Cold Open

It’s just after 4 AM, on December 3rd, 1854, in the British colony of Victoria, Australia.

Sleeping in his tent, Peter Lalor tosses and turns under a threadbare blanket.

Peter is a 27-year-old prospector. Most nights, he sleeps soundly after a hard day’s work in the goldfields. But Peter’s got more on his mind now. He’s not just a miner anymore.

Peter recently took command of a group of disgruntled prospectors who are in a stand-off with government officials. Tensions between the two sides have now reached the point that Peter and his men have fortified their camp in the small mining town of Eureka to defend against any government attack.

Peter’s eyes snap open as an alarm rings out.

Throwing his blanket off, Peter grabs his pistol and races out of the tent. He climbs up the ramshackle stockade that surrounds the camp and peers over the top.

The sun is barely out, but Peter can see hundreds of uniformed soldiers marching toward them.

Peter checks his weapon as other miners emerge from their tents and take up defensive positions beside him.

Peter tells his men to hold fire, to resist the urge to pull the trigger until the enemy is so close that every shot will count.

But then, somewhere along the line, a single shot shatters the quiet of the morning. Peter can’t tell who fired first.

A bugle sounds, and the colonial soldiers unleash a volley of bullets. Peter raises his pistol, and, with a defiant roar, he fires back. The Battle of the Eureka Stockade has begun.

Peter Lalor and the other miners will face overwhelming odds. Untrained and outnumbered, the fight against the colonial forces will be a brief one. But the legacy of their defiance will outlive them, and in the future, many will trace the birth of Australian democracy to the dramatic events of the Battle of the Eureka Stockade on December 3rd, 1854.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is December 3rd, 1854: The Battle of the Eureka Stockade.

Act One: Gold Fingers

It’s October 10th, 1854, in the Colony of Victoria, Australia, two months before the Battle of the Eureka Stockade.

Father Patrick Smyth pushes his gold pan into the muddy gravel of a riverbed. A 30-year-old preacher from Ireland, Father Patrick, mutters a prayer as he pulls the pan from the water and swirls the liquid around to separate the mud from the stones. He closes his eyes, hoping that when he opens them again, he will see even the tiniest fleck of gold.

But when Father Patrick does open his eyes, he sees nothing but worthless gravel and dirt. He tosses it aside and glances up at the darkening sky. It’s getting time to head home.

It’s been another day of searching, hoping, and coming up short for Father Patrick. But he’s not alone in these goldfields. He has an assistant who’s been working on another site today, and hopefully, he’s had more luck.

Packing up his belongings, Father Patrick trudges through the fields to his camp. But when he gets there, he’s met with a horrific sight. His assistant is sitting on the ground, his face swollen and bloody. A group of other miners surround him, but Father Patrick knows they won’t be responsible for the beating. Instead, this looks like the work of the government.

There's a Gold Rush underway in Australia. And the promise of striking it rich has seen Victoria’s population grow rapidly in the last few years. Tent cities started appearing all over the colony as prospectors try to find a parcel of land that will make their dreams come true.

But this huge influx has posed some problems for the colony. More people means more pressure on services and prices. But the Gold Rush is also an opportunity, one that the government has been eager to exploit.

All miners, regardless of whether they find gold or not, are required to pay for a monthly license. This is widely resented, though. Most miners see it as a tax—and one they have no say over, because in Australia, only landowners and the wealthy can vote.

But taxation without representation isn’t the miners’ only complaint. The administration of the mining license is riddled with corruption. The fee seems to fluctuate depending on which officials demand it. And miners who refuse to pay are often beaten or imprisoned.

And as Father Patrick does his best to help his assistant, he is told what happened, and it confirms his suspicions. Earlier today, his assistant was accosted by a police officer who demanded to see his mining license. When he explained that he was working for Father Patrick and that ministers were exempt from paying the license, the officer flew into a rage. He accused the assistant of lying and demanded that he pay a fine. When he refused, the policeman attacked him.

The other miners around Father Patrick grumble that attacks like this are becoming more and more common. So something has to be done. But while he understands the crowd’s frustrations, Father Patrick tries his best to calm the men. He explains that there are legal routes they can take to get justice. In the morning, he will go to see the Gold Commissioner, who’s in charge of the licenses, and make an official complaint.

But many in the crowd dismiss this plan as naive. Nothing is gonna change. But Father Patrick insists they have no other choice. They must not meet violence with violence—that will only begin a cycle the miners can’t hope to win. The men grumble and slink away, leaving Father Patrick to tend to his assistant’s injuries alone.

But the other miners do follow Father Patrick’s advice—for about a week, until one of them is found beaten to death. It soon comes to light that this latest act of violence isn't the work of the police, though; a hotel owner in the nearby town of Eureka was responsible. But the local police don't investigate the murder properly, and they conspire with the hotelier to cover up the crime. This sparks further outrage among local miners, who are sick of being treated as second-class citizens. And this time, there's nothing Father Patrick can do to control their anger. The miners dole out their own form of justice and burn the killer's hotel to the ground.

But in the end, Father Patrick was right. The fire at the Eureka hotel will only lead to even greater animosity and conflict between the miners and the government. More officials will be sent to the mining camps to collect the license fees, and the violence and corruption of local police will continue unchecked—until one miner steps forward to put an end to the persecution and take a stand against the colonial government in defense of them all.

Act Two: You Got Me On My Knees

It’s midday on November 30th, 1854, in the Colony of Victoria, Australia, a month and a half after gold miners burned down a local hotel.

