The first discussion in the Understanding Victoria event series, titled "Disturbing the order of things": The impact of the Gold Rush on ideas, identity and society in Victoria, was held in May 2024.
This discussion explored a significant period in the early years of the State of Victoria, Australia.
Format
The Governor introduced the event by reflecting on the history of the area prior to its inception at the Colony of Victoria in 1851 – from the business and ceremony of countless generations of First Peoples, to the arrival of unauthorised European settlements, and the creation of the Port Phillip District.
The Governor argued that the open debates of ideas, including historical issues, is a sign of a healthy democracy. You can read the Governor’s full remarks.
The facilitator, The Honourable Maxine McKew AM, then formally introduced the topic and called on speakers.
Three speakers each presented a question to the group, which they explored in a short presentation. Following the presentation guests were invited to participate in a facilitated discussion to further explore the topic.
Speakers and Questions
Professor Richard Broome AM, Emeritus Professor History, La Trobe University: What was the impact of colonisation on the First Peoples of Victoria to 1860?
Robyn Annear, Author and Historian: How might we best understand the impact of the gold rush on the development of Victoria? What if the Victorian gold rush never happened?
Professor David Goodman, Professor in History, Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne: What kind of democracy emerged in the gold rush period?
Background information
The gold rush in Victoria is generally described as occurring over the period from around 1851 to the late 1860s.
In 1850 the British Parliament passed the Australian Colonies Bill which provided for the establishment of a new colony. The Colony of Victoria was declared on 1 July 1851, marking its separation from the Colony of New South Wales where it had been designated as the Port Phillip District from 1836 to 1850.
The announcement of the discovery of gold on 2 July 1851 in Victoria in Mount Alexander near Castlemaine was coincident with the foundation of the new colony. The role of government was immediately significant, with Lieutenant Governor Charles La Trobe introducing the gold licence system on 23 August 1851.
The first two decades of the new colony, Victoria, were marked by this phenomenal and transformative change. The gold rush brought intense activity and movement of people, changing the landscape through clearing and digging, and changing the development of the colony by the creation of many temporary settlements and eventually a series of new permanent settlements and towns, as well as a burgeoning and marvellous Melbourne.
Victoria’s First Peoples were involved in and materially affected by the rapid expansion of settlement and diggings, coming as it did after the conflicts and displacement of earlier settlement prior to the separation of the colony.
Immigrants from other nations, principally Europe, the UK, Canada and the USA, but also from China, flooded into the new colony. This added to the significant migration of people from other colonies. Between 1851 and 1861 it is estimated that the population of Victoria grew from 75,000 people to 500,000. In 1855, around 19,000 Chinese immigrants were in Victoria.
Art, music and writing attempted to capture and respond to the ferment that the gold rush occasioned. There are bush ballads, many drawings and some paintings created at the time, speaking to the time.
David Goodman (1994:xiv) argues that contemporaries agreed that the gold rushes “were a disturbance to the normal order of things” most particularly the disturbance occasioned by the opportunity to become very wealthy without much work or effort.
There was also a unique event, the Eureka Rebellion, which encompassed the Battle of the Eureka Stockade on 3 December 1854. It is clear this event affected the constitution of the parliament of Victoria, that it was marked by dissemination of Chartist ideas and led to adult male suffrage. However, its long-term significance and its representation is contested.
Was there a lasting impact on Victoria as we know it today? And if there was, how did it affect our society, politically, socially and culturally?