Author(s): Geoff Hocking (Designed by)

Ballarat History

Eureka! is a richly illustrated history which documents the events leading up to the attack on the stockade, built by disaffected diggers on the Eureka diggings near Ballarat, by the combined forces of the 12th and 40th Regiments of the British Army, the goldfield's police and troopers in the pre-dawn of 3 December 1854.Diggers, angry at the corruption of goldfields' administration and continued harassment by police in pursuit of the much-hated license fee, had banded together to resist, and defend themselves, in a crudely built stockade on the Eureka diggings.They erected a bush pole in the centre of the stockade and flew the Diggers' Banner, a flag of blue cloth on which a white cross and five stars representing the Southern Cross had been sewn. Short-lived though the rebellion was, the results of the battle at the Eureka Stockade were far-reaching - giving birth to the desire for true democracy in the nascent Australian nation.Author Geoff Hocking has brought together artworks, historical photographs, newspaper illustrations and contemporary graphics to tell the story of Australia's first and only armed insurrection by free men.Second, paperback, edition.