Protests on the goldfields: 1851–1854

La Trobe introduces monthly mining tax as protests begin

A gold mining licence issued to Raffaello Carboni

On 16 August 1851, just days after Hiscock's lucky strike, Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe issued two proclamations that reserved to the crown all land rights to the goldfields and introduced a mining licence (tax) of 30 shillings per month, effective 1 September.^[7][8] The universal mining tax was based on time stayed rather than what was seen as the more equitable option, an export duty levied only on gold found, meaning it was always designed to make life unprofitable for most prospectors.^[6][9]

There were several mass public meetings and miners' delegations in the years leading up to the armed revolt. The earliest rally was held on 26 August 1851 at Hiscock's Gully in Buninyong and attracted 40–50 miners protesting the new mining regulations, and four resolutions to this end were passed.^[10] From the outset, there was a division between the "moral force" activists who favoured lawful, peaceful and democratic means and those who advocated "physical force", with some in attendance suggesting that the miners take up arms against the lieutenant governor, who was irreverently viewed as a feather-wearing, effeminate fop.^[11] This first meeting was followed by ongoing protests across all the colony's mining settlements in the years leading up to the 1854 armed uprising at Ballarat.

First gold commissioner arrives in Ballarat

Great Meeting of Gold Diggers Dec 15th 1851 engraved by Thomas Ham and drawn by D. Tulloch, 1851

In mid-September 1851, D. C. Doveton, the first local gold commissioner appointed by La Trobe, arrived in Ballarat.^[12] At the beginning of December, there was discontent when it was announced that the licence fee would be raised to 3 pounds a month, a 200 per cent increase, effective 1 January 1852.^[13] In Ballarat, some miners became so agitated that they began to gather arms.^[14] On 8 December, the rebellion continued to build momentum with an anti-mining tax banner put on public display at Forrest Creek.^[15]

After remonstrations, particularly in Melbourne and Geelong, on 13 December 1851, the previous increase was rescinded. The Forest Creek Monster Meeting took place at Mount Alexander on 15 December 1851. This was the first truly mass demonstration of the Eureka Rebellion. According to high-end estimates, up to 20,000 miners turned out in a massive display of support for repealing the mining tax.^[16]

Two days later, it was announced that La Trobe had reversed the planned increase in the mining tax. The oppressive licence hunts continued and increased in frequency, causing general dissent among the diggers.^[17] There was strong opposition to the strict prohibition of liquor imposed by the government at the goldfields settlements, whereby the sale and consumption of alcohol were restricted to licensed hotels.^[18][19]

Despite the high turnover in population on the goldfields, discontent continued to simmer throughout 1852.^[20] La Trobe received a petition from the people of Bendigo on 2 September 1862, drawing attention to the need for improvements in the road from Melbourne. The lack of police protection was also a major issue for the protesting miners. On 14 August 1852, a fight broke out among 150 men over land rights in Bendigo. An inquiry recommended increasing police numbers in the colony's mining settlements. Around this time, the first gold deposits at the Eureka lead in Ballarat were found.^[20]

In October 1852, at Lever Flat near Bendigo, the miners attempted to respond to rising crime levels by forming a "Mutual Protection Association." They pledged to withhold the licence fee, build detention centres, and begin nightly armed patrols, with vigilantes dispensing summary justice to those suspected of criminal activities. That month, Government House received a petition from Lever Flat, Forrest Creek and Mount Alexander about policing levels as the colony continued to strain due to the gold rush. On 25 November 1852, a police patrol was attacked by a mob of miners who wrongly believed they were obliged to take out a whole month's subscription for seven days at Oven's goldfield in Bendigo.^[21]

In 1852, it was decided by the UK government that the Australian colonies should each draft their own constitutions, pending final approval by the Imperial parliament.^[22]

Murder of James Scobie and the burning of Bentley's Hotel

Charles Doudiet's sketch of the burning of Bentley's Hotel, entitled Eureka Riot 17th October (1854)

In October 1854, the murder of gold miner James Scobie outside the Eureka Hotel, along with the prosecution of Johannes Gregorius, was the beginning of the end for those opposed to physical force in the mining tax protest movement. A discredited colonial inquest found no evidence of culpability by the Bentley Hotel owners for the fatal injuries, amid allegations that Magistrate D'Ewes had a conflict of interest presiding over a case involving the prosecution of Bentley, said to be a friend and indebted business partner.^[47][48]

Gregorius, a physically disabled servant who worked for Father Smyth of St Alipius chapel, was subjected to police brutality and false arrest for licence evasion, even though he was exempt from the requirement.^[49] On 15 October, a mass meeting of predominantly Catholic miners took place on Bakery Hill in protest over the treatment of Gregorius. Two days later, amid the uproar over the acquittal, a meeting of approximately 10,000 men occurred near the Eureka Hotel in protest. Gold receiver John Green initially tried to read the riot act, but was too over-awed. The hotel was set alight as Rede was pelted with eggs. The available security forces were unable to restore order.^[50][51]

In a despatch dated 18 November 1854, Hotham stated that:

I lost no time in making such dispositions as I concluded would enable the authorities to maintain the integrity of the law; and within four days, 450 military and police were on the ground, commanded by an officer in whom I had confidence, and who was instructed to enforce order and quiet, support the civil authority in the arrest of the ringleaders and to use force, whenever legally called upon to do so, without regard to the consequences which might ensue.^[52]

