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00:00:12The
00:00:13aspect of affairs now became serious.
00:00:16The disaffected miners formed themselves into core,
00:00:20elected their leaders and commenced drilling.
00:00:23They possessed themselves of all the arms and ammunition
00:00:26which were within their reach.
00:00:29All cause for doubt as to their real intention
00:00:32from this moment disappeared.
00:00:36A riot was rapidly growing into a revolution.
00:00:59It was certainly a revolution.
00:01:02No riot begins with such a dignified and glorious
00:01:08and enthusing heartwarming statement.
00:01:11We swear by the flag of the Southern Cross
00:01:16to stand truly by each other
00:01:20and fight to defend our rights and liberties.
00:01:27The word revolution is more often used as something that's successful
00:01:30like the Russian Revolution and the American Revolution.
00:01:33In some ways it was successful, but in military terms it was a failure,
00:01:38an abject failure.
00:01:41Only once in our history have Australians stood under opposing flags
00:01:46and faced each other on a field of battle.
00:01:50In one single time and place, we cut each other down with muskets and bayonets,
00:01:56bringing death at point-blank range.
00:02:00The time was 1854 and the place was the Ballarat Goldfields in the new colony of Victoria.
00:02:24After the battle, the rebel leaders were charged with high treason.
00:02:28If found guilty, they could hang.
00:02:31Their fate would be in the hands of a jury
00:02:34that had to decide whether the Eureka Stockade was a riot or a revolution.
00:02:44There are very few photographs of Victoria at the time of Eureka.
00:02:48People drew and wrote about their world.
00:02:52The Canadian Douglas Haigew was a civil servant
00:02:55working in the Goldfields administration at Ballarat.
00:02:58In his retirement, he wrote an account of Eureka,
00:03:01baked on his personal diaries.
00:03:04Let me say that somehow I find myself clinging with a sort of fondness to the old picture.
00:03:11For there was an indescribable charm about the rough, unceremonious life of those early days
00:03:19with the strong vitality and rapidly occurring incidents,
00:03:24strange and exciting as those of a romance,
00:03:27which enshrines it as an experience apart.
00:03:33A gold digger who left an eyewitness account was the educated and flamboyant Italian Raffaello Carboni.
00:03:41The language of these writers tells us that they saw themselves as actors in a great drama.
00:03:46I was an actor, and therefore an eyewitness.
00:03:50The events I relate, I did see them pass before me.
00:03:54The persons I speak of, I know them face to face.
00:03:58The words I quote, I did hear them with my own ears.
00:04:02Others may know more or less than I.
00:04:04I mean to tell all of that I know, and nothing more.
00:04:09Carboni became one of the leaders of the Eureka rebellion.
00:04:12His subsequent trial was a turning point in the fortunes of the governor back in Melbourne.
00:04:21Sir Charles Hotham was Victoria's second governor.
00:04:24He had a distinguished naval career behind him and was ambitious to become an admiral.
00:04:30Hotham had wanted the command of a ship, not a colonial government.
00:04:35I endeavoured to convince both his grace and the Prime Minister
00:04:38that a better selection might, without any difficulty, be made.
00:04:44Failing in those quarters, I prayed to be sent back to Argentina.
00:04:49Here also I failed, and notwithstanding my entire conviction that the government were mistaken,
00:04:54I had either to decline serving the public or comply with their wishes.
00:04:59Thus placed, I accepted the latter alternative, and with a sorrowful heart, go to Victoria.
00:05:13In March 1854, Hotham embarked on the three-month journey to Victoria.
00:05:20At about the same time, Céleste de Chabrillon, wife of the new French consul, was arriving.
00:05:27We enter Port Philippe Bay at midday.
00:05:32From a distance, the view is glorious.
00:05:36The coastline is fresh and green like new oak.
00:05:41The arbor like a forest of masts.
00:05:56Celeste and her husband were joined by thousands of new immigrants, pouring into a colony in the grip of change.
00:06:04For nearly two decades, Victoria had been a small pastoral district, governed from Sydney.
00:06:09It had only become a separate colony in July 1851, with Melbourne its capital.
00:06:16In the same month, gold was discovered, turning this sleepy outpost of empire upside down.
00:06:23Well, in the space of a couple of years, Melbourne became the largest city in Australia.
00:06:28It ripped past Sydney and remained the largest for the next half century.
00:06:32It became the port for the, I suppose, the richest goldfield the world had ever seen.
00:06:37The people started pouring in and sailing ships from Britain, France, Germany, China.
00:06:42They were young, they were mostly male, and they saw this as a great opportunity.
00:06:51And when groups of them, groups of twelve, pulled out six thousand pounds each from a hole,
00:07:00people were just astonished.
00:07:02And here, all sorts of ordinary people are going to be given that chance to gain their independence.
00:07:10It really is freewheeling small capitalism.
00:07:23By the time Celeste de Chevron arrived, the gold rush in Victoria was in full swing.
00:07:29Her observations of the colony were as colourful as the life she had led in Paris, as a courtesan and
00:07:35dancer.
00:07:36We cross Main Street of Melbourne. It looks just like a fairground, except that the shopkeepers are not dealing in
00:07:44gingerbread, but in gold.
00:07:47They are almost apemen, these shopkeepers who stand beside their open-air shops, grimacing and contorting their bodies
00:07:55to attract the attention of successful miners and to buy their gold.
00:08:00Everything happens as if by magic. Today you see a plane, a week later, it's a village.
00:08:16The gold fields, which are fortunately a fair distance from Melbourne, are frightful to behold.
00:08:23They are like colonies of moles digging their holes.
00:08:31Such deep holes that pits excavated without any forethought, cave in and bury those who built them.
