Description:
Analyses the memory practices associated with the commemoration of an important national event, the Eureka Stockade and examines how public commemoration exercises become an opportunity for contest and controversy, for the expression of nationalism, and an opportunity for cultural tourism and tourist promotion.
Description:
Analyses the memory practices associated with the commemoration of an important national event, the Eureka Stockade and examines how public commemoration exercises become an opportunity for contest and controversy, for the expression of nationalism, and an opportunity for cultural tourism and tourist promotion.
Description:
Peter Lalor achieved fame as the leader of the gold diggers in their revolt against the British government at the Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Victoria in 1854. Lalor was born in Ireland in 1827, the youngest of 11 sons of Patrick and Ann Lalor of County Laois, Ireland. His father sat in the House of Commons with Daniel O'Connell in the Reform Parliament, and the family became involved with the movement for repeal of the Act of Union and for land reform in Ireland. The eldest son, James Fintan, became a Young Irelander in 1848 and gave his life for the cause.Such were the family influences on the engineer Peter Lalor when he immigrated to Australia in 1852. By October 1854, Lalor was a gold miner in Ballarat and was drawn into the protest movement against the unjust and corrupt administration of the Ballarat goldfields. On November 30, 1854, Lalor drew on his Irish nationalist heritage and stepped forward to lead the radical arm of the movement on Bakery Hill. Lalor mounted a stump under the Southern Cross flag and called on those present to swear an oath that would ring passionately down the generations:We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other, And fight to defend our rights and liberties.Lalor's oath inspired men with revolutionary fervor. They marched away to form a defensive stockade on the Eureka Lead and commence collecting arms. [EXTRACT]
Description:
Ballarat, in the British colony of Victoria, Australia, burst into life as an instant city in 1851, following the discovery of gold. Adventurous men and women from all over the world descended on Ballarat in the 1850s, feverishly attacking the sticky clay at Golden Point. The diggers followed the gold underground, along the course of the ancient rivers, buried by the volcanic eruptions of Mounts Warrenheip and Buninyong. On the flat, 30,000 diggers collected into small cooperatives of “mates” and desperately searched for their personal Eldorado.From the first discoveries in 1851, relations between the miners and the police sent to administer the goldfields were uneasy. The government attempted to collect a monthly license fee for the right to search for gold, but the tax conferred no rights, and licenses were inspected at the point of a bayonet. The more outspoken miners, schooled in the ways of the 1848 revolutions in Europe, led a movement to protest against the gold license. The cry of “No taxation without representation” was raised, echoing the rhetoric of the American Revolution and the Chartist movement for democratic rights in Britain. [EXTRACT]
Description:
The significance of the Eureka Stockade has been a lively topic of discussion since the event occurred in 1854. This paper focuses on its public interpretation in Ballarat, as a case study of the politics of memory. Its central question is how to interpret a contested political event so that people with ownership of conflicting versions of the story can all be accommodated? The paper analyses the development of the Eureka Stockade Centre in Ballarat, and compares this public interpretation to other attempts to present the story, notably at Sovereign Hill. It concludes that only by embracing the contests can the interpretation be successful.
Description:
Over the last one hundred and fifty years, the meaning of the Eureka Stockade has been characterised in different ways. To some it has been the birthplace of Australian democracy, to others the germ of republicanism, or the cradle of the labour movement. Eureka can also be celebrated as an early expression or example of internationalism in Australian. The principles and values of the Ballarat Reform league attracted workers Irom many nations in a universal fight for better conditions and political participation. The language and membership of the league were inclusive, embracing a very international definition of the term· 'citizen', though for many years afterward that definition was circumscribed to exclude those of non-white ancestry.
Description:
This paper will explore the remarkable contribution of the Scots to education in the Ballarat area, particularly through the work of the Buninyong Presbyterian minister Rev. Thomas Hastie and his neighbours the Scott family, who were among our earliest white settlers in the pre-gold era, and whose legacy is still strong today.
Description:
The Evening Echo commenced publication in Ballarat in 1895, becoming the organ of the Ballarat branch of the Australian Workers Union in 1910. In the early twentieth century it had the largest circulation of any newspaper outside Melbourne, with future Prime Minister James Scullin editing the newspaper between 1913 and 1922. During World War I, the paper under the socialist Scullin took a forceful anti-imperialist view, particularly when it came to the two conscription campaigns, when it was the strongest voice against conscription in Victoria. This chapter will examine the role of the newspaper, its editorial stance, reaction to it both locally and in Melbourne, where its twice daily editions were widely read. Its influence in representing labour causes in a strongly conservative media environment will be assessed.
Description:
The discovery of gold at Ballarat in 1851 conferred incredible wealth on the community, the colony and the British Empire. Ballarat was literally a city 'built on gold'. However, the immigrants who made their fortunes from gold rarely indulged in conspicuous private displays of consumption. The exception was William Bailey. His Italianate mansion, completed in 1883, reflected his great success in speculative mining ventures in the Ballarat area.