Buckland Riot

The Buckland Riot ( Buckland Revolt ) took place on Buckland River in Victoria , Australia as a violent confrontation between Chinese and European gold seekers on July 4, 1857 instead. This controversy was a prehistory of the later nationalist White Australia Policy .

6,000 prospectors lived on the Upper Ovens Goldfield , in an area that now includes the towns of Harrietville , Bright and Wandiligong . The large crowd that stretched across the area created problems and an anti-Chinese confrontation broke out, known as the Buckland Riot . During the conflict, 500 Europeans and 2,000 or 2,500 Chinese worked in the area. They had been fighting over the area for weeks and there were only two police officers present - Constable Thomas Duffy and Constable John Gilroy.

On July 4th, 80 prospectors considered how they could drive the Chinese out of this field. The meeting ended and 30 to 40 men moved to the Chinese prospectors and asked them to leave the premises. A little later 50 to 100 European men came armed with sticks, pickaxes and knives and drove the Chinese eight miles down the river and burned their camps along the way. The Chinese were knocked down and robbed or their belongings were thrown into the river. Shops were destroyed, robbed or burned down. Some Chinese were killed as a result of the long-term consequences of this conflict; the exact figures are not known.

Later that day some Chinese came back and fired several shots in the direction of the whites , wounding three of them; two European business owners were beaten up by them.

There was a trial on August 10, 1857, at which all Europeans who had been arrested since the riot were acquitted.

This dispute led to the Victorian government enacting rules on Chinese immigration.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Buckland Riot on egold.net.au Accessed 10 April 2010

[1] Buckland Riot on egold.net.au Accessed 10 April 2010