What Role Did Australia Play In The Gold Rush

Who came?
Approximately 484 000 rushed to Australia from Great Britain for the Gold Rush. There were also many other nations who participated in the gold rush like Germany, Italy, North America, New Zealand, South Pacific, China. However, the British numbers were much larger than all other countries combined and the British had been involved with many other rebellions for their own rights before. Therefore, many of the migrants were already democrats and they were not afraid to try it again.
The Gathering Storm
The government demanded that all diggers pay a tax of 30 shillings per month in the form of a miner’s license. This was doubled for non-europeaners. Many could not afford this so they did not buy licences. When the governments discovered this they began ordering the troopers on licence searches to arrest all who had not paid the tax. The miners were furious at this as they received no voting rights which they expected from a tax like this. As time progresses and people were still not paying licence fees, Governor Hotham began conducting twice weekly searches for

This occurred on 17 October. As anger increased and the government continued to ignore the diggers they held a larger meeting at Bakery Hill. The miners met with three demands: the abolition of the licences, the voting rights for all men and the release of the three diggers who had been arrested for the burning of the Eureka Hotel. The Ballart Reform League was also formed at this meeting. When none of their demands were met, the diggers met again on Bakery Hill, 29 November. A mass burning of licenses took place and for the first time, the Southern Cross flag, also referred to as the eureka flag was displayed. Angered that the diggers thought they had the right to “demand” things, the gold commissioner ordered a licence hunt for the next day. The miners responded with another mass