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.[1] 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.[2] Carboni recalled that "We were of all nations and colours."[3] 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."[4] 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.[5]
There was a substantial American contingent among the Eureka Stockade garrison. The colonial government was wary about the diplomatic consequences that might result from US nationals being killed, detained, and put on trial. There have been Americans in Australia as far back as 1791, and there was a large influx after gold was discovered in Bathurst and later at Buninyong in Victoria during the 19th century Australian gold rush. In 1854, of the 1,374 Americans in Victoria, 55 per cent were residing in the mining settlements. By 1852, there was a US consulate established in Melbourne. The consul was J A Henriques, a partner in the firm Henrique Bros. He was replaced by James Tarleton, who was consul during the armed uprising. A letter from an American miner in the New York Herald, 22 November 1854 edition, states that "The people are on the eve of revolution. Folks here are republican enough in their ideas, though they do not wish you to think so".[6]
On 28 November 1854, Tarleton was guest of honour at a dinner in Ballarat. Distant shots and shouting were heard, and the US officials hurriedly departed. Eureka rebel James McGill came along and whispered the password, said to be the Celtic words "Faugh-a-balagh" or "clear the way", and the dinner party guests knew the army was on its way. Dr Otway, who was presiding, proposed a loyal toast to the Queen, but nobody reacted. After a long silence, one guest stood up and said, "While I and my fellow colonists claim to be and are thoroughly loyal to our sovereign lady the Queen, we do not and will not respect her man-servants, her maid-servants, her oxen, nor her asses".[7]
At the inaugural meeting of the Ballarat Reform League on 11 November 1854, 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."[8][note 1]
When soldiers were sent to reinforce the government camp in Ballarat, Americans Freeman Cobb, George Train, and George Young were involved in transporting the colonial forces.[10]
About twenty to thirty of the 120-150 strong rebel garrison at the stockade during the battle were Californians. 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 decided to take most of his two hundred Californian Rangers away from the stockade to intercept rumoured British reinforcements coming from Melbourne. Carboni details the rebel dispositions along:
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.[11]
After the rebel garrison had already begun to flee and all hope was lost, a number of Californians gamely joined in the final melee bearing their trademark Colt revolvers.[12]
American Charles Kenworthy joined in the US consul's efforts to keep US nationals from legal jeopardy. Albert Hurd was arrested in connection with the Eureka Hotel arson attack. John Emery owned the bowling alley attached to the hotel and was an American. After the battle, there were three American rebels detained: Charles Derius Ferguson, John Joseph, and John Kelly.[10]
Tarleton and Kenworthy failed to secure the release of Joseph, an American negro, and James Campbell, a Jamaican, were both among the thirteen rebel prisoners to go on trial. Andrew Peters, who acted as a police spy, said during cross-examination that "There are some" black men on the diggings. Patrick Lynott recalled that "There were a good many black men" in the rebel camp.[13]
Other notable Americans include James Esmond, who discovered gold in 1851, and Joseph Barberis and Edward Browne, who had both been miners during the Californian gold rush. The treatment of Frank Carey, who was widely rumoured to be framed by Sergeant Major Robert Miline for being a sly grog seller for refusing to pay police bribes, enraged many in the lead-up to the armed uprising, especially his fellow nationals. He was later released after representations from the US consul to Lieutenant Governor Charles Hotham.[14] Clarke acted as the stereotypical lawless American when on 16 August 1854 he, presumably drunk, entered the Albion Hotel at Ballarat and proceeded to draw his revolver and hit patron John Brown on the head. He then threatened that "the first son of a bitch that says anything to me tonight, I will blow his brains out!" He then started to play cards where the losers bought drinks for the winners. On a lucky streak and becoming increasingly intoxicated, barman Joseph Douve said he again stated that "whoever speaks in this game, I will blow his brains out!" Clarke then threatened to slap a man called Winkler who had accused him of cheating. Winkler accepted the challenge and Clarke started firing his revolver. One bullet hit the publican Kosman Berend in an adjoining room after passing through a wall or partition. Three or four men tried to apprehend Clarke as the mortally wounded publican crawled into the parlour. He wrestled with his attackers and escaped to Creswick where he was apprehended and put on trial for murder.[15]
Canadians
Portrait of Henry Ross, one of Peter Lalor's rebel captains
Henry Ross, who is believed to be the designer of the Eureka Flag, was from Toronto, Canada. The Swiss-born Charles Doudiet, whose sketchbook is held by the Art Gallery of Ballarat and contains such scenes from around the time of the armed uprising as the iconic Eureka Slaughter, had lived in Canada. Doudiet may have been present at the battle, and he notes in his sketchbook that he helped to convey his friend, the mortally wounded Ross, to the Free Trade Hotel, where the Eureka flag bearer died of a groin injury two days later. Robert Julien died defending the stockade, as did Thomas Budden, also a friend of Ross, both from Canada.[16]