On 21 October, Andrew McIntyre and Thomas Fletcher were arrested for the arson attack.^[53] A third man, John Westerby, was also indicted. A committee meeting of miners on Bakery Hill agreed to indemnify the bail sureties for McIntyre and Fletcher. As a large mob approached the government camp, the two men were hurriedly released under their own recognisance and whisked away to the sound of gunfire from pistols.^[53]

As if to stir the pot further, Carboni recalls that around this time, the following two reward notices were plastered around Ballarat. One offered a 500-pound reward for information leading to an arrest in the James Scobie case. The other announced the reward for more information about the Bank of Victoria heist in Ballarat that was carried out by robbers wearing black crepe-paper masks had been increased from 500 to 1,600 pounds.^[44][54] Rede received a miner's delegation on 23 October, who heard that the police officers involved in the arrest of Gregorius should be dismissed. Two days later, a meeting led by Timothy Hayes and John Manning heard reports from the deputies sent to negotiate with Rede. The meeting resolved to petition Hotham for a retrial of Gregorius and the reassignment of the reviled assistant commissioner Johnston away from Ballarat.^[53]

On 27 October, Captain John Wellesley Thomas laid contingency plans for the defence of the government outpost. In the weeks leading up to the battle, the men of violence had already been aiming musket balls at the barely fortified barracks during the night.^[55] On 30 October, Hotham appointed a board of enquiry into the murder of James Scobie, to sit in Ballarat on 2 and 10 November. The panel included Melbourne magistrate Evelyn Sturt, assisted by his local magistrate Charles Hackett and William McCrea. After receiving representations from the US consul, Hotham released James Tarleton from custody.^[56]

The inquiry into the Ballarat rioting concluded with a statement being made on 10 November in the name of the Ballarat Reform League—which by this stage had a steering committee for some weeks—that was signed by John Basson Humffray, Fredrick Vern, Henry Ross and Samuel Irwin of the Geelong Advertiser. The final report agreed with the League's submission, blaming the government camp for the unsatisfactory state of affairs. The recommendation that Magistrate Dewes and Sergeant Major-Milne of the constabulary should be dismissed was acted upon.^[53]

On 1 November, around 5,000 miners gathered in Bendigo, as a plan was drawn up to organise the diggers at all the mining settlements, as speakers openly advocating physical force addressed the crowd.^[57]

Ballarat Reform League meetings

The Ballarat Reform League sought to negotiate with Sir Charles Hotham (pictured).

Robert Rede was resident gold commissioner during the armed uprising in Ballarat. He is seen here as commander of the Geelong (Volunteer) Rifles Corps (right).

On 11 November 1854, a crowd of more than 10,000 gathered at Bakery Hill, directly opposite the government encampment. At this meeting, the Ballarat Reform League was formally established under the chairmanship of Chartist John Humffray. Several other reform league leaders, including George Black, Henry Holyoake, and Tom Kennedy, are also believed to have been Chartists.^[58] It was reported by the Ballarat Times that at the appointed hour, the "Union Jack and the American ensign were hoisted as signals for the people to assemble."^{[59][note 1]}

The Ballarat Reform League charter was inspired by the one ratified at the 1839 Chartist National Convention held in London. The charter contains five of the same demands.^[61][62] The league did not adopt or agitate for the Chartist's sixth demand, secret ballots. 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 resolved to secede from the United Kingdom if the situation did not improve.^[63]

Throughout the following weeks, the league sought to negotiate with Rede and Hotham on the specific matters relating to Bentley and the death of Scobie, the men being tried for the burning of the Eureka Hotel, the broader issues of the abolition of the licence, suffrage and democratic representation of the goldfields, and disbanding of the gold commission.^[53]

Hotham sent a message to England on 16 November, which revealed his intention to establish an inquiry into goldfields grievances. Notes to the royal commissioners had already been made on 6 November, where Hotham stated his opposition to an export duty on gold replacing the universal mining tax. W. C. Haines MLC was to be the chairman, serving alongside lawmakers John Fawkner, John O'Shanassy, William Westgarth, as well as chief gold commissioner William Wright.^[64] Geoffrey Blainey has stated that: "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."^[65]

Rather than hear the Ballarat Reform League's grievances, Rede increased the police presence on the Ballarat goldfields and summoned reinforcements from Melbourne.^[66] Many historians, most notably Manning Clark, attribute this to his belief in his right to exert authority over the "rabble." Rede told one deputation that their campaign against "The licence is a mere cloak to cover a democratic revolution,"^[67] and the day before the battle reported to the chief gold commissioner that the government forces stood ready to "crush them and the democratic agitation at one blow."^[68]

The James Scobie murder trial ended on 18 November 1854, with the accused, James Bentley, Thomas Farrell and William Hance, being convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years of hard labour on a road crew.^[69] Catherine Bentley was acquitted. Two days later, the miners Westerby, Fletcher and McIntyre were convicted for burning the Eureka Hotel and were sentenced to jail terms of six, four and three months.^[69]

The jury recommended the prerogative of mercy be evoked and noted that they held the local authorities in Ballarat responsible for the loss of property. One week later, a reform league delegation, including Humffray, met with Hotham, Stawell and Foster to negotiate the release of the three Eureka Hotel rioters. Hotham declared that he would take a stand on the word "demand," satisfied that due process had been observed.^[70] Father Smyth informed Rede in confidence that he believed the miners might be about to march on the government outpost.^[53]

