| The Eureka Rebellion | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eureka Stockade Riot. J. B. Henderson (1854) watercolour |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| United Kingdom Victoria Police Troopers |
Stockade insurgents | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Captain J. W. Thomas Captain Pasley |
Peter Lalor | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 276 | ~ 120 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 6 killed | over 30 killed 12 wounded |
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The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade (by which the rebellion is popularly known) was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict.[1] Resulting in the deaths of over 30 people, it was the most significant conflict in the colonial history of Victoria.
The event was the culmination of civil disobedience in the Ballarat region during the Victorian gold rush with miners objecting to heavily priced mining items, the expense of a Miner's Licence, taxation (via the licence) without representation and the actions of the government and its agents (the police and military)[2][3] The local rebellion in Ballarat grew from a Ballarat Reform League movement and culminated in organised battle at the stockades against colonial forces.
Mass public support for the captured 'rebels' in the colony's capital of Melbourne when they were placed on trial resulted in the introduction of full white male suffrage for elections for the lower house in the Victorian parliament.[2] The Eureka Rebellion is controversially identified with the birth of democracy in Australia and interpreted by some as a political revolt.[4][5][6]
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The miners' demands included the right to vote and buy land, and the reduction of licence fees - heavy taxation on gold found. Agitation for these demands commenced with the Forest Creek Monster Meeting of December 1851 and included the formation of the Anti-Gold Licence Association at nearby Bendigo in 1853.
Historian Ian D. Clark has written on the Aboriginal presence on the Ballarat goldfields in the 1850s noting that while there is no evidence for any direct involvement of Aboriginal people in the events of the Eureka Rebellion in 1854, aboriginal people may be relevant to the Eureka story in situational, contextual and relational ways.[7]
The events of the Eureka Rebellion took place on Wathaurong aboriginal land. Three Wathaurong clans lived in the vicinity of the Eureka diggings: the Burrumbeet baluk at Lakes Burrumbeet and Learmonth, Keyeet baluk, a sub-group of the Burrumbeet baluk, at Mt Buninyong, and the Tooloora baluk, at Mt Warranheip and Lal Lal Creek.[7] There are numerous accounts of aboriginal presence in tha Ballarat area during the 1850s.[7]
The early policing of the Ballarat Goldfields was done by the Native Police Corps. The introduction of the gold mining licence fee in 1851 and the overbearing methods of the Native Police Corps in enforcing collection of the licence fee resulted in confrontations between diggers and the Gold Commissioner, considered by some historians such as M. Cannon and Weston Bate as preludes to the 1854 Eureka confrontation.[7]
There is also oral history that Aboriginal people may have looked after some of the children of the Eureka miners after the military storming of the Eureka Stockade and subsequent massacre of miners. Although not corroborated by any written sources, the account has been deemed plausible by Professor Clark.[7]
On 6 October 1854, Scottish miner James Scobie was murdered at the Eureka hotel.[8] Ten days later, on 17 October 1853, at the Eureka Hotel between 5,000 and 10,000 miners gathered to protest that James Bentley, the hotel proprietor and prime suspect in Scobie's murder, had not been charged. Bentley and his wife Catherine fled for their lives as the hotel was burnt down.
On 22 October 1854, Ballarat Catholics met to protest the treatment of Father Smyth. The next day the arrests of miners McIntyre and Fletcher for the Eureka Hotel fire saw a mass meeting which attracted 4,000 miners. The meeting determined to establish a "Digger's Right Society", to maintain their rights. On 1 November 1854, 3,000 miners met once again at Bakery Hill. They were addressed by Thomas Kennedy, Henry Holyoake, George Black and Henry Ross. The diggers were further angered by the arrest of another seven of their number for the Eureka Hotel fire.
On Saturday, 11 November 1854 a crowd estimated at more than 10,000 miners gathered at Bakery Hill, directly opposite the government encampment. At this meeting, the Ballarat Reform League was created, under the chairmanship of Chartist John Basson Humffray. Several other Reform League leaders, including Kennedy and Holyoake, had been involved with the Chartist movement in England. Many of the miners had past involvement in the Chartist movement and the social upheavals in Britain, Ireland, and continental Europe during the 1840s.
