THE JUBILEE OF EUREKA

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 61

THE JUBILEE OF EUREKA

(From Our Ottj Cokkesfoxdext.)

MELBOURNE, December 6.

The jubilee of the fight at the Eureka stockado was celebrated at Ballarat on Saturday and Sunday last. The event, though probably the most widely known of all the stirring scenes of the gold-digging days, is now but a memory even to the pioneers. and is only a name to the generation which has grown up since. Tho outlines of the story may therefore bear retelling. In 1851 the Victorian authorities followed the example of New South Wales in imposing a monthly license fee- on all diggers. The fee was designed to raise revenue, for the colony's opeidtions for the year showed a deficit cf over a million, and it might have been tolerated had any tact been shown <n it=? collection. The authorities, however, exhibit ed a perversity which no free people could have been expected to put up with. '* Digger hunts " were freauently organised, and men not able to produce their licenses \iere taken away to the " 10g5,." or crude lockup. — often handcuffed . Together in gangs. The discontent steadily grow, and culminated in a monster meeting "en Bakery Hill on November 29, 1854, at which from 8000 to 10,000 persons were present. The insurgent flag was run vp — the stars of the Southern Cross on a blue ground, — and Jt was resolved t.o burn the hc&nses and pay the obnoxious tax no more. A fire was lit, and the diggers filed past r <nd threw their licenses into the flames. Peter Lalor addressed the men, and his earnestness so impressed them that he was elected leader. The very next day, when feeling was running at its highest, the authorities, with their usual want of tact, organised another digger hunt. It was the last ever held in Victoria.^ It was bitterly re-sented by the- men, and arms and ammunition were requisitioned on Hie authority of Laku- and his officers. Drilling proceeded vigorously. Blacksmiths (says the Argus account) hammered away at pikes — rude weapons like billhooks fastened on the end of stringybark saplings. The ftockade, a lough barricade enclosing about an acre of ground on the Eureka- lead, was made Lalor's headquarters. The barricade was a flimsy affair constructed of slabs stuck on end, brushwood, and whatever could be obtained handy. It enclose-cl saverai touts, stores, and windless claims, and appeals to have been designed to conceal the operations of the headquarters staff rathe? thaii as a fort. In spite of Lalor's untiring efforts ife was difficult to enforce discipline. The men came- and went freely, and all that happened was known to the commissioner. The diggers knew that another l?rg-o reinforcement of men was expected C-om Melbourne, and they believed that th-e troops would make no move till these arrivi-d.

Captair Thomas, the officer in command of the troops, realised that the men had been lulled into a sense of. false security, and resolved on a surprise night attack. On Sunday morning, December 3, just before daybreak, he led out his forces to the number of 276, and. stealing silently up th& grrlly, ■wheeled round th& stockade. It was bright moonlight, and was breaking dawn. Lalor's pickets sighted the redcoats and fired, and their fire was answered by a volley from the troops. There- were about 200 men in th& stockade at the time, and most of them were asleep. Numbers had only clumsy pikes as arms, and after a few volleys the- troops charged and the barricade fell like a pack of cards. The fight was over in half an hour from the time the first shot was fired. Fourteen of the diggers were killed outright, eight subsequently died of their wounds, and 12 others were wounded. A great batch of prisoners was also taken. Captain Wise, the second in command of the soldiers, with four privates, was killed, and several others were wounded. Lalor had his left arm smashed by a bullet, but he was hidden under a pile of slabs and escaped. Some days later his arm was amputated, and he was conveyed to Geelong and kept in, hiding. A reward of £200 was offered for him, but the loyalty of the diggers was too strong, and Lalor was never discovered until, on the advice of a Royal Commission inquiring into the grievances of the diggers a general amnesty was proclaimed. Lalor, with £1000 which the diggers raised for him, purchased a farm, and he was soon afterwards elected to Parliament. He eventually became Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, a post which he filled with great distinction. Today a fine bronze statue of him, the gift of Mr James Oddie, who arrived on the field in 1851, stands in Sturt street, Ballarat. The diggers who fell were buried in the one grave in the old Ballarat cemetery, and a monument presented by Mr James Leggatt, of Geelong, was erected over it in 1856. The soldiers were buried close by, and the Victorian Government erected a monument to mark their grave in 1879. In August 1886 a monument was also erected by public subscription within the stockade enclosure.

To celebrate the jubilee there was a sports gathering on the Eastern Oval on Saturday and a demonstration at the Stockade Reserve on. Sunday. A distinguished visitor

at that gathering was Mr John Lynch, who is described as " the last of Lalor's officers. H-e is tho father of Captain Lynch, who fought with the Boers in the late war and was sentenced to death for

treason. The father has lived in the Ballarat district since the days of Eureka. Dr Lalor, a son of the leader, was al=o present, and was loudly cheered, and another distinguished visitor was Mr James Oddie, whose connection with Ballarat also ante-dates the riot. Addresses were delivered by a number of Labour members from the Federal and State Houses.