00:08:45The women work like the men and the children likewise.
00:08:48There is not an idler to be seen. Gold obsesses them, fascinates them.
00:08:55They hope to find tomorrow what they failed to find the day before.
00:09:03In just three years, the population of Victoria had gone from 80,000 to 300,000.
00:09:10The influx brought people of different races, religion and politics.
00:09:15Nothing like this had been seen in the previous 60 years of white settlement in Australia.
00:09:21There was a sense that the whole place was disrupted. The world had gone mad.
00:09:29Here were all these people rushing to the gold fields, leaving the wards, leaving the schools, leaving the building sites,
00:09:35leaving the hospitals, all determined to get to the gold fields.
00:09:40It was a crisis.
00:09:43It was a crisis that had to be managed.
00:09:47When the new governor arrived on the 21st of June, 1854, he found a colony on the edge of bankruptcy.
00:09:55In England, shortly after I had received the appointment of governor, the Secretary of State took up the financial estimates
00:10:03of this colony and handing them to me said,
00:10:06This, Sir Charles, is the difficulty you have got to face.
00:10:11There is an enormously extravagant expenditure going on in that colony, which, if not arrested, will cause its ruin.
00:10:25Victoria was full of seasoned political brawlers.
00:10:30The merchants and squatters controlled the legislature and used their power to resist much needed reforms.
00:10:37The colonial bureaucracy was bloated and untouchable.
00:10:42The diggers had a growing list of grievances.
00:10:47The new colonists are restless and discontented, either open-knee or behind the scenes.
00:10:52They want laws.
00:10:53They want reforms.
00:10:54They assemble.
00:10:55Meetings and banquets follow and increase every day.
00:10:59Oh, there is...
00:11:02All these soapbox orators think they are mirabeau.
00:11:09Everyone wanted more spending on services and infrastructure.
00:11:13No one wanted to pay for it.
00:11:15Determined to balance the books, Hotham decided it was time for austerity measures.
00:11:20He would set the example.
00:11:29The whole town and countryside were in a state of wild excitement.
00:11:35The governor is to give a ball.
00:11:38Everyone was looking forward to a wonderful time.
00:11:42All the men could think about was the lavish supper to which they intended doing full justice.
00:11:47They rushed forward in a crush.
00:11:50They trampled each other underfoot.
00:11:53But...
00:11:54What a disappointment was in store for them.
00:11:57On the sideboard were a few cold meats entirely surrounded by nothing but hams.
00:12:04And the only drink available?
00:12:06A keg of colonial beer.
00:12:10If it's true that the governor is very sensitive to criticism, he must be most unhappy and bitterly regret holding
00:12:19what they now call the beer ball.
00:12:30Soon after his arrival, Hotham went on a fact finding a goodwill tour of the gold fields.
00:12:37I proceeded in the first instance to Ballarat.
00:12:41Ballarat had been a sheep run and was the resting place of the Aboriginal people, the Wathaurong people.
00:12:50That's what the word Ballarat means, resting place by the beautiful swamp.
00:12:55And this was the very area that all of these gold immigrants came to by the end of 1851.
00:13:04Some of Hotham's advisers referred to gold diggers as wandering wagons.
00:13:08A transient and dangerous population with no stake in the future of the colony.
00:13:13But Hotham was pleased with what he saw.
00:13:16I found an orderly, well-conducted people, particular in their observance of the Sunday.
00:13:23Living generally in tents, having amongst them a large proportion of women and children.
00:13:29Schools of every denomination and people of every nation are on the diggings.
00:13:33And there was an appearance of tranquillity and confidence which would reflect honour on any community.
00:13:40Great cheers for the governor!
00:13:43Hotham's trip was a great success.
00:13:45He saw no serious problems.
00:13:47And the diggers thought they had met a man who was listening.
00:13:50A bold, vigorous and far-seeing man has been amongst us.
00:13:54And the many grievances and useless restrictions by which a digger's success is impeded will be swept away.
00:14:02Others were more realistic about both the governor and the administration.
00:14:08Truth constrains it to be said that Sir Charles Hotham was not the kind of man to give proper development
00:14:15to the native energies of a colony circumstanced as this was.
00:14:20Douglas Haigu was a keen observer.
00:14:22He watched events unfolding from inside the government camp at Ballarat.
00:14:28The camp was set high on the ridge and looked down into the river valley swarming with the diggers.
00:14:34It housed the Goldfields Administration, known as the Gold Commission.
00:14:39Haigu understood the growing tension between the commission and the diggers.
00:14:44A principal cause of the unpopularity of the Gold Commission was doubtless owing to the silly attempt at its formation
00:14:51to make it aristocratic and exclusive.
00:14:55The mud-besplattered and blunt-spoken diggers did not like to have riding in amongst their claims at all hours.
00:15:04Individuals tricked out with scraps of braid and gold lace, and often redolent of perfume.
00:15:12There's a sense of the camp looking down on the diggers from the position of people for whom trade in
00:15:22the British gentry classes was a dirty word.
00:15:25And believing that they're a sort of mob and a rabble grovelling in the dirt for filthy lucre.
00:15:31The result was that every Goldfield in the colony possessed a population hostile to the authorities.
00:15:40Simmering hostility found a voice in diggers like Raffaello Carboni.
00:15:44He became a favourite speaker at meetings on the Ballarat Goldfields.
00:15:49We must meet as in old Europe.
00:15:52Old style, for the redress of grievances inflicted on us, not by crowned heads but blockheads, aristocratical, incapable, who never
00:16:02did a day's work in their life.
00:16:04It's a great conflict between ideas of how the world ought to operate.
