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This is an incomplete list of notable public officials in the 1851-1854 Eureka Rebellion on the Victorian goldfields. The article is presently being expanded and revised.
The Port Phillip District was partitioned on 1 July 1851 by the Australian Constitutions Act 1850 , as Victoria gained autonomy within the British Empire after a decade of de facto independence from New South Wales. [1] Approval of the Victorian constitution by the Imperial parliament was pending, with an election held for a provisional legislative council consisting of 20 elected and ten appointed members subject to property-based franchise and membership requirements. [2]
Gold prospectors were offered 200 guineas for making discoveries within 320 kilometres (200 mi) of Melbourne. [3] In August 1851, the news was received around the world that, on top of several earlier finds, Thomas Hiscock had found still more deposits 3 kilometres (2 mi) west of Buninyong. [4] This led to gold fever taking hold as the colony's population increased from 77,000 in 1851 to 198,496 in 1853. [5] In three years, the total number of people living in and around the Victorian goldfields stood at a 12-month average of 100,351. In 1851, the Australian population was 430,000. In 1871, it was 1.7 million. [6] Among this number was "a heavy sprinkling of ex-convicts, gamblers, thieves, rogues and vagabonds of all kinds". [7] The local authorities soon found themselves with fewer police and lacked the infrastructure needed to support the expansion of the mining industry. The number of public servants, factory and farm workers leaving for the goldfields to seek their fortune made for chronic labour shortages that needed to be resolved. [8]
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. [9] [10] 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. [8] [11]
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. [12] 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. [13] 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.
| Name | Period of service in the rank, promotions and previous military experience. Termination of service | Commentary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Joseph La Trobe | La Trobe served as the first lieutenant governor of Victoria from 1851 to 1854. [14] | ||
 | Charles Hotham | Hotham served as lieutenant governor and, later, governor of Victoria, Australia, from 22 June 1854 to 31 December 1855. [15] | He 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," which led to the decision to move into position in the early morning for a surprise attack on the Eureka Stockade. [16] |
| Name | Period of service in the rank, promotions and previous military experience. Termination of service | Commentary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Leslie Fitzgerald Vesey Foster | Foster was first elected as the representative of Port Phillip in June 1846, at which time was a constituency in the New South Wales Legislative Council. In 1853 Foster was appointed as the colonial secretary of Victoria, which by then had separated from New South Wales. He served from 20 July 1853 to 4 December 1854. Foster was nominated member of the Victorian Legislative Council from August 1853 to December 1854. [17] | He enforced the mining licence fee with an iron fist, later resigning as the scapegoat for the armed uprising in Ballarat. [17] | |
| Name | Period of service in the rank, promotions and previous military experience. Termination of service | Commentary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Stawell | |||
| Name | Period of service in the rank, promotions and previous military experience. Termination of service | Commentary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Henry Wright | Wright was appointed as the chief commissioner of the gold department in May 1852. [18] | ||
| Name | Period of service in the rank, promotions and previous military experience. Termination of service | Commentary | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D.C. Doveton | In mid-September 1851, he was appointed by La Trobe as the first local gold commissioner for the Ballarat goldfields. [19] | ||
 | Robert William Rede | Rede was appointed to the Victorian goldfields commission in October 1852. From June 1854 to January 1855, he was posted to Ballarat and had responsibility for the government camp during the Battle of the Eureka Stockade. [20] | Following the armed uprising, Rede was recalled from Ballarat and kept on full pay until 1855. Rede served as the sheriff at Geelong (1857), Ballarat (1868), and Melbourne (1877) and was the Commandant of the Volunteer Rifles, being the second-in-command at Port Phillip. In 1880, he was sheriff at the trial of Ned Kelly and an official witness to his execution. [21] |
| James Johnston | Johnston was appointed as a magistrate and the assistant gold commissioner for the gravel pits on the Ballarat goldfields in November 1853. [22] | His responsibilities included organising licence inspections and hearing relatively minor infringements. Johnston was on the bench that presided over the inquest into the death of James Scobie, which sparked the armed uprising. He dissented from the other members of the panel and found that James Bentley and others should not be honourably discharged. [22] | |
The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the British colonial government in 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, many of whom such as Raffaello Carboni came from Europe and were veterans of the Revolutions of 1848, had various grievances, chiefly the cost of mining permits and the officious way the system was enforced.
