Young is the major inland town that grew up around a paddock known as Lambing Flat on the Burrangong Goldfield.

Established in late 1860, the Burrangong field was a golden honeypot that drew in thousands of miners.

It was a poor man’s field – alluvial diggings where with limited capital or manpower, diggers could set to working the surface ground in hopes of making their fortunes.

Such places were hard to find by the start of the 1860s, and competition for the good ground was intense.

In this environment, the new field quickly became melting pot of the good, the bad and the ugly as resentment focussed on the presence of the well organised Chinese miners. Over a six month period, the Chinese were repeatedly subjected to violent threats from mobs that gathered to expel them from their claims.

This violence boiled over on 30 June 1861 in the most serious of all the confrontations. This event brought on drastic official intervention to restore order to the field, largely at the expense of the Chinese miners’ rights.

Then, no sooner did this violence subside than the bushranger scourge led by Johnny Gilbert and Ben Hall descended on the region over a two year period from 1863 – 64. The guerilla warfare that followed was especially centred upon the countyside and rolling landscapes around Murrumburrah.

Below: IMAGE 1 – Camp Hill, Young at time of riot. Reproduced courtesy Mitchell library, State Library of NSW Call no: DG SV1B/3 Digital:a928387. IMAGE 2 – Burrowa Street, Young (formerly Lambing Flat) Reproduced courtesy Mitchell library, State Library of NSW Call no: ON 4 Box 69 No 1034 Digital:a2825287

This remarkable drawing by Thomas Gill depicting the Lambing Flat riots is titled ‘Might vs Right’.

In choosing this title for the work, Gill was clearly establishing the moral context (or lack thereof) that underpinned the riot and the official responses to it.

Might vs Right – The Lambing Flat Riot 1861. S.T. Gill Reproduced courtesy Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW from Dr Doyles Sketch Book Call No: PXA 1983, No: f14.

Gill used this painting to make his own personal statement of the injustice underpinning the events that culminated in the Lambing Flat riots of 1861.

Gill was not alone in his sympathy for the Chinese; even on the goldfield itself, many favoured a ‘live and let live’ approach.

The kinder and more tolerant citizens were no match for the agitators, who took advantage of gold miners’ underlying sense of grievance to incite unrest and to drive the Chinese repeatedly off the field from late 1860 through to mid 1861.

Today you can visit the site of the Lambing Flat riots and the goldfields around Young, Wombat and Harden-Murrumburrah, visit the museums to learn of the horrible injustice to those who could not defend themselves, and of others who helped, fed and sheltered the distressed Chinese victims.

Lambing flat riot story