Peter Lalor stands on a tree stump on Bakery Hill, just above the mining town of Eureka. In his hands is a rifle, which he holds aloft as he addresses a crowd of hundreds of men. Peter tells his fellow miners that enough is enough. They can no longer stand by as corrupt officers persecute honest diggers using the miner’s license as their shield. It's time to fight back.

Peter is 27 years old. He’s the youngest son of a prominent Irish nationalist and a civil engineer by training, but he left home two years ago to seek his fortune in Australia. Now, he’s following in his father’s footsteps by entering politics.

But this is not the first mass meeting of miners in recent weeks. At earlier gatherings, they agreed to a set of demands to present to the colonial government. These included an end to the monthly gold licenses, parliamentary representation, and voting rights for all adult men.

But the government rejected those petitions and instead launched another aggressive round of persecution in the gold fields. That was the final straw for Peter. So with a cry of “Liberty!”, he now stands before the crowd on Bakery Hill and calls for an armed uprising.

The miners may not have many guns between them, but Peter tells them they don’t need them. They can make their own weapons or even use their mining tools if it comes to it—after all, a shovel or pick can be just as deadly in the right hands. More importantly, if there are enough of them and if they stick together, the colonial authorities won’t be able to resist them. In reply, the miners cheer and stamp their feet, acclaiming Peter as their new leader.

Peter then marches his army of miners down from Bakery Hill to the town of Eureka. There, on a slight rise on the outskirts of town, they build a fortification with whatever timber they can scrounge.

Long, sharpened poles are thrust into the ground to defend against cavalry charges. Horse carts are turned upside down and piled high with wood to further reinforce the perimeter.

But as these rebels build their fortress, news of the uprising reaches the colonial authorities. The man responsible for keeping order in the mining community is Gold Commissioner Robert Rede. And when he hears about Peter Lalor and the stockade, he decides that a prompt show of strength is what’s needed. There are tens of thousands of other miners in Victoria. And he can’t allow this defiance to spread.

So, he gathers troops and marches on Eureka.

By the early hours of December 3rd, 1854, Rede has nearly 200 mounted soldiers and 100 armed police officers surrounding the rebel compound. They’re far more experienced fighters than the miners, but Rede worries that his enemy has numbers to make up for that—that is, until he learns that Peter Lalor has made a critical mistake.

With the enemy approaching, Peter became worried about security. Spies could be slipping into the stockade, so he insisted on the miners using a password to enter the fort. He chose the words “Vinegar Hill.”

As an Irishman, it must have seemed like a stirring rallying call. Vinegar Hill was the site of a famous battle between British forces and Irish republicans at the end of the 18th century. But not all the miners in Eureka shared his politics, and they disliked the idea of Irish independence becoming mixed up with their cause. So suddenly, a fight with heavily armed colonial soldiers seemed even less appealing. And overnight, hundreds of miners abandoned the stockade. Now, as dawn breaks, Commissioner Rede believes there may be as few as 100 men left inside the rebel camp.

So, Rede gives the order to advance. His soldiers march on the stockade to demand the surrender of the miners. But when the colonial forces are less than 200 yards from the barricades, a rogue shot rings out, and a soldier falls to the ground. There won’t be any negotiations today. Because after months of rising violence and animosity in southern Australia, the Eureka rebellion will now be decided with blood.

Act Three: Battle Lost. War Won.

It’s December 3rd, 1854, in Victoria, Australia, hours after colonial forces attacked the Eureka Stockade.

In a miner’s tent half a mile from the scene of the battle, rebel leader Peter Lalor lies on a cot, grinding his teeth in agony. Father Patrick Smyth kneels beside him with a bottle of whiskey. Peter grabs it and takes a long swig.

The battle at the stockade was short but bloody. Peter and his miners fought as bravely as they could, but they were hopelessly outnumbered by the colonial troops, and once the rebels had run out of ammunition, they were quickly overrun. Peter himself barely made it out alive, but he didn’t escape entirely unscathed. He was shot in the arm during the battle, and the bullet has shattered the bone.

Now, the arm requires amputation. The tent door flaps open, and a local doctor steps inside. Peter grimaces because he knows what's coming.

The doctor pulls out a wooden spoon and a large saw from his bag. Peter gulps more whiskey before allowing the doctor to slide the spoon between his teeth. Then Father Smyth and another man hold him down as the doctor picks up the saw and begins carving through Peter’s flesh. As the saw's teeth bit into his arms, Peter’s eyes bulge, and he clamps down hard on the spoon to stop himself from screaming. Because, despite the pain, Peter knows he has to be quiet. The authorities are still looking for him, and if they find him, he will lose far more than just his arm.

Over the next few weeks, as Peter recovers from his operation, he’s the focus of a huge manhunt. Large rewards are offered for any information about his whereabouts. But no one betrays him, and Peter is able to escape into hiding.

Not all his fellow rebels are so lucky, though. At least 22 were killed during the battle at the stockade, and over a hundred more were taken prisoner. A year later, a group of the ringleaders is put on trial for high treason. But the colonial government’s heavy-handed tactics backfire. The Victorian public overwhelmingly supports the arrested miners, and all of them are found not guilty.

That victory in court is quickly followed by even greater political triumphs. All the Eureka rebels will receive amnesty. In the following summer will then see the introduction of the Gold Fields Act, which will abolish the mining license and introduce protections for diggers. Most importantly of all, though, a new constitution will be adopted in Victoria. It will include an elected parliament, and miners will have the right to vote. One of the first men to take up a seat in this new body will be Peter Lalor himself, the young miner who stood up to tyranny by leading the rebels in the Battle of Eureka Stockade on December 3rd, 1854.

Outro

Next on History Daily. December 4th, 1875. The notoriously corrupt New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.