Nationalities at the Eureka Stockade

This article is part of a series on the
Eureka Rebellion
Eureka Stockade Riot by John Black Henderson (1854)
Timeline Military leaders Siege
Origins Australian gold rushes Chartism Revolutions of 1848 Thomas Hiscock Victorian gold rush
Ideologies Chartism and the Eureka Rebellion Loyalism and the Eureka Rebellion Republicanism and the Eureka Rebellion White nationalism and the Eureka Rebellion
The Eureka Rebellion Anti-Gold Licence Association Ballarat Reform League Bendigo Petition Charles Doudiet Charles La Trobe Charles Pasley (engineer) Edward Thonen Eureka Flag Eureka Stockade (fortification) Forest Creek Monster Meeting Fredrick Vern Henry Ross James Scobie John Basson Humffray John King (police officer) List of colonial forces in the Eureka Rebellion List of detainees at the Eureka Stockade List of Eureka Stockade defenders List of military leaders in the Eureka Rebellion Miner's licence Nationalities at the Eureka Stockade Peter Lalor Pikeman's dog Robert Nickle (British Army officer) Robert William Rede Captain Henry Christopher Wise Sir Charles Hotham Suffolk Regiment Vexillology of the Eureka Rebellion William Edward Atherden William Wright (Australian politician) 40th (the 2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot
High Treason trials Archibald Michie Butler Cole Aspinall Henry Samuel Chapman Henry Seekamp John Joseph (rebel) John Manning (journalist) Raffaello Carboni Sir Redmond Barry William à Beckett William Stawell 1855 Victorian high treason trials
Legacy Australian nationalism Eureka Jack Mystery Eureka Rebellion in popular culture Eureka Stockade Memorial Park Eureka Stockade Monument Len Fox The Eureka Stockade (1855 novel) William Bramwell Withers
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The Victorian gold rush led to an influx of foreign nationals, increasing the colony's population from 77,000 in 1851 to 198,496 in 1853.^[1] Many such as Raffaello Carboni had experienced the Revolutions of 1848. They supported the protest movement that formed on the goldfields in opposition to the mining tax system, ultimately leading to an armed uprising at Ballarat. It is currently known that the participants in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade on 3 December 1854 came from at least 23 different nations, including Australia, Canada, the United States of America, Jamaica, Mauritius, Russia, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, The Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain.^[2] Carboni recalled that "We were of all nations and colours."^[3] During the 1855 Victorian high treason trials, the Argus court reporter observed that of "the first batch of prisoners brought up for examination, the four examined consisted of one Englishman, one Dane, one Italian, and one negro, and if that is not a foreign collection, we do not know what is."^[4] However, despite being present on the Ballarat gold fields, there is no record of any Chinese involvement at the Eureka Stockade. According to figures published by Professor Anne Beggs-Sunter, in her sample of 44 rebels, only one hailed from a non-European country.^[5]

There was a substantial American contingent among the Eureka Stockade garrison. The colonial government was wary about the diplomatic consequences that might result from US nationals being killed, detained, and put on trial. There have been Americans in Australia as far back as 1791, and there was a large influx after gold was discovered in Bathurst and later at Buninyong in Victoria during the 19th century Australian gold rush. In 1854, of the 1,374 Americans in Victoria, 55 per cent were residing in the mining settlements. By 1852, there was a US consulate established in Melbourne. The consul was J A Henriques, a partner in the firm Henrique Bros. He was replaced by James Tarleton, who was consul during the armed uprising. A letter from an American miner in the New York Herald, 22 November 1854 edition, states that "The people are on the eve of revolution. Folks here are republican enough in their ideas, though they do not wish you to think so".^[6]

On 28 November 1854, Tarleton was guest of honour at a dinner in Ballarat. Distant shots and shouting were heard, and the US officials hurriedly departed. Eureka rebel James McGill came along and whispered the password, said to be the Celtic words "Faugh-a-balagh" or "clear the way", and the dinner party guests knew the army was on its way. Dr Otway, who was presiding, proposed a loyal toast to the Queen, but nobody reacted. After a long silence, one guest stood up and said, "While I and my fellow colonists claim to be and are thoroughly loyal to our sovereign lady the Queen, we do not and will not respect her man-servants, her maid-servants, her oxen, nor her asses".^[7]

At the inaugural meeting of the Ballarat Reform League on 11 November 1854, it was reported by the Ballarat Times that at the appointed hour, the "Union Jack and the American ensign were hoisted as signals for the people to assemble."^{[8][note 1]}

