Saluting the Southern Cross Eureka Stockade Ballarat Victoria GOLD RUSH STORIES - PART 23 - WHAT CAUSED THE EUREKA STOCKADE?

Gold Rush Stories - Part 23 - What Caused the Eureka Stockade?

Hisorical illustration of Govenor Bligh being arrested during the Rum Rebellion in Sydney GOLD RUSH STORIES PART 35 - THE RUM REBELLION; AUSTRALIA'S ONLY MILITARY COUP

Tree of Life Collection Gold Ring Designer Jewelry Tree in Desert Sunset Yellow and black outback scene 360 little planet image

Gold Licenses were one of the earliest forms of taxation within the Australian colonies. Unlike early Californian settlers, Australian diggers were able to ‘stake a claim’ working to prevent outbreaks of violence on the diggings.

 

Miners Right License NSW Gold Fields
MINERS RIGHT LICENSE NSW GOLD FIELDS
(Miner's Right, license for George Johnson, 1814-1917, 1863)

Given that a fledging colony has virtually no infrastructure to speak of, colony administrators raised funds by imposing hefty license fees on the diggers to publicly fund police forces, hospitals, and roads. The high license fees were also a deterrent, acting as a ‘barrier to entry’ for many of the populace whom were desperately needed to fill jobs in the towns and cities.

None the less, countless workers from farms, ports, hotels and shops downed their tools and abandoned their uniforms, making a b-line straight to the diggings as news of the ‘rush’ spread.

The Crystal Palace and Historical drawing of the Great Exhibition of 1851 GOLD RUSH STORIES - PART 24 - WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THE AGE OF STEAM AND WHAT WAS THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851

The Bombing of Darwin memorial plaque and information sign in Darwin Northern Territory

Though the hefty license fees contributed to a more bureaucratic organisation on the Victorian gold fields than which had occurred in California, their high price was one of the catalysts for the Eureka Rebellion, which would claim the lives of more than 30 people.

Investing the wealth brought on the gold rush Victoria’s government spent up on new technologies and institutions and by the mid-1850s, Melbourne had become one of the richest cities in the world.

Former Bendigo Post Office built 1883 By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building
Former Bendigo Post Office Built 1883
Bendigo Post Office Commemorative Plaque - Ornate Stone Carvings of lions head and grape wreaths. By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building

In preparation for the end of the gold rush communities across Victoria built large, beautiful, neoclassical stone buildings, bringing about a sense of permanence for the settlements around which communities grew and flourished.

 (The Gold Rushes of Victoria and California Compared, n.d.)

Rainbow Planet Collection Round Rug Designer Home wares plush Rainbow Design 360 Little Planet Mystical

Bendigo Town Hall Built 1860's By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building
BENDIGO TOWN HALL 
Bendigo Town Hall Built 1860's - Commemorative Information sign By Kieran Wicks c2014 Victoria Living Art Lifestyle, Heritage Building
@kieran.wicks #Wealth #Infrastructureplan #Taxes #SocialEngineering #Eureka #Rebellion #Melbourne #Ballarat #Bendigo #Victoria #GoldRushStories #AustralianHistory ♬ original sound - Kieran.Wicks

 

Road making and ditch digging outside Monie's Hill End Hotel, Henry Harris' Duke of Cornwall Hotel and J. Curtain's barber shop left, with horse drawn cart right foreground, Tambaroora Road, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872 https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148071463

 

Road making and ditch digging outside Monie's Hill End Hotel, Henry Harris' Duke of Cornwall Hotel and J. Curtain's barber shop left, with horse drawn cart right foreground, Tambaroora Road, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872 https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148071463

The Bombing of Darwin memorial plaque and information sign in Darwin Northern Territory  

18k Gold Love Heart Bracelet bangle jewelry. Rainbow Aura Design Collection Abstract Art of Rainbow Beach Queensland
18K GOLD LOVE HEART BRACELET - RAINBOW AURA
Miner's Right, license for George Johnson, 1814-1917. (1863). https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/collection-items/miners-right-license-george-johnson-1814-1917
Miner's Right, license for George Johnson, 1814-1917. (1863).
https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/collection-items/miners-right-license-george-johnson-1814-1917
Goldmine, Bendigo - The Holterman Collection . (c1870-1875). Retrieved from Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales : http://digital.sl.nsw.gov.au/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?embedded=true&toolbar=false&dps_pid=IE1254012&_ga=2.130835015.95034651.1620013756-99728518.1616049004
Goldmine, Bendigo - The Holterman Collection . (c1870-1875) http://digital.sl.nsw.gov.au/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?embedded=true&toolbar=false&dps_pid=IE1254012&_ga=2.130835015.95034651.1620013756-99728518.1616049004

 Don Bradman's Birthplace Cootamundra NSW Australian Iconic Cricketer

Panorama of gold mines on central Hawkins Hill, looking east across Nuggety Gully, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872  https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148020840
Panorama of gold mines on central Hawkins Hill, looking east across Nuggety Gully, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872 
https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148020840
Gold mines on hillside, with man in lower right foreground, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872 https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148022640
Gold mines on hillside, with man in lower right foreground, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872
https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148022640
Gold mines on Central Hawkins Hill, Hill End, New South Wales, ca. 1872 https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-147998081
Gold mines on Central Hawkins Hill, Hill End, New South Wales, ca. 1872
https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-147998081

Horses and cart in foreground, looking south-west across Pullen's Dam, to the early workings of the Scandinavian mine, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872 https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148049615
Horses and cart in foreground, looking south-west across Pullen's Dam, to the early workings of the Scandinavian mine, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872
https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148049615
Road making and ditch digging outside Monie's Hill End Hotel, Henry Harris' Duke of Cornwall Hotel and J. Curtain's barber shop left, with horse drawn cart right foreground, Tambaroora Road, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872 https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148071463
Road making and ditch digging outside Monie's Hill End Hotel, Henry Harris' Duke of Cornwall Hotel and J. Curtain's barber shop left, with horse drawn cart right foreground, Tambaroora Road, Hill End, New South Wales, ca.1872
https://nla.gov.au:443/tarkine/nla.obj-148071463

 

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A polymathic touring musician, film maker, historian and producer, for the past 8 years Kieran Wicks has navigated the Great Southern Land of Australia performing hundreds of shows to ravenous audiences, whilst simultaneously developing a vast catalogue of interviews, images and videos in the production of multiple formative docuseries including 'One Town at a Time', which records his musical journey, immersed in poignant, forgotten Australian history and poetry, in archives such as 'Gold Rush Stories' and 'Poetry of the Pioneers'.

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