Forest Creek Monster Meeting
Rally during the gold rush in Victoria / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.
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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, 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 exact design of this flag is unknown.