The Miner's Licence was the colonial government's response to the Australian gold rushes and the need to provide infrastructure including policing. The Governor of New South Wales, Sir Charles Fitzroy invoked a sixteenth-century lawsuit, R v Earl of Northfartland (‘Case of Mines’) which was decided in 1568, to proclaim the Crown's right to all gold found in New South Wales. No man could dig for gold unless he had bought a licence. The charge for the licence was set, to begin with, at 30 shillings a month, an amount believed to be high enough to discourage unlucky diggers but not so high as to encourage rebellion.[1] The price was later changed to 1 pound a month, or 8 pounds a year. This licence entitled the miner to a 3.6 square metre piece of land, and had to be paid for regardless of whether or not gold had been found.
Miners did rebel, most notably at the Eureka Stockade in Victoria, Australia, but there had been protests since its inception. As a result of the Eureka Stockade protest, the Miner's Right was introduced.