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The Clare contribution to the Eureka Stockade. Michael Tuohy Another Clare man at the Eureka stockade, Michael Hanrahan leader of the Pikemen, his grandson Edmond, married Rene Carton, grand-niece of Michael Tuohy in the early 1930s. Michael Hanrahan.
In the second picture top right from left to right Mary, Joan, Fran, Brian, Peter, Patrick, Sr. Nora, Les and Margaret.
The English had been using Australia as a dumping ground for English criminals, but by the early 1800's many of the prisoners transported to Australia were political prisoners from Ireland with political aspirations for freedom from English rule. There were Irish Rebellions at Vinegar Hill. The name Vinegar Hill would later be used in the "Vinegar Hill" Convict revolt in Sydney in 1804 and also at the Eureka Stockade "Vinegar Hill" was the password.
Conditions were never very good in Ireland, especially for Roman Catholics. In 1778 there was a local movement to repel the Norman (French) invaders and assert Irish rights. Gardiner's Relief Act permitted Catholics to lease land if they took an oath of allegiance. In 1792 the Catholic Relief Act removed restrictions on what professions Catholics could work in and also lifted educational restrictions, they were given the right to vote in 1793, but had to be large landowners, which very few of them were.
In 1816 there was a partial failure of the potato crop and a further failure in 1822. The Catholic association was formed in 1823 to campaign for political and other rights.
The resounding electorial win of an Irish Lawyer, Daniel O'Connell who stood for County Clare in 1828 made the English Prime Minister and Duke of Wellington fear a violent insurrection in Ireland, if O'Connell did not take his seat in parliament. Before O'Connell was elected, there was no political representation of the Irish. Some of this religious prejudice goes to changes introduced by Henry VIII to change and rewrite the Bible so that the monarch is God's representative on Earth, not the Pope of Rome. The zealous religious conflicts often ended with a puritanical Cromwellian hatred and domination of Catholics. Some Catholic monarchs like "Bloody Mary," gave reasonable cause for a hated of Catholics who followed the Papal authority. "Bloody Mary" executed many who opposed her.
Many English Protestants opposed granting any sort of rights or equality to Catholics, but the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act allowed Catholics to hold most offices except Regent (King or Queen), Lord lieutenant and Lord Chancellor. The Irish however had more immediate concerns. In 1836 there was another potato famine.
The Great Irish Famine of 1846-50 took as many as one million lives from hunger and disease and convinced many that it was time for social change. The Potato Famine of 1846-1850 began with heavy rains which rotted the potato crop causing a blight of the entire potato crop that left acre upon acre of Irish farmland covered with smelling black rot. As harvests across Europe failed, the price of food soared. Reports passed down through the Hanrahan family were that they survived the famine by fishing as they lived near a Loch.
In 1848 during the Great Famine, there was an uprising in Tipperary which was easily suppressed and the leaders were transported. During the 1850s there were many demonstrations by Catholics for tenants rights, the Feinians started an insurrection which failed.
Michael Tuohy, another County Clare man from Scariff, (10km from where the Hanrahan's came from) also remembered the famine of 1847 and 1848 and helped to bury many of the unfortunate victims who died of starvation. To the end of his days Michael Tuohy had a bitter hatred of the tyrants who, through misgovernment, brought such terrible suffering on his fellow-countrymen. He never failed to impress on his listeners the fact that while his people were starving, shiploads of produce were leaving Ireland so that the absentee landlords might get their pound of flesh.
As well as Irish political prisoners being sent to Australia, some landlords paid for their tenants to emigrate, sending thousands of Irish to Australia. Irish immigration averaged 268,469 per year during the famine. But emigration was a risk filled venture, ship owners often crowded hundreds of desperate Irish onto rickety vessels called "coffin ships." In many cases, these ships reached port only after losing a third of their passengers to disease, hunger and other causes. Michael Hanrahan another Calre man had lived through difficult times for Catholics politically and the Great famine ( probably by fishing ) though the worst of the famine was mostly over by the time Michael Hanrahan emigrated. The English government heavily taxed alternative foods. The Corn Laws ensured that bread was very expensive even for the starving Irish, until Peel was able to repeal the Corn Laws and bread was more affordable. English feudal landlords were also reported to be squeezing people off their land for more profitable pursuits.