In setting its goals, the Ballarat Reform League used the British Chartist movement's principles. The meeting passed a resolution "that it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called on to obey, that taxation without representation is tyranny". The meeting also resolved to secede from the United Kingdom if the situation did not improve.[9]
Throughout the following weeks, the League sought to negotiate with Commissioner Robert Rede and Governor of Victoria, Sir Charles Hotham, both on the specific unsubstantiated matters relating to Bentley and the men being tried for the burning of the Eureka Hotel, and on the broader issues of abolition of the licence, suffrage and democratic representation of the gold fields, and disbanding of the Gold Commission. Commissioner Rede's response has been attributed by many historians (most notably Manning Clark) to his belief in his right to exert authority over the "rabble." Rather than hear the grievances, he increased the police presence in the gold fields and summoned reinforcements from Melbourne.
On 28 November 1854, the reinforcements marching from Melbourne were attacked by a crowd of miners. A number were injured and a drummer boy was allegedly killed. The rumour of the drummer boy's death was perpetuated, even with a memorial erected to him in Ballarat Cemetery for many years, although historical research has shown that the boy, John Egan, continued military service until dying in 1860.[10]
At a meeting of about 12,000 'diggers' on the following day, (29 November), the Reform League delegation relayed its failure to achieve any success in negotiations with the authorities. The miners resolved on open resistance to the authorities and to burn the hated licences,
Rede responded by ordering police to conduct a licence search on 30 November. Eight defaulters were arrested, and most of the military resources available had to be summoned to extricate the arresting officers from the angry mob that had assembled.[11]
This raid prompted a change in the leadership of the Reform League, to people who argued in favour of 'physical force' rather than the 'moral force' championed by Humffray and the old leadership.[12]
In the rising tide of anger and resentment amongst the miners, a more militant leader, Peter Lalor, was elected. In swift fashion, a military structure was assembled. Brigades were formed, and captains were appointed. Licences were burned, the rebel Eureka Flag was unfurled, and an oath of allegiance was sworn. The miners who encamped themselves around the flag vowed to defend themselves from licence hunts and harassment by the authorities.
The blue Eureka Flag designed by a Canadian miner, "Captain" Henry Ross, and bearing nothing but the Southern Cross, was flown for the first (recorded) time. The flag was believed to have been sewn by Anastasia Hayes. As a gesture of defiance , it deliberately excluded the British Union Flag, which is included in the official flag of Australia. The Argus newspaper of 4 December 1854 reported that the Union Flag was hoisted underneath the Eureka flag.[13][14][15]
At the meeting on Bakery Hill an oath of allegiance was sworn by Peter Lalor to the affirmation of his fellow demonstrators: "We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties."[16]
The stockade itself was a ramshackle affair hastily constructed over the following days from timber and overturned carts. The structure was never meant to be a military stockade or fortress. In the words of Lalor: "it was nothing more than an enclosure to keep our own men together, and was never erected with an eye to military defence". Lalor had already outlined a plan whereby, "if the government forces came to attack us, we should meet them on the Gravel Pits, and if compelled, we should retreat by the heights to the old Canadian Gully, and there make our final stand".
Irish born people were strongly represented at the Eureka Stockade.[17] Eureka historians have discovered that as well as most of the miners inside the stockade, in the area where the defensive position was established, the miners were overwhelmingly Irish. Even the password used at the Eureka Stockade – Vinegar Hill – was the scene of an 1804 Irish convict uprising in New South Wales.
During 2 December, some 1500 men trained in and around the stockade. A further two hundred Americans, the Independent Californian Rangers, under the leadership of James McGill, arrived about 4.00pm. The Americans were armed with revolvers and Mexican knives and possessed horses. In a fateful decision, McGill decided to take most of the Californian Rangers away from the stockade to intercept rumoured British reinforcements coming from Melbourne. Rede's spies observed these actions. That night many of the miners went back to their own tents after the traditional Saturday night carousing, with the assumption that the Queen's military forces would not be sent to attack on the Sabbath (Sunday). A small contingent of about 150 miners remained at the stockade overnight, which the spies reported to Rede.
Rede's inaction thus far did not reflect his true intent, and at 3 am on Sunday, 3 December 1854, a party of 276 police and military personnel under the command of Captain J.W. Thomas approached the Eureka Stockade and a battle ensued. There is no agreement as to which side fired first, but the battle was fierce, brief, and terribly one-sided. The ramshackle army of miners was hopelessly outclassed by a military regiment and was routed in about 10 minutes. During the height of the battle, Lalor was shot in his right arm, took refuge under some timber and was smuggled out of the stockade and hidden. His arm was later amputated.
Stories tell how women ran forward and threw themselves over the injured to prevent further indiscriminate killing. The Commission of Inquiry would later say that it was "a needless as well as a ruthless sacrifice of human life indiscriminate of innocent or guilty, and after all resistance had disappeared". Early in the battle "Captain" Henry Ross was shot dead.
