The surprisingly short but bloody battle at the gravel pits on the Eureka diggings, which began just before dawn on the Sunday morning of 3 December 1854, was a dramatic conclusion to months of heated agitation on the Ballarat diggings.
Following years of fruitless petitions and deputations to the colonial administration in defiance of crippling taxation, refusal of suffrage and denial of property rights - and after centuries of hatred, discrimination and sectarian mistrust that began with the British occupation of the Emerald Isle - the denouement was finally played out under the azure blue flag of the Southern Cross on the Victorian diggings.
The battle at the Eureka Stockade, a crude embattlement of broken drays, fallen logs and stakes driven into the ground, lasted for less than half an hour. And yet it left twenty two diggers and six troopers of the 40th Regiment mortally wounded or already dead.
After the smoke had settled and the sun rose to cast its long golden fingers over the dusty battleground the troopers went about the gruesome business of upholding the Queen's laws - with ruthless vengeance.
'Eureka Stockade: A Pictorial History' documents the events leading up to the attack - by the combined forces of the 12th and 40th Regiments of the British Army, the goldfields police and troopers - on the angry diggers who had joined together to defend themselves beneath the flag of the Southern Cross, in Australia's first and only armed insurrection by free men.
Short-lived though the rebellion was, the results of the Eureka Stockade were far-reaching - giving birth to the desire for true democracy in the nascent Australian nation.
Contents:
Introduction
A Rush from the Crown
Before the Ballarat Field
The Journey Begins
Gold in the Ballarat Hills
The Road to Redition
Red Ribbon Rebellion
A New Governor
Joe! Joe! Joe!
The Trouble Begins
3 December 1854
Prisoners of the Crown
Treason Against Victoria
In Memoriam
Ballarat After the Battle
Bibliography
Notes
Index