Escalating violence as military convoy looted

Foot police reinforcements arrived in Ballarat on 19 October 1854. A further detachment of the 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot arrived a few days behind. On 28 November, the 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot arrived to reinforce the government camp in Ballarat. As they moved alongside where the Eureka Stockade was about to be erected, there was a clash, where a drummer boy John Egan and several other members of the convoy were attacked by a mob looking to loot the wagons.^[71]

Tradition variously had it that Egan either was killed there and then, or was the first casualty of the fighting on the day of the battle. However, his grave in Old Ballarat Cemetery was removed in 2001 after research carried out by Dorothy Wickham showed that Egan had survived and died in Sydney in 1860.^[72]

By the beginning of December, the police contingent at Ballarat had been surpassed by the number of soldiers from the 12th and 40th regiments.^[73] The strength of the various units in the government camp was: 40th regiment (infantry): 87 men; 40th regiment (mounted): 30 men; 12th regiment (infantry): 65 men; mounted police: 70 men; and the foot police: 24 men.^[74]

Paramilitary mobilisation and swearing allegiance to the Southern Cross

Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross by Charles Doudiet, 1854

On 29 November, a mass meeting involving a crowd of around 10,000 was held at Bakery Hill. The aggrieved miners heard from their deputies news of the unsuccessful outcome of their meeting with Hotham, as the Eureka Flag flew over the platform for the first time. Samuel Douglas Smyth Huyghue, who lived through the rebellion, recalled it as "the symbol of the revolutionary League."^[75] The crowd was incited by Timothy Hayes shouting, "Are you ready to die?" and Fredrick Vern, who had been accused of abandoning the garrison four days later as soon as the danger arrived, with suspicions of being a double agent.^[76][77][78] Wesleyan minister Reverend Theophilus Taylor wrote in his diary that:

Today Ballarat is thrown into great excitement by a monster meeting of the diggers, convened for the purpose of protesting against the Gold Digging Licences and their alleged grievances. At the head of the meeting appeared two Catholic priests, Fathers Downing and Smith [Smyth]. It was resolved to resist the government by burning licences which was done to a considerable extent.^[79]

Rede responded by ordering police to conduct a provocative licence search on 30 November. There was further rioting where missiles were once again directed at military and law enforcement by the protesting miners who had henceforth refused to cooperate with licence inspections en masse.^[80] 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.^[81]

There was another spontaneous gathering on Bakery Hill. With none of the other leading lights in the protest movement in attendance, amid the rising tide of anger and resentment amongst the miners, a more militant leader, Peter Lalor, who, at his first public appearance, acted as secretary for the 17 November meeting, and moved that a central rebel executive be formed,^[82] took the initiative and mounted a stump armed with a rifle. He proclaimed "liberty" and called for volunteers to step forward and be sworn into companies and captains to be appointed.^[83]

Near the base of the flagpole, Lalor knelt with his head uncovered, pointed his right hand to the Eureka Flag and swore 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."^{[84][note 2]}

In a dispatch dated 20 December 1854, Hotham reported: "The disaffected miners ... held a meeting whereat the Australian flag of independence was solemnly consecrated and vows offered for its defence."^[88]

Fortification of the Eureka lead

Main article: Eureka Stockade (fortification)

A plan of the Eureka Stockade as an exhibit in the 1855 Victorian High Treason trials

After the oath swearing ceremony, about 1,000 rebels marched in double file from Bakery Hill to the Eureka lead behind the Eureka Flag being carried by Henry Ross, where construction of the stockade took place between 30 November and 2 December.^[89][90] The stockade was a ramshackle affair described in Carboni's 1855 memoirs as "higgledy piggledy."^[91] There were existing mines within the stockade,^[92] and it consisted of diagonal wooden spikes made from materials including pit props and overturned horse carts. It encompassed an area said to be one acre. That is difficult to reconcile with other estimates that have the dimensions of the stockade as being around 100 feet (30 m) x 200 feet (61 m).^[93] Contemporaneous descriptions and representations vary and have the stockade as either rectangular or semi-circular.^[94]

Lalor later said the stockade "was nothing more than an enclosure to keep our own men together, and was never erected with an eye to military defence."^[95] Peter FitzSimons asserts that Lalor may have downplayed the fact that the Eureka Stockade was intended as something of a fortress at a time when "it was very much in his interests" to do so.^[96] The construction work was overseen by Vern, who had apparently received instruction in military methods. John Lynch wrote that his "military learning comprehended the whole system of warfare ... fortification was his strong point."^[97]

Les Blake has noted how other descriptions of the stockade "rather contradicted" Lalor's recollection of it being a simple fence after the fall of the stockade.^[98] Testimony was heard at the high treason trials for the Eureka rebels that the stockade was four to seven feet high in places and was unable to be negotiated on horseback without being reduced.^[99]

Hotham feared that the "network of rabbit burrows" on the goldfields would prove readily defensible as his forces "on the rough pot-holed ground would be unable to advance in regular formation and would be picked off easily by snipers," considerations that were part of the reasoning behind the decision to move into position in the early morning for a surprise attack.^[100] Carboni details the rebel dispositions:

The shepherds' holes inside the lower part of the stockade had been turned into rifle-pits, and were now occupied by Californians of the I. C. Rangers' Brigade, some twenty or thirty in all, who had kept watch at the 'outposts' during the night.^[101]