When soldiers were sent to reinforce the government camp in Ballarat, Americans Freeman Cobb, George Train, and George Young were involved in transporting the colonial forces.^[10]

About twenty to thirty of the 120-150 strong rebel garrison at the stockade during the battle were Californians. Amid the rising number of rebels absent without leave throughout 2 December, a contingent of 200 Americans under James McGill arrived at 4 pm. Styled as "The Independent Californian Rangers' Revolver Brigade," they had horses and were equipped with sidearms and Mexican knives. In a fateful decision, McGill decided to take most of his two hundred Californian Rangers away from the stockade to intercept rumoured British reinforcements coming from Melbourne. Carboni details the rebel dispositions along:

The shepherds' holes inside the lower part of the stockade had been turned into rifle-pits, and were now occupied by Californians of the I.C. Rangers' Brigade, some twenty or thirty in all, who had kept watch at the 'outposts' during the night.^[11]

After the rebel garrison had already begun to flee and all hope was lost, a number of Californians gamely joined in the final melee bearing their trademark Colt revolvers.^[12]

American Charles Kenworthy joined in the US consul's efforts to keep US nationals from legal jeopardy. Albert Hurd was arrested in connection with the Eureka Hotel arson attack. John Emery owned the bowling alley attached to the hotel and was an American. After the battle, there were three American rebels detained: Charles Derius Ferguson, John Joseph, and John Kelly.^[10]

Tarleton and Kenworthy failed to secure the release of Joseph, an American negro, and James Campbell, a Jamaican, were both among the thirteen rebel prisoners to go on trial. Andrew Peters, who acted as a police spy, said during cross-examination that "There are some" black men on the diggings. Patrick Lynott recalled that "There were a good many black men" in the rebel camp.^[13]

Other notable Americans include James Esmond, who discovered gold in 1851, and Joseph Barberis and Edward Browne, who had both been miners during the Californian gold rush. The treatment of Frank Carey, who was widely rumoured to be framed by Sergeant Major Robert Miline for being a sly grog seller for refusing to pay police bribes, enraged many in the lead-up to the armed uprising, especially his fellow nationals. He was later released after representations from the US consul to Lieutenant Governor Charles Hotham.^[14] Clarke acted as the stereotypical lawless American when on 16 August 1854 he, presumably drunk, entered the Albion Hotel at Ballarat and proceeded to draw his revolver and hit patron John Brown on the head. He then threatened that "the first son of a bitch that says anything to me tonight, I will blow his brains out!" He then started to play cards where the losers bought drinks for the winners. On a lucky streak and becoming increasingly intoxicated, barman Joseph Douve said he again stated that "whoever speaks in this game, I will blow his brains out!" Clarke then threatened to slap a man called Winkler who had accused him of cheating. Winkler accepted the challenge and Clarke started firing his revolver. One bullet hit the publican Kosman Berend in an adjoining room after passing through a wall or partition. Three or four men tried to apprehend Clarke as the mortally wounded publican crawled into the parlour. He wrestled with his attackers and escaped to Creswick where he was apprehended and put on trial for murder.^[15]

Henry Ross, who is believed to be the designer of the Eureka Flag, was from Toronto, Canada. The Swiss-born Charles Doudiet, whose sketchbook is held by the Art Gallery of Ballarat and contains such scenes from around the time of the armed uprising as the iconic Eureka Slaughter, had lived in Canada. Doudiet may have been present at the battle, and he notes in his sketchbook that he helped to convey his friend, the mortally wounded Ross, to the Free Trade Hotel, where the Eureka flag bearer died of a groin injury two days later. Robert Julien died defending the stockade, as did Thomas Budden, also a friend of Ross, both from Canada.^[16]

Russel Ward noted the antipathy of the European miners to the presence of Asiatics on the goldfields, saying: "The Chinese ... were conspicuous by their absence at Eureka".^[17]

Weston Bate has stated that:

Of all foreigners on the Victorian goldfields, none were as quaint, as numerous or as self-contained as the Chinese. And none posed as great a social problem ... Of the fervour of Australian nationalism and the social aspirations which had brought Europeans in quest of gold they were ignorant ... Because they came en masse as assisted migrants into an alien culture, the Chinese tended to live and work together and, mostly having been bonded in China to work in parties of ten or so for Chinese merchants, they lacked conspicuously the individualism of Westerners ... They had crowded together at Ballarat by March 1854, over a year before official moves were made to segregated them ... Few could speak English - and even fewer Englishmen understood Chinese ... they were a threat to the independence of the diggers; they moved in swarms across old workings that Europeans reserved for bad times ... They also offended by washing for gold at waterholes set aside by general agreement for domestic purposes. Their overwhelming numbers and the way they drew upon their national tradition as irrigators meant that they were anyway large users of water ... Numbers alone made the Chinese a formidable economic and social threat.^[18]