According to Lalor's report, fourteen miners (mostly Irish) died inside the stockade and an additional eight died later from injuries they sustained. A further dozen were wounded but recovered. Three months after the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor wrote: "As the inhuman brutalities practised by the troops are so well known, it is unnecessary for me to repeat them. There were 34 digger casualties of which 22 died. The unusual proportion of the killed to the wounded, is owing to the butchery of the military and troopers after the surrender."[18]
By 8am, Captain Pasley, the second in command of the British forces, sickened by the carnage, saved a group of prisoners from being bayoneted and threatened to shoot any police or soldiers who continued with the slaughter. One hundred and fourteen diggers, some wounded, were marched off to the Government camp about two kilometres away, where they were kept in an overcrowded lock-up, before being moved to a more spacious barn on Monday morning.
Of the soldiers and police, six were killed, including Captain Wise. Martial law was imposed, and all armed resistance collapsed. News of the massacre spread quickly to Melbourne and other gold field regions, turning a perceived Government military victory in repressing a minor insurrection into a public relations disaster. Thousands of people in Melbourne turned out to condemn the authorities, in defiance of their mayor and some Legislative Councillors, who tried to rally support for the government.[19] In Ballarat, only one man responded to the call for special constables,[19] although in Melbourne 1500 were sworn in and armed with batons.[20] Many people voiced their support for the diggers' requested reforms.
Exact numbers of deaths and injuries and persons are difficult to determine as many miners "fled to the surrounding bush and it is likely a good many more died a lonely death or suffered the agony of their wounds, hidden from the authorities for fear of repercussions." according to Eureka researcher and author Dorothy Wickham. The official register of deaths in the Ballarat District Register shows 27 names associated with the stockade battle at Eureka.[21]
Historian Geoffrey Blainey has commented, "Every government in the world would probably have counter-attacked in the face of the building of the stockade." For a few weeks it appeared that the status quo had been restored, and Rede ruled the camps with an iron fist.
The first trial relating to the rebellion was a charge of sedition against Henry Seekamp of the Ballarat Times. Seekamp was arrested in his newspaper office on 4 December 1854, for a series of articles that appeared in the Ballarat Times. Many of these articles were written by George Lang, the son of the prominent republican and Presbyterian Minister of Sydney, the Reverend John Dunmore Lang. He was tried and convicted of seditious libel by a Melbourne jury on 23 January 1855 and, after a series of appeals, sentenced to six months imprisonment on 23 March. He was released from prison on 28 June 1855, precisely three months early.
Of the approximately 120 'diggers' detained after the rebellion, thirteen were brought to trial. They were:[22]
The first trial started on 22 February 1855, with defendants being brought before the court on charges of high treason. Joseph was one of three Americans arrested at the stockade, with the United States Consul intervening for the release of the other two Americans. The prosecution was handled by Attorney General William Stawell representing the Crown before Chief Justice William à Beckett. The jury deliberated for about half an hour before returning a verdict of "not guilty". "A sudden burst of applause arose in the court" reported The Argus, but was instantly checked by court officers. The Chief Justice condemned this as an attempt to influence the jury; he sentenced two men identified by the Crown Solicitor as having applauded to a week in prison for contempt.[23] Over 10,000 people had come to hear the jury's verdict. John Joseph was carried around the streets of Melbourne in a chair in triumph, according to the Ballarat Star.
Under the auspices of Victorian Chief Justice Redmond Barry, all the other 13 accused men were rapidly acquitted to great public acclaim. The trials have on several occasions been called a farce.[24] Rede himself was quietly removed from the camps and reassigned to an insignificant position in rural Victoria.
Governor Hotham, on 16 November 1854, appointed a Royal Commission on goldfields problems and grievances. According to Blainey, "It was perhaps the most generous concession offered by a governor to a major opponent in the history of Australia up to that time. The members of the commission were appointed before Eureka...they were men who were likely to be sympathetic to the diggers."
When its report was handed down, it was scathing in its assessment of all aspects of the administration of the gold fields, and particularly the Eureka Stockade affair. It made several major recommendations, one of which was to restrict Chinese immigration. Its recommendations were only put into effect after the Stockade. The gold licences were then abolished, and replaced by an annual miner's right and an export fee based on the value of the gold. Mining wardens replaced the gold commissioners, and police numbers were cut drastically. The Legislative Council was expanded to allow representation to the major goldfields and Peter Lalor and John Basson Humffray were elected for Ballarat, although there were property qualifications with regards to eligibility to vote in upper house elections in Victoria until the 1950s. After 12 months, all but one of the demands of the Ballarat Reform League had been granted. Lalor and Humffray both enjoyed distinguished careers as politicians, with Lalor later elected as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria.