However, the location of the stockade has been described as "appalling from a defensive point of view," as it was situated on "a gentle slope, which exposed a sizeable portion of its interior to fire from nearby high ground."^[102] A detachment of 800 men, which included "two field pieces and two howitzers" under the commander in chief of the British forces in Australia, Major General Sir Robert Nickle, who had seen action during the 1798 Irish rebellion, arrived after the insurgency had been put down.^[103][104] In 1860, Withers stated in a lecture that "The site was most injudicious for any purpose of defence as it was easily commanded from adjacent spots, and the ease with which the place could be taken was apparent to the most unprofessional eye."^[105]

At 4 am on the morning of 1 December, the rebels were observed to be massing on Bakery Hill, but a government raiding party found the area vacated. Again Rede ordered the riot act read to a mob that had gathered around Bath's Hotel, with mounted police breaking up the unlawful assembly. Raffaello Carboni, George Black and Father Smyth meet with Rede to present a peace proposal. Rede was suspicious of the chartist undercurrent of the anti-mining tax movement and rejected the proposals.^[106]

The rebels sent out scouts and established picket lines in order to have advance warning of Rede's movements. Messengers were dispatched to other mining settlements, including Bendigo and Creswick, requesting reinforcements for the Eureka Stockade.^[107] The "moral force" faction, led by Humffray, withdrew from the protest movement the previous day, as the men of violence moved into the ascendancy. The rebels continued to fortify their position as 300–400 men arrived from Creswick's Creek to join the struggle. Carboni recalls they were: "dirty and ragged, and proved the greatest nuisance. One of them, Michael Tuohy, behaved valiantly."^[108] The arrival of these reinforcements required the dispatch of foraging parties, leaving a garrison of around 200 men behind. Teddy Shanahan, a merchant whose store on the Eureka lead had been engulfed by the stockade, said the rebels immediately became very short on food, drink, and accommodation and that by the evening before the battle:

Lalor was in charge, but large numbers of the men were constantly going out of the Stockade, and as the majority got drunk, they never came back ... The 500 or 600 from Creswick had nothing to eat, and they, too, went down to the Main Road that night ... Lalor seeing that none would be left if things went on, he gave orders to shoot any man who left.^[109]

Vinegar Hill blunder: Irish dimension factors in dwindling numbers at stockade

See also: Chartism and the Eureka Rebellion, Loyalism and the Eureka Rebellion, Republicanism and the Eureka Rebellion, and Nationalities at the Eureka Stockade

Oath swearing scene from the 1949 film Eureka Stockade featuring the Union Jack beneath the Eureka Flag

An extract of an Argus report, 4 December 1854

An extract of an affidavit by Hugh King, 7 December 1854

The Argus newspaper of 4 December 1854 reported that the Union Jack "had" to be hoisted underneath the Eureka Flag at the stockade and that both flags were in possession of the foot police.^[110] Peter FitzSimons has questioned whether this contemporaneous report of the otherwise unaccounted-for Union Jack known as the Eureka Jack being present is accurate.^[111] Among those willing to credit the first report of the battle as being true and correct it has been theorised that the hoisting of a Union Jack at the stockade was possibly an 11th-hour response to the divided loyalties among the heterogeneous rebel force which was in the process of dissipating.^[112]

At one point up to 1,500 of 17,280 men in Ballarat were garrisoning the stockade, with as few as 120 taking part in the battle.^{[113][114][115]} Lalor's choice of password for the night of 2 December—"Vinegar Hill"^{[116][117][118]}—caused support for the rebellion to fall away among those who were otherwise disposed to resist the military, as word spread that the question of Irish home rule had become involved. One survivor of the battle stated that "the collapse of the rising at Ballarat may be regarded as mainly attributable to the password given by Lalor on the night before the assault." Asked by one of his subordinates for the "night pass," he gave "Vinegar Hill," the site of a battle during the 1798 Irish rebellion. The 1804 Castle Hill uprising, also known as the second battle of Vinegar Hill, was the site of a convict rebellion in the colony of New South Wales, involving mainly Irish transportees, some of whom were at Vinegar Hill.^[119]

William Craig recalled that "Many at Ballaarat, who were disposed before that to resist the military, now quietly withdrew from the movement."^[120] In his memoirs, Lynch states: "On the afternoon of Saturday we had a force of seven hundred men on whom we thought we could rely." There was a false alarm from the picket line during the night. The subsequent roll call revealed there had been a sizable desertion that Lynch says "ought to have been seriously considered, but it was not."^[121]

There were rebellious miners converging on Ballarat from Bendigo, Forrest Creek, and Creswick to take part in the armed struggle. The latter contingent was said to number a thousand men, "but when the news circulated that Irish independence had crept into the movement, almost all turned back."^[120] FitzSimons points out that although the number of reinforcements converging on Ballarat was probably closer to 500, there is no doubt that as a result of the choice of password "the Stockade is denied many strong-armed men because of the feeling that the Irish have taken over."^[122] Withers states that:

Lalor, it is said, gave 'Vinegar Hill' as the night's pass-word, but neither he nor his adherents expected that the fatal action of Sunday was coming, and some of his followers, incited by the sinister omen of the pass-word, abandoned that night what they saw was a badly organised and not very hopeful movement.^[118]

It is certain that Irish-born people were strongly represented at the Eureka Stockade.^[119] Most of the rebels inside the stockade at the time of the battle were Irish, and the area where the defensive position was established was overwhelmingly populated by Irish miners.^{[note 3]} Blainey has advanced the view that the white cross of the Eureka Flag is "really an Irish cross rather than being [a] configuration of the Southern Cross."^[127]

