The Eureka Stockade

The Eureka Stockade was a rebellion of the goldfield workers in Ballarat. This rebellion was caused primarily by the diggers not liking the government miners’ licences fees because a lot of them were having trouble paying that fee. They also did not like the corruption in the officials who were not giving them fair justice.

Both sides stroke blows at each other including beating a man to death and not giving proper justice to the man who did it and then the diggers burning that man’s hotel down. There was then a protest of 10000 diggers to push some of their ideas forward. They protested to release the men the men who were put in jail for burning down the hotel, to get rid of the licence fee and that all males get to have a vote.

Later on the diggers met again and burnt all of their mining licences and showed off the Eureka flag. They then built the famous stockade which was a crudely built wooden barricade that closed in an area of the Goldfields. In the early morning, the authorities attacked the stockade of about 500 diggers. This was a surprise attack on the diggers that worked quite well. As well as the fact that it was a surprise attack, the diggers were easily outnumbered.

The battle was over in about 20 minutes and thankfully, only 22 diggers and 5 troops were killed. The leader of the diggers, Peter Lalor, escaped the battle with only a badly injured are which later required amputation. Only one man was jailed as a result of the Stockade and Peter Lalor escaped capture.

In 1855, the year after the event of the Eureka Stockade, the government agreed to the demands of the diggers. This included miner’s rights only becoming a lot cheaper and the diggers getting the right to vote.

Later on, the former leader of the Stockade, Peter Lalor, was appointed the first Member of Legislative Council for Ballarat and the Ballarat miners got eight representatives on the Legislative Council.