The political significance of the Eureka Rebellion is contested ground. It may be seen simply as a rebellion by miners against burdensome taxation or,[citation needed] as some authors suggest, the first expression of republican sentiment in Australia.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] Others maintain that Eureka was a seminal event that marked a major change in the course of Australian history.[citation needed]
Irish and American Republicans in mid-19th century Victoria
During the 19th century Australian gold rushes, the 1861 Victorian census showed nearly 16 per cent of the colony's population comprised 87,160 Irish-born persons. During the years of convict transportation and assisted emigrants, up to 17.4 per cent of the convicts were Irish, and incentives to live in Australia offered between 1839 and 1851 were taken up by 28,900 Irish natives.[1]Raffaello Carboni recalls that the Eureka lead was an Irish stronghold and the miners were a "rowdy mob."[2] There were tensions between groups of English and Irish miners.
Among the other national flags on display at the public meetings held around the time of the rebellion were those of North American design, with Canada and, most importantly, the United States being countries that included a large number of the Irish diaspora. Fredrick Vern recalls that during his time in the colony: "Ballaarat was always the rallying point of the Americans."[3]
Ian MacFarlane notes that along with some other nationalities, the Americans were treated with suspicion and regarded as Republicans at a time when Britain and the US were in an adversarial relationship.[4] In the period 1851–1856, approximately 16,000 US nationals left for Australia. By 1854, most Americans in Victoria were occupying the goldfields. Beginning in 1853, the number of US flag carriers entering Port Phillip increased from 13 to 134 in 1854, when US imports equalled 1,668,606 pounds.[1]
In August 1852, the British consul in Philadelphia advised the British foreign secretary that the American emigrates were likely to be hostile to the British crown, saying:
"From the knowledge which a residence among them of 12 years has given me of the Americans, and especially of the class of them now on their way to Australia, I do not think that their presence there will be attended with much good, and I would have our authorities in that part of the world to be on their guard."[5]
The American consul sought permission from the Victorian authorities to mark Independence Day in 1853 by firing a gun salute. LaTrobe forwarded the request to the mayor of Melbourne, who replied that:
"Batman's Hill appears to me the most unobjectionable for that purpose. I am, however, decidedly of opinion that such demonstrations, in a British colony, are decidedly objectionable, and will tend to foster a feeling which should not be encouraged or even countenanced."[4]
In October 1853, a British official in Washington DC was told that "a revolution in Australia, by which its connection with Great Britain should be severed, would be an event highly acceptable to the great mass of the American people."[5]
The Irish in America, in particular, were "hereditary enemies of Great Britain." Many of the Irish who joined the Victorian gold rush came via California, where gold deposits were found in 1849, and had memories of the 1846-1847 Great Famine - during which time Ireland was a net exporter of food.[6]
Of the Americans on the gold fields, Clive Turnbull states:
"The temper of the large American colony in Victoria was interesting. It was strongly republican - a republicanism the more ardent for its comparative nearness to the War of Independence. Republicanism was an article of export ... England had held down the United States ... and was still holding down Ireland - and Australia. ... Side by side with the growth of that domestic anger at the abuses of the goldfields which was to culminate in the Eureka Stockade, there was proceeding, also, a secret, foreign, largely American, movement for an Australian republic."[5]
Alleged declaration of independence
Upon the Ballarat Reform League charter becoming the first item added to the Victorian Heritage Register, Premier Steve Bracks claimed the document was a landmark in the history of Australia, making the comparison: "It is our Declaration of Independence. Our Magna Carta."[7] The editor of the Ballarat Times, Henry Seekamp, writing in 1854, would greet the formation of the League with the bold assertion:
"This league is nothing more or less than the germ of independence. The die is cast, and fate has stamped upon the movement its indelible signature. No power on earth can now restrain the united might and headlong strides for freedom of the people of this country, and we are lost in amazement while contemplating the dazzling panorama of the Australian future. We salute the league, and tender our hopes and prayers for its prosperity. The League have undertaken a mighty task, fit only for a great people - that of changing the dynasty of the country. The League does not exactly propose, not adopt such a scheme, but know what it means, the principles it would inculcate, and that eventually it will resolve itself into an Australian Congress."[8]