There is another theory advanced by Gregory Blake, military historian and author of Eureka Stockade: A Ferocious and Bloody Battle, who concedes that two flags may have been flown on the day of the battle, as the miners were claiming to be defending their British rights.^[128]

In a signed contemporaneous affidavit dated 7 December 1854, Private Hugh King, who was at the battle serving with the 40th regiment, recalled that:

... three or four hundred yards a heavy fire from the stockade was opened on the troops and me. When the fire was opened on us we received orders to fire. I saw some of the 40th wounded lying on the ground but I cannot say that it was before the fire on both sides. I think some of the men in the stockade should-they had a flag flying in the stockade; it was a white cross of five stars on a blue ground. – flag was afterwards taken from one of the prisoners like a union jack – we fired and advanced on the stockade, when we jumped over, we were ordered to take all we could prisoners ...^[129]

There was a further report in The Argus, 9 December 1854 edition, stating that Hugh King had given live testimony at the committal hearings for the Eureka rebels where he stated that the flag was found:

... rollen up in the breast of a[n] [unidentified] prisoner. He [King] advanced with the rest, firing as they advanced ... several shots were fired on them after they entered [the stockade]. He observed the prisoner [Hayes] brought down from a tent in custody.^[130]

Blake leaves open the possibility that the flag being carried by the prisoner had been souvenired from the flag pole as the routed garrison was fleeing the stockade.^{[128][note 4]}

Departing detachment of Independent Californian Rangers leaves small garrison behind

Amid the rising number of rebels absent without leave throughout 2 December, a contingent of 200 Americans under James McGill arrived at 4 pm. Styled as "The Independent Californian Rangers' Revolver Brigade," they had horses and were equipped with sidearms and Mexican knives. In a fateful decision, McGill took most of his two hundred Californian Rangers away from the stockade to intercept rumoured British reinforcements from Melbourne. Many Saturday night revellers within the rebel garrison returned to their own tents, assuming that the government camp would not attack on the Sabbath day. A small contingent of miners remained at the stockade overnight, which the spies reported to Rede. Common estimates for the size of the garrison at the time of the attack on 3 December range from 120 to 150 men.^{[95][133][134]}

According to Lalor's reckoning: "There were about 70 men possessing guns, 30 with pikes and 30 with pistols, but many had no more than one or two rounds of ammunition. Their coolness and bravery were admirable when it is considered that the odds were 3 to 1 against."^[135] Lalor's command was riddled with informants, and Rede was kept well advised of his movements, particularly through the work of government agents Henry Goodenough and Andrew Peters, who were embedded within the rebel garrison.^[136][137]

Initially outnumbering the government camp considerably, Lalor had already devised a strategy where "if the government forces come 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 we shall make our final stand."^[138] On being brought to battle that day, Lalor stated: "we would have retreated, but it was then too late."^[135]

On the eve of the battle, Father Smyth issued a plea for Catholics to down their arms and attend mass the following day.^[139]

Battle of the Eureka Stockade

The 40th regiment arrives in Ballarat from Melbourne.

Eureka Slaughter by Charles Doudiet, 1854

A map of the stockade and opposing forces

Rede planned to send the combined military police formation of 276 men under the command of Captain Thomas to attack the Eureka Stockade when the rebel garrison was observed to be at a low watermark. The police and military had the element of surprise and timed their assault on the stockade for dawn on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath day of rest. The soldiers and police marched off in silence at around 3:30 am Sunday morning after the troopers had drunk the traditional tot of rum.^[140]

The British commander used bugle calls to coordinate his forces. The 40th regiment provided covering fire from one end, with mounted police covering the flanks. Enemy contact began at approximately 150 yards as the two columns of regular infantry and the contingent of foot police moved into position.^[141] Although Lalor claimed that the government forces fired the first shot, it appears from all the other remaining accounts as if it came from the rebel garrison.^[142]

According to Gregory Blake, the fighting in Ballarat on 3 December 1854 was not one-sided and full of indiscriminate murder by the colonial forces. In his memoirs, one of Lalor's captains, John Lynch, mentions "some sharp shooting."^[143] For at least 10 minutes, the rebels offered stiff resistance, with ranged fire coming from the Eureka Stockade garrison such that Thomas's best formation, the 40th regiment, wavered and had to be rallied. Blake says this is "stark evidence of the effectiveness of the defender's fire."^[144]

Eventually, the rebels started to run short of ammunition, and the government advance resumed. The Victorian police contingent led the way over the top as the forlorn hope in a bayonet charge. Lalor had his arm shattered by a musket ball and was secreted away by supporters, with his arm later requiring amputation. The Eureka flag was captured by Constable John King, who volunteered to scale the flagpole, which then snapped. The exact number of casualties cannot be determined. After the battle, the registrar of Ballarat entered the names of 27 people into the Victorian death register. Lalor lists 34 rebel casualties, of which 22 died.^[145] In his report, Captain Thomas states that one soldier was killed in action, two died of wounds, and fourteen were wounded.^[146]

Trials for sedition and high treason

An 1855 engraving in The Age of some of the rebels on trial

The first trial relating to the rebellion was a charge of sedition against Henry Seekamp of the Ballarat Times. Seekamp 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, three months early. During Seekamp's absence, Clara served as editor of the Ballarat Times.^[168]

Of the approximately 120 individuals detained after the battle, thirteen were put on trial for high treason. There were: Timothy Hayes, Raffaello Carboni, John Manning, John Joseph, Jan Vennick, James Beattie, Henry Reid, Michael Tuohy, James Macfie Campbell, William Molloy, Jacob Sorenson, Thomas Dignum, John Phelan.

