Feature History - Eureka Stockade

this video was brought to you by skill chair get your first two months of skill share for free using the offer code on screen or in the description hello and welcome to Fiji s3 featuring some local flavor for once because I'm covering Victorian history in the 19th century my home state would experience one of the world's largest gold rushes and with the rush came a deluge of financial social and political hurdles that left the early colony forever changed democracy equality and the birth of the Australian identity all started on the gold fields of Victoria and if that sounds like a good tale well pull up a chair crack open a VB or for the students I don't know what pop top and listen in for the story of the Eureka Stockade history about Australia typically starts on the 26th of January 1788 when the colony of New South Wales was established on the continent many how we're not here to talk about boring States we're talking about Victoria so it was on the 1st of July 1851 that the colony of Victoria would separate from New South Wales situated in the South East the colony was already home to many settlements such as their capital of Melbourne but in Victoria's early history Melbourne wasn't the main focus because only a month after the establishment of the colony gold would be discovered in Ballarat roughly a hundred kilometers out of the capital shortly after that reports came out of Bendigo as well and just like that the Victorian Gold Rush had begun Brits Europeans Americans all began to flood into Victoria the population of the colony before the gold rush sat just shy of a hundred thousand but by 1861 it would be over half a million mass migration introduced a lot of new ideas and issues into Victoria many of the Westerners brought in beliefs of democracy and liberalism and there would also be many non Westerners entering the colony over 40,000 migrants would be Chinese and the presence of this many foreigners wasn't so welcomed the gold fields of Bendigo and Ballarat turned into massive tent cities filled with hundreds of ethnicities and languages diggers from all over the world now mining into Victorian land the lieutenant governor Charles the tribe would seek to address this issue however rather than restricting immigration it was decided the diggers would be taxed a mandatory miners license was introduced in September 1851 costing 30 shillings a month it was punishing to dicuss many had fought to the goldfields because of the potential for wealth but all those diggers lived off peanuts 30 shillings was ridiculous but regardless more and more continue to dig leaving their jobs their families and their nation's gold fields tent cities turned into towns and the gold would be finding its way back to the British government and the city of Melbourne but even with the immense amount of wealth running through Victoria many diggers continue to struggle and the Victorian government's Treasury was mega the police would begin to crack down on those digging illegally operating license hunts on the gold fields if the digger didn't have their license on them they'd be subject to a five pound penalty on top of this many of the police were ex convicts from Van Diemen's land their policing was harsh and because they were awarded half the penalty the system was wide open to abuse oppressive license hunts became common and beatings and shootings on the goldfields went unheard of in December it was announced the license fee would be raised from 30 shillings to three quid it was this announcement that brought some diggers to start gathering arms the government quickly back pedaled on its plan but the damage was done as long as the filles hunts and penalties continued anything the government did could ignite the powder keg and it would be in June 1853 that that happened licensed Huns would be permitted to be carried out whenever and wherever and in response the miners of Bendigo United in the red-ribbon rebellion the dig is opposed to the gold licenses began to associate with the creatively named antique gold license Association they'd gather in protests across June and July turning out in the thousands their aim was to see the license fee reduced to ten shillings and if not they wouldn't pay at all they marked themselves with red ribbons and over 23 thousand miners would sign a petition to be presented to Governor Latrobe the government would react by sending out military to Bendigo which only agitated things further and in a protest on the 28th of August a number of the diggers would clash with the military now risking a possible armed conflict the troop would concede and announce the abolition of the - license on the 30th of August be that as it may the legends of Council would veto his decision and no change would be had Victoria had become too much for Latrobe he had been looking to step down since 1852 in his replacement Sir Charles Hotham finally arrived in May 1854 Hotham reluctantly took on the post as he'd have to work a miracle to save victoria's finances his military background grouped him on wavering he wasn't going to be one - given to the diggers Hans first obstacle would be in Ballarat as on the 7th of October the miner James Scobie was murdered at Bentley's Eureka hotel James Bentley was the prime suspect but he was quickly acquitted by the magistrate the diggers were infuriated they saw this as a quick turnover by a corrupt magistrate the government took and took from him and when it came to receiving their rights to protection and fair trial they've been robbed thousands gathered to protest the magistrate's decision at the hotel protests turned to riot the Goldfield Commissioner Robert Reed and his men were powerless to stop the destruction Bentley and his wife fled for their lives as the hotel burnt to the ground quickly after this a series of arrests were carried out on the gold fields and the miners hoped to respond by establishing a diggers Rights Society 10,000 men would gather at bakery Hill then over that established the Ballarat Reform League debate John Humphrey Humphrey was from Wales where he had been a part of the working-class charters a movement a movement that sought out workers rights and suffrage they present a series of requests to hop them and read lower the license fees lower penalty rates of the right to purchase land and a review of