Ballarat is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. Ballarat has a population of 119,096 as of March 2024 making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria.
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 history of Victoria refers to the history of the Australian state of Victoria and the area's preceding Indigenous and British colonial societies.
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 to 1854 Eureka Rebellion on the Victorian goldfields. Gold miners protested the cost of mining permits, the officious way the colonial authorities enforced the system, and 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 that resulted in at least 27 deaths. Around 120 miners were arrested, and many others were badly wounded, including five soldiers.
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.
Buninyong is a town 11 km from Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. The town is on the Midland Highway, south of Ballarat on the road to Geelong.
James William Esmond was an Irish-Australian gold prospector and miner, and was one of the first people to discover gold in Australia.
Ballarat East is a suburb of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. From 1857 until 1921 the suburb had its own council. The suburb covers a large area east of the city centre. It is the oldest urban area in Ballarat and was the site of many goldmines, as well as of the Eureka Rebellion.
The History of Australia (1851–1900) refers to the history of the people of the Australian continent during the 50-year period which preceded the foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.
Black Hill is a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia in the northeast of the city. It is named after the major landmark, Black Hill, on which there was extensive and highly profitable open-cut gold mining from the early 1850s during the Victoria gold rush. The hill was originally given its indigenous name, Bowdun, by surveyor William Urquhart.
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.
The Miner's Right was introduced in 1855 in the colony of Victoria, replacing the Miner's Licence. Protests in 1853 at Bendigo with the formation of the Anti-Gold Licence Association and the rebellion of Eureka Stockade in December 1854 at Ballarat led to reform of the system with a lower annual fee of five shillings for the right to mine gold, the right to vote, and the right to own land. Previously, the mining licence cost eight pounds a year.
During the Australian gold rushes, starting in 1851, significant numbers of workers moved from elsewhere in Australia and overseas to where gold had been discovered. Gold had been found several times before, but the colonial government of New South Wales had suppressed the news out of the fear that it would reduce the workforce and destabilise the economy.
William Bramwell Withers was a journalist and novelist best known for writing the first history of Ballarat, Victoria. Born in England, Withers moved to the Colony of Natal in 1849 and contributed to local newspapers. He moved to Victoria in 1852, working odd jobs before becoming a reporter for the Argus and the Herald in Melbourne.
The Battle of the Eureka Stockade was fought in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia 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 at least 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.
William Beauclerc Otway was a mid-nineteenth-century American dragoon, overland emigrant, merchant, mineralogist, gold-miner and quartz-crusher. He is credited with being the first person to crush quartz for gold at Ballarat and for an early attempt to mine and process silver ore at St Arnaud.
The following bibliography includes notable sources concerning the Eureka Rebellion. This article is currently being expanded and revised.
The following is a comprehensive timeline of the Eureka Rebellion.