The African American John Joseph was the first rebel put on trial. Matters of fact were decided by a lay juries drawn from a general public that was largely sympathetic to the rebel cause. One of the junior counsels for Joseph was Butler Cole Aspinall, who appeared pro bono. Formerly chief of parliamentary reporting for The Argus before returning to practice, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly in the wake of the Eureka trials. He received many other criminal briefs later in his legal career, including that of Henry James O’Farrell, who was indicted for an 1868 assassination attempt on the Duke of Edinburgh in Sydney. Gavan Duffy said of Aspinall that he was: "one of the half-dozen men whose undoubted genius gave the Parliament of Victoria a first place among colonial legislatures."^[169]

The jury's verdict of not guilty was greeted by applause, with two men being sentenced to a week in prison for contempt of court.^[170] Over 10,000 people had come to hear the jury's verdict. Joseph was carried around the streets of Melbourne in a chair in triumph, according to The Ballarat Star.^[171]

Manning's case was heard next. The indicted rebels were acquitted in quick succession, with the last five all being tried together on 27 March. The lead defence counsel Archibald Michie observed that the proceedings had become "weary, stale, flat, dull and unprofitable."^[172][173] The trials have, on several occasions, been described as a farce.^[174]

Thousands of Melbourne residents celebrated the acquittal of the rebels, and paraded them through the streets upon their release from the Victorian Supreme Court.

As Molony points out, the legality of putting a foreign national on trial for treason had been settled as far back as 1649. A difficulty the Crown prosecutor faced regarding the mens rea was that:

... it was another thing entirely to prove that any treasonable intent was harboured in the mind of John Joseph.... These matters were weighty and more conclusive of proof than a charge of murder, but they left the Crown with an arduous task of convincing the jury that Joseph had acted with such an elevated intent.^[175]

The Colonial Secretary Lord John Russell rebuked Hotham over the decision to prosecute the captured rebels, saying in a despatch:

... respecting the trial of the prisoners taken at Ballarat, I wish to say that, although I do not doubt you have acted to the best of your judgment, and under advice, yet I question the expediency of bringing these rioters to trial under a charge of High Treason, being one so difficult of proof, and so open to objections of the kind which appear to have prevailed with the jury.^[176]

Commission of Inquiry report

On 14 December 1854, the goldfields commission sat for the first time. The first Ballarat session was held four days later at Bath's Hotel.^[177] In a meeting with Hotham on 8 January 1855, the goldfields commissioners made an interim recommendation that the mining tax be scrapped, and two days later made a submission advising a general amnesty be granted for all those rebels on the run from the Eureka Stockade.^[178]

The commission's final report into the Victorian goldfields was presented to Hotham on 27 March 1855. It was scathing in its assessment of the administration of the goldfields, particularly the Eureka Stockade affair. Within 12 months, all but one of the demands of the Ballarat Reform League were implemented. The changes included the abolition of gold licences to be replaced with an export duty. An annual 1-pound miner's right that entitles the holder to voting rights for the lower house and a land deed was introduced. Mining wardens replaced the gold commissioners, and there was a reduction in police numbers. The Legislative Council was reconstituted to provide representation for the major gold field settlements.^[179]

Concerning the tensions caused by the Chinese presence on the goldfields, the report states inter alia:

A most serious social question with reference to the gold-fields, and one that has lately crept on with rapid but almost unobserved steps, is with reference to the great number of the Chinese. This number, although already almost incredible, yet appears to be still fast increasing ... The question of the influx of such large numbers of a pagan and inferior race is a very serious one ... The statement of one of this people, that "all" were coming, comprises an unpleasant possibility of the future, that a comparative handful of colonists may be buried in a countless throng of Chinamen ... some step is here necessary, if not to prohibit, at least to check and diminish this influx.^[180]

The legislative remedy came in the form of a poll tax, assented to on 12 June 1855, made payable by Chinese immigrants.^[181]

Humffray commended the report in a letter to the editor, saying:

The [commission] report is a most masterly and statesmanlike document, and if its wise suggestions are wisely and honestly carried out, that commission will have rendered a service to the colony ... the wrongs and grievances of the digging community are clearly set forth in the Report, and practical schemes suggested for their removal.^[182]

Peter Lalor enters parliament

Rebel leader Peter Lalor in later life as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria

Lalor, in his letter to the colonists of Victoria, lamented that:

There are two things connected with the late outbreak (Eureka) which I deeply regret. The first is, that we shouldn't 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.^[142]

In July 1855, the Victorian Constitution received royal assent, which provided for a fully elected bicameral parliament, with a new Legislative Assembly of 60 seats and a reformed Legislative Council of 30 seats.^[183] The franchise was available to all holders of the miner's right for the inaugural Legislative Assembly election, with members of parliament themselves subject to property qualifications. In the interim, five representatives from the mining settlements were appointed to the old part elected Legislative Council, including Lalor and Hummfray in Ballarat.^[184]

