Editing History of Victoria (section)

==1850s gold rush==
{{see also|Victorian Gold Rush}}
In [[1851 in Australia|1851]] [[gold]] was first discovered in [[Clunes, Victoria|Clunes]] and Buninyong near [[Ballarat]],<ref>{{cite web
 |title       = 150 Years of Gold Mining in Victoria
 |publisher        = Stawell Historical Society
 |url         = http://home.vicnet.net.au/~shsinc/golddiscovery.html
 |access-date  = 2008-02-12
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080211224434/http://home.vicnet.net.au/~shsinc/golddiscovery.html
 |archive-date = 11 February 2008}}</ref> and subsequently at [[Bendigo]]. Later discoveries occurred at many sites across Victoria. This triggered one of the largest gold rushes the world has ever seen. The colony grew rapidly in both population and economic power. In ten years the population of Victoria increased sevenfold from 76,000 to 540,000. All sorts of gold records were produced including the "richest shallow alluvial goldfield in the world" and the [[Welcome Stranger|largest gold nugget]]. Victoria produced in the decade 1851–1860, twenty million ounces of gold, one third of the world's output.

Immigrants arrived from all over the world to search for gold, principally from the British Isles and particularly from Ireland. Many Chinese miners worked in Victoria, and their legacy is particularly strong in [[Bendigo]] and its environs. Although there was some [[racism]] directed at them, there was not the level of anti-Chinese violence that was seen at the [[Lambing Flat riots]] in New South Wales. However, there was a [[Buckland Riot|riot at Buckland Valley]] near [[Bright, Victoria|Bright]] in [[1857 in Australia|1857]]. Conditions on the gold fields were cramped and unsanitary – an outbreak of [[typhoid]] at Buckland Valley in [[1854 in Australia|1854]] killed over 1,000 miners.

In [[1854 in Australia|1854]] there was an armed rebellion against the government of Victoria by miners protesting against [[Miner's Licence|mining taxes]] (the "[[Eureka Stockade]]"). This was crushed by British troops, but some of the leaders of the rebellion subsequently became members of the Victoria Parliament, and the rebellion is regarded as a pivotal moment in the development of Australian democracy.