Chinese
Russel Ward noted the antipathy of the European miners to the presence of Asiatics on the goldfields, saying: "The Chinese ... were conspicuous by their absence at Eureka".[17]
Of all foreigners on the Victorian goldfields, none were as quaint, as numerous or as self-contained as the Chinese. And none posed as great a social problem ... Of the fervour of Australian nationalism and the social aspirations which had brought Europeans in quest of gold they were ignorant ... Because they came en masse as assisted migrants into an alien culture, the Chinese tended to live and work together and, mostly having been bonded in China to work in parties of ten or so for Chinese merchants, they lacked conspicuously the individualism of Westerners ... They had crowded together at Ballarat by March 1854, over a year before official moves were made to segregated them ... Few could speak English - and even fewer Englishmen understood Chinese ... they were a threat to the independence of the diggers; they moved in swarms across old workings that Europeans reserved for bad times ... They also offended by washing for gold at waterholes set aside by general agreement for domestic purposes. Their overwhelming numbers and the way they drew upon their national tradition as irrigators meant that they were anyway large users of water ... Numbers alone made the Chinese a formidable economic and social threat.[18]
In his local history of Ballarat William Withers said that: "The Chinese were detested as an inferior race, as the harbingers of degrading pagan immorality, and as alien competitors for the bread which the miners required for themselves and families."[19]
Germans
Frederick Vern was a skilled rebel political agitator and orator who oversaw the construction of the Eureka Stockade. He was said to be from German Hanover, although Carboni disputes this.[20] Vern 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."[21] During a mass meeting at Bakery Hill on 29 November 1854, the crowd of around 10,000 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 he could have been a double agent.[22][23][24] There were wanted posters advertising a 500-pound reward for information leading to the apprehension of Vern circulated by the government printer following the fall of the Eureka Stockade.
Edward Thonen was killed in action whilst defending the stockade. Carboni refers to him as the "lemonade seller." Thonen was originally from Elberfeld in Prussia.[25]
Rebel leader Peter Lalor was from Ireland, as were a majority of the rebel garrison on his list of those either killed in action or had died of wounds. Most of the thirteen rebels indicted for high treason in 1855 were also from Ireland. Lalor made a blunder by choosing "Vinegar Hill" – the site of a battle during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 – as the Eureka Stockade password, which led to waning support for the armed uprising when news that the issue of Irish home rule had become involved began to circulate.[26][27]
Italians
Eureka novellist Raffaello Carboni appeared as one the 13 indicted defendants in the 1855 Victorian high treason trials
Raffaello Carboni was an eyewitness to the battle and supported the armed uprising, serving as Peter Lalor's interpreter. Like many of the Europeans, he had experienced the Revolutions of 1848. Carboni's 1855 novel The Eureka Stockade is the first and only comprehensive eyewitness account of the Eureka Rebellion. The miner Oravalno was probably also from the Papal states, possibly of Savoyard background. From northern Italy were Joseph Barberis of Genoa (Kingdom of Savoy) and Polinellis of Bergamo, Lombardy. Antonio Capuano was born in Aversa, near Naples. Francis Romeo was from Corsica. However, his family came from Siena.
Among the government camp, Captain Henry Wise of the 40th regiment, who was killed in action, was born in Rome. There was also a lieutenant in the gold mounted police, Gerald de C Hamilton, who was born in Florence.[28]
↑ The Ballarat Reform League charter was inspired by the one ratified at the 1839 Chartist National Convention held in London. According to an eminent authority on vexillology, Dr Whitney Smith, it was at this time the Union Jack became a true national flag while being "inscribed with slogans as a protest flag of the Chartist movement in the nineteenth century."[9]
Related Research Articles
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.
John King (1830-1881) was a police constable at the Battle of the Eureka Stockade who was responsible for seizing the rebel war flag.
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.
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 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.
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.
↑ Anne Sunter, 'Eureka; Gathering 'the Oppressed of All Nations', 'Eureka; Releasing the Spirit of Democracy' (2008) 10(1) Journal of Australian Colonial History (special issue based on papers presented at the Eureka Conference at the University of Ballarat, November 2004).
↑ Nicholls, H.R (May 1890). Reminiscences of the Eureka Stockade. The Centennial Magazine: An Australian Monthly. II: August 1889 to July 1890 (available in an annual compilation). p. 749.
Craig, William (1903). My Adventures on the Australian Goldfields. London: Cassell and Company.
Lynch, John (1940). Story of the Eureka Stockade: Epic Days of the Early Fifties at Ballarat (Reprinted.). Melbourne: Australian Catholic Truth Society.
O'Brien, Bob (1992). Massacre at Eureka: The untold story. Kew: Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN978-1-87-560604-7.
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