Lambing Flat Riots (1860 - 1861)

Sun Jun 30, 1861

Image

Image: An of-the-era white interpretation of what happened at the Burrangong goldfields, “Might versus Right”, by Samuel Thomas Gill, c.1862-1863. Photograph: Samuel Thomas Gill/State Library of NSW [theguardian.com]

On this day in 1861, the worst violence of the Australian Lambing Flat Riots occurred when a mob of 3,000 white people attacked 2,000 Chinese miners and drove them off the Lambing Flat, destroying and looting their encampments.

The race riot came out of more than a decade of ethnic tensions between Chinese and European-born miners in Australia, tensions that became systematic violence the previous few years.

The violence was in part triggered in part by the Australian government rejecting a proposed restriction on Chinese immigration, as well as a false rumor that a new group of 1,500 Chinese people were en route to the area.

Despite the government’s initial reject of an anti-Chinese immigration bill, the Lambing Flat Riots led the New South Wales government to pass the Chinese Immigration Act in November 1861, severely limiting the flow of Chinese people into the colony.