Pat Leahy

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Charles A. Doudiet, Chow Chow (Chinamen on Ballarat), c1854, watercolour, pen and ink on paper.
Courtesy Art Gallery of Ballarat, purchased by the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery with the assistance of many donors, 1996.

Obituary

Mr. Patrick Leahy, a survivor of the Eureka Stockade, died at Fremantle yesterday, aged 93. He fought in the Kaffir war, and was one of those who expelled the Chinese from Lambing Flat in 1861. He was prominent in the anti-Chinese movement in Queensland in 1875. He was drawing a Federal pension when he died.[1]


Patrick Leahy has died, aged 53, at Fremantle. After fighting the kaffirs in 1835, he is said to have fought for "the miners at the Eureka Stockade in 1S54 and was prominently concerned in the expulsion of Chinese from Lambing Flat (N.S.W.) in 1861. He mined in Kimberley in 1888, and in Coolgardie in 1893.[2]

Newsworthy

Eureka Stockade. - SOME ODD REMINISCENCES.
'Pat Leahy' (Oxley Siding, Q. Railway) writes : In perusing the 'Freeman' of Dec. 10, I noticed your comments on the Eureka riots, and must congratulate you on the vivid ac count of some of the stirring events that took place on that memorable occasion. I have a pretty lively recollection of it, al though only a school boy at the time. You have given a list of Irish names amongst those who fell on that occasion, and no doubt a good many of them took prominent parts in it; but you must admit that Ireland produced a lot of Loyalists as well as Democrats. There is one thing I would draw attention to. After the roll-up took place, and a press gang was sent out to each locality, Bakery Hill was selected as it was at the junction of the main road from Melbourne, and the troops were to come up by Bacchus Marsh, and Ballan, and thence on to Ballarat. Some earthworks were hurriedly thrown up, and very few firearms being available, anything in the shape of a deadly weapon was made use of; even a broad axe was supposed to do duty. Eight hundred of the rioters were sent out to Mount Warrenheip to intercept the soldiers; but the informers had done their work, and done it well. The troops made a detour and came around Mount Buninyong and Sebastopol Hill and pitched camp at the junction of the main road and Sturt-street. I did not witness the assault at the Stockade, but about sunrise next morning I had to witness what I hope never to witness again: This was throwing the dead and wounded into the baggage waggons. The murderers in uniform seemed to find pleasure in the work. One of those guardians seem ed to think it necessary to blood the pups in a peculiar manner. Time will not allow me to go into details now. A certain amount of odium was cast on the Irish after that event, and up till the time of the Adelaide Lead riots, when D. Tierney was shot; but the Yellow Pup crowd was principally responsible for this. Before the Stockade riots there was a great down on the 'Tips.' Well do I remember the cry, "Down with the Tips!" kept up in the schools. I think this dates back to the burning of the first theatre in Melbourne, and before the diggings opened. Some Tipperary men got offended at some piece on the stage and set fire to the play house as it was called in those days. The second or third day — I am not sure which — the men came in from Mount Warrenheip, and a large body of men came from Creswick Creek, while a lot more came from Bendigo to join the rioters. While one of the Commissioners was having a cup of tea at the camp a bullet broke the cup at his mouth. It was then that Fitzgerald from Buninyong arrived on the scene and promised the diggers he would use his influence with Sir Henry Barkly to do away with the licences. Latrobe was only Acting-Governor, and did not get his appointment through the Colonial. Office ; in fact, he had not power to do anything only what he was told. Barkley had not arrived, and when he did the diggers went wild over him. I am writing this from memory, and cannot go particularly into dates; but I know that some pikes were made at Golden Mount and some more in Geelong. There were some sturdy John Bulls in the ranks of the rioters, and some of them are now fossicking for a living up here in North Queensland. [3]


Also See

Creswick

References

  1. Adelaide Chronicle, 3 August 1912.
  2. Weekly Times, 03 August 1912.
  3. Freeman's Journal, 14 January 1905/