Forest Creek Monster Meeting

The Forest Creek Monster Meeting was an organised protest at Forest Creek in Victoria, Australia against the increase in Miner's Licence fee planned by the colonial government of Victoria. Although it was one of several similar protests held around the colony, it is notable as the largest known mass rally held during the Australian gold rushes.

In December 1851 the government announced that it intended to triple the licence fee from £1 to £3 a month, from 1 January 1852.[1]

On 15 December 1851 estimates of between 14,000 and 20,000 miners gathered for the first mass meeting of diggers, as the miners were known, at Forest Creek. The notices put about the diggings by a person who called himself "A Digger" in advance of the meeting advertised it as a 'Monster Meeting'. The Miners' Flag, also known as the standard of Australian reform, flew at this meeting for the first time.

The rally was largely successful as the government hastily withdrew its plans to increase the miner's licence fee.

Site Rediscovery

The meeting took place at the site of a shepherd's hut, an out station of William Campbell's sheep run 'Strathloddon" which was built around 3 miles south of Major Thomas Mitchell's line of road at the junction of Wattle and Forest creeks in the 1840s. It was claimed at the time that between 12 and 20 thousand people attended the meeting that day, a far greater number than any meeting of gold diggers before or since.

The site of the shepherd's hut was rediscovered after research by Glenn Braybrook, a local historian and longtime resident of Chewton.

Glenn enlisted the help of his father, Ian Braybrook, who accompanied Glenn to the area where he thought the monster meeting site was. That afternoon they found the site again. Although some said it was in another place to the South, and others had thought the site was to the North, Glenn and Ian proved that afternoon that they had found the spot. By looking at the drawings completed in 1851 they found and stood on the exact site of the old shepherds hut, one of the most significant sites in Australian history.

Recently much has been made of the Monster meeting site by various historians and others.

Legacy

The site is now marked with a cairn placed there in the original spot by members of the Ballarat Reform League. Locals gather annually to commemorate the event.

See also

References

  1. ↑ pg. 24. Bate, Weston. Lucky City

External links

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