The Eureka Stockade

The Eureka Stockade was the result of growing conflict between the authorities and increasing numbers of miners within Victoria. The causes of the Eureka Stockade of 1854 were the conflicts that had arisen from three deeply held grievances on the miners’ part. These grievances were the licence system, the lack of land available, and the lack of political rights that the diggers held. The conflicts arose due to the governor’s unwillingness to correct the grievances of the diggers. It was due to these issues that the Eureka Stockade took place in the early hours of December 3, 1854. Moreover, when the smoke had cleared from the rebellion the authorities soon saw that they would have to make changes to the systems that were in place. The political consequences of this clash were both immediate and long lasting. The consequences included changes to the licence system and increases in the political rights of the diggers.

The causes of the stockade lay within differences that arose between the miners and the authoritie

The second of the diggers problems with the system in place was the lack of land available to them to purchase . This was a problem for the diggers as a number of them wanted to invest “…their small capital or their earnings of gold upon a section of ground” . However, there were strict restrictions on the land for sale and this meant that most diggers were not able to buy the land that they wanted. “[T]he inadequacy of the supplies of land as compared with the wants of the population.” This statement is taken from a report of a Royal Commission shortly before the Eureka Stockade . It illustrates that the authorities knew of the grievances that affected the goldfields, but it was not until after the rebellion at Eureka that any of these issues were addressed.

In the long term, the diggers gained what they had fought for. The long-term political consequences in this issue were that the authorities had to bend to the diggers’ grievances. The biggest grievance of the diggers was the licence system. This was changed to an annual payment for the right to mine . The Legislative Council was also enlarged to include twelve more members, eight of which were for goldfield members . Another important political consequence was that on June 12, 1885 the Gold Fields Act was passed . This act gave miners “the right to elect the members of their courts and the powers of the courts were wide, covering the regulations on the fields” . So, the grievances of the diggers were finally addressed. This event is also an important one in Australian history as H. V. Evatt has suggested the importance in his statement “Australian democracy was born at Eureka” .

The last issue that the diggers were concerned about was the lack of political rights they held . They had no self-elected body on the goldfields; a commissioner was put in charge of the administration of the goldfields . In Ballarat, the commissioner was Robert Rede it was his duty to maintain civil order on the goldfields within Ballarat and also to collect and uphold the gold licence fees. The fact that there was no elected body bothered the diggers, as it was their opinion that “…they had contribu

Some topics in this essay:
Charles Hotham, Eureka Stockade, Samuel Lazarus, December Stockade, Fredrick Vern, Fields Act, Stockade December, John Farrell, Robert Rede, Legislative Council, eureka stockade, licence system, political rights, political consequences, land available, lack land available, lack land, grievances licence system, miners victoria, rights diggers, growing conflict, lack political, event australian history, land available purchase, system lack land,