Eureka Rebellion in popular culture

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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.

Contents

More recently, there have been four motion pictures based on the uprising in Ballarat. The first was Eureka Stockade , which was a silent film made in 1907, being only the second feature film produced in Australia. There have also been a number of plays and songs about the rebellion. The folk song German Teddy concerns Edward Thonen, one of the rebels who died defending the Eureka Stockade. [1]

Literature

Carboni's narrative

Raffaello Carboni's 1855 book The Eureka Stockade is the only comprehensive eyewitness account of the Eureka Rebellion. He was born on 15 December 1817 in Urbino, Italy and educated at the College of Nobles. Carboni then attended the University of Urbino, where he read logic, ethics, metaphysics, algebra, and geometry. He had only partially completed his studies when he went to Rome and spoke out against Pope Gregory XVI. Carboni was briefly imprisoned as suspected of aiding French Republicans. Two years after Pope Pius IX was elected, Europe had a great upheaval amid the revolutions of 1848. The pontiff was unsympathetic towards the young radical. Carboni was commissioned as a colonel in the army of Giuseppe Garibaldi. He was wounded three times, with the injury he sustained to his leg hampering him for the rest of his life. He went into exile in 1849, living in Frankfurt, Berlin and Dresden before relocating to London, a haven for Italian exiles. Carboni was still there when he heard the news of the Victorian gold rush in late 1852, whereupon he set sail to Australia to seek his fortune. He had some success in Ballarat, being able to keep his head above water and make his licence fee renewal. However, like many others, Carboni did grow weary of the enforcement regime. Peter Lalor relied on Carboni, who could speak multiple languages, to help deal with the European rebels who came from outside Britain and Ireland.

Carboni was one of the thirteen rebel prisoners put on trial for high treason, being acquitted by the Victorian Supreme Court on 21 March 1855. He was elected to the local court in Ballarat as one of nine miners that heard mining disputes. [2] After becoming a British subject, Carboni would leave Australia on 18 January 1856, setting sail as the lone passenger aboard the French vessel Impératrice Eugénie. He used some of the gold he found during his time in Ballarat to fund his travels around the world. Carboni later became a military interpreter and also for Francesco Crispi, an Italian statesman who was negotiating with the British in an attempt to secure their support for the reunification of Italy. He published several books as well as plays and an opera. On 24 October 1875, Carboni died at the St James Hospital in Rome at the age of 57. [3]

Illustration of the Eureka flag from the front cover of Raffaello Carboni's 1855 "The Eureka Stockade" featuring diamond-shaped stars. Carboni Eureka flag illustration.png
Illustration of the Eureka flag from the front cover of Raffaello Carboni's 1855 "The Eureka Stockade" featuring diamond-shaped stars.

One notable inconsistency in Carboni's account is that he describes the Eureka Flag as made of silk, [4] and the cover of the first edition has an illustration that features diamond-shaped stars. These incorrect descriptions plagued early Eureka investigators such as Len Fox, with the fragments held by the Art Gallery of Ballarat being of cotton and mohair construction. [5] However, the blue ground is said to have "a high sheen that gives a silk-like appearance." [6] Eureka: From the Official Records has the three-man peace delegation meeting with Rede on 1 December 1854. Author Ian MacFarlane notes that Carboni, who accompanied George Black and Father Smyth on this occasion, "suggested in his The Eureka Stockade that this meeting took place on 30 November." [7]

Poetry

The Eureka Stockade is referenced in several poems by Henry Lawson, including "Flag of the Southern Cross" (1887), "Eureka (A Fragment)" (1889), "The Fight at Eureka Stockade" (1890), and "Freedom on the Wallaby" (1891).[ citation needed ]

Novels

There have been a number of novels published that were inspired by the Eureka Rebellion. The events were referenced in a work of fiction for the first time in Marcus Clarke's His Natural Life, which relies heavily on the history of Carboni and W.B. Withers. It was serialised in the Australian Journal in 1870-1872 and mentioned Bentley's Hotel with Raffaello Carboni and Peter Lalor being given resembling names. [8] The next Eureka novel was to appear in 1901, entitled Roll-Up: A Tale of the Eureka Riots, by James Middleton. Other novels set in the period to follow include: In the Roaring Fifties (1906), The Call of the Cross (1915), Black Swans (1925), In Days of Gold (1926), Red Mask (1927), An Affair at Eureka (1930), The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930), Human Drift (1935), Rebels on the Goldfields (1936), The Five Bright Stars (1954), Ballarat (1962), Road to Ballarat (1958), Southern Cross (1965), and Goldfields (2000). [9]

