Eureka 134, 1988
1954 was the centenary anniversary of the Eureka Stockade. The Eureka Stockade Diggers's March was was first held in 1954, and was also been held in 1979 and 1988. [1]
- Plans for a Eureka reunion By JIM LINTON
- FAMILIES whose forefathers' fought on opposite sides at the Eureka Stockade arc being asked to put aside their differences and join together to celebrate the uprising.
- A worldwide search is being made for people who can prove that their ancestors were miners or soldiers at Eureka, on the Ballarat gold field in Victoria in 1854.
- Victoria's state historian, Dr Bernard Barrett, says that in late November 1854 about 10,000 miners attended meetings at Ballarat to protest against Victoria's corrupt and autocratic administration and against their lack of political representation.
- Victorian Governor Sir Charles Hotham ordered troops to crush the miners.
- At daybreak on Sunday, December 3, 1854, a force of 270 armed soldiers and police attacked 150 armed miners who were asleep behind a defensive wooden barricade. At least 30 miners and six soldiers were killed.
- A Eureka Celebration Committee has now been formed to locate relatives of the Eureka miners as well as relatives of the soldiers and police. It hopes to attract thousands of relatives to a reunion on the Eureka site on Saturday, December 3, 1988.
- "The children of Eureka are scattered around the world," Dr Barrett said. "Ballarat in 1854 attracted gold seekers from Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Scandinavia and other lands. When the gold petered out later, many Ballarat miners dispersed throughout Australia and overseas."
- The Eureka Committee has already made contact with hundreds of Eureka relatives within Australia.
- The Australian Overseas Information Service is publicising the 1988 Eureka reunion throughout Europe, the United States and Canada.
- It recently took photographs of a group of relatives standing near the Eureka graves in Ballarat cemetery.
- Old animosities were put aside as descendants of miners and soldiers shared their family legends.
- Joan Goodwin and her sister-in-law Evelyn Madden, both of Geelong, were present. They each had relatives at Eureka, but on different sides. Joan's great-grandfather, trooper John King, is credited with hauling down the rebels' flag, while Evelyn's husband's grandfather was an eyewitness from the miners' side.
- Dr Barrett says many Australians wrongly assume the Eureka miners were exclusively left-wingers.
- MH.R. Nicholls, after whom today's right-wing H.R. Nicholls Society is named, took part in the Eureka movement as editor of the Miners' Newspaper," he said.
- The Eureka Celebration Committee can be contacted through Bob O'Brien, 108 Creswick Road, Ballarat,Victoria 3350.[2]