00:16:09Should it be a gentry kind of well-organised, you know, really a feudal approach in a capitalist situation?
00:16:18And this to me is the nub of the conflict that was emerging at Ballarat.
00:16:36When the first gold diggers arrived in Ballarat in 1851, a lot of the gold was shallow.
00:16:42They'd dig a hole maybe a metre down and there was gold.
00:16:46And by 1854 in certain parts of Ballarat, especially around Eureka, they were putting down shafts 50 metres deep.
00:16:54The deep sinkings needed at Ballarat meant that diggers had to put in months of labour with little or no
00:17:00return.
00:17:02As more found it harder to survive, discontent grew.
00:17:06The biggest grievance was against the gold licence, which all miners had to purchase, whether they found gold or not.
00:17:14The revenue barely covered the cost of the gold commission.
00:17:18The administration of the gold fields proved an extremely expensive thing for the government.
00:17:25This tier of government that's imposed with these gold-laced commissioners,
00:17:31the gentry of England who came out and were given these very well-paid jobs as gold commissioners and magistrates
00:17:40on the gold fields.
00:17:52Most government revenue was raised through indirect taxes, primarily import duties.
00:17:58There were no taxes on income.
00:18:01The gold licence was a new kind of tax, a direct tax on people's labour.
00:18:06And they didn't like it.
00:18:09On his trip to the Bendigo gold fields, Hotham addressed a crowd of 8,000 diggers calling for it to
00:18:15be abolished.
00:18:16You asked me to do a very serious thing, to do away with a large portion of public revenue.
00:18:24We must all pay something and I will endeavour to make the taxes as light as possible.
00:18:30I will give the subject every consideration, but having made up my mind as to what is right, I am
00:18:36just the boy to stick to it.
00:18:40The previous governor, Charles Latrobe, had tried to introduce an export duty on gold.
00:18:46Only successful miners would have paid the tax.
00:18:49Seeing it as the thin edge of the wedge, the squatters and merchants killed it off.
00:18:55With protest growing, Latrobe halved the licence fee.
00:19:00The cost became two pounds for three months, about the price of a pair of digger's boots.
00:19:10The world had very little experience of running a large-scale, free gold film.
00:19:15I mean, California was the first on any scale in the whole world and that was only found in 1848.
00:19:20Then come the Australian gold films in 1851.
00:19:22It's still a very new, a very difficult administrative task.
00:19:27They had no precedence to learn from.
00:19:30This was the system Hotham inherited.
00:19:32He knew it needed fixing, but that would take time, and time was running out.
00:19:38Increasing numbers of diggers were avoiding the licence,
00:19:41exacerbating the colony's financial problems.
00:19:44And for Hotham, an even bigger issue was at stake.
00:19:48So long the law, however obnoxious and unpopular it may be, remains in force,
00:19:55obedience must be rendered or government is at an end.
00:19:59After Hotham's tour of the gold fields, expectations were raised that he would abolish the gold licence.
00:20:05He did the opposite, ordering licence checks up from once a month to twice a week.
00:20:12The executive was doubtless induced to adopt this course in the interests of law and order,
00:20:18but no greater mistake could have been made.
00:20:23The notorious practice of searching for unlicensed miners with an armed force was termed the digger hunt.
00:20:50The troopers were disgusted like bloodhounds in all directions to beat the bush.
00:20:57Anyone who in old England went fox hunting can understand the detestable sport we had then on the gold fields
00:21:04of Victoria.
00:21:08The digger hunts were mostly carried out by the newly formed police forces.
00:21:13They included many ex-convicts from Tasmania, which had recently changed its name from Van Diemen's Land.
00:21:20There was no love lost between the diggers and these Vandemonians, as they like to call them.
00:21:27Get a tolerable young pig, make it stand on his hind legs, put on its head a cap, trimmed with
00:21:35a gold lace,
00:21:36whitewash its snout, and there you have the ass in the form of a pig.
00:21:41I mean to say a policeman.
00:21:44There's a sense in which the hard-working population has lost faith in the people who are organizing them.
00:21:54And after the stepping up of the license hunts, things start to go badly wrong.
00:22:03The situation only needed a spark to explode.
00:22:07It came on the 7th of October, 1854.
00:22:12Two men.
00:22:14Older friends named Scobie and Martin.
00:22:17After many years' separation, happen to meet each other in a Ballarat.
00:22:21They call in at the Eureka Hotel, on their way home, intending to have a finishing glass.
00:22:27They knock at the door, and are refused admittance.
00:22:30They proceed on their way, not perhaps without the usual colonial salutations.
00:22:37At about 50 yards from the hotel, they hear a noise behind them, and retrace their steps.
00:22:43They are met by persons unknown, who inflict blows on them, which render one insensible and the other lifeless.
00:22:53Witnesses claimed they saw Scobie attacked by the hotel owner, James Bentley.
00:22:58He was one of the despised Vandemonians, and his hotel was seen as a hangout for corrupt officials and police.
00:23:06Bentley was arrested and brought to trial.
00:23:09He was acquitted by a police magistrate who arranged Bentley's hotel license, and was later sacked by Hotham.
00:23:16When the bench found Bentley not guilty, when he patently was implicated in the death of Scobie, this caused the
00:23:27blood of the diggers to boil.
00:23:29A large crowd of angry diggers gathered outside Bentley's Eureka Hotel.
00:23:35The men, ripe for mischief, and incited by inflammatory harangue, they gathered tumultuously about the hotel, took possession of a
00:23:45range of buildings, and commenced to demolish the windows and woodwork.
00:23:50A cry of fire is raised, a horse shines, and causes a commotion.
