Nationalities at the Eureka Stockade

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]

Americans, Caribbeans and Africans

There was a strong American contingent among the Eureka Stockade garrison. 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."^{[6][note 1]}

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.^[8]

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.^[9]

John 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.^[10]

Canadians

 

Portrait of Henry Ross, one of the seven rebel captains of the Eureka Rebellion.

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.^[11]

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".^[12]

Weston Bate has stated that:

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.^[13]

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."^[14]

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.^[15] 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."^[16] 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.^[17][18][19] 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.^[20]

Irish

See also: Loyalism and the Eureka Rebellion, Republicanism and the Eureka Rebellion, and Eureka Jack Mystery

 

Peter Lalor, rebel commander in chief and 4th Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly

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.^[21][22]

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.^[23]

See also

• Eureka Rebellion
• Republicanism and the Eureka Rebellion
• Revolutions of 1848

Notes

1. 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."^[7]

References

1. Barnard 1962, p. 255. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBarnard1962 (help)
2. "Eureka Nationalities" (PDF). Eureka Centre Ballarat. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
3. Carboni 1855, p. 69.
4. "DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE". The Argus (Melbourne). Melbourne. 12 December 1854. p. 5. Retrieved 17 April 2024 – via Trove.
5. 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).
6. Ballarat Times, 18 November 1854 as cited in Wickham, Gervasoni and D'Angri, pp. 13, 20.
7. Smith 1975, p. 188. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSmith1975 (help)
8. Carboni 1955, p. 96. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCarboni1955 (help)
9. Blake 2012, pp. 136–138.
10. The Queen v Joseph and others, 18, 20 (Supreme Court of Victoria 1855).
11. Corfield 2004, p. 96. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCorfield2004 (help)
12. Ward 1979, p. 73.
13. Bate 1978, p. 150.
14. Withers 1999, p. 214-215.
15. Corfield 2004, p. 520. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCorfield2004 (help)
16. Lynch 1940, pp. 11–12.
17. Carboni 1855, pp. 54–56, 71.
18. Clark 1987, pp. 74–75. sfn error: no target: CITEREFClark1987 (help)
19. O'Brien 1992, pp. 63–66.
20. Corfield 2004, p. 506. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCorfield2004 (help)
21. 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.
22. Craig 1903, p. 270.
23. Corfield 2004, p. 289. sfn error: no target: CITEREFCorfield2004 (help)

Bibliography

• Bate, Weston (1978). Lucky City, The First Generation at Ballarat, 1851–1901. Carlton: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-52-284157-2.
• Blake, Gregory (2012). Eureka Stockade: A ferocious and bloody battle. Newport: Big Sky Publishing. ISBN 978-1-92-213204-8.
• Carboni, Raffaello (1855). The Eureka Stockade: The Consequence of Some Pirates Wanting a Quarterdeck Rebellion. Melbourne: J. P. Atkinson and Co. – via Project Gutenberg.
• Clark, Manning, ed. (1966). Sources of Australian History. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Corfield, Justin; Wickham, Dorothy; Gervasoni, Clare (2004). The Eureka Encyclopedia. Ballarat: Ballarat Heritage Services. ISBN 978-1-87-647861-2.
• 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 (Reprint ed.). Melbourne: Australian Catholic Truth Society.
• O'Brien, Bob (1992). Massacre at Eureka: The untold story. Kew: Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN 978-1-87-560604-7.
• Ward, Russel (1979). Australia: A short history. Sydney: Ure Smith. ISBN 978-0-72-540473-4.
• Withers, William (1999). History of Ballarat and Some Ballarat Reminiscences. Ballarat: Ballarat Heritage Service. ISBN 978-1-87-647878-0.