Peter Lalor, originally from Raheen, County Laois, Ireland was the leader of the miners who fought at the Eureka Stockade, and the author of the oath of allegiance used by the miners at the Eureka Stockade which he swore to their affirmation.
After the battle, Lalor wrote in a statement to the colonists of Victoria, "There are two things connected with the late outbreak (Eureka) which I deeply regret. The first is, that we should have been forced to take up arms at all; and the second is, that when we were compelled to take the field in our own defence, we were unable (through want of arms, ammunition and a little organisation) to inflict on the real authors of the outbreak the punishment they so richly deserved."[25]
Lalor was elected unopposed in the 1856 Victorian elections. As he was the Eureka hero his policies were not scrutinised at all before the election and his later voting record as a parliamentarian shows he once opposed a bill to introduce full white-male suffrage in the colony of Victoria.[26]
During a speech in the Legislative Council in 1856 he said, "I would ask these gentlemen what they mean by the term 'democracy'. Do they mean Chartism or Republicanism? If so, I never was, I am not now, nor do I ever intend to be a democrat. But if a democrat means opposition to a tyrannical press, a tyrannical people, or a tyrannical government, then I have been, I am still, and will ever remain a democrat."
Historians, including Weston Bate suggested that there was some hypocrisy in Lalor's folk hero status due to his post-stockade political opportunism and self interest.[27]
The materials used to build the stockade were rapidly removed to be used for the mines, and the entire area around the site was so extensively worked that the original landscape became unrecognisable, so identifying the exact location of the stockade is now virtually impossible.
Over the next thirty years, press interest in the events that had taken place at the Eureka Stockade dwindled, but Eureka was kept alive at the campfires and in the pubs, and in memorial events in Ballarat. In addition, key figures such as Lalor and Humfray were still in the public eye.
Eureka had not been forgotten: it was readily remembered. Similar flags have been flown at rebellions since including a flag similar to the Eureka flag which was flown above the Barcaldine strike camp in the 1891 Australian shearers' strike. The rebellion was also recalled in the poetry of Henry Lawson, such as Flag of the Southern Cross (1887), Eureka (A Fragment) (1889), The Fight at Eureka Stockade (1890), and Freedom on the Wallaby (1891),
In 1889, Melbourne businessmen employed renowned American cyclorama artist Thaddeus Welch, who teamed up with local artist Izett Watson to paint 1,000 square feet (93 m2) of canvas of the Eureka Stockade, wrapped around a wooden structure. When it opened in Melbourne, the exhibition was an instant hit. The Age reported in 1891 that "it afforded a very good opportunity for people to see what it might have been like at Eureka". The Australasian claimed "that many persons familiar with the incidents depicted, were able to testify to the fidelity of the painted scene". The people of Melbourne flocked to the cyclorama, paid up and had their picture taken before it. It was eventually dismantled and disappeared from sight.
Mark Twain visited the Victorian Goldfields in 1895. Following his visit, he said of the Eureka Stockade:
By and by there was a result, and I think it may be called the finest thing in Australasian history. It was a revolution — small in size; but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for principle, a stand against injustice and oppression....It is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle. It adds an honorable page to history; the people know it and are proud of it. They keep green the memory of the men who fell at the Eureka stockade, and Peter Lalor has his monument.
Memorials to soldiers and miners are located in the Ballarat Old Cemetery[29] and the Eureka Stockade Memorial is located within the Eureka Stockade Gardens and is listed on the Australian National Heritage List.[30]
In 1954, the centenary of the event was officially celebrated; according to Geoffrey Blainey, who was in attendance, no one, apart from a small group of communists, was there.[31] Plays commemorating the events were held at major theatres.
A purpose built Interpretation centre was erected in 1998 in suburb of Eureka near the site of the stockade. Designed to be a new landmark for Ballarat, the building featured an enormous sail emblazoned with the Eureka Flag.[32] Before its development there was considerable debate over whether a replica or reconstruction of wooden structures was appropriate, however it was eventually decided against and this is seen by many as a reason for the apparent failure of the centre to draw significant tourist numbers. Due primarily to falling visitor numbers the centre was redeveloped between 2009–11.[33]
In 1992, Sovereign Hill commenced a commemorative Son et lumière known as "Blood Under the Southern Cross"[34] which became a tourist drawcard and was revised and expanded from 2003.[35]
In 2004, the 150th anniversary was celebrated. An Australian postage stamp featuring the Eureka Flag was released along with a set of commemorative coins. A ceremony in Ballarat known as the lantern walk was held at dawn. However, the Australian Prime Minister did not attend any commemorative events, and refused to allow the flag to fly over Parliament House.[36][37]
In November 2004 then Premier of Victoria Steve Bracks announced that the Ballarat V/Line rail service would be renamed the Eureka Line to mark the 150th anniversary to take effect from late 2005 at the same time as a renaming of Spencer Street Station to Southern Cross Station,[38] however the proposal was criticised by community groups including the Public Transport Users Association.[39] Renaming of the line did not go ahead, however Spencer Street (railway) Station did become Southern Cross Station on 13 December 2005 with Bracks stating the name would resonate with Victorians because it "stands for democracy and freedom because it flew over the Eureka Stockade".[40]
Eureka Tower, completed in 2006 is named in honour of the event and features symbolic aspects in its design including an architectural red stripe representing the blood spilt during the battle.
