Michael Hanley

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Background

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

Wounded in the Eureka Stockade.

A Birthplace of Freedom.
The Government officials at first completely lost; their heads in face of the difficulty of dealing with the thousands who were drawn to the goldfield. £3 was charged at length for a license to dig, and so brutal was the inquisition to which people on the field were subjected that a crisis was inevitable. Other phases of stupid tyranny, such as not allowing a digger to cultivate a vegetable patch on his ground, &c, were not wanting to intensify the feeling of dissatisfaction. At length, when respectful representations to Governor Sir Charles Hotham (a retired naval officer) had been repulsed in true quarter-deck style, an indignation meeting was held, under the presidency of a genial and popular Irishman — Mr. Timothy Hayes — at which 12,000 diggers con signed their licenses to the flames of a bonfire as a protest against the intolerable tyranny of Officialdom. Four of the principal speakers at the meeting were Messrs. Lalor, Quinn, Murnane, and Brady. Next day an unexpected 'digger hunt' — the last — was made under a military display. The diggers, unprepared for, and not desiring, active hostilities, were driven to their camp, from which a number of men were removed as prisoners. The result of that day's work was open war between the gold-fields' population and the Crown, No sooner had the police and the military returned with a number of prisoners to the Government Camp, than the diggers assembled en masse on their old meeting-ground, Bakery Hill, appointed a council of war, and elected Peter Lalor (son of the late member for the Queen's County, and brother of the present member) as their commander-in-chief. A declaration of independence based on the American model was drawn up and signed, and a new silken flag — the Southern Cross — five silver stars forming- a cross on a blue ground — was unfurled to the breeze. Beneath this diggers' standard, Lalor, as commander-in-chief, took his stand and administered the following oath to his men : 'We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties.' It was in that portion of the goldfields known as the Eureka, and principally inhabited by Irish diggers, that the fortified camp of the 'rebels' as they were now officially described, was erected. It consisted of an entrenched stockade, that was capable of being made a place of great strength if the diggers had had time to utilize its natural advantages, and place it in a proper state of defence. It occupied an area of about an acre, rudely enclosed with strong slabs. Within the stockade drilling now became the main business of the hour; the diggers council of war sat almost continuously; blacksmith were kept at work night and day forging pikes. 'Let those who cannot provide themselves with firearms procure a piece of steel five or six inches long, attached to a pole, and that will pierce the tyrants' hearts,' were the words of the commander-in-chief to his men. Patrick Curtain was the chosen captain of the pikemen, and and Michael Hanrahan was their lieutenant. Early on the morning of Sunday, December 3rd, 1854, the assault was made by the combined forces of the military and the police under the command of Colonel Thomas, of the 40th regiment. The insurgent diggers, commanded by Mr. Peter Lalor, made a brave and desperate resistance; the pikeman (an almost exclusively Irish detachment) stood their ground in double file around the enclosure and repelled several charges of cavalry ; volley after volley was poured into the stockade and answered by the diggers, until their want of ammunition and comparative unpreparedness became apparent. After half an hour's desperate hand-to-hand fighting, the Eureka stockade was surrounded and carried by storm. Subjoined are some of the names of the Irish men who fell [[or were wounded in this first struggle for freedom on Victorian soil: Killed. — John Hynes, County Clare, Patrick Gittings]], Clare ; Thomas O'Neil, Kilkenny ; George Patrick Mullens, Kilkenny; John Diamond, Donaghy, Donegal; Edward Quinn, William Quinlan, Cavan. Mortally Wounded. — Thaddeus Moore, County Clare ; James Brown, Edward McGlynn, Wexford. Wounded and Subsequently Recovered.— Peter Lalor, Queen's County; Patrick Hanafin, County Kerry ; Michael Hanly, Tipperary; Michael O'Neil, Thomas Callanan, Patrick Callanan, Clare; James Warner, Cork; Luke Sheehan, Michael Morrison, Galway; Denis Dynon, Clare.[1]

Post 1854 Experiences

EUREKA VETERAN. - NEVER HARMED ANYBODY. REBEL AT FOURTEEN MELBOURNE, Saturday
When 14 years old Simon Hanley fought at Eureka Stockade. Now he is spending the eve of his life at Diggora near Rochester. He was one of the stout-hearted pioneers who followed the lure of gold in the early 'fifties' at Ballarat. He is the mildest and most genial of men, but, his eyes flash when he refers to the days when, as a lad of about fourteen years of age, he went forth armed with a pike and a revolver. He was one of three brothers who were in the firing line. The oldest of the three — Michael — received two bullet, wounds during the fight, one of which was in directly the cause of his death, about fifteen years later, while handling a restive horse.
The other brother, Jeremiah, like Simon, escaped unharmed, and the most treasured memory of the latter in regard to this historical escapade centres in the fact that he harmed nobody. Born on a farm at Mount Katharane, in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1849, Hanley sailed for Australia from Birkenhead in the ship Mangerton, in 1852, the vessel was blown' ashore on the coast of Scotland during an adventurous voyage that took six months to complete. Eventually, however, Geelong was reached. Ballarat was the rendezvous decided on by 'the'ship's passengers, and gold was the adventurers lodstone. The Hanley brothers did well on the diggings, but Simon soon followed farming pursuits at Windermere, and afterwards at Bungaree - a decade being spent in each place. About 1873 the Diggora lands were thrown open for selection, and he settled there.[2]
Michael Hanley died on 24 March 1914. He was shot in the arm during the Eureka battle and although he recovered from his wounds, he lost the use of his arm. This loss ended up resulting in his death when he was unable to control his horse, and was thrown.[3]

See also

Simon Hanley

Jeremiah Hanley

Further Reading

Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.


References

  1. Freeman's Journal, 31 March 1888.
  2. Bathurst Times, 30 March 1914
  3. Family history from Lina Butler, email, 2009

External links



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Caption, Reference.