Rising above the vast ocean of canvas that was the diggings, stood the Government Camp, built on the high ground to the west of the Yarrowee River. High and, in theory, mighty.
On the Victorian goldfields, the Resident Commissioner was the man in charge. Robert Rede, who had abandoned a medical degree to try his luck at gold digging, took up this position of ultimate authority in May 1854. Beneath him were the assistant commissioners, magistrates and other senior civil servants. The police were the grunts: poorly paid henchmen who did the hard slog.
A submission to a commission of enquiry into the Victorian police force, held in late 1854, described the boys in blue like this:
The service generally is so unpopular, that, with few exceptions, only those who are either too idle to do any thing else, or who having failed in all their other attempts to gain a livelihood as a last resource enlist into the Police.
There was also a military presence on the goldfields—soldiers of the 12th and 40th Regiments of the British army. This force was separate from the police, with its own leadership and structure. A small number of soldiers were allowed to bring their wives and children with them. Wives were expected to wash, clean and cook, not only for their husbands but also for the unmarried or unaccompanied officers.
In Ballarat, this whole motley crew was housed at the Government Camp: a parcel of land bounded by a high picket fence and identified by the huge Union Jack flying from a central flagstaff. As in the rest of the town, there were only a few (very expensive) new wooden buildings. Most of the living quarters and offices were under canvas.
This ramshackle arrangement of lodgings accommodated the administrative workers stationed at Ballarat, their families and servants (tent keepers, drivers, packhorse keepers) as well as the police force and the military. In total, over one hundred people were crammed into the government ghetto. The architects of the camp may have a method in their madness, wrote the Geelong Advertiser in February 1854, but it is not easily seen.