Lalor is said to have "aroused hostility among his digger constituents" by not supporting the principle of one vote, one value. He instead preferred the existing property-based franchise and plural voting, where ownership of a certain number of holdings conferred the right to cast multiple ballots. In the event when the Electoral Act of 1856 (Vic) was enacted, these provisions were not carried forward. Universal adult male suffrage was then introduced in 1857 for Legislative Assembly elections.^{[83][185][186]}

On another occasion, there were 17,745 signatures from Ballarat residents on a petition against a regressive land ownership bill Lalor supported that favoured the "squattocracy," who came from pioneering families who had acquired their prime agricultural land through occupation and were not of a mind to give up their monopoly on the countryside, nor political representation. He is on record as having been opposed to payment for members of the Legislative Council, which had been another key demand of the Ballarat Reform League. In November 1855, under the new constitutional arrangements, Lalor was elected unopposed to the Legislative Assembly for the seat of North Grenville, which he held from 1856 to 1859.^{[83][185][186]}

Withers and others have noted that those who considered Lalor a legendary folk hero were surprised that was more concerned with accumulating styles and estates than securing any gains from the Eureka Rebellion.^[187][188] Lalor was found wanting by a critical mass of his supporters, who had hitherto sustained his political career. Lynch recalls that:

The semi-Chartist, revolutionary Chief, the radical reformer thus suddenly metamorphosed into a smug Tory, was surely a spectacle to make good men weep. But good men did more than weep; they decried him with vehemence in keeping with the recoil of their sentiments."^{[121][note 6]}

Under pressure from constituents to clarify his position, in a letter dated 1 January 1857 published in the Ballarat Star, Lalor described his political ideology in the following terms:

I would ask the gentlemen what they mean by the term 'Democracy'? Do they mean Chartism, or Communism, or Republicanism? If so, I never was, I am not now, nor do I ever intend to be a democrat. But if democracy means opposition to a tyrannical press, a tyrannical people, or a tyrannical government, then I have ever been, am still, and I ever will remain a democrat.^[190]

From there on, he never represented a Ballarat-based constituency again. He successfully contested the Melbourne seat of South Grant in the Legislative Assembly in 1859, until being twice defeated at the polls in 1871, on the second occasion contesting the seat of North Melbourne. In 1874 he was again elected as the member for South Grant, which he represented in parliament until he died in 1889.

Lalor served as chairman of committees from 1859 to 1868, before being sworn into the ministry. He was first appointed as Commissioner of Trade and Customs in 1875, an office he held throughout 1877-1880, riding the fortunes of his parliamentary faction. He was briefly Postmaster-General of Victoria from May to July 1877. Lalor served as the speaker from 1880 and 1887. When his health situation forced him to step down, parliament awarded him a sum of 4,000 pounds.^[191][192] Lalor twice refused to accept the highest Imperial honour of a British knighthood.^[193][194]

19th century

Following an earlier meeting on 22 November 1855 held at the location of the stockade where calls for compensation were made, Carboni returned to the rebel burial ground for the first anniversary of the battle and remained for the day selling copies of his self-published memoirs. In 1856, for the second anniversary, veteran John Lynch gave a speech as several hundred people gathered at the Eureka lead before a march to the local cemetery to remember the fall of the Eureka Stockade. There was a collection to building railings around the Eureka burial ground.^{[216][217][218]}

On 22 March 1856, a diggers' memorial was erected in the Ballaarat Old Cemetery near marked graves. Sculpted in stone from the Barrabool Hills by James Leggatt in Geelong, it features a pillar with the names of the deceased miners and the inscription "Sacred to the memory of those who fell on the memorable 3 December 1854 in resisting the unconstitutional proceedings of the Victorian Government."^[219]

In 1857, the anniversary was much more low-key and was marked by "some of the friends of those who fell to decorate their tombs with flowers ... the occasion will be passed over without any public demonstrations..." In 1858, at the appointed time, there was only a crowd of seven people at the cemetery, two of whom were journalists. The Ballarat Star report "deplored the general lack of interest and neglected condition of the graves."^{[216][217][218]}

The soldiers were buried in the same cemetery as the rebels. In August 1872, the area surrounding the soldiers' graves was enclosed with a fence. A soldiers' memorial was constructed in 1879, an obelisk constructed of limestone sourced from Waurn Ponds with the words "Victoria" and "Duty" carved in its north and south faces, respectively.^[220][221]

In the 1860s and 1870s, press interest in the events that had taken place at the Eureka Stockade dwindled, with the anniversary rating the occasional reference in the Courier and Star. Eureka was kept alive at the campfires, pubs, and at memorial events in Ballarat. Key living figures such as Lalor and Humffray were still in the public eye.^[218]

The Eureka Stockade Monument located within the Eureka Stockade Gardens dates from 1884 and has been added to the Australian National Heritage List.^[222] A meeting was held at the partially completed monument on 3 December 1884. It appears there were no further gatherings at the Eureka Stockade Monument until the 50th-anniversary commemorations in 1904.^[223]

For at least ten years, beginning in 1884, the Old Colonists' Association held a service on or around the anniversary at Ballarat's Eastern Oval in conjunction with its annual charity appeal. There was some reference made to the Eureka Stockade. It was sometimes preceded by a march from the Old Colonists' Hall in Lydiard Street.^[224]

Some of the earliest recorded examples of the Eureka Flag being used as a symbol of white nationalism and trade unionism are from the late 19th century. According to an oral tradition, the Eureka Flag was displayed at a seaman's union protest against using cheap Asian labour on ships at Circular Quay in 1878.^[225] In August 1890, the Eureka Flag was draped from a platform in front of a crowd of 30,000 protesters assembled at the Yarra Bank in Melbourne in a show of solidarity with maritime workers.^{[226][227][228]} There was a similar flag flown prominently above the camp at Barcaldine during the 1891 Australian shearers' strike.^[229]

