Governors and police

Each goldfield was run by a Gold Commissioner (paid 500 pounds a year) and his assistant, a police inspector, troopers (mounted police paid 3 shillings a day), police on foot (called traps, paid 2 shillings and ninepence per day) and Aboriginal Police (paid 1 shilling and a halfpenny per day).

How much people got paid

In 1851 there were less than 50 soldiers and a few police in Victoria. The gold rush meant that more police had to be quickly recruited. Most were unsatisfactory, many being ex convicts or guards.

The gold rush had made a lot of people want to the gold fields instead of continuing with their current job. To try and limit the number of people who left their jobs to search for gold, the government made people buy a licence to mine. The system of licences caused great trouble at all the goldfields. Miners had to pay a fee of 30 shillings each month to renew the licence, whether or not they had found gold. They had to carry their licence at all times because licences were checked twice a week. Police were kept so busy checking licences and collecting fees that they had little time to fight crime and keep order. Bushrangers roamed the countryside, holding up travellers and robbing them, and at the diggings there was burglary, claim-jumping (taking over someone's claim), and violence, including police actions.