the harsh flora forcement father would launch a Royal Commission into the issue but in contrast reid would increase police presence on the Goldfield and send for reinforcements from melbourne in late November Humphrey would relay this to the diggers and the diggers decided to move towards open resistance a license hunt the next day would be run away by an angry mob Humphrey couldn't condone these actions and he was soon replaced by the more militant Peter Laidlaw under him the league took on a military structure complete with brigades and captains figures such as Raphael oka Boni recruited the diverse diggers into the movement as Timothy Hays and Henry Ross drilled miners in battle form Henry Ross would present to the league an Australian flag bearing a blue background adorned with the Southern Cross on the 1st of December diggers would take the Eureka oath a bakery Hill they swore by the Southern Cross to send truly by each other and to fight to defend their rights and liberties miners licences were piled and burned as his stockade was built around the area to protect the diggers from the police and military on their way to arrest them the reinforcements from Melbourne would be at the stockade any day now and so the diggers stuck by their guns as they awaited the enemy ignoring Humphreys calls for peace however as the movement had become more militant and more radical it had begun to lose sight independence war and treason was not in the mind of many diggers and as doubt said in diggers began to leave the stockade those who remain continued to operate as usual they drank and enjoyed the Saturday night and looked to rest on the Sunday morning the Sabbath spies would relay this to the Queen's forces and so 250 soldiers and police would approach the stockade at 3 in the morning on the 3rd of December to this day it's not clear which side opened fire first but what is known is the battle was brutal and quick the lesson 200 men in the stockade were overrun in roughly 10 minutes many diggers attempted to flee or surrender the violence persisted Henry Ross had been shot dead at the foot of the flagpole and the Southern Cross flag was torn down lay law had been shot at the arm and only barely managed to take refuge from the Melbourne forces the police and soldiers would suffer 6 casualties to be 22 rebels they had killed and a hundred and fourteen diggers were taken prisoner martial law would be quickly introduced in Ballarat an armed resistance had been stomped out 13 diggers would be brought to trial in February 1855 and charged with high treason of these men were haze and cat bony through a clever defense team and a lot of positive coverage from the newspapers the prosecutors struggled to convict these 30 men juries were changed witnesses were told evidence was presented but no one in Melbourne would agree to convict these men the Yurika 13 were all acquitted public opinion had turned to sympathize with the diggers and when Hotham Royal Commission returned a verdict it echoed that effect the gold licences were abolished replaced with miners rights and export fees police presence was produced and the legends of counsel was expanded to represent the goldfields Peter Laidlaw and John Humphrey would be elected in 1855 the ultimate consequence of the Eureka Stockade had to be in 1856 though with the creation of the Parliament of Victoria in that year the Electoral Act was introduced it mandated that all men whether landed or not would be granted suffrage in Victoria Australia had experienced a revolution not through force but through politics the Victorian Gold Rush had brought in many people from all over the world all with their own ideas and beliefs and through their shared struggle on the goldfields their values had become who posed on the colony the stockade had been a first step for a democratic Australia but it was still much to do women's suffrage was still absent the Chinese diggers had been rejected in favour of a white Australia and the indigenous people continue to be without riots or recognition Australia would have many more obstacles to overcome and challenges to answer in its history but it all started with the diggers in the Victorian Gold Fields now one of the fascinating parts of the diggers was how they found success many of the diggers went out to the gold fields on their own and only through their own determination in the right tools could they strike it rich these days it's quite the same with the amount of startups and freelancers on the internet a lot of people are determined to find their own success but they need the right tools that's where Skillshare comes in Skillshare is all about learning the skills you need to improve yourself and your work whether that be learning the software you'll use figuring out the resources you'll need or actually running the business I've personally been looking at brand strategy with Mac polit it's a great class about figuring out exactly how you can shape and run your own business so if you're interested in looking at that lesson or tens of thousands of other classes on Skillshare you can do just that by using the offer code on screen or in the description and getting your first two months of Skillshare for free as I've done for almost about two years now I'll give a thanks to the patrons and also to Thomas Curley Anil scrub Scott Smith Urmi resin Skyler Hagler let me know how you guys felt about me talking about Australian history for once and also something that was a little less about war I don't really know why I asked you to you probably would have told me anyway and other than that well who I suppose it's time for me to disappear for another little while hurry up I'm closing

Channel: Feature History

Views: 229,247

Rating: 4.9335785 out of 5

Keywords: Feature History, History, Education, Entertainment, Academic, Presentation, Eureka, Eureka Stockade, Battle of the Eureka Stockade, Sovereign Hill, Baker Hill, Ballarat, Bendigo, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Australian History, 19th Century, Victorian Goldrush, Gold Rush, Eureka Rebellion, Colonial, Peter Lalor, John Humffray, Charles La Trobe, Charles Hotham, Miners License, Diggers, Mining, Gold, Gold License, Chinese, Immigration, Suffrage, Equal Rights, Democracy, Politics, Eureka 13

Id: VpABMinKh60

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2018