Emigration to Australian for the Goldrush. The Miles Barton which Michael Hanrahan arrived on in 1854 came out from Liverpool in 82 days.
The Miner's Licence allowed a miner to work a 12 foot square claim for 30 shillings a month ( a large sum at the time ).
A discount was available of three months for two pounds. Travel to buy the claim could involve two days walking.
The police would conduct licence hunts on the goldfields, chasing miners everywhere and jailing them for not having a miner's right and extorting up to $pound;5 for their release on bail. The gold commission and police authority, were both brutal and corrupt. The harsh Gold Commissioner, Robert Rede later presided over the hanging of Ned Kelly in 1880.
Both the miners on trial for treason and later Ned Kelly, had the same judge Redmond Barry, the miners were acquitted, but a 30 thousand signature petition to request Ned's release had no effect on the hanging judge, Redmond Barry, a philandering and harsh judge by some accounts. As Geoffry Blainey commented, we wouldn't remember Ned Kelly, if he ended up as Beechworth Mayor!
Charles Hotham, the governor of Victoria did not keep his promise to the miners and ordered police to step up the licence hunts to twice a week to recover revenue. After the wrongful arrests and convictions of miners for assault as well as the acquittal of the publican whose hotel police had illegally appropriated, Mr Bentley. If Lalor spirited Scobie out of Ballarat, Bentley is an innocent man framed to get his hotel. An angry mob burnt Bentley's hotel to the ground.
In this angry mob were police spies among the miners and the hotel itself was taken over by police who had custody of it when it was destroyed. Descendants of the Bentley are claiming compensation for the destruction of the Eureka Hotel and the illegal sale of their land by J.B Humffray in 1859. An account of the burning of Bentley's Hotel by William Gay. William Gay's description of Bentley's hotel fire.
Michael Tuohy arrived at the Ballarat Goldfields in 1854, after the easier to get alluvial surface gold had been taken over the previous few years. Alluvial gold is easily collected and panned at a stream, but after about 1854 with some exceptions, successful mining required sinking shafts to about 90 feet at "Gravel-pits". The underground leads were ancient alluvial gold in a fine clay layer. The deeper gold was also from ancient alluvial deposits mixed with clay and was mainly free of embedded quartz, Stamping batteries to crush quartz containing gold were almost unnecessary in early Ballarat until quartz mining started a few years later. The Americans made a steam engine driven quart crusher. Instead of deep lead quartz vein mining the mining was in ancient alluvial river beds amongst clay, but under basalt rock.
Mines at the Gravel-pits were "deep, dark and wet" and had to have the walls covered with planks of wood to prevent cave-ins. The clay between the alluvial wash was so fine that one miner Paul Brentani had requested permission from Rede to manufacture bricks from the fine clay at the Gravel-pits.
For a good example of this type of mine, visit Sovereign Hill. Tours of underground mines are available, The Red Hill mine No 14 is similar to mines at the Gravel-pits.
Carboni states that "superb masses" of gold were discovered at 60 ft at Canadian Gully, but that the Gravel-pits was "too deep" for him. That is where he said he found Hanrahan working a few weeks after the stockade at the Gravel Pits, but Carboni was in jail at the time? Carboni states that the Gravel Pits were close to the camp and had licence hunts every alternative day towards the end of October 1854. Generally the Irish were on the Eureka while English, Scotch and Germans worked on the Gravel Pits. The Gravel-pits may also have been a place of refuge. Carboni was not prepared to work there.
It seems that police (traps) did not look so closely for miners in deeper shafts at Gravel Pits. If we accept Carboni's account, Michael Hanrahan may have hidden in the Gravel Pits for months following the Stockade, we know his tent was destroyed and police would have been looking for him.
Quoting Carboni, conditions on the goldfields. "Mud water was one shilling a bucket! Got dysentery very bad. Too many mosquitoes. Went to live with the blacks for a vacation. Picked up pretty soon bits of their yabber-yabber. Hard work by day, blazing fire in the evening, and sound sleep by night at the music of drunken quarrels all around.
