in [[Castlemaine, Victoria|Castlemaine]], [[Heathcote, Victoria|Heathcote]] and Bendigo.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4795879 |location=Melbourne |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |title= BENDIGO. |date=19 April 1853 |access-date=21 May 2022 |page=4 |via=[[Trove]] }}</ref> On 3 February 1853, a policeman accidentally caused the death of William Guest at Reid's Creek. Assistant Commissioner James Clow had to defuse a difficult situation with a promise to conduct an inquiry into the circumstances. A group of one thousand angry miners overran the government camp and relieved the police of their sidearms and weapons, destroying a cache of weapons.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=188}} George Black assisted Dr John Owens in chairing a public meeting held at Ovens field on 11 February 1853 that called for the death of Guest to be fully investigated.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=188}}

The [[Anti-Gold Licence Association]] was formed in June at a meeting in Bendigo, where 23,000 signatures were collected for a mass petition, including 8,000 from the mining settlement at McIvor.{{sfn|Hocking|2004|p=65}}

There was an incident on 2 July 1853 in which police were assaulted in the vicinity of an anti-licence meeting at the [[Sandhurst, Victoria|Sandhurst]] goldfield in Bendigo, with rocks being thrown as they escorted an intoxicated miner to the holding cells.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=188}} On 16 July 1853, an anti-licence demonstration in Sandhurst attracted 6,000 people, who also raised the issue of lack of electoral rights. The high commissioner of the goldfields, [[William Wright (Australian politician)|William Wright]], advised La Trobe of his support for an export duty on gold found rather than the existing universal tax on all prospectors based on time stayed.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=189}}

On 3 August, the Bendigo petition was placed before La Trobe, who refused to act on a request to suspend the mining tax again and give the miners the right to vote.{{sfnm|MacFarlane|1995|1p=189|Clark|1987|2p=63}} The next day, there was a meeting held at Protestant Hall in Melbourne where the delegation reported on the exchange with La Trobe. The crowd reacted with "loud disapprobation and showers of hisses" when the lieutenant governor was mentioned. Manning Clark speaks of one of the leaders of the "moral force" faction, George Thompson, who returned to Bendigo, where he attended another meeting on 28 July. Formerly, there was talk of "moral suasion" and "the genius of the English people to compose their differences without resort to violence". Thompson pointed to the [[Union Jack]] and jokingly said that "if the flag went, it would be replaced by a diggers' flag".{{sfn|Clark|1987|p=63}}

The Bendigo "diggers flag" was unfurled at a rally at View Point, Sandhurst, on 12 August 1853 to hear from delegates who had returned from Melbourne with news of the failure of the Bendigo petition. The miners paraded under the flags of several nations, including the [[Flag of Ireland|Irish tricolour]], the saltire of Scotland, the Union Jack, revolutionary French and German flags, and the Stars and Stripes. The ''Geelong Advertiser'' reported that:

{{blockquote|Gully after gully hoisted its own flag, around which the various sections rallied, and as they proceeded towards the starting points, formed quite an animated spectacle … But the flag which attracted the greatest attention was the Diggers' Banner, the work of one of the Committee, Mr Dexter, an artist of considerable talent, and certainly no company ever possessed a more appropriate coat of arms, or a motto more in character with themselves.}}

The design of the Digger's flag was along the same lines as the flag flown at Forrest Creek in 1851. It has four quarters that feature a pick, shovel and cradle, symbolising the mining industry; a bundle of sticks tied together, symbolising unity; the scales of justice, symbolising the remedies the miners sought; and a Kangaroo and Emu, symbolising Australia.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://monstermeeting.net/the-flag | title=The Flag }}</ref>

On 20 August 1853, just as an angry mob of 500–600 miners went to assemble outside the government camp at Waranga, the authorities used a legal technicality to release some mining tax evaders.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=189}} A meeting in Beechworth called for reducing the licence fee to ten shillings and voting rights for the mining settlements.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=189}} A larger rally attended by 20,000 people was held at Hospital Hill in Bendigo on 23 August 1853, which resolved to support a mining tariff fixed at 10 shillings a month.<ref>''Melbourne Morning Herald'' as cited in Geoffrey Serle, ''The Golden Age: A History of the Colony of Victoria'', 1851 - 1861 (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1963), 109.</ref>{{sfn|Hocking|2004|pp=69-71}}

There was a second multinational-style assembly at View Point on 27 August 1853. The next day a procession of miners passed by the government camp with the sounds of bands and shouting and fifty pistol rounds as an assembly of about 2,000 miners took place.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=189}} On 29 August 1853, assistant commissioner [[Robert William Rede]] at Jones Creek counselled that a peaceful, political solution could still be found. In Ballarat, miners offered to surround the guard tent to protect gold reserves amid rumours of a planned robbery.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=189}}