00:23:55Smoke is seen to issue from one of the wounds on the ground floor.
00:23:58Police try to extinguish the flames, but it's too late.
00:24:01Hip, hip, hurrah!
00:24:02These are the universal shadow.
00:24:04The entire diggers are in a state of extreme excitement.
00:24:09The diggers are lords and the masters of Ballarat.
00:24:12And the prestige of the camp is gone forever.
00:24:17Soldiers remained as quiet spectators during these proceedings.
00:24:23The general feeling amongst us was that had those in command made prompt use of the force at hand the
00:24:31hotel might have been seen.
00:24:33And of more serious importance was that a check would have been thus given to the most unscrupulous of the
00:24:41disaffected, whose avowed design was to cause an open rupture with the government.
00:24:47The man in charge of the troops was the Ballarat Goldfields commissioner, Robert Reed.
00:24:53And Reed is stained by that. He's lost control of his field. He's got to prove to the governor that
00:25:01he's still to be reckoned with.
00:25:05The riot at Bentley's hotel was a wake-up call to Hotham. For the first time the diggers had used
00:25:11physical force.
00:25:13He ordered a new trial for Bentley and also arrested three alleged ringleaders of the riot.
00:25:24Events were now moving fast. Within weeks of the burning down of Bentley's hotel, a large protest meeting was held
00:25:32on Bakery Hill.
00:25:33The Ballarat Reform League was born. A charter of claims was drawn up that went beyond the abolition of the
00:25:41gold license.
00:25:42The diggers wanted access to the farming lands controlled by the squatters. And they wanted the vote.
00:25:49Here were large numbers of miners who'd never voted in their lives. Many of them had never addressed a public
00:25:55meeting or a crowd in their lives.
00:25:57And here they were gathering together and setting up a very articulate and often very justified protest movement.
00:26:05Hotham was under increasing pressure to act. He set up a commission of inquiry to look into all aspects of
00:26:11the Goldfields administration.
00:26:13This commission will inquire into everything and everybody, high and low, rich and poor, and you have only to come
00:26:21forward and state your grievances and, in what relates to me, they shall be redressed.
00:26:31Bentley was found guilty of the manslaughter of James Scobie and sentenced to three years hard labour.
00:26:38The ringleaders of the riot were also found guilty and given minimum sentences ranging from three to six months.
00:26:49The Reform League was incensed. A deputation was set up to meet the governor. They debated a crucial issue.
00:26:56Would they petition or demand the release of the prisoners? They chose to demand, carried by a single vote.
00:27:06Here's the Ballarat mining population coming with a demand. So the language is a very different language.
00:27:15And in fact, there's a threat that's implied. And that is that if the administration doesn't listen to the legitimate
00:27:23demands of the diggers, then they will seek to overthrow the prerogative of the government and replace it with the
00:27:32royal prerogative of the people.
00:27:34This is very much a Republican threat.
00:27:41The deputation from the Ballarat Reform League met with Hotham on Monday the 27th of November.
00:27:47They were a week away from insurrection. It was the last chance for peace. But demanding the release of the
00:27:55prisoners was a stumbling block.
00:27:57You are absolutely taking the law into your own hands. You are setting aside the most important principle of the
00:28:04British Constitution. I cannot depart from the verdict of the jury.
00:28:10If Hotham had given in to popular demands, calling for him to take no notice of a jury decision, Hotham,
00:28:19when the news reached London, would have been in very bad favour.
00:28:23The deputation pressed Hotham on a range of other grievances, the most important being the issue of representation.
00:28:32Responsible government was well on the way and was being introduced at the time of Eureka.
00:28:39The new Victorian Constitution, which would give the diggers the vote, had in fact been sent to London eight months
00:28:45earlier.
00:28:47Its passage through the British Parliament had been delayed by the Crimean War.
00:28:51The new constitution is but question of four or five months, and you may depend upon it that the government
00:28:57will be compelled by the nature of things to put the digger in that position which, in my judgement, he
00:29:04ought to be in.
00:29:06If the new constitution passes, a new state of things exists here.
00:29:14Hotham's promises about the future fell on deaf ears.
00:29:18The diggers just wanted their mates out of jail.
00:29:21The deputation was going back to Ballarat empty handed.
00:29:31Hotham ordered reinforcements to be sent.
00:29:34They arrived at dusk, on Tuesday the 28th of November.
00:29:39The next day, the deputation addressed another mass meeting on Bakery Hill.
00:29:43There was a very strong split that occurred in the Ballarat Reform League.
00:29:50On one side were the moderates, the Moral Force faction, led by the Welsh lawyer and Chartist, John Humphrey.
00:29:57Mr Humphrey calmly made us understand that Sir Charles was with us and was determined to put an end to
00:30:06our grievances.
00:30:07Three hearty cheers were given for the new Jama governor, amid the discharging of several guns and pistols.
00:30:15I believed in Mr Humphrey, and was at all his meetings round the stomp, where he advised us all to
00:30:21go home and keep quiet.
00:30:23Well, I and my mates did so, and I'm quite certain if all hands had taken the wise counsels of
00:30:30Mr Humphrey, it would have been of much advantage to those present.
00:30:33On the other side were the supporters of men like Timothy Hayes, an Irishman who rejected Moral Force in favor
00:30:41of physical force.
00:30:43Timothy Hayes spoke like a man as follows.
00:30:48Gentlemen, should any member of the League be dragged to the lockup for not having the license, will 4,000
00:30:56of you volunteer to march up to the camp and open the lockup to liberate the man?
00:31:00Yes! Yes! Yes! The clamor was really deafening.
00:31:06Are you ready to die?
00:31:09Shout out, our worthy chairman, stretching forth his right hand, clenched all the while.
