15th December 2016 – Monster Meeting of Miners celebration in Chewton

Posted on 12 December, 2016 by Connecting Country

Michael Smith recently walked from Chewton to Canberra to present to the Federal Parliament a bill about war powers in Australia.

The Chewton Domain Society have asked Connecting Country to share news of their annual celebration of the 1851 Monster Meeting of Miners at the original site at Golden Point Rd Chewton on the 15th December 2016. They will tell and sing the story of how the Diggers on the Forest Creek Goldfields set a path to democracy when they stood up to Governor La Trobe’s unfair gold licence fees. At this year’s celebration, author Robyn Annear will deliver a tribute to Connecting Country’s first president, the late Doug Ralph who was also the instigator of the modern celebrations of the Monster Meeting in 1995.

In 2016 there will be two additions to the Monster Meeting celebrations.

Firstly the site at Chewton where 15,000 miners peacefully gathered to defy the government and demand respect for their rights, has now been declared a Site of National Significance in the cultural history of Victoria, and nominated for addition to the Heritage Register.

This recognises that the Monster Meeting was a defining event that united individual gold seekers into a political force that became the Diggers and set a path to popular democracy in Australia. A path that led to miners’ defiance across the Victorian goldfields and culminated, three years later, at the Eureka Stockade.

Secondly, in keeping with the spirit and theme of democracy from the original 1851 meeting, this year the Monster Meeting celebrations will include a guest speaker who will talk about democracy today – in particular the issue of democracy and war.

That speaker is Chewton resident, Michael Smith. Michael recently walked from Chewton to Canberra to present to the Federal Parliament a bill about war powers in Australia. His bill proposes that any decision about whether our country becomes involved in a war should be made by the whole Parliament, not just by the Prime Minister as it is currently.

The MC will be Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky who, along with Danny Spooner and Tony Ryan, will be singing songs from the acclaimed Monster Meeting CD, and will pay tribute to one of the songwriters, the late Doug Owen.

CONTACT: For information Pat Healy – 0422 759 661.