The Eureka Stockade (and other events) has been characterised as the "Birth of Australia". Its actual significance is uncertain; it has been variously mythologised by particular interest groups as a revolt of free men against imperial tyranny, of independent free enterprise against burdensome taxation, of labour against a privileged ruling class, or as an expression of republicanism.
The Eureka Stockade was certainly the most prominent rebellion in Australia's history and, depending on how one defines rebellion, can be regarded as the only such event. (But see also Rum Rebellion, Vinegar Hill and more recently the New Guard.) Its significance, however, remains debatable. Some historians believe that the prominence of the event in the public record has come about because Australian history does not include a major armed rebellion phase equivalent to the French Revolution, the English Civil War, or the American War of Independence or any of the numerous rebellions in Ireland before the ultimate successful Irish War of Independence of 1919–1921 which led to Ireland (excluding 6 north east counties) achieving dominion status: in consequence (according to this view) the Eureka story tends to be inflated well beyond its real significance.[41] Others, however, maintain that Eureka was a seminal event and that it marked a major change in the course of Australian history.
The writings of Raffaello Carboni, who was present at the Stockade, make it clear that "amongst the foreigners ... there was no democratic feeling, but merely a spirit of resistance to the licence fee"; and he also disputes the accusations "that have branded the miners of Ballarat as disloyal to their QUEEN" (emphasis as in the original).[42]
In 1980, historian Geoffrey Blainey drew attention to the fact that many miners were temporary migrants from Britain and the United States, who did not intend to settle permanently in Australia. He wrote:
In 1999, the Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, dismissed the Eureka Stockade as a "protest without consequence".[44] Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson made the Eureka flag a federal election campaign issue in 2004 saying "I think people have tried to make too much of the Eureka Stockade...trying to give it a credibility and standing that it probably doesn't enjoy."[45]
In 2004, the Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks, delivered an opening address at the Eureka 150 Democracy Conference[46] stating "that Eureka was about the struggle for basic democratic rights. It was not about a riot – it was about rights."
A black and white silent film directed by Arthur and George Cornwell, produced by the Australasian Cinematograph Company.[48]
The surviving seven minute fragment (original length unknown) shows street scenes of Ballarat is believed to be part of the 1907 film, the second feature film made in Australia (after the 1906 production, The Story of the Kelly Gang). The film was first screened in the Athenaeum Hall, Melbourne on 19 October 1907. The film impressed critics of the time and was found to be a stirring portrayal of the events surrounding the Eureka Stockade, but failed to connect with audiences during the two weeks it was screened. Other scenes in the lost reels of the film were believed to have included gold seekers leaving London, issuing of licences, licence hunting, diggers chained to logs and rescued by mates, diggers burning Bentley's Hotel, the Rebellion, building the stockade, troops storming the stockade and the stockade in ruins.[49]
The surviving 307 feet (94 m) of the 35mm film (5 mins @ 18fps) is stored at the National Film and Sound Archive.
A 1949 British film, called Eureka Stockade, was made in Australia in 1949. The film starred Chips Rafferty and focused on Peter Lalor and Rafaello Carboni. It was directed by Harry Watt, produced by Leslie Norman and written by Walter Greenwood, Ralph Smart and Harry Watt.[50]
The cast included Chips Rafferty, Jane Barrett, Jack Lambert, Gordon Jackson, Peter Finch, Sydney Loder and Leonard Teale.
An abridged version of the film was released in the United States of America under the title, Massacre Hill.[51]
An Australian two-part television mini-series which aired on the Seven Network in 1984[52] starring Bryan Brown as Peter Lalor. Directed by Rod Hardy, produced by Henry Crawford and written by Tom Hegarty.[53]
The cast included Bryan Brown, Carol Burns, Bill Hunter and Brett Cullen.