Film and television

Oath swearing scene from the 1949 motion picture Eureka Stockade The Eureka Flag And Eureka Jack.jpg
Oath swearing scene from the 1949 motion picture Eureka Stockade

To date, there have been four motion pictures made on the subject of the Eureka Rebellion. The first, Eureka Stockade , was a silent 1907 film directed by Arthur and George Cornwell and produced by the Australasian Cinematograph Company. It was the only second feature film made in Australia (the first being the 1906 production, The Story of the Kelly Gang ). However, not all the footage has survived, so the duration of the film is unknown. It was described by The Age as "one of the best shown ... highly educational." The film was first screened on 19 October 1907 at the Melbourne Athenaeum. The film impressed critics of the time and was found to be a stirring portrayal of the events surrounding the Eureka Stockade, but it failed to connect with audiences during the two weeks it was screened. The surviving seven-minute fragment (stored at the National Film and Sound Archive) shows street scenes of Ballarat. 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. [10]

The Loyal Rebel , also known as Eureka Stockade, is an Australian silent film made in 1915. Directed by Alfred Rolfe, it starred Maisie Carte, Wynn Davies, Reynolds Denniston, Charles Villiers, Percy Walshe, Jena Williams, and Leslie Victor as Peter Lalor. It is a largely fictional account that portrays Peter Lalor as the main character. [11] It is considered a lost film.

A 1949 British film titled Eureka Stockade (released in the United States as Massacre Hill), was shot in Australia. The film starred Chips Rafferty as Peter Lalor and Peter Illing as Raffaello Carboni. It was directed by Harry Watt, produced by Leslie Norman and written by Walter Greenwood, Ralph Smart and Harry Watt. [12] The production was filmed around Singleton, with the Australian army contributing horses and personnel as extras for the combat sequence. The budget was 125,000 pounds, and a set comprising a whole 1850s mining settlement was constructed. In 1950 it was released in the United States under the title Massacre Hill. It is notable for featuring the vintage "star-spangled" Eureka Flag with free-floating stars as per the fly-half of the official Australian national flag and no cross. [13] [note 1]

Stockade , a 1971 Australian musical film featuring Rod Mullinar as Peter Lalor, was directed by Hans Pomeranz and Ross McGregor. The film was written by Kenneth Cook, and adapted from his musical play. It was the first Australian film to receive government subsidies and premiered at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

There has also been a mini-series, Eureka Stockade , written by Richard Butler, which aired on channel seven in 1984. Tony Harrison rated the show by saying, "this can be considered to be Australia's first B-grade mini series." [14]

Riot or Revolution: Eureka Stockade 1854, an Australian documentary from 2006, directed by Don Parham. The film focuses mainly on Governor Hotham (played by Brian Lipson), Raffaello Carboni (Barry Kay), and Douglas Huyghue (Tim Robertson). The accounts of these eyewitnesses are the main source for the monologues directly aimed at the audience, and, as the caption at the start of the film says: "the lines spoken by actors in this film are the documented words of the historical characters." The cast also included Julia Zemiro as Celeste de Chabrillan and Andrew Larkins as Peter Lalor. It was filmed in Ballarat and Toorac House in Melbourne. [15] [16]

Stage

Eureka has also been recalled by playwrights, with the first such production Eureka Stockade, by Edward Duggan, staged in 1891 under the name The Democrat . Others to follow include The Eureka Rebellion (1907), Lalor of Eureka (1939), The Southern Cross (1946), Blood on the Wattle (1948), The Palmers: an Australian Saga (1973), Stockade (1975), and Carboni (1980). Eureka Stockade, a three-act opera with music by Roberto Hazon and a libretto by John Picton-Warlow and Carlo Stransky, was completed in 1988. [17] Eureka! The Musical! was staged in November and December 2004 at Ballarat and Melbourne for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. With music by Michael Maurice Harvey and original work and lyrics by Maggie May Gordon, Eureka was nominated for the Helpmann Award for Best Musical in 2005. Like the 1973 play, there was artistic licence aplenty at work in the casting of a fictional Chinese Eureka man. [18] Australian academic and journalist Germaine Greer panned the production in an interview aired on the ABC's Critical Mass, saying: "It's one cliche after another, it's repulsively politically correct ... We doff our caps to everyone we think we should doff our caps to. We even try to get the poor Chinese involved in the Eureka Stockade." [19]

Music

Recording of the 1889 song German Teddy

The Australian folk song German Teddy is about Edward Thonen, one of the miners killed at the Stockade. The song, probably based on Carboni's account, is from a single 1889 manuscript. [20] It formed the basis for the symphony German Teddy by Australian composer George Dreyfus, [21] which premiered in 1986. [22] In 2016, the symphony was performed at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka. [23]

Notes

  1. ↑ It appears from all reports that Harry Watt, producer of the 1949 feature film Eureka Stockade, had gone as far as engaging experts to examine the Eureka Flag fragments held by the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, amid allegations that they were not from the original specimen. It was said that the apparent bullet holes were caused by moths. Others said the ecclesiastical cross was a later adaptation and that the pieces donated by John King's widow were made for a footballer's picnic.