00:31:17Are you ready to die?
00:31:22Yes! Yes! Hurrah!
00:31:28Yes! Yes! Hurrah!
00:31:35Designing orators and anarchists were enabled to play upon the feelings of the miners and work them to the pitch
00:31:41they long desired, and the cry of abolish the license fee united an amount of sympathy and gave them a
00:31:48command of physical force which they could destroy.
00:31:49could not otherwise have procured no doubt the masses confined themselves to
00:31:56this one point not so the leaders nothing short of the overthrow of the
00:32:00government would have satisfied them and a march on Melbourne would have been the
00:32:05result of victory I marched in single file with the others at the bakery
00:32:11hell maiden and burnt my license we discovered afterwards that some of the
00:32:16calling on to bear their old licenses and kept the ones currently in use but we
00:32:21destroyed the genuine ones the goldfields commissioner at Ballarat
00:32:25Robert Reed still smarting from his humiliation at the riot at Bentley's
00:32:30hotel was determined to confront the diggers I am convinced the welfare of
00:32:35the state depends on the crushing of this movement I propose sending out for
00:32:39unlicensed miners tomorrow in the usual way this will test the feelings of the
00:32:51people
00:32:52Reed's license hunt got the desired result shots were fired prisoners were taken
00:32:59and the goldfields were left in uproar
00:33:07the heated blood of the diggers was not allowed to cool after this last raid for
00:33:12within an hour the rebel flag was hoisted on a tall staff on bakery hill in full view of
00:33:19the camp about 500 armed men gathered under the flag of the southern cross at the vital moment the
00:33:28leadership mysteriously went missing and the previously unknown Peter Lawler stepped
00:33:39forward
00:33:39was a recent immigrant who came from an Irish Catholic family steeped in the
00:33:44nationalist struggle his father had opposed the payment of land taxes and his
00:33:49oldest brother fought in the failed uprising of 1848 the family was a family
00:33:56that had thought about government and oppression had thought about government and just taxation had
00:34:02thought about issues of representation and had thought about armed rebellion
00:34:10we swear by the flag of the southern cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our
00:34:22rights and liberties
00:34:26500 right hands stretched towards the flag the vividness of double the number of eyes
00:34:33electrified by the magnetism of the southern cross was one of those grand sites such as are recorded
00:34:40only in the histories of a crusader in Palestine
00:34:51after the swearing of the oath the rebels marched off to the Eureka diggings where they built a stockade
00:34:56they started drilling and preparing military plans
00:35:01one mustn't walk away from the romance that's attached to the idea of a stockade and a raised flag and
00:35:10men together a garrison of noble souls
00:35:16in 1848 a revolutionary firmament was in the air and many of the major cities in Europe had had a
00:35:21series of revolutions
00:35:22and it's fair to say that some of the people on Ballarat and they tended to become leaders
00:35:29had revolutionary intentions they were a very small minority although in the end I think they were influential
00:35:36I went up to love and at the moment he saw me he took me by the hand
00:35:40saying I want you senior tell these gentlemen if they cannot provide themselves with firearms
00:35:47let each of them procure a piece of steel five or six inches long attached to a pole and that
00:35:54will
00:35:54pierce the tyrants hearts they didn't know what they were doing they're just so angry that the way
00:36:02they've been treated and the way they continue to be treated that they rushed to the stockade
00:36:10once the stockade was built life on the Ballarat goldfields was paralyzed food was running out law and order
00:36:19was breaking down
00:36:28bands of marauders infested the outskirts of the goldfield rendering travel unsafe the assistant gold commissioner came in
00:36:37some days previous his life being threatened by the mob
00:36:42a crisis was approaching and desired in fact for the situation had become intolerable for several nights
00:36:51none of us had undressed and indeed scarcely slept at all the alarms were so perpetual by the evening of
00:36:59saturday the second of december there were fifteen hundred armed men in the stockade
00:37:03but during the night most of them left
00:37:07only about 120 men were in the enclosure
00:37:12by what cause and by whose orders the others had left I cannot say
00:37:17some believed the government would not attack on the sabbath
00:37:21others had a change of heart
00:37:23some just got drunk
00:37:26meanwhile a force of nearly three hundred soldiers and police was preparing to attack
00:37:33an ominous and oppressive silence brooded over the deserted workings
00:37:38the people seemed in awe of some impending calamity
00:37:44there is a glamour to blood amongst people who have not fully experienced it's it's horrors that
00:37:53there there is a sense to which blood consecrates
00:38:10my dear alicia
00:38:13should i fall
00:38:15i beseech you by your love for me
00:38:19to shed but a single tear on the grave of one who died in the cause of honor and liberty
00:38:28and then forget me until we meet in heaven
00:38:33farewell
00:38:46the moon had now gone down and the stars were twinkling coldly in the gray of approaching dawn
00:38:53while not a breath stirred
00:39:06our eyes were strained eagerly toward the eureka workings away beyond the valley and immersed in the shade of warren
00:39:14he
00:39:14the pyramidal mountain which cut the horizon to the east
00:39:18when a single shot was heard
00:39:21telling us that there was a real collision at last and that the turning point had arrived
00:39:30the point of attack was well defended by the rebels and their fire as simultaneous as that of drilled troops
00:39:40its severity caused the queen's infantry to waver
00:39:44and many of them held back especially the roar recruits who were mere boys
00:39:51on discovering the smallness of our numbers we would have retreated but it was then too late
00:39:56as almost immediately the military poured in volleys on musketry
00:40:01which was a plain intimation we must sell our lives as dearly as we could
00:40:07here begins a foul deed
00:40:11worthy of the devils and devils they were
00:40:20the accursed troopers were now within the stockade
00:40:24many insurgents outnumbered and unable to retreat were literally butchered by the troops when they broke
00:40:30into the stockade
00:40:38how yelling was horrible
00:40:44innocent as well as guilty was shot down for satan
00:40:53where in the first heat of the conflict few prisoners were made
00:40:57and it was a scene of indiscriminate slaughter
00:41:05and thus within 20 minutes
00:41:08the entire space within the stockade
00:41:11was in possession of the troops
00:41:16horrible sight
00:41:18all the quaketers
00:41:20crippled with shots
00:41:21the gore patrulling from the bayonet wounds
00:41:23the claws and flesh burning all the wild
00:41:30the tears of choke in my eyes
00:41:32i cannot speak further
00:41:36then generally when let loose upon an enemy are not angels
00:41:41and after having been subjected for so long a period to the taunts
