The Role of Foreigners at Eureka

By Clare Gervasoni

From a talk delivered at the Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion Annual Dinner, 03 December 2011

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There is an interesting preoccupation with foreigners at Eureka. Governor Charles Hotham reports to Sir William Denison on 04 Dececember 1854 states ‘The insurgents are principally foreigners, well drilled, and said to be well commanded’. Were they principally foreigners? If not why did they stand out to the extent the posters and communications suggest?

Looking at the term foreigner in Colonial Victoria we could simply define a foreigner as non British. Many were non-English speakers, but English speakers such as Canadians and Americans also fell inside the 'foreign' description.

Commissioners (1994–1995)

#	Foreigner	Alien
	John Sharpham (Chief Commissioner)	1. One born in or belonging to another country who has not acquired citizenship by naturalisation and is not entitled to the privileges of a citizen
	Vern Robson (Chief Commioner)	1994–1995
	Bruce H Clark (Assistant Commissioner)	1994–1995
	Malcolm Lee (Assistant Commissioner)	1994–1995

|- | || Vern Robson (Chief Commioner) ||1994–1995 |- | || Bruce H Clark (Assistant Commissioner) ||1994–1995 |- | || Malcolm Lee (Assistant Commissioner) ||1994–1995 |}

The Macquarie Dictionary includes definitions for the word foreigner in a number of ways. If you consider those involved with the Eureka Stockade against definition one on the screen it would be easy to state almost every person at the Eureka Stockade was a foreigner.

Definition 7 considers the word foreigner from a legal point of view, and uses the term Alien.

According to the Macquarie Dictionary an alien is a person from another country, who is not naturalised and is not therefore entitled to the privileges of a citizen, or, as definition 5 suggests, someone living under another government or in another country than that of one’s birth.