Related Research Articles

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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 left at least 27 dead and many injured, most of the 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eureka Flag</span> Symbolic flag used at the Eureka Stockade

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. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Lalor</span> Australian politician

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Basson Humffray</span> Australian politician

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Seekamp</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballarat Reform League</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Eureka Stockade</span> 1854 military conflict in Victoria, Australia

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 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eureka Jack Mystery</span>

Since 2012, various theories have emerged, based on the Argus account of the Battle of the Eureka Stockade and an affidavit sworn by Private Hugh King three days later as to a flag being seized from a prisoner detained at the stockade, that a Union Jack, known as the Eureka Jack may also have been flown by the rebels. Readers of the Argus were told that: "The flag of the diggers, 'The Southern Cross,' as well as the 'Union Jack,' which they had to hoist underneath, were captured by the foot police."

The following bibliography includes notable sources concerning the Eureka Rebellion. This article is currently being expanded and revised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republicanism and the Eureka Rebellion</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Thonen</span> Miner involved in the Eureka Rebellion

Edward Thonen was a German emigrant to Australia, and one of the miners involved in the Eureka Rebellion in Ballarat, Victoria. He was captain of one of the miners' divisions. When soldiers stormed the Stockade on 3 December 1854, Thonen was one of the first to be killed in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the Eureka Rebellion</span> Timeline of the Eureka Rebellion

The following is a timeline of the Eureka Rebellion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eureka Stockade Memorial Park</span> Site of the Battle of the Eureka Stockade

The Eureka Stockade Memorial Park is believed to encompass the site of the Battle of the Eureka Stockade that was fought in Ballarat on 3 December 1854. Records of "Eureka Day" ceremonies at the site of the battle go back to 1855. In addition to the Eureka Stockade Monument, there are other points of interest in the reserve, including the Eureka Stockade Gardens and an interpretative centre. There was formerly a swimming pool and other structures. There has been a nearby caravan park since the 1950s. The present Eureka Stockade Memorial Park Committee has undergone several name changes since 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loyalism and the Eureka Rebellion</span> Loyalism and the Eureka Rebellion

Historians have noted various manifestations of loyalist sentiment throughout the 1851-1854 Eureka Rebellion on the Victorian gold fields. Among the examples that have been cited include a letter from the Mayor of Melbourne to the Lieutenant Governor concerning US Independence Day in 1853, the Bendigo Petition and Red Ribbon Movement protests, the inaugural meeting of the Ballarat Reform League, the Eureka Jack Mystery, and the public protest in Melbourne following the Battle of the Eureka Stockade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1855 Victorian High Treason trials</span> Trials of gold miners in Australia

The 1855 Victorian High Treason trials took place between 22 February – 27 March in the aftermath of the Battle of the Eureka Stockade. The goldfields commission recommended a general amnesty for all on the runs from the fallen Eureka Stockade. Instead, thirteen of the rebels detained were eventually indicted for High Treason. The juries all returned a verdict of not guilty by a jury, and the indictment against Thomas Dignum was withdrawn. On 23 January, the trial of Ballarat Times editor Henry Seekamp resulted in a finding of guilt for seditious libel, and a month later, he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six months. The trials have been described as facial, and the colonial secretary would rebuke Governor Sir Charles Hotham over prosecuting the Eureka rebels for the lofty offence of High Treason.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chartism and the Eureka Rebellion</span>

There were key people involved in the Eureka Rebellion who subscribed to the ideals of Chartism and saw the struggle on the Victorian goldfields as a continuation of the activism in Britain in the 1840s and "the centuries of heroic struggles in England which preceded the Australian Federation" such as the 1688 Glorious Revolution, that resulted in the enactment of the English Bill of Rights. From 1837 to 1848, 129,607 incomers to Australia arrived from the British mainland, with at least 80 "physical force" chartists sentenced to penal servitude in Van Diemens Land. Currey agrees that the population at the time would have been sufficiently politically awake such that: "it may be fairly assumed that the aims of the Anti-Corn-Law League and the Chartists were very familiar to many of the Victorian miners."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eureka Stockade (fortification)</span> 1854 battlement at Ballarat in Australia

The Eureka Stockade was a crude battlement built and garrisoned by rebel gold miners at Ballarat in Australia during the Eureka Rebellion of 1854. It stood from 30 November until the Battle of the Eureka Stockade on 3 December. The exact dimensions and location of the stockade are a matter of debate among scholars. There are various contemporary representations of the Eureka Stockade, including the 1855 trial map and Eureka Slaughter by Charles Doudiet.

