Dinner to mark miners’ revolt

A DINNER to celebrate the anniversary of Bendigo’s famed Red Ribbon Rebellion will be held for the first time at Bendigo Trades Hall on Friday, 27 August.

Trades Hall council secretary Luke Martin said the importance of the rebellion, and the reason for it to be commemorated, is the fact that it’s one of three major organised “agitations” that took place on the goldfields in Victoria during the 1850s.

“On the day the miners gathered and everyone wore red ribbons around their arms as a sign of solidarity,” he said.

“They marched on to Camp Hill behind View Street and met with Governor La Trobe.

“They collected up everyone’s license fees at half of what the government was actually asking for, handed it over in a big bag and said, ‘That’s all you’re getting, you’re not getting any more’.

“Looking across the crowd, I’m pretty sure Governor La Trobe was a little bit anxious, because back in those days the miners on the central goldfields were the rule of law, they were all armed and ready for a fight.

“The Governor had brought cannons to fire into the crowd, but changed his mind and, to calm them down, said he’d be taking no license fees that day.

“They all went on their merry way, but of course the battle over license fees kept going.”

Mr Martin said the inaugural Red Ribbon Rebellion dinner is a way of “trying to breathe some new life back into the Trades Hall.”

“Part of doing that is bringing these old stories of triumph back, and reclaiming the history of organised labor and unionism in Central Victoria,” he said.

For further information on the event visit bit.ly/3m2LLw9.