00:41:45cheers and insulting epithets of the miners
00:41:49they should not be greatly blamed if when chance offered
00:41:53they somewhat exceeded the bounds of humanity and wiping out the score
00:42:04my thanks and the thanks of all the world disposed of this community
00:42:10are due to the officers and men of that small band
00:42:14they crushed an extensive plot
00:42:18they proved that masses are not to be dreaded where discipline and military confidence prevail
00:42:28about 30 diggers had been killed and many more wounded
00:42:32the exact numbers are not known because no official list of the dead and wounded was ever compiled
00:42:38peter lawler had managed to escape and was in hiding
00:42:43seriously wounded in the shoulder his arm was later amputated
00:42:47five soldiers were killed and 12 wounded
00:42:50about 120 people were taken prisoner but most were soon released
00:42:59within days six thousand citizens of melbourne gathered outside
00:43:03st paul's cathedral to protest against hotham and the government
00:43:07similar demonstrations sprang up around the colony
00:43:11hotham ignored advice and pushed ahead with the charges of high treason against 13 ringleaders
00:43:18garbony was the first to be tried
00:43:21gentlemen on the saturday you find them behind a stockade consisting of a few slabs thrown up in a few
00:43:28hours does that show you an intention of deposing our majesty from a royal crown and dignity does it not
00:43:35rather show you that it was the people resisting aggression upon them in the shape of digger hunting
00:43:42you may make it a riot if it was then i tell you that this is not high treason
00:43:52the jury was persuaded that eureka was more a riot than a revolution it pronounced carboni not guilty
00:44:09so transparent was the determination of the jury that after raffaello's acquittal it became a subject
00:44:15for discussion whether the trial should be proceeded with it was urged that justice was held up to
00:44:20derision and mockery and it would be most prudent to desist but in this opinion i could not share
00:44:25if juries would not do their duty i could discover no reason why i should not do mine
00:44:33hotham pressed on with the other trials one by one the juries refused to convict
00:44:42with public opinion against him he was forced to grant general amnesty to the eureka rebels in hiding
00:44:49once the trials had failed to get the convictions that really would have justified what he'd done
00:45:00and once the melbourne people had pillared him for what had happened at eureka he was lost
00:45:10and that loneliness of office would have been very destructive
00:45:21in march 1855 hotham's commission of inquiry into the goldfields handed down its findings
00:45:28the hated license was replaced by a miner's right costing only one pound a year
00:45:35revenue lost would be made up through an export duty on gold the inquiry also recommended that the goldfields
00:45:43commission should be entirely abolished
00:45:54as soon as the gold commission was removed they ran their own society with great skin
00:45:59and ballarat became a almost a model urban community
00:46:08in a brief space confidence began to be restored and the whole diggings appeared to be invested with new
00:46:15life the rattle of the windlass was again heard and the old motley throng poured unceasingly along the thoroughfares
00:46:23diggings over the banner to get in the book about the eureka stockade written by the man who was there
00:46:29who saw it all happen raffaello carboni
00:46:31carboni returned to the goldfields to find all his belongings had been stolen
00:46:36on the first anniversary of eureka he was out selling his eyewitness account at the site of the stockade
00:46:43carboni then returned to it
00:46:52in november 1855 two giant steps towards democracy were taken
00:47:01victoria's new constitution had finally arrived and was officially proclaimed
00:47:07but it would take another year to organize the elections for the new parliament
00:47:10government so an interim government was formed
00:47:18diggers holding a miner's right were now qualified to vote and they jumped at the chance
00:47:25they elected john humphrey and peter lawler
00:47:30lawler went on to a glittering political career holding several ministries and later becoming speaker
00:47:38it was like the incongruity of a dream to see one on whom only a few months back a price
00:47:44was set now
00:47:45sauntering quietly along the streets with all the aplomb of a senator conspicuous by his empty sleeve
00:47:52and to mark how the fussy politicians of the hour plied him with insidious doses of the aura
00:47:59popularis impelled by a patriotic sense of favors in reserve
00:48:08within a year of the eureka stockade lawler said that perhaps eureka had been rather rash
00:48:17it was probably the constitutional reforms which gave him the feeling
00:48:24this society is flexible and it can be worked by constitutional means
00:48:35on the day the new constitution was proclaimed hotham returned from the celebrations and wrote a dispatch
00:48:41to the colonial office he said that his health was suffering and he wished to hand in his resignation
00:48:49there's some suggestion that hotham is becoming slightly mentally unhinged that might be too strong
00:48:57a word for it but but he's he's certainly under great emotional pressure i have had tirades of abuse
00:49:09but i have stood firm
00:49:13i've settled the gold question and obtained from an export duty a revenue of three hundred thousand
00:49:21pounds per annum in short i have settled everything but the land question which is too long and sorry to
00:49:29explain and i shall hand over the government to a responsible ministry under the new constitution
00:49:35in a capital condition
00:49:41it annoys me to hear this government who've done their best to thwart and oppose me now comparing
00:49:46our state with that of new south wales and the colonies and saying how superior in every way it is
00:49:52when i found them in disorder unable to extricate themselves and was in point of fact sent here
00:49:57because only a straightforward sailor would tackle them without favor fear or affection
00:50:03it is a vile hole and i shall never like it
00:50:09on the 31st of december 1855 hotham sank into a coma and died it was two weeks before his 50th
00:50:18birthday
00:50:19and barely a year after the eureka stockade
00:50:23an honest man and an englishman came to victoria to make the crooked straight
00:50:28but wanting the sympathetic eye he could not see his likeness anywhere and so he failed
00:50:37i think hotham was sensitive enough to know that the new age that was coming in victoria
00:50:46wasn't something that he could understand
00:51:08moreover another famous discovery was made namely that instead of the government
00:51:15squabbling with the people it was far better to let them squabble amongst themselves hence the
00:51:21creation of local courts mining boards and municipalities on the gold fields which besides
00:51:27their proper purposes served as useful vents for the surplus energy of the crowd while the general
00:51:35undercurrent of progress rolled on regardless of surface straws and eddies nourishing healthy organization
00:51:52so
00:52:10Every political party at some time or other has claimed Eureka as a special shrine, a
00:52:14special lamp.
