Policing the Licensing System (1851-1852)

The Native Police were the only policing unit in the newly established Colony of Victoria available to Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe to bring law and order to the goldfields. For this reason, they were used to introduce the new licensing system, a measure that helped to bring in revenue for the government.

Image 34: William Strutt, The [Gold] Commissioner's tent, Golden Point, Ballarat, pencil and watercolour, 1851, in Victoria the Golden: scenes, sketches and jottings from nature, 1850-1862. Reproduced with the permission of the Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Victoria.

In September 1851, the commander of the Native Police, Henry EP Dana, and his troopers went to the Ballarat gold diggings. They accompanied the Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Buninyong District, FC Doveton, and David Armstrong, who had been employed by the colonial government on account of his experience of the Californian gold rush. At Warrenheip, just west of Ballarat, they found around 150 men at work. Nearby, at the station of Mr Yuille, there were another 300 to 400 men, while in the Buninyong gully a further 250 were looking for gold. In all, there were around 800 prospectors in the area. In Doveton's view, the men were satisfied with their earnings, suggesting that the diggings were yielding good quantities of gold.

On 21 September, Dana, Doveton, Armstrong and the Native Police troopers went to the Ballarat diggings and announced to the men present that they were there to collect the new licence fee and to issue monthly licences. Dana reported that the miners 'appeared very much dissatisfied' with this new tax. A public meeting was organised by 'stump orators' believed to be associated with the Geelong newspaper press. According to Dana, the speakers 'attempted to pass resolutions and tried in their speeches to induce the people to resist the payment of Licenses'. After the meeting dispersed, some men attempted to pay for their licence, but an angry mob surrounded the tent where the licences were being issued. When each of the men who had paid the fee came out of the tent they were attacked by the surrounding mob. Dana believed that if it were not for the intervention of the Native Police, some of these men would have been severely injured.

Image 35: ST Gill, Diggers Licenceing [sic] Forest Creek, 1872. La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria.

Once tempers had cooled, however, more men came up to pay for their licence. On that day, 88 licences were issued before 2.00 pm, at which time the officials ran out of forms. Doveton requested that a further 150 to 200 forms be sent immediately from Melbourne. To defuse the resistance to the licence fee, the Commissioner decided to charge the men only 15 shillings for that month (7 shillings less than the full amount due). He thought that this was fair because many of the men had come to the diggings only recently and he himself was collecting the fee so late in the month. From the start of November 1851, the full fee of 1 pound 10 shillings would apply. Concerned at the amount of gold that was being held on the goldfields, Doveton also advised that a monthly gold escort would have to be established, using three mounted troopers.

Dana warned that 'there are many turbulent ruffians here, from all parts of the country, and Van Diemans Land' and argued that he would 'require a much larger force than I have at present at my disposal to maintain any thing like order'. With between 800 and 1000 miners present in the Ballarat area, and groups of 20 and 30 continuing to arrive, Dana stressed that a strong police force was necessary to keep them all under control. He made a proposal to La Trobe outlining the kind of reinforcements that were required and how they could be obtained.

Image 36: ST Gill, Licensing Diggers, Forest Creek. First of month, renewing licenses, 1852. La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria.