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 The severe Australian laws that prompted the Eureka Stockade Miner's
Rebellion were finally modified in 1854; however, Australian conservatives, whom
the miners regarded as "the real aborigines," were never really
defeated by liberal movements. Struggles over trade unionism revived (1855), and
strikes occurred during periods of high unemployment, especially against the
imported Chinese laborers. The settlement of Lambing Flat (Young) in New South
Wales saw the worst of the riots against the Chinese, many of whom were
attacked, robbed, beaten, or killed by white miners who wished to force them
from the goldfields in the area. Some of the rioters were arrested; others
fought gun battles with the police, who finally restored order in mid-1861.
Alarmed by the protests, the effective passive resistance of the Chinese, and
the spread of racism to include the Australian aborigines, the older Australian
colonists who formed the legislative bodies merely restricted the Chinese to
certain areas and, to discourage immigration by others, charged a residence tax.
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