The miners claimed the police were extorting money, accepting bribes and imprisoning people without due process. The situation on the goldfields was tense as police regularly ran ‘licence hunts’ to track down diggers who hadn’t paid their fees. Many of the diggers were politically engaged – some had participated in the Chartist movement for political reform in Britain during the 1830s and 1840s while others had been involved in the anti-authoritarian revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848. Starting in 1853, miners began to gather in ‘monster’ meetings to voice their complaints, and delegations presented their concerns to Governor La Trobe, but he was unreceptive to the requests.
By 1854 that population had almost tripled while production had decreased to 1½ ounces per head. In that year the 35,000 miners in the Victorian goldfields were producing about five ounces of gold per head. This was a substantial sum for most diggers and when the easily obtainable surface gold began to run out in 1852 the licence fee became a point of contention. To raise funds, but also to discourage a flood of people moving to the diggings, New South Wales Governor Charles Fitzroy and Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe of Victoria, imposed a 30-shilling a month licence fee on miners. There were limited finances to provide services and the colonial budget was already in deficit. This massive influx of people was a serious challenge for the government. In the years between 18, Victoria’s population increased seven-fold from 76,000 to 540,000. Melbourne lost half its men to the goldfields, crews abandoned their ships in port, shepherds deserted their flocks the call in London, California, Germany and Italy was, ‘off to the diggings’. The belief that you could dig your own fortune attracted people from across the country and around the world. Gold was the catalyst for great change in Australia. Gold was also discovered in Victoria in June of that year. In early 1851 the government announced that gold had been discovered in Australia by Edward Hargreaves, John Lister and William, James and Henry Tom, near Bathurst, New South Wales.