Difference between revisions of "Bendigo Goldfields Petition"
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[[File:GFs Pet 1853 4 PEG LEG-BENDIGO.jpg|500px|thumb|right| Signature from PegLeg on the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition]] | [[File:GFs Pet 1853 4 PEG LEG-BENDIGO.jpg|500px|thumb|right| Signature from PegLeg on the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition]] | ||
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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
Revision as of 08:39, 1 March 2021
Contents
Background
Once thought to be lost, the Bendigo Goldfields Petition was discovered by chance lying in a pile of papers on a rubbish tip. Some 13 metres in length and bound in green silk, it is an important document for Victoria.[1]
The petition was signed by around 5000 diggers on the Victorian goldfields in mid-1853. At the time, the signatures represented about one in 12 diggers.[2]
In June 1853 an anti-gold licence association was formed at Bendigo to give voice to the diggers' many grievances about their conditions. The diggers were angry about the mining licence fees imposed by the government and the system by which they were collected.[3]
The petition was signed by miners across the state’s major goldfields and was brought to Melbourne and presented to Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe on 1 August 1853. Most of its demands were rejected, including the reduction in the licence fee. Eventually the diggers' dissatisfaction erupted, culminating in the Eureka Stockade battle on the Eureka Lead at Ballarat on 3 December 1854.[4]
Two women signed the petition - Florence Foley and Sarah Williamson.
Dr John Chapman, a Melbourne collector, purchased the petition from its discoverer and presented it to the State Library of Victoria in 1988. Its discovery is particularly valuable for historians and genealogists investigating the history of social and political events during the gold rushes in Victoria.[5]
Probably Signed in or around Ballarat
Jesse Eldridge - John Eldridge - Moses Eldridge - Thomas Clegg - Alfred Lester
Probably Signed in or around Bendigo
Joseph Abbott - George Aspinall - Robert Benson - James Black (1) - Annesly Boyde - Michael Breen - Edward Browne - George Gaull -George Graham - Denis Fitzgerald - John Andrew Herdegen - W.E. Hill - Henry Holyoake - William Jameson - D.G. Jones - Frederick Ladbury - Decimus Lamb - Richard John Mack - John Maddern - Daniel Merington - Angel Meyers - James Moran - James Plunkett - John Pratt - Thomas Pritchard - Timothy Quinn - A. Robinson - John Shinnock - William Snell - Thomas Tyley - Thomas Underdown - James Egan Wall
Signed in Peg Leg
Edwin Beach - John? Brown - E. Butler - James Calder - Ben Cole - W. Fansome Fisher - John Gruph - Frederick Hamilton - John Humphreys - David Lang - Alexander Lawson - Richard Loglin - John Martin - Thomas Renwick - William B. Roebuck - W. E. Sasse - Aaron Wheeler - George B. Williams - w. C. Williams
Probably Signed in or Around Castlemaine
Probably Signed in or around The Ovens
Alphabetical Listings
See also
Bendigo Anti-license Committee
Further Reading
https://ballaratheritage.com.au/article/the-1853-bendigo-goldfields-petition/
Dorothy Wickham, Revolutionaries, Radicals & Victorian Goldfields, in Pay Dirt: Ballarat & Other Gold Towns, BHSPublishing, 2019, pp. 164-171.
Dorothy Wickham & Clare Gervasoni, Globalisation through Digital Experience Eurekapedia Wiki, in Pay Dirt: Ballarat & Other Gold Towns, BHSPublishing, 2019, pp. 195-202.
References
- ↑ http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/treasures-curios/bendigo-goldfields-petition, accessed 06 December 2013.
- ↑ http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/treasures-curios/bendigo-goldfields-petition, accessed 06 December 2013.
- ↑ http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/treasures-curios/bendigo-goldfields-petition, accessed 06 December 2013.
- ↑ http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/treasures-curios/bendigo-goldfields-petition, accessed 06 December 2013.
- ↑ http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/treasures-curios/bendigo-goldfields-petition, accessed 06 December 2013.
External links
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/our-collections/treasures-curios/bendigo-goldfields-petition
