John Green

Walter E. Pidgeon, Illustration from The Eureka Stockade by Raffaello Carboni, Sunnybrook Press, 1942, offset print.
Art Gallery of Ballarat, purchased 1994.

Background

John Green was a Justice of the Peace.

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

John Green was a witness to the burning of Bentley's Hotel. Rede sent him to observe the meeting of diggers who were angry because of Scobie's murder and that Bentley had not been punished. Green was delegated to read the riot act at the meeting at Bentley's Eureka Hotel, but Robert Rede decided to attend, after receiving a message that the diggers were pulling down the hotel. Things happened so quickly that the Riot Act was not read.

Green was a witness examined during the report of the Board appointed to enquire into circumstances connected with the riot at Ballarat, and the burning of James Bentley's Eureka Hotel.

Post 1854 Experiences

Green was a Gold Receiver in the Ballarat Sub-Treasury. He was appointed on 1 January 1856 with an annual salary of 650 pounds, a substantial amount for the times. He died at the Government Camp on 20 October 1856 and was succeeded by Robert Haywood.

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.

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