In 1889, Melbourne businessmen employed renowned American cyclorama artist Thaddeus Welch, who teamed up with local artist Izett Watson to paint a 1,000-square-foot (93 m²) 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 stated, "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. Eventually, it was dismantled and disappeared from sight.^[214]

20th century

The Eureka Flag fragments donated by the King family to the Art Gallery of Ballarat

A 1954 handbill for a Eureka Stockade centenary commemoration event in Sydney

The 150th commemorations at the Eureka Centre, 3 December 2004

For the 50th anniversary in 1904, around sixty veterans gathered for a reunion at the Eureka Stockade memorial with large crowds in attendance.^[230] According to one report, there was a procession and "much cheering and enthusiasm along the line of route, and the old pioneers received a very hearty greeting." The crowd heard from several speakers, including Ballarat-born Richard Crouch MP, who "was not at all satisfied that the necessity for revolt had at all ended; in fact, he rather advocated a revolt against conventionalism and political cant."^[231]

In 1954 a committee of Ballarat locals was formed to coordinate events to mark the centenary of the Eureka Stockade. Historian Geoffrey Blainey, who was in Ballarat, recalls attending one function and finding that no one apart from a small group of communists was there.^[232] There was an oration at the Peter Lalor statue, a procession, a pageant at Sovereign Hill, a concert and dance, a dawn service, and a pilgrimage to the Eureka graves. The procession was headed by mounted police and servicemen from the Royal Australian Airforce base at Ballarat dressed in 1850s soldiers' uniforms. There were centenary commemoration events around Australia held under the auspices of the Communist Party of Australia, which in the 1940s named their youth organisation the Eureka Youth League. Catholic Church affiliates also endorsed a Eureka centenary supplement with commemorative events.^[233]

Ballarat's best-known tourist destination, Sovereign Hill, was opened in November 1970 as an open-air museum set in the gold rush period. Since 1992, in commemoration of the Eureka Stockade, Sovereign Hill has featured a 90-minute son et lumière "Blood Under the Southern Cross," a sound and light show attraction played under the night skies. It was revised and expanded in 2003.^[234][235] The Eureka Flag was temporarily on display at Sovereign Hill during 1987, while renovation work was being carried out at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.^[236]

In 1973, Gough Whitlam gave a speech, to mark the largest and most celebrated fragments of the Eureka Flag donated by the descendants of John King going on permanent display at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. He predicted that: "an event like Eureka, with all its associations, with all its potent symbolism, will acquire an aura of excitement and romance, and stir the imagination of the Australian people."^{[237][note 8]}

A purpose-built interpretation centre was erected at the cost of $4 million in March 1998 in the suburb of Eureka near the Eureka Stockade memorial. Designed to be a new landmark for Ballarat, it was known as the Eureka Stockade Centre and then the Eureka Centre.^[239] The building originally featured an enormous sail emblazoned with the Eureka Flag.^[240] Before its development there was considerable debate over whether a replica or reconstruction of wooden structures was appropriate. 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 "controversial"^[241] Eureka Centre was redeveloped between 2009 and 2011.^[242]

In 2013 it was relaunched as the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka with the aid of a further $5 million in funding from both the Australian and Victorian governments and $1.1 million from the City of Ballarat.^[243][244] The centrepiece of MADE's collection was the "King" fragments of the Eureka Flag made available on loan from the Art Gallery of Ballarat, that represent 69.01% of the original specimen.^[245] In 2018, the City of Ballarat council resolved to assume responsibility for managing the facility.^[246] MADE was closed and since being reopened has been called the Eureka Centre Ballarat.^[247]

21st century

Melbourne's Eureka Tower has design features symbolic of the Eureka Rebellion.

In 2004, the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade was commemorated. In November, the Premier of Victoria Steve Bracks announced that the Ballarat V/Line rail service would be renamed the Eureka Line to mark the 150th anniversary, taking effect from late 2005 at the same time as the renaming of Spencer Street railway station to Southern Cross.^[248] The proposal was criticised by community groups including the Public Transport Users Association.^[249]

Renaming of the line did not go ahead. The Spencer Street Station redesignation was announced in December 2005. Bracks stated that the change would resonate with Victorians because the Southern Cross "stands for democracy and freedom because it flew over the Eureka Stockade."^[250]

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. Prime Minister John Howard did not attend any commemorative events and refused to allow the Eureka Flag to fly over Parliament House.^[251][252]

The Eureka Tower in Melbourne, completed in 2006, is named in honour of the rebellion and features symbolic aspects such as blue glass and white stripes in reference to both the Eureka Flag and a surveyor's measuring staff and a crown of gold glass with a red stripe to represent the blood spilled on the goldfields.^[253]

In 2014, to mark the 160th anniversary of the Eureka Rebellion, the Australian Flag Society released a commemorative folk cartoon entitled Fall Back with the Eureka Jack that was inspired by the Eureka Jack mystery.^[254]

In June 2022, the City of Ballarat, in conjunction with Eureka Australia, unveiled a new Pathway of Remembrance at the Eureka Stockade Memorial Park commemorating the "35 men who lost their lives during the Eureka Stockade in 1854".^[255]