In his local history of Ballarat William Withers said that: "The Chinese were detested as an inferior race, as the harbingers of degrading pagan immorality, and as alien competitors for the bread which the miners required for themselves and families."^[19]

Frederick Vern was a skilled rebel political agitator and orator who oversaw the construction of the Eureka Stockade. He was said to be from German Hanover, although Carboni disputes this.^[20] Vern had apparently received instruction in military methods. John Lynch wrote that his "military learning comprehended the whole system of warfare ... fortification was his strong point."^[21] During a mass meeting at Bakery Hill on 29 November 1854, the crowd of around 10,000 was incited by Timothy Hayes shouting, "Are you ready to die?" and Fredrick Vern, who had been accused of abandoning the garrison four days later as soon as the danger arrived, with suspicions he could have been a double agent.^[22][23][24] There were wanted posters advertising a 500-pound reward for information leading to the apprehension of Vern circulated by the government printer following the fall of the Eureka Stockade.

Edward Thonen was killed in action whilst defending the stockade. Carboni refers to him as the "lemonade seller." Thonen was originally from Elberfeld in Prussia.^[25]

Rebel leader Peter Lalor was from Ireland, as were a majority of the rebel garrison on his list of those either killed in action or had died of wounds. Most of the thirteen rebels indicted for high treason in 1855 were also from Ireland. Lalor made a blunder by choosing "Vinegar Hill" – the site of a battle during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 – as the Eureka Stockade password, which led to waning support for the armed uprising when news that the issue of Irish home rule had become involved began to circulate.^[26][27]

Raffaello Carboni was an eyewitness to the battle and supported the armed uprising, serving as Peter Lalor's interpreter. Like many of the Europeans, he had experienced the Revolutions of 1848. Carboni's 1855 novel The Eureka Stockade is the first and only comprehensive eyewitness account of the Eureka Rebellion. The miner Oravalno was probably also from the Papal states, possibly of Savoyard background. From northern Italy were Joseph Barberis of Genoa (Kingdom of Savoy) and Polinellis of Bergamo, Lombardy. Antonio Capuano was born in Aversa, near Naples. Francis Romeo was from Corsica. However, his family came from Siena.

Among the government camp, Captain Henry Wise of the 40th regiment, who was killed in action, was born in Rome. There was also a lieutenant in the gold mounted police, Gerald de C Hamilton, who was born in Florence.^[28]

• Revolutions of 1848
• Eureka Rebellion
• Republicanism and the Eureka Rebellion
• White nationalism and the Eureka Rebellion
• List of Eureka Stockade defenders

• Bate, Weston (1978). Lucky City, The First Generation at Ballarat, 1851–1901. Carlton: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-52-284157-2.
• Blake, Gregory (2012). Eureka Stockade: A ferocious and bloody battle. Newport: Big Sky Publishing. ISBN 978-1-92-213204-8.
• Carboni, Raffaello (1855). The Eureka Stockade: The Consequence of Some Pirates Wanting a Quarterdeck Rebellion. Melbourne: J. P. Atkinson and Co. – via Project Gutenberg.
• Clark, Manning, ed. (1966). Sources of Australian History. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Corfield, Justin; Wickham, Dorothy; Gervasoni, Clare (2004). The Eureka Encyclopedia. Ballarat: Ballarat Heritage Services. ISBN 978-1-87-647861-2.
• Craig, William (1903). My Adventures on the Australian Goldfields. London: Cassell and Company.
• Lynch, John (1940). Story of the Eureka Stockade: Epic Days of the Early Fifties at Ballarat (Reprint ed.). Melbourne: Australian Catholic Truth Society.
• O'Brien, Bob (1992). Massacre at Eureka: The untold story. Kew: Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN 978-1-87-560604-7.
• Ward, Russel (1979). Australia: A short history. Sydney: Ure Smith. ISBN 978-0-72-540473-4.
• Withers, William (1999). History of Ballarat and Some Ballarat Reminiscences. Ballarat: Ballarat Heritage Service. ISBN 978-1-87-647878-0.