Eureka Stockade Miners' Rebellion
1854 CE
The Eureka Stockade is the setting of a gold miners' revolt in 1854 near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, against the officials supervising the mining of gold in the region.
The revolt had been prompted by grievances over heavily priced mining items, the expense of a Miner's Licence, taxation (via the licence) without representation and the actions of the government and its agents (the police and military).
The miners' demands include the right to vote and purchase land, and the reduction of license fees.
Agitation for these demands had commenced with the Forest Creek Monster Meeting of December 1851 and included the formation of the Anti-Gold Licence Association at nearby Bendigo in 1853.
22 people die in the revolt and 35 are injured.Although swiftly and violently put down, the Eureka rebellion is a watershed event in Australian politics.
The preceding three years of agitation for the miners' demands, combined with mass public support in Melbourne for the captured 'rebels' when they are placed on trial, results in the introduction of full white-male suffrage for elections for the lower house in the Victorian parliament.
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The Eureka Rebellion against mining license fees in 1854 is an early expression of civil disobedience.
The easy surface gold of the fields at Ballarat, Victoria, had been exhausted within a short time, and gold can now be found only by digging for the deep lead—the veins buried beneath meters of clay and rock.
By 1854, the fields of Ballarat are occupied by roughly twenty-five thousand miners, mostly from Ireland, but also from the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, China, and North America (many have come to Australia from the California Gold Rush).
The hills for miles around are soon entirely denuded of trees in order to provide timber for the deep shafts being dug.
The miners, irritated with high license fees, heavily priced mining items, and restrictions on exploration, rebel in 1854 at the Eureka stockade against the authoritarianism of the colonial government.
While the events which sparked the rebellion are specific to the Ballarat goldfields, the underlying grievances have been the subject of public meetings, civil disobedience, and deputations across the various Victorian goldfields for almost three years.
The miners' demands include the right to vote and purchase land, and the reduction of Miner’s License fees.
At 3 am on Sunday, December 3, 1854, a party of two hundred and seventy-six police and military personnel under the command of Captain J.W. Thomas approaches the Eureka Stockade and a battle ensues.
There is no agreement as to which side fired first, but the battle is fierce, brief, and terribly one-sided.
The military regiment far outclasses the defense efforts of the ramshackle army of miners, who are quickly routed in about fifteen minutes.