00:52:15After all, conservatives can say, well, here's a protest by ordinary people at unjust taxation.
00:52:20People far on the left can say people had to resort to arms to get justice.
00:52:25We applaud that.
00:52:26All kinds of messages can be plucked out of that one dramatic and exciting event.
00:52:32What it seems to me is worth emphasizing is that Eureka was the birthplace of social democracy.
00:52:40The community has a catharsis and the energy of the people takes them forward to believe
00:52:49in themselves.
00:52:50And it senses that the right to rule of the gentry types has been discredited.
00:53:14I can understand some people saying that the anniversary of Eureka Stockade should be our
00:53:19national day.
00:53:20Many of them would no doubt see the raising of the republican flag as a pivotal event in
00:53:25Australian history.
00:53:26And maybe if we do become a republic Eureka, we'll have more significance.
00:53:30But we've got one of the oldest democracies in the world and it's based on government
00:53:35by debate, government by discussion.
00:53:37We shouldn't be too keen on remembering an event which put the emphasis on government by
00:53:42force.
00:53:48I think we're lucky that most of us have never been put in a situation in our lives
00:53:54in Australia where we believe that physical force is the only answer.
00:54:00We are fortunate in that there always seems an answer that is constitutional to our major
00:54:08problems and for that reason alone we're a blessed nation.
00:55:21I can assure you, we had quite a bit of Verve Clicko that night to celebrate.
00:55:25Cricket in the 60s, 9.20 Tuesday.
00:55:28He's out!
00:55:29We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a
00:55:37Happy New Year.
00:55:39Join Maggie and Simon as they prepare a Christmas feast.
00:55:42You don't have to wait for Christmas for this, do you?
00:55:44Full of old favourites.
00:55:46I've got parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
00:55:48Oh, that's Christmas.
00:55:50And the odd surprise.
00:55:51It should have worked, Maggie, but it's a stroke of genius.
00:55:54The Cook and the Chef.
00:55:55It's kind of jolly, isn't it?
00:55:576.30 Wednesday, ABC.
00:56:00Two new albums celebrating the glories of the human voice.
00:56:06ABC Classic FM Choir of the Year, including all six state finalists and Choir of the Year, Beryl Lee Blokes.
00:56:14And a two-CD collection of best-loved recordings from the divine Yvonne Kenney.
00:56:21The divine Yvonne Kenney and Choir of the Year, CDs available now from ABC Shops, ABC Centres, retailers and online.
00:56:29Two comedy legends.
00:56:31A toilet humour has its place, of course, in the toilet.
00:56:34But their lives.
00:56:35This is ridiculous.
00:56:36When no laughing matter.
00:56:37You have never, not for one moment, valued me.
00:56:39Tonight.
00:56:40Is there anything you're not good at?
00:56:42Failure.
00:56:42An outrageous premiere.
00:56:44What do you constantly belittle me?
00:56:45Starring Reese Evans.
00:56:47He is incapable of human feeling.
00:56:49True story of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.
00:56:52Not only, but always.
00:56:54Finished.
00:56:55My pleasure.
00:56:56Ow!
00:56:569.05 Tonight, ABC.
00:56:58Be se posterou.
00:57:03Oh.
00:57:05hydra.
00:57:11Ah.
00:57:15Ah.
00:57:17Ah.
00:57:18Ah.
00:57:18Ah.
00:57:19Ah.
00:57:19Ah.
00:57:20Ah.
00:57:21Ah.
00:57:21Ah.
00:57:21Ah.
00:57:57Tonight at the movies, James Bond's first mission with Casino Royale.
00:58:02Philip K. Dick's visionary paranoia piece makes it to the big screen, A Scanner Darkly.
00:58:07And Lars von Trier is up to his old tricks with Mandalay.
00:58:12Good evening.
00:58:13Hi.
00:58:14We also look back at an Australian film pioneer with Hunt Angels.
00:58:18And documentarian George Gittos picks up from where Soundtrack to War left off with his latest Rampage.
00:58:25But first, Margaret will get things underway.
00:58:28I certainly will.
00:58:29Let's go to the latest in what must surely be the longest running franchise in cinema history, the Bond films.