<i>The Eureka Stockade</i> (1855 novel) 1855 history novel by Raffaello Carboni

The Eureka Stockade is an 1855 novel by Raffaello Carboni, who was present in Ballarat during the Eureka Rebellion. He lived near the Eureka Stockade and witnessed the battle on 3 December 1854 when the government forces defeated the rebel garrison. The Eureka folklore is deeply indebted to Carboni's novel, the first and only comprehensive eyewitness account of the Eureka Rebellion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nationalities at the Eureka Stockade</span>

The Victorian gold rush led to an influx of foreign nationals, increasing the colony's population from 77,000 in 1851 to 198,496 in 1853. Many like Raffaello Carboni had experienced the Revolutions of 1848. They supported the protest movement that formed on the goldfields in opposition to the administration of the mining tax system, ultimately leading to the armed uprising in Ballarat. It is currently known that the rebel garrison that defended the Eureka Stockade when government forces attacked on 3 December 1854 came from at least 23 different nations, including Australia, Canada, the United States of America, Jamaica, Mauritius, Russia, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, The Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain. Carboni recalled that "We were of all nations and colours." During the 1855 Victorian High Treason trials The Argus court reporter observed that of "the first batch of prisoners brought up for examination, the four examined consisted of one Englishman, one Dane, one Italian, and one negro, and if that is not a foreign collection, we do not know what is." However, according to Professor Anne Beggs-Sunter's figures, in her sample of 44 rebels, only one hailed from a non-European country.

References

  1. ↑ A traditional song sent to Alfred Hill by Lieselotte Schreiner, Series 04: Alfred Hill music manuscripts collected, 1880-1953, State Library New South Wales, call numbers MLMSS 6357/Boxes 41-42, MLMSS 6357/Box 62X, record identifier 94Rkr0j1. https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/94Rkr0j1
  2. ↑ MacFarlane 1995, p. 200.
  3. ↑ Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, pp. 99–100, 102.
  4. ↑ Carboni 1855, p. 68.
  5. ↑ Fox 1973, pp. 29–30.
  6. ↑ Wickham, Gervasoni & D'Angri 2000, pp. 55, 71.
  7. ↑ MacFarlane 1995, p. 196.
  8. ↑ See Marcus Clarke, His Natural Life, Book VI, chapters 9 to 17.
  9. ↑ Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, pp. 401-402..
  10. ↑ "Eureka Stockade (1907)". National Film and Sound Archive. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  11. ↑ The Loyal Rebel at IMDb Archived 17 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 09.April 2013
  12. ↑ "Eureka Stockade (1949)". IMDb. Archived from the original on 12 August 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2009.
  13. ↑ 'Eureka Stockade flag not holed by moths,' 2 August 1947, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 15.
  14. ↑ Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, pp. 201–202.
  15. ↑ Riot or Revolution: Eureka Stockade 1854 at IMDb Archived 6 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 9 April 2013
  16. ↑ Riot or Revolution: Eureka Stockade 1854 cast and notes Archived 6 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine at IMDb Retrieved 9 April 2013
  17. ↑ Hazon, Roberto; Stransky, Carlo; Picton-Warlow, John (14 August 1988). "Eureka stockade: opera in three acts". Sydney : Pellinor. Retrieved 14 August 2017– via Trove.
  18. ↑ Corfield, Wickham & Gervasoni 2004, pp. 428–429.
  19. ↑ James Button, 'The Eureka Myth,' The Age, 23 October 2004, Insight, 3.
  20. ↑ A traditional song sent to Alfred Hill by Lieselotte Schreiner, Series 04: Alfred Hill music manuscripts collected, 1880-1953, State Library New South Wales, call numbers MLMSS 6357/Boxes 41-42, MLMSS 6357/Box 62X, record identifier 94Rkr0j1. https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/94Rkr0j1
  21. ↑ The Marvellous World of George Dreyfus, Move Records, Australia, 1992 https://www.move.com.au/pdf.cfm?id=3129
  22. ↑ Sue McCulloch: The cheerful art of the cheeky Dreyfus, purloiner, Bulletin (Sydney), Music, no. 29 Apr 1986, pages 84-85.
  23. ↑ Andrew Burton: Smoking guns and conflict against oppression, Weekend Notes, 15 April 2016. https://www.weekendnotes.com/made-museum-of-australian-democracy-at-eureka/97269/

Works cited

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