However, during the Eureka trials, it was put to Seekamp that he was a "radical" who was "rousing up the people," and he may have been prone to radical nationalist hyperbole. Raffaello Carboni would later say, "Indeed, it would ill become the Times to mince in a matter of such weighty importance. This League is not more or less than the germ of Australian independence."[9]
H. R. Nicholls stated, "some of the Irish took to rebellion as ducks to water, as did sundry foreigners who were fresh from European revolutions [of 1848]."[10]
The reform league charter contains a hint that the movement contained those who favoured independence, stating that:
"That it is not the wish of the "League" to effect an immediate separation of this Colony from the parent country, if equal laws and equal rights are dealt out to the whole free community. But that if Queen Victoria continues to act upon the ill advice of the dishonest ministers and insists upon indirectly dictating obnoxious laws for the Colony under the assumed authority of the Royal Prerogative the Reform League will endeavour to supersede such Royal Prerogative by asserting that of the People which is the most Royal of all Prerogatives, as the people are the only legitimate source of all political power."[11]
Although the charter was framed in these terms, no discoveries have been made, nor is there any clear and convincing evidence as to the existence of such a formal declaration of independence made at a later stage of the Eureka Rebellion.
Nicholls claimed, at the time of the death of Peter Lalor in 1890, that the already long deceased Alfred Black drew up a "long, very long, very flowery and decidedly verbose...Declaration of Independence...This declaration was read at night-fall on the Friday, I think, to a number of persons under arms, various kinds of arms, and was cheered very loudly."[12]
William Bramwell Withers says such a declaration was made at the premises of shopkeeper Teddy Shannahan and in the presence of Black, Vern, McGill, Raffaello, Curtin, Lessman, Kenworthy, and others.[13] Throughout his 1855 novel, Carboni is concerned with correcting the historical record. He states that McGill described claims of such a declaration on the model of the American one being made as "a gratuitous falsehood," issuing an invitation to anyone to produce "the document in question, either the original or copy of it, of course with satisfactory evidence of its being a genuine article."[14] Nicholls had probably made pre-existing claims about a declaration of independence and was possibly the unnamed source in Wither's account, with Carboni saying: "I express the hope that H.R. Nicholls...will take notice of the above."[14]
There may have been a declaration of independence drawn up by someone associated with the Eureka movement but without official sanction and known only to a few people in one of the factions, which had been known to act of their own initiative without any other or even the central committee, being aware. However, the only other corroboration is also of questionable probative value. George Train, an American merchant, recalls in 1901 that McGill came to him seeking supplies of Colt revolvers, saying: "We have elected you President of our Republic." Train says he declined the opportunity to become involved but that he did help the fugitive McGill make his escape from Victoria. [15] It was said that starting in about 1873, Train became noted for his eccentricities, becoming known as the "champion crank of America."[16] Whilst Train may have assisted McGill to escape, claims that McGill approached him for weapons and offered him the "presidency" of the "Five-Star Republic" are to be treated with suspicion.[17] L.G. Churchward has judged that Train's story "is most improbable" and that:
"Apart from the singular unreliability of Train as a chronicler, a trait which was accentuated with age, it is hardly credible that McGill or any others believed anything could be done to carry on the revolt following the destruction of the Stockade. The one thing certain about McGill's actions after the battle is that he was sheltered by Train, and that Train and others of the merchant community interceded for him."[18]
Clive Turnbull concludes that Train's version of events "is probable enough." However, Turnbull then mentions Train's "strange statement that 'the miners about Maryborough' elected him as their representative in the colonial legislature."[19] Other historians have dismissed both Train's "presidency" and "colonial legislature" claims as "unsubstantiated."[20]
