 In December 1851 the government announced that it intended to triple the licence fee from £1 to £3 a month, from 1 January 1852.On 15 December 1851, between 14,000 and 20,000 miners gathered for the first mass meeting of diggers, as the miners were known, at Forest Creek.The notices put about the diggings by a person who called himself "A Digger" in advance of the meeting advertised it as a 'Monster Meeting'.