00:58:36It's Casino Royale with British actor Daniel Craig as James Bond at the start of his career, earning his 00
00:58:44status at the beginning of the film in stark monochrome.
00:58:47And then the action begins.
00:58:49The chase is on.
00:58:50It seems that the banker to so-called freedom fighters, a.k.a. terrorists, is one Le Chiffre, played by
00:58:58the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen.
00:58:59He's invested his clients' funds riskily.
00:59:03Needing to recoup $150 million, this mathematics genius decides to gamble all on a high-stakes poker game at the
00:59:11Casino Royale in Montenegro.
00:59:13Against Bond, of course.
00:59:16Bond is funded by the British Treasury to the tune of 15 million pounds.
00:59:21The delivery person and holder of the purse strings is Vesper Lind, Eva Green.
00:59:26She is not your classic bikini-clad Bond woman, but she's a babe.
00:59:31$10 million was wired to your account in Montenegro, with a contingency for five more if I deem it a
00:59:36prudent investment.
00:59:38I suppose you've given some thought to the notion that if you lose, our government will have directly financed terrorism.
00:59:46This is a much more serious Bond than we've seen in many years.
00:59:49Daniel Craig inhabits the dark side of the secret agent really well.
00:59:53He's absolutely the best Bond since Connery.
00:59:56There are a few tongue-in-cheek moments, but there's no real sense of self-conscious spoof.
01:00:01The action scenes are excitingly staged by director Martin Campbell, maybe a bit too prolonged, as is the film itself,
01:00:08at nearly two and a half hours running time.
01:00:11My one quibble with the film is the casting of Eva Green as Vesper.
01:00:15She's gorgeous to look at, but not totally convincing as a performer.
01:00:19David?
01:00:19I thought she was fine.
01:00:20You're just swayed by a pretty face, David.
01:00:23No, I like talent too, and I think she's got talent.
01:00:25But no, I think it's interesting, this Bond film, because first of all, there's no queue, and there's no money
01:00:31penny, and there's really no wisecracks.
01:00:33There's a couple of jokes, but not too many.
01:00:37So it's a very different, as you say, a very different tone.
01:00:39But what I found really intriguing was this is the second film of the first book, and the first one
01:00:43was a spoof in the 60s.
01:00:46But this goes to the trouble of showing Bond becoming a double-O agent by killing someone.
01:00:52Now, why do that at this late stage of the game?
01:00:55I couldn't quite see the point in including that, given that we're in a world of, you know, mobile phones
01:01:01and surveillance things, you know, all sorts of high-tech, super high-tech stuff.
01:01:04It just seemed an odd kind of way to start the film, to me.
01:01:08Except that those, I mean, normally with a Bond film, you get this sort of, like, wonderful, exhilarating chase spectacular
01:01:14at the beginning of the film.
01:01:16And this is sort of like this really dark, ugly little moment in his life.
01:01:20In black and white, yeah.
01:01:20Yeah, I thought it was an interesting way to start.
01:01:23And interesting, too, is the way they use the Bond theme, the music, because the little hints of it through
01:01:27the film really only comes into its own at the end.
01:01:30Now, look, I think this is a very intelligent film for a Bond film, and certainly one of the most
01:01:36enjoyable in some time.
01:01:36And Daniel Craig is exceedingly sexy.
01:01:38I do feel I've got to say that.
01:01:40I thought he was, I don't know about sexy, but I thought he was pretty effective.
01:01:42So I'm giving it four.
01:01:44So am I.
01:01:45Four stars.
01:01:46I'm Mr. Arlington Beach, professional gambler, and you're Miss Stephanie Broadchester.
01:01:51I am not.
01:01:52You're going to have to trust me on this.
01:01:53Oh, no, I don't.
01:01:55We've been involved for quite a while.
01:01:58Hence the shared suite.
01:02:00But my family is strict Roman Catholic, so for appearances' sake, it'll be a two-bedroom suite.
01:02:05I do hate it when religion comes between us.
01:02:09Religion is securely locked door.
01:02:11Am I going to have a problem with you, Bond?
01:02:13No.
01:02:14Don't worry.
01:02:14You're not my type.
01:02:16Smart?
01:02:18Single.
01:02:21Cassini Royale will open absolutely everywhere in Australia next week.
01:02:25And now to Ascana Darkly.
01:02:27In eight years' time, it seems, America's war on drugs has become linked with its war on terror.
01:02:33Bob Arctur, Keanu Reeves, is a reluctant undercover cop who's ordered to spy on his friends.
01:02:39They include Jim Barris, Robert Downey Jr.
01:02:42Anyone entering the house while we are gone today will receive a little surprise,
01:02:47a little something I perfected early this morning.
01:02:49What kind of surprise?
01:02:50It's my house, Jim.
01:02:51You should ask me before you start wiring up my house.
01:02:55His other friends include Ernie Luckman, Woody Harrelson, and Donna Hawthorne, Winona Ryder.
01:03:00Well, that's weird.
01:03:01I didn't know you could get an 18-speed bike nearly new for $50.
01:03:04It's amazing what you can get for $50.
01:03:07I'll give you $60 right now, no questions asked.
01:03:09You know, this bike looks a lot like the bike that this girl who lives across the street from me
01:03:14had
01:03:14that got ripped off about a month ago.
01:03:16This bike could be hot.
01:03:18They probably jacked it, these hoister friends of yours.
01:03:21Sure they did.
01:03:21I mean, if they've got four and selling it that cheap.
01:03:23Right?
01:03:24You should at least show it to her so she can see if it's hers.
01:03:27Yeah.
01:03:28Okay, I can do that.
01:03:29But this is a boy's bike, okay?
01:03:31So it can't be.
01:03:32Not to...
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