When asked what he stood for, Nicholls recalls Lalor would say,"'Independence!' Plump and plain."[21] However, according to an analysis of Lalor's record, "if this were so, it would seem that the independence he wanted was from arbitrary rule, from encroachments by the Crown on 'British Liberty,' and that granted by access to the land, rather than the 'independence' of a republican democracy."[22] Daniel and Annette Potts state that: "Lalor consistently denied that he had meant independence outside the framework of the existing government."[23] Nicholls reiterates by saying, "I repeat, that the late leader of the rebel forces went in for independence, with a very large I; although afterwards, when other prospects opened up, the fact was denied in a faint hearted sort of a way."[24]
Peter Lalor's father, Patrick, who once represented Queen's County in the British parliament, supported Irish home rule. Older brother James Fintian considered Queen Victoria to be a "foreign tyrant" and was an influential leader in the Young Ireland Movement, which advocated a holistic approach to national revival, with certain other members making headlines after being involved in a car chase and shootout with the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1848.[25]
According to William Craig, the future Eureka man was already well-versed in politics at the time of his arrival in the colony. Lalor took a hard line on the Irish question, believing the people of his homeland were being denied nationhood and supporting their right to continue the armed struggle against British colonial rule.[26] Charles Currey's assessment of Lalor is that he generally "preferred to take the world as he found it, content if he was given a fair deal and not provoked by tyranny."[25]
The Australian Flag Society has advanced the theory that the Union Jack mentioned as flying over the Eureka Stockade during the battle by the first newspaper reports was the product of divided loyalties among the rebel garrison.[27][28]
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.
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.
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.
Sir Charles Hotham, KCB, RN was Lieutenant-Governor and, later, Governor of Victoria, Australia from 22 June 1854 to 10 November 1855.
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 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.
Raffaello Carboni was an Italian writer, composer and interpreter who wrote a book on the Eureka Stockade which he witnessed while living in Australia. After periods of travelling, he returned to Italy where he died in Rome.
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 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 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.
Since 2012 various theories have emerged, based on the Argus account of the Battle of the Eureka Stockade dated 4 December 1854 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
It is known that the Eureka rebels came from at least 19 different nations. Raffaello 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.
↑ 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. 748.
↑ Ballarat Reform League Charter, 11 November 1854, VPRS 4066/P Unit 1, November no. 69, VA 466 Governor (including Lieutenant Governor 1851–1855 and Governor's Office), Public Record Office Victoria.
↑ 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). pp. 746-747.
↑ 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. 746.
↑ 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. 747.
Currey, C.H. (1954). The Irish at Eureka. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
Potts, Daniel; Potts, Annette (1974). Young America and Australian Gold. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. ISBN0-7022-0894-9.
Biography
Potts, Daniel; Potts, Annette (1970). A Yankee Merchant in Goldrush Australia: The Letters of George Francis Train 1853-55. Melbourne: William Heinemann. ISBN978-0-85-561010-4.
Turnbull, Clive (1965). Australian Lives, Bonanza: The Story of George Francis Train. Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire.
Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 5: 1851-1890, K-Q. Carlton: Melbourne University Press. 1974. ISBN978-0-52-284061-2.
Craig, William (1903). My Adventures on the Australian Goldfields. London: Cassell and Company.
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).
Train, George (1902). My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands. London: William Heinemann.
Vern, Fredrick, 'Narrative of the Ballarat Insurrection', Melbourne Monthly Magazine, November 1855.
Other documents
Ballarat Reform League Charter, 11 November 1854, VPRS 4066/P Unit 1, November no. 69, VA 466 Governor (including Lieutenant Governor 1851–1855 and Governor's Office), Public Record Office Victoria.
Journals
Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement (2nded.). Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. 1965.
Historical magazines
Ross, C. Stuart (July 1919). "Two American Types that left their Stamp on Victorian History". The Victorian Historical Magazine. Melbourne.
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