The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the British administration of the colony of Victoria, Australia during the Victorian gold rush. It culminated in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, which took place on 3 December 1854 at Ballarat between the rebels and the colonial forces of Australia. The fighting resulted in an official total of 27 deaths and many injuries, the majority of casualties being rebels. There was a preceding period beginning in 1851 of peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience on the Victorian goldfields. The miners had various grievances, chiefly the cost of mining permits and the officious way the system was enforced.
The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capital for Melbourne, which was dubbed "Marvellous Melbourne" as a result of the procurement of wealth.
The Eureka Flag was flown at the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, which took place on 3 December 1854 at Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. It was the culmination of the 1851–1854 Eureka Rebellion on the Victorian goldfields, where miners protested against the cost of mining permits and the officious way the colonial authorities enforced the system along with other grievances. An estimated crowd of over 10,000 demonstrators swore allegiance to the flag as a symbol of defiance at Bakery Hill on 29 November 1854. It was then flown over the Eureka Stockade during the battle which left an official total of 27 deaths. Around 120 miners were arrested, and many others were badly wounded.
Peter Fintan Lalor was an Irish-Australian rebel and, later, politician who rose to fame for his leading role in the Eureka Rebellion, an event identified with the "birth of democracy" in Australia.
John Basson Humffray was a leading advocate in the movement of miner reform process in the British colony of Victoria, and later a member of parliament.
Henry Ross was a Canadian-Australian gold miner who died in the Eureka Rebellion at the Ballarat gold fields in the British Colony of Victoria, now the state of Victoria in Australia. Ross is particularly remembered for his part in the creation of the rebel miners' flag, since named the Eureka Flag.
Henry Erle Seekamp was a journalist, owner and editor of the Ballarat Times during the 1854 Eureka Rebellion in Victoria, Australia. The newspaper was fiercely pro-miner, and he was responsible for a series of articles and several editorials that supported the Ballarat Reform League while condemning the government and police harassment of the diggers. After the Rebellion was put down, he was charged, found guilty of seditious libel, and imprisoned, becoming the only participant to receive gaol time.
Eureka Stockade is a 1949 British film of the story surrounding Irish-Australian rebel and politician Peter Lalor and the gold miners' rebellion of 1854 at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Victoria, in the Australian Western genre.
The following lists events that happened during 1854 in Australia.
The Ballarat Reform League came into being in October 1853 and was officially constituted on 11 November 1854 at a mass meeting of miners in Ballarat, Victoria to protest against the Victorian government's mining policy and administration of the goldfields.
Bakery Hill is an inner city suburb of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. It is the smallest suburb in the city of Ballarat in terms of both area and population, which at the 2021 census was just 180 people. The area is a mix of residential and commercial, as it has been since it came into existence at the beginning of the gold rush. In the present time it is mainly known for its restaurants and pubs, as well as fast food. The suburb boundaries are that of Mair, East, Barkly, Steinfield and Peel Streets.
Eureka is a small eastern suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia – (AU). It was originally part of Ballarat East but became its own suburb in 1946 in recognition of the area's significance to Australian history. Eureka is bordered by Specimen Creek to the north, Canadian Creek to the south, Queen and Joseph streets to the west and Kline and Stawell Street to the east. The suburb takes its name from the Eureka Lead – a lead is an ancient river bed that contains gold – of the Eureka Mining Company and is most notable as the site of the historic event of the Eureka Rebellion. This was the site where the rebel miners flew the Eureka Flag for the first time; a flag that has since become a symbol of the working class and trade union movement and, at times, Australian republicanism.
Eureka Stockade is a 1907 Australian silent film about the Eureka Rebellion. It was the second feature film made in Australia, following The Story of the Kelly Gang.
The Loyal Rebel is a 1915 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe set against the background of the Eureka Rebellion.
The Battle of the Eureka Stockade was fought in Ballarat, Victoria, on 3 December 1854, between gold miners and the colonial forces of Australia. It was the culmination of the 1851-1854 Eureka Rebellion during the Victorian gold rush. The fighting resulted in an official total of 27 deaths and many injuries, the majority of casualties being rebels. The miners had various grievances, chiefly the cost of mining permits and the officious way the system was enforced.
Hussey Malone Chomley was an Irish-born police officer who joined the police force in the colony of Victoria in 1852, and served for fifty years, including twenty years as chief commissioner from 1882 to 1902. He was the first chief commissioner to be appointed from the ranks of the police force itself.
The following bibliography includes notable sources concerning the Eureka Rebellion. This article is currently being expanded and revised.
The political significance of the Eureka Rebellion is contested ground. It may be seen simply as a rebellion by miners against burdensome taxation or, as some authors suggest, the first expression of republican sentiment in Australia. Some would suggest the importance of the event has been exaggerated because Australian history does not include a major armed rebellion equivalent to the French Revolution or the American War of Independence. Others maintain that Eureka was a seminal event that marked a major change in the course of Australian history.
The 1854 mining revolt in Australia, Eureka Rebellion inspired numerous novels, poems, films, songs, plays and artworks. Much of Eureka folklore relies heavily on Raffaello Carboni's 1855 book, The Eureka Stockade, which was the first and only comprehensive eyewitness account of the Eureka rebellion. The poet Henry Lawson wrote about Eureka, as have many novelists.
The following is a timeline of the Eureka Rebellion.