A sitting of the goldfields committee of the Legislative Council in Melbourne on 6 September 1853 heard from goldfields activists Dr William Carr, W Fraser and William Jones.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=190}} ''An Act for the Better Management of the Goldfields'' was passed, which, upon receiving royal assent on 1 December, reduced the licence fee to 40 shillings for every three months. The act featured increasing fines in the order of 5, 10 and 15 pounds for repeat offenders, with goldfields residents required to carry their permits, which had to be available for inspection at all times. This temporarily relieved tensions in the colony. In November, the select committee bill proposed a licence fee of 1 pound for one month, 2 pounds for three months, 3 for six months and 5 pounds for 12 months, along with extending the voting franchise and land rights to the miners. La Trobe amended the scheme by increasing the six-month licence to 4 pounds, with a fee of 8 pounds for 12 months.{{sfn|Corfield|Wickham|Gervasoni|2004|p=x}}

On 3 December 1853, a crowd of 2,000–3,000 attended an anti-licence rally at View Point. Then, on 31 December 1854, about 500 people gathered there to elect a so-called "Diggers Congress".{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=190}}

====Legislative Council calls for Commission of Inquiry====

La Trobe decided to cancel the September 1853 mining tax collections. The Legislative Council supported a Commission of Inquiry into goldfields grievances. It also considered a proposal to abolish the licence fee in return for a royalty on the gold and a nominal charge for maintaining the police service.{{sfn|Clark|1987|p=64}} In November, it was resolved by the Legislative Council that the licence fee be reinstated on a sliding scale of 1 pound per month, 2 pounds per three months, 4 pounds for six months, and 8 pounds for 12 months. License evasion was punishable by increasing fines of 5, 15 and 30 pounds, with serial offenders liable to be sentenced to imprisonment. Licence inspections, treated as a great sport and "carried out in the style of an English fox-hunt"{{sfn|Clark|1987|p=68}} by mounted officials, known to the miners by the warning call "Traps" or "Joes", were henceforth able to take place at any time without notice.{{sfn|Clark|1987|p=67}}<ref>{{cite act |date=1853 |legislature=Victoria |title=An Act for better management of the Gold Fields in the Colony of Victoria }}</ref>

The latter sobriquet was a reference to La Trobe, whose proclamations posted around the goldfields were signed and sealed "Walter Joseph Latrobe".{{sfn|Craig|1903|p=255}} Many of the police were former convicts from Tasmania. They would get a fifty per cent commission from all fines imposed on unlicensed miners and grog sellers. Plainclothes officers enforced prohibition, and those involved in the illegal sale of alcohol were initially handed 50-pound fines. Subsequent offences were punishable by months of hard labour. This led to the corrupt practice of police demanding blackmail of 5 pounds from repeat offenders.{{sfn|Clark|1987|p=67}}{{sfn|Barnard|1962|p=260}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sovereignhilledblog.com/2014/02/21/alcohol-on-the-goldfields |title=Alcohol on the Goldfields |date=21 February 2014 |access-date=18 June 2022 |publisher=Sovereign Hill}}</ref>

Miners were arrested for not carrying licences on their person, as they often left them in their tents due to the typically wet and dirty conditions in the mines, then subjected to such indignities as being chained to trees and logs overnight.{{sfn|Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement|1965|p=33}} The impost was most felt by a greater number of miners, who were finding the mining tax untenable without any more significant gold discoveries.{{sfn|Barnard|1962|p=260}}

In March 1854, La Trobe sent a reform package to the Legislative Council, which was adopted and sent to London for the approval of the Imperial parliament. The voting franchise would be extended to all miners upon purchasing a 12-month permit.<ref>{{cite act |date=1854 |legislature=Victoria |title=An Act to extend the Elective Franchise}}</ref>

====Hotham replaces La Trobe====

La Trobe's successor as lieutenant-governor, Sir [[Charles Hotham]], who took up his commission in Victoria on 22 June 1854.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4794200 |location=Melbourne |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)|The Argus]] |title=ARRIVAL OF THE QUEEN OF THE SOUTH. |date=22 June 1854 | access-date=19 May 2022 |page=4 |via=[[Trove]] }}</ref> He instructed Rede to introduce a strict enforcement system and conduct a weekly cycle of licence hunts, which it was hoped would cause the exodus to the goldfields to be reversed.{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=191}} In August 1854, Hotham and his wife were received in Ballarat during a tour of the Victorian goldfields. In September, Hotham imposed more frequent twice-weekly licence hunts, with more than half of the prospectors on the goldfields remaining non-compliant with the regulations.{{sfn|Clark|1987|p=67}}{{sfn|MacFarlane|1995|p=191}}

The miners in Bendigo responded to the increase in the frequency of licence hunts with threats of armed rebellion.{{sfn|Bate|1978|p=55}}