The colonies (excepting Western Australia) approached self-government at a time of massive economic, social and political change, especially following the discovery of gold. Rapid economic growth and high immigration disrupted some Aboriginal communities, while providing others with new economic opportunities. There were political upheavals too. For Aboriginal people, the emergence of more decentralised and representative forms of government weakened their old diplomatic relationships with governors and other figures representing the power of the Crown. For the oligarchic elites who had wanted self-government in order to secure their own control, the closer self-government came to reality, the stronger the challenge from a growing middle and working class population opposed to pastoralist power and in favour of a more democratic system. For liberals and democrats, tensions over Chinese migration to Victoria strengthened the idea that responsible and democratic government could flourish only in culturally homogenous white communities. Politicians on all sides referred to indigenous peoples not as active, rights-bearing subjects, but as metaphorical figures representing the opposite of good government, the antithesis of the modern, responsible, self-governing British male subject.