The 3rd of December will be the anniversary of the 1854 Eureka Stockade and many visitors will take part in commemorative ceremonies. If you live in Ballarat you will realise that there are learned individuals with very strong opinions about this major event in the history of Australia. It is still a hot topic 149 years on. We are fortunate that so much source material is available online. You can learn about the events and form your own opinions by visiting the following excellent websites. It would be best to start with the links from the Ballarat & District Genealogical Society's Eureka page where you can find lists of people and the part they played in the events.
This site has transcriptions of about 90 Eureka-related documents but one of the best parts is an Interactive Map showing the march of police and troops from the Government Camp to the Eureka Stockade. It is fun to click the rectangles to bring up enlargements of particular areas of the map. You can also click on the 'Ballarat Today' section to see an overlay of modern-day Ballarat streets. (Forgive them for 'Stuart' Street, Ballarat's main boulevard, Sturt Street) There is also an excellent timeline of events. |
 Reclaiming the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion in 1854
(Anarchist Media Institute) www.takver.com/history/eureka.htm This is one very long page but you can jump to any of the 43 headings. It is a simple narrative with few illustrations.
This site has a timeline, bibliography and nine feature articles as well as 40 articles from The Argus newspaper which you can read online.
Finally, the last Eureka website is not beautifully designed like those previously mentioned. It is 'free plain vanilla electronic text' from Project Gutenberg of Australia. You can read online or download the book The Eureka Stockade written by the Italian Raffaello CARBONI (1820-1875). In 1855 on the anniversary of the burning of Bentley's Eureka Hotel he wrote from the Prince Albert Hotel, Bakery Hill, Ballaarat, "The work will be published on the 1st of December next (1856), and given to each subscriber by the Author's own hand, on the site of the Eureka Stockade, from the rising to the setting of the sun, on the memorable third." Raffaello CARBONI wrote an important (some would say biased) eye-witness account about the events of Eureka. As English was not his first language the expression is sometimes odd but his story is interesting and amusing. Jennifer Burrell: jburrell@ncable.net.au |
