Historical information

The Red Ribbon Movement of 1853 represented a significant series of events in the history of Bendigo. During that year there was much agitation on the Bendigo gold fields, particularly during July and August of 1853, directed against the payment of what the miners called a tax - a licence fee of thirty shillings ($3) a month for the right to search for gold on what was declared Crown land. They had to pay the licence whether they found gold or not.
The miners, or diggers as they were called, also resented the means used by the authorities at the time to collect the gold licence - through so-called 'digger hunts'.
The miners were expected to carry their licences with them, and the police, who were often untrained, used harsh methods to check these licences.
In Bendigo, the miners took to wearing a red ribbon ‘as a symbol of their protest against the licence. Red was a very common colour in items such as shirts, so was readily available.
Shopkeepers too tied red ribbons to their premises as a sign of support for the miners. It should be remembered at that time virtually everyone was a miner. The diggers also had their own banner, designed by William Dexter, a china painter from Devon. This flag showed the pick, shovel and cradle representing labour, the scales representing justice, the Roman bundle of sticks meaning unity and the kangaroo and emu of Australia
Many thousands of Bendigo miners signed a petition to La Trobe, the Governor of Victoria, protesting against the licence fee. When the Governor rejected the petition, thousands of diggers marched in peaceful protest. Miners from White Hills, Eaglehawk, Golden Square, Kangaroo Flat as well as from Bendigo Flat, converged on what is now Pall Mall and View Point, surrounding the ~government camp on Camp Hill. The camp had been reinforced with soldiers of the 40 Regiment, as the Government feared bloodshed.
The miners then gathered on the hill behind View Point to hear from their leaders - among them George Thomson, Captain Harrison, Captain Brown and W.D.C. Denovan.
They resolved to pay a token fee often shillings ($1) for the September licence, whenthey met with Commissioners Panton and Wright on Camp Hill.
Although Wright and Panton were sympathetic to the miners, the offer was rejected, but no licence fees were collected for September. Thus a possible bloody conflict was averted by the common sense shown by the miners' leaders and the commissioners. It was a truly democratic protest against arbitrary government and preceded the Eureka Stockade Incident by over a year.

Physical description

Bendigo Historical Society Committee on a Tram, two photos, one of five people standing behind a display cabinet, and the second one a Banner stretched across the tram. On the rear of the photo is "L-R Jim Evans, Terry Davidson, Ron Monro." Second from left is Jim Evans (President) and fourth from the left is Terry Davidson, with extreme right, Ron Munro (Vice President).
In the cabinet is the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition (Red Ribbon Rebellion) The society holds the petition in digital form.
The diggers had their own banner, designed by William Dexter, a china painter from Devon. This flag showed the pick, shovel and cradle representing labour, the scales representing justice, the Roman bundle of sticks meaning unity and the kangaroo and emu of Australia