Ballarat Reform League Inc. Creswick Monument
On 18 October 2014 the Ballarat Reform League Inc. Creswick Monument was unveiled at Calembeen Park by Prof. Weston Bate.
Background
On 29 November 1854 the Eureka Stockade was strengthened when a contingent of around 300 to 400 men from Creswick arrived at around 4.30 pm. [1] It has been suggested that a large body of Creswick miners coming to assist the insurgents caused a premature attack of the stockade by the troops. [2]
The Creswick contingent set out on 30 November 1854 from a grog shanty at Long Point, Creswick led by an Hanovarian band playing the Marseillaise. It proceeded along the densely crowded Clark's Flat, where stump orations were delivered and licenses burnt. Firearms were eagerly sought, and crowbar and pick-handles came into requisition. The scratch army swelled as it passed along the Black Lead and the centre of town until it reached 300 to 400. Provisions, horses and ammunition were commandeered as they walked four deep towards Ballarat, but 'a heavy thunderstorm not only drenched their bodies but cooled their ardour', and not many reached the Eureka Stockade. The following day around 200 departed. One of these was Henry Hammon. [3]
- ...No man was allowed to work yesterday; he distinctly understood that if he did so he would be fired on. A body of diggers some 400 strong, and armed, came in from Creswick in the evening, and the united forces - some 1000 men met and went through sundry evolutions about 8 o'clock p.m. On all hands, to-day is looked forward to with great anxiety, Matters are not mending. ... [4]
Also See
Creswick- ↑ Wickham, Dorothy, Goldfields tension leads to battle IN Ballarat Courier, 28 November 2009.
- ↑ Graham, John A. Early Creswick: The First Century, Arbuckle, Waddell Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1942, p58.
- ↑ Graham, John A. Early Creswick: The First Century, Arbuckle, Waddell Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1942, p58.
- ↑ Geelong Advertiser,4 December 1854.