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, including 5 soldiers.
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.
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.
The following bibliography includes notable sources concerning the Eureka Rebellion. This article is currently being expanded and revised.
The Eureka Rebellion, an 1854 gold miner's revolt in Victoria, Australia, has been the inspiration for numerous novels, poems, films, songs, plays and artworks. Much of Eureka folklore relies heavily on Raffaello Carboni's 1855 book, The Eureka Stockade, which is the first and only comprehensive eyewitness account of the uprising. The poet Henry Lawson wrote about Eureka, as have many novelists.
The following is a comprehensive timeline of 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.
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 farcical, and the colonial secretary would rebuke Governor Sir Charles Hotham over prosecuting the Eureka rebels for the lofty offence of high treason.
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".
The Eureka Stockade was a crude battlement built in 1854 by rebel gold miners at Ballarat, Australia during the Eureka Rebellion. 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 Victorian high treason trials map and Eureka Slaughter by Charles Doudiet.
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 such as Raffaello Carboni had experienced the Revolutions of 1848. They supported the protest movement that formed on the goldfields in opposition to the mining tax system, ultimately leading to an armed uprising at Ballarat. It is currently known that the participants in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade 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, despite being present on the Ballarat gold fields, there is no record of any Chinese involvement at the Eureka Stockade. According to figures published by Professor Anne Beggs-Sunter, in her sample of 44 rebels, only one hailed from a non-European country.
White nationalists in Australia recall the Eureka Rebellion and the eventual implementation of Victoria's Chinese poll tax in 1855 as a milestone in the formation of the 1901 Immigration Restriction Act that enshrined the White Australia Policy of the 20th century. The Eureka Flag is often featured on bumper stickers with white nationalist political slogans, and the Australia First Party has incorporated it into their official logo. Many, including Peter Fitzsimons, have criticised such use by "those who ludicrously brandish it as a symbol of white Australia". However, the Lambing Flat banner that features the Southern Cross superimposed over a Saint Andrew's cross with the inscription "ROLL UP. ROLL UP. NO CHINESE". It has been claimed that the banner, which served as an advertisement for a public meeting held prior to the Lambing Flat riots, was inspired by the Eureka Flag. Nationalists have also maintained an oral tradition where the Eureka Flag was seen again on display outside NSW parliament house in 1878 at a protest brought about by the use of Chinese labour on ships at Circular Quay. Another flag similar to the Eureka Flag was seen prominently flown over a camp during the 1894 Australian shearers' strike at Barcaldine, Queensland.
The vexillological aspects of the Eureka Rebellion include the Eureka Flag and others used in protest on the goldfields and those of the British Army units at the Battle of the Eureka Stockade. The disputed first report of the attack on the Eureka Stockade also refers to a Union Jack, known as the Eureka Jack, being flown during the battle that was captured, along with the Eureka Flag, by the foot police.
The Victorian colonial police force of the 1850s operated as an armed paramilitary gendarmerie where troopers and police were garrisoned at central locations, such as the government camp in Ballarat, and there was no interaction with the civilian population. To cope with the expansion of the mining industry, the Victorian government resorted to recruiting at least 130 former convicts from Tasmania who were prone to brutal means. They would get a fifty per cent commission from all fines imposed on unlicensed miners and sly grog sellers. Plainclothes officers enforced prohibition, and those involved in the illegal sale of alcohol were initially handed 50-pound fines. There was no profit for police from subsequent offences, that were instead punishable by months of hard labour. This led to the corrupt practice of police demanding blackmail of 5 pounds from repeat offenders. By January 1853, there were 230 mounted police throughout Victoria. By 1855, the number had risen to 485, including nine mounted detectives.