There's Gold in Dem Dar Hills

Sovereign Hill Open-Air Museum

In 1851 the Englishman, Edward Harmmond Hargraves, struck gold near Bathurst in New South Wales Australia. This extraordinary find sent a spark among all Australians, convict and freeman. Within months more gold was being discovered all over New South Wales and Victoria, and the Australian Gold Rush officially began. Swept up by this fervor farmers, carpenters, even police, and people of all walks of life abandoned those lives and set out for the gold fields to claim their share of the riches. It was during this time that towns like Sovereign Hill were established in places like Ballarat (Bal-a-rat), and it was here that I spent my Sunday.

Sovereign Hill no longer has any gold to be found, but now mines for a new type of wealth, tourists. To this end, a historic gold rush-era recreation town was built, complete with historic buildings, mine tours, and actors in period costume. I spent my day walking among the western style town escorted by my favorite Aussie native, Lauren. We watched a musket demonstration, took a tour of one of the mines, went on a carriage ride, panned for gold, visited the candy shop (or lolly shop as they call it over here), and even had bland coffee and bad chicken at the overpriced cafeteria.

The story of the gold fields itself is an interesting one, as Sovereign Hill produced some of the largest gold finds ever in the history of the world. Among those discoveries was that of the Welcome Nugget, weighing 137.2 pounds and (with inflation) would currently have been worth $700,000. It was found by a group of 22 Cornish Miners. I also found it interesting that the gold fields were policed mostly by convicts, because the original properly trained police force quit to try their hand at mining. As to be expected, putting convicts in charge of policing gold fields did not turn out for the best, and they were disbanded after only a year for "massive corruption." The town itself reminded me much of an old western town, and seemed like the kind of place you would take your 5th grade class on a school trip, (which was perfect for me, because I have the maturity of a 5th grader.) I had a lot of fun learning about this historic period in Australian history, and the changes it had on Australia as a whole.

Paning for Gold. I needed to money to pay for
dinner.

Most importantly the discovery of gold was one of the major factors that stopped the transportation of prisoners from England (as going to Australia where one could strike it rich in gold was no longer deemed a worthy punishment), and because of many of the towns established during the gold rush-era, Victoria became more populated and would later be given statehood. Additionally, it sparked Australia's first and only form of organized resistance against the British Government.

We come now to the history I have been quite interested in for some time, the story of the Eureka Rebellion. I do wish I had more for you, but the Eureka Historical Center was closed for some reason, but I did see the "Blood on the Southern Cross" light show reenactment (after a delicious dinner of the Aussie favorite, lamb.) The light show was a bit overpriced but was entertaining. We sat in a theater like room that gazed out over a recreation of the gold mine fields and through the use of lights, fire, voice overs, and sound effects recreated the events of the Eureka Rebellion before our very eyes.

The story was not quite what I expected as it really started as a dispute between the miners and the commissioner of the camp, Robert Rede. It all started with the murder of a Scottish miner, James Scobie. He was killed by the wealthy and influential owner of the Eureka Hotel, James Bently, who was acquitted of the crime even though there were several eyewitnesses. With the miners already agitated by the laws regarding mining licenses, this event pushed them over the edge and ten days later they burned down the Eureka Hotel. In response the authorities arrested three miners in connection with the riot and sentenced them to jail time for "riotous behaviour."

When another seven miners were arrested in connection with the burning of the Eureka Hotel, nearly 10,000 miners met under the direction of Bill Smith, Henry Holyoake, George Black, and Henry Ross. They formed the Ballarat Reform League on November 11, 1854. This meeting was conducted by majority vote and among many of the things it established, "that it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called on to obey, that taxation without representation (sounds familiar) is tyranny," and that if the situation did not improve the league planned to secede from the United Kingdom. (As you can imagine I was quite excited at this point, as I love a good rebellion.)

Over the next weeks, the representatives of the Reform League negotiated with the authorities and Commissioner Rede to try and resolve the grievances of the miners peacefully, but Rede (who believed that the miners were nothing more than rabble being stirred up by a few disruptive Irish and Americans) did not take the negotiations serious and further angered the league through his obstinacy. Instead of negotiation he increased the number of police in the camp and called for military reinforcements from Melbourne. Thus, on November 28, 1854 the Redcoat reinforcements marching up from Melbourne were attacked by armed miners with the intents of capturing the cannon they mistakenly believed that the military caravan was carrying. The next day, approximately 12,000 diggers met to burn their mining licenses in defiance of the government.

Flag of the Southern Cross

Commissioner Rede responded by ordering police to arrest anyone who no longer had a proper license. Eight miners were arrested, but by the end of the day military reinforcements had to be called in to save the arresting officers from the angry mob that had formed. The Ballarat Reform League changed its stance from peaceful negations and resolved that open conflict was inevitable. Peter Lalor was elected to the head of the league and given command over the fledgling military brigades that were formed. Training began and on December 1, 1854. The British Flag was taken down and in its place was raised a blue and white-cross flag, known as the Flag of the Southern Cross. It was designed by one of the newly appointed officers, a Canadian, Henry Ross. As it was raised all the diggers knelt and led by Peter Lalor they swore the oath, "We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties." It was the first oath sworn on Australian soil to any flag that wasn't the Union Jack and it meant that there was no turning back.

A rough stockade was erected around the camp and it was christened the Eureka Stockade. Training for the Army of the Southern Cross continued on December 2, 1854. However, as it was Saturday, the army decided to knock off early and go drinking (mistake number one). Many even left the stockade for the night leaving it severely undermanned. They assumed that since the next day was Sunday, the British were not going to attack on the holy day (mistake number 2). As you can imagine that is exactly what the British did. The diggers were half-drunk and taken completely by surprise.

On the morning of December 3rd, around 5 am, police, detachments of the British Regulars, Mounted Calvary, British Reserves, and two detachments of mounted police stormed the poorly built stockade and overwhelmed the sleeping diggers. The battle quickly turned into a slaughter as the unorganized rebels were quickly captured and killed. Most of the carnage was attributed to the police forces and not the regular British soldiers. In fact, in some cases the British Regulars were forced to stop the local police force from slaughtering large numbers of the miners. In the end 22 miners and 8 soldiers died. Martial law was established and 120 diggers were arrested.

So the rebellion ended before it even began. The moral of the story: When planning armed revolution you should probably lay off the alcohol. The story did have a happy ending though, as all arrested miners were eventually acquitted and the unjust license laws were repealed. All the demands of the miners were met, so in that regard the rebellion could be called a success.

All in all I enjoyed my time at Sovereign Hill. I learned a lot and I got to explore the Aussie version of the Wild West. I particularly enjoyed learning about the Eureka Rebellion as it is both interesting and important to the understanding of the Aussie mindset. Though the rebellion failed, many Australians still wave the Flag of the Southern Cross proudly (much like the south still flys the Confederate Flag). Many Aussies even get the flag tattooed on them (again much like the American South), but I can understand why. Though it was a failed experiment it was certainly a step in the right direction. However, I cannot help but imagine what would have happened had the rebellion continued and succeeded... The United States of Australia... I guess we'll never know.