Country of Origin
The 1850s Victorian goldfields population was comprised of many nationalities. They all lived under the British legal system in Australia, and were displeased with the unjust and confusing laws governing the goldfields. Many had fled troubles in Continental Europe and elsewhere, and had witnessed the results of oppressive tyrants and governments. Many had been Chartists and reformists in their homelands, and did not want to be repressed once again. [1]
James Madden wrote in 1904:
- ... One thing that pains me, and to which I must give an emphatic denial, is a statement that the fight was only shared by one section of the population. I say, from an intimate knowledge of events, that Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen,and men from other European countries, fought together and so did men of every religion. My family are Ulster-Protestants, and the latter are not usually weak in their faith, and we had many friends, also strict Irish Protestants, who fought and died side by side-with men of all other creeds; among them Irish Catholics. The struggle was one in wliich all religions united, so great was the oppression; and so strong was the desire to gain for Australia the freedom we have to-day. I cannot under stand how men who claim to he comrades of those who died can so traduce their memory, unless they belonged to the spies on Ballarat at the time. ...[2]
