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Eureka Stories

What is Eureka and what happened there?

In the early hours of 3 December 1854 a force of police and other troops charged a reinforced camp constructed by miners on the Eureka gold diggings. About 150 diggers were inside the stockade at the time of the attack. In the fighting, 4 soldiers and about 30 other people were killed, and another 120 people taken prisoner. Thirteen people from the stockade were charged with treason – these men were either tried and found not guilty, or charges against them were dropped.

Many people think of the Eureka Stockade as a battle between the diggers (rebellious Irish fighting for democracy) and the police and colonial militia (the forces of the British Crown in the Colony). It’s nice to have a single story to make sense of everything. Eureka, however, is not a single simple narrative. Several stories intertwine and involve many of the same people and places. Let’s look at some of them.

The Hated Gold Licences

In 1854, people mining for gold around Victoria had to pay a monthly fee of 30 shillings for the right to mine, regardless of how much gold they found. Someone who had been looking for gold unsuccessfully for months still had to pay the same fee as someone who was pulling out gold by the pound. Diggers argued that it was an unfair tax, imposed on them without their consent, as they did not have the right to vote. (After the Goldfields Royal Commission the licensing fee was changed to a tax on gold when it was being exported.)

Not only did the diggers resent the licence fee, they were angry at the way the goldfields police went about checking that miners had licences. Diggers claimed that police were beating people up or chaining them to trees if they could not produce a licence, and undertaking unnecessary inspections on people they didn’t like. Resentment of the licence fee and the conduct of police in their “licence hunts” was expressed across the Victorian goldfields.

The Unfair Treatment of Diggers by the Police and Justice System

People around the Victorian goldfields were also unhappy with the lack of thoroughness with which police had investigated a number of goldfields crimes. They were concerned about what they thought was the unfair and secretive way people were charged and convicted of crimes. There were claims by people living on the goldfields that it was necessary to bribe police and government officials in order to do business and stay safe. As the goldfields populations increased, tensions between the goldfields communities and police and other government officials rose.

In Ballarat a series of events (a murder, an arrest and a hotel burning) in late 1854 involving police and Ballarat locals led to the arrests of three men for burning down the Eureka Hotel. These arrests caused enormous disquiet in the area, adding weight to calls by the Ballarat Reform League and other organisations around the goldfields for a fundamental change to the system of government in the Colony – the next element in our Eureka story.

Demands for a Democratic Political System

Since the early 1850s people had been calling for the government to abandon the gold licensing system, remove the gold commissioners, and provide the Colony with a better policing and justice system. Despite an investigation by the Victorian parliament into the goldfields in 1853 (a Legislative Council Select Committee) the government did not make significant changes. By November 1854 an organisation called the Ballarat Reform League had formed in response to official inaction and had written a Charter of democratic rights. They organised a "monster meeting" in Ballarat on 11 November 1854, to have it accepted, and met with Governor Hotham on 27 November 1854, to demand his acceptance of the Charter, and the release of the three prisoners charged with burning down the Eureka Hotel.

Population Explosion

The people calling for these changes to taxes, justice and political participation came from many different parts of the world, such as the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Germany. This corner of South-Eastern Australia was rapidly changing as thousands and thousands of people arrived to search for gold. Many of these people were educated and from middle-class or merchant backgrounds. The domination of squatters running sheep on large land holdings was being challenged by dense populations of people in goldrush regions generating enormous wealth in the colony, and a desire from these recent arrivals to take up land, and have a say in the making of laws.

We have looked at some parts of the Eureka story; at what unfolded around the colony as a result of this mix of people, events and system of government. There are many other stories about Eureka. To find out more, you can explore the stories through original documents at Eureka on Trial.

Film - 'Introducing the Records of the Eureka Stockade', Public Record Office Victoria

Courtesy of Public Record Office Victoria

Film - 'Introducing the Records of the Eureka Stockade', Public Record Office Victoria

- Public Record Office Victoria contains the official story of events that led up to the Eureka Stockade. That official story is contained in letters, depositions, witness statements, and maps produced for court cases that dotted the time at Ballarat, court cases included for the murder of James Scobbie, for the burning of Bentley's Hotel, and for treason trials that took place after the stockade battle itself.

- Public Record Office Victoria has all of the key documents from the trial of the prisoners after the Eureka Stockade uprising. This map here is the key piece of evidence that was drawn soon after the uprising. It's a beautiful piece of cartography, but more importantly, it actually states where the stockade was, and there's an enlargement of the stockade here, where the minors had put up tents. And as you can see, it's very flimsy, just a few bits of wood crossed. You can see why a number of the minors were easily shot and killed.

The actual location though has been lost over time, which seems amazing when you have a map. But it's a map drawn from memory. It's a map drawn in the heat of the motions, all sorts of things. So it was very significant in the court case and has been very significant since as people tried to find the exact location of the Eureka Stockade.

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Courtesy of Public Record Office Victoria

The events around the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat during the latter half of 1854 are recorded in many kinds of document. Listen to an introduction to some of the kinds of records that Public Record Office Victoria holds.

Poster printed black on white announcing a meeting of diggers.

Poster - 'A Meeting on Bakery Hill', 1854, Public Record Office Victoria

Courtesy of Public Record Office Victoria

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A "monster meeting" was not a convention of hairy scary types, rather it was a term used in the nineteenth century to describe a public meeting or rally that attracted thousands of people.

What is quite extraordinary for us today in the twenty-first century is imagining these meetings. For example, how did people hear what was being said? Was everyone listening and silent, or did people relay the messages back through the crowd? Also, in the era before mobile phones, the internet, radio and television, how did people find out about these kinds of events? How common were posters like these? Were notices put in newspapers or did people print pamphlets, or was word-of-mouth more important in spreading news?

Further Information

DOWN WITH THE LICENSE FEE!

DOWN WITH DESPOTISM!

“WHO SO BASE AS BE A SLAVE?”

WEDNESDAY NEXT

The 29th Instant, at Two o’clock,

A MEETING

Of all the DIGGERS, STOREKEEPERS, and Inhabitants of Ballarat generally, will be held

ON BAKERY HILL

For the immediate Abolition of the License Fee and the speedy attainment of the other objects of the Ballarat Reform League. The report of the Deputations which have gone to the Lieutenant-Governor to demand the release of the prisoners lately convicted, and to Creswick and Forest Creek, Bendigo, &c., will also be submitted at the same time.

All who claim the right to a voice in the framing of the Laws under which they should live, are solemnly bound to attend the Meeting and further its objects to the utmost extent of their power.

N.B. Bring your Licenses, they may be wanted.

Printed at the “Times” Office, Bakery Hill, Ballarat

Hand drawn map showing streets of East Ballarat, waterways, rises and the location of the Eureka Stockade.

Map - 'Eureka Treason Trials Map 1855', 1855, Public Record Office Victoria

Courtesy of Public Record Office Victoria

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This map was produced as an exhibit in the only treason trial in Australia's history. It shows the location of the Eureka Stockade, and the direction taken by police at the time of the battle, although its accuracy is questioned. Thirteen men were charged with treason; twelve of them were found not guilty, and one had the charges dropped.

Details from the treason trial were reported widely in the newspapers, and gradually more and more people around the colony followed the story. There was so much interest in the fate of the people on trial that people gathered in the streets of the major towns and cities in support of the Eureka people and their original cause - for political participation, and a fairer system of government in the Colony.

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Ballarat Reform League Charter

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Eureka Stories

Film - 'Introducing the Records of the Eureka Stockade', Public Record Office Victoria

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