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THE YEAR OF THE REBELLION:
In 1854 25,000 diggers of many nationalities were living on the Ballarat goldfields -
Licence checks
Governor Hotham came to power in June 1854 and set up licence checks twice a week to enforce the licensing laws. Tensions began to boil over as opposition to the licences increased. -
James Bentley
A group of men beat to death a drunken Scottish digger. The group included local publican James Bentley. Bentley was a friend of the local magistrate and he escaped prosecution, as did three other men from the group.This led to the diggers meeting on 17 October 1854 to try to bring the men to justice. After the meeting a crowd of diggers burnt Bentley's hotel to the ground. Soon after three diggers were arrested and charged with arson for their part in setting fire to the hotel. -
Release of the diggers
10,000 diggers met to demand the release of the three diggers, the abolition of the licence and the vote for all males. -
Burning the licences
On 29 November 1854 where the diggers decided to publicly burn their mining licences. At this meeting the famous Southern Cross flag, which was to become known as the Eureka Flag, was displayed. In response to the meeting, the Gold Commissioner ordered a licence hunt for the following day. -
Construction of the stockade
On 30 November 1854 another mass burning of licences took place at a meeting on Bakery Hill. Under the leadership of Peter Lalor, the diggers then marched to the Eureka diggings where they constructed the famous stockade.
Inside the stockade some 500 diggers took an oath on the Eureka flag, and over the following two days gathered firearms and forged pikes to defend the stockade. -
Attack on the stockade
Early in the morning of Sunday 3 December 1854 the authorities launched an attack on the stockade. The diggers were outnumbered and the battle was over in twenty minutes. Twenty-two diggers and five troops were killed.Peter Lalor survived, avoided capture although he had to have his arm amputated -
Commission
On 6 December 1854 martial law was declared, and the following day a Commission into the goldfields was appointed. -
Vote to the diggers
A bill was passed in 1854 to extend the franchise (the vote) to diggers possessing a miner's right costing one pound, whereas previously a six months residency and an eight pound yearly mining licence were required before a digger could register to vote. The hated Gold Commission was replaced by a system of mining wardens. -
MLC
In 1855 Peter Lalor later became the first MLC (Member of the Legislative Council) for the seat of Ballarat. The Ballarat miners were given eight representatives on the Legislative Council. -
Demands of the diggers are met
In March 1855 the Gold Fields Commission handed down its report, and the government adopted all of its recommendations. The Commission resulted in all the demands of the diggers being met. -
NSW miners vote
1856 NSW miners were given the rights to vote. -
WA Government
In 1890 the Western Australian government was unpopular among diggers because it would not spend money on services for miners working on the Kalgoorie field. John Kirwan editor of the Kalgoorie miner newspaper backed the miners, Kirwan wanted Western Australia to join with the Eastern States so that western Australians would get the voting rights enjoyed by the rest of Australia -
Vote for women
1895 Australian women in SA were given the right to vote. Other states didn’t allow women to vote until the early 1900’s -
Kalgoorie miners win
The Kalgoorie miners won and Western Australia became part of the Commonwealth of Australia at Federation in 1901. Federation- joining together of the British colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia. -
Australian Parliment
1901 the Australian parliament was opened.