Eureka Stockade essays

Eureka Stockade essays Analyse the causes of the Eureka Stockade In December 1854, a hundred and fifty gold diggers on the Ballarat goldfields finally rebelled against the Victorian government and built a wooden fort on a hill that became the Eureka Stockade. A main cause for this was the high price for the gold license that every miner had to carry. Another cause was the constant harassment of the diggers by the police, or traps during the license hunts. The final event that made the diggers anger snap was the murder of a miner by a hotel owner. Tensions on the goldfields were sparked by the gold licenses that were introduced by Governor Lrobe in 1851. It was the law that every male digger has to have one regardless of whether he found gold or not. Initially, these were very expensive at thirty shillings per month, but the price was later reduced to two pounds for three months. Despite the reduction in price, the diggers were still not satisfied as they thought that the gold license system was unfair and soon, unsuccessful diggers could no longer afford to keep renewing their licenses. Another cause of the rebellion was the license hunts carried out by the police. These would occur twice a week and would consist of police requesting miners to show their licenses. This made the miners agitated as they would be asked by police to show their licenses several times in one afternoon, this meant that shaft diggers would have to climb up the deep shaft many times during the day. If a digger was found to not have been carrying his license on him, they would be chained or tied up to logs and trees and be kept there during the heat of the sun and the freezing temperatures of the night. The miners would be punished like this if they had left their gold license at home or was not carrying it. The final incident that made the diggers snap was the murder of the miner Scobie by owner of the Eureka Hotel, James Bentley. ...