Unfortunately the Eureka Stockade miner's oath is empty rhetoric to most Australians who take their freedom and liberties for granted. The current Victorian Bracks/Brumby government has removed many fundamental legal and democratic rights; the Westminster doctrine of the separation of powers, free speech on race or religion, the defence of provocation to a murder charge, the right to cross-examine witness, freedom of movement around the state, error prone saliva testing to determine criminal guilt, academic corruption paid for by police and even the right to own private property has been attacked by the Victorian government. Premiers Bracks and Brumby make new laws on-the-run to remove ancient rights, but they have not done nothing to end Victoria Police corruption. The Miner's oath is not just old history, it is about values and freedoms the miners fought for and values which more than ever today in 2007, we should all be fighting to defending against repressive governments, like the current Victorian Labor party.
All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing. Michael Tuohy did not stand by and do nothing. If you cannot act yourself to stand together to defend our rights and liberties, support those who do raise their voice in protest at the Bracks/Brumby government's constant moves to abolish our rights and liberties.
1854 Speech to the "Monster Meeting" by Carboni and eyewitness who wrote The Eureka Stockade
Political changes contemplated by THE REFORM LEAGUE:
Carboni called this "worn out twaddle imported from old England". 150 years later on 11th November, this document was presented to and accepted by the Victorian parliament for the important place it has in early Australian history.
"The people demand", we do not petition and pray to be heard, we demand a Royal Commission into police corruption in Victoria in 2007 which Premier Brumby refuses to contemplate.
The Catholics and the Chartists were some of the main advocates of resisting the officials on the goldfields. The Chartists demanded votes for all males, secret ballots, annual parliaments, equal electoral districts, payment of MPs and the abolition of property qualifications for MPs.
A collection was made to defend the arsonists who burnt down the Eureka Hotel, McIntyre and Fletcher. Peter Lalor had inflamed the miners against James Bentley who was earlier acquitted of the murder of the alleged James Scobie. James Bentley wrote at the time that one of the main instigator's motivations against him, Peter Lalor's motive was to stop him selling legal alcohol so sly grog sellers could operate. Alcohol was illegal on the goldfields, though you could buy opium from a few of the Chinese stores which was called "comfort" by the miners and was also available in European style medicines such as Laudanum which Mr Bentley used to suicide on in 1873. Lalor is often vereated as the miner's leader, but in many ways he was imperfect as we all are. Once he was elected to parliament Ballarat was shocked to discover he voted against manhood sufferage and land reform bills.
There was also the sensitive issue of the Eureka Hotel trading on a Sunday which had caused riots in Britain. James Bentley's wife Catherine, wrote that James Bentley was set-up for the murder of a man named John Martin who was misrepresented to be James Scobie. The Bentley riot.
Centuries old religious indignation by the Irish greatly increased the chances of violence against a harsh and corrupt British colonial rule. On 25th October a deputation was later to meet Commissioned Robert Rede who labelled the miners deputation "The Tipperary Mob". There had been un uprising in Tipperary in 1848, so the term used by Rede showed he regarding them as being rebellious against British rule. They were really petitioning Rede to reopen the case of the Reverend Father Smythe's servant Johannes Gregorious who was arrested and beaten by Constable James Lord for failing to produce a licence, but he was not required to have one. The petition was asking for the removal of the most hated man in Ballarat who conducted brutal licence hunts, Commissioner Johnston.
This Catholic deputation was composed of Timothy Hayes, and the firey Irish Catholic John Manning as well as Thomas Kennedy a Scottish Catholic and Chartist who believed in using physical force. Hotham in response announced a board of inquiry into the camp generally and the burning of the Eureka Hotel which sat at Bath's Hotel from November 2nd to the 10th. The inquiry interviewed 58 witnesses and listed complaints about goldfields officials, but almost all the complaints were dismissed. The most pressing grievances were:
The second oil painting here is courtesy of and © Frank O'Crowley 2007 showing the soldier's charge against the miners. Frank is a descendant of James and Catherine Bentley who owned the Eureka Hotel destroyed by the miners a few weeks before the battle.
During the day, there were estimated to be about 1,500 miners in the stockade, but on the night of the attack there were under 100. The Americans deserted the stockade except for John Josephs an American tried for treason with Michael Tuohy.
Reinforcements had been called from Melbourne and an attack was expected after they arrived. Instead the 300 or so police and soldiers stationed nearby did not wait for reinforcements, but made a surprise attack. On or about the time between 3.00 am and dawn on Sunday December 3rd 1854, 276 police and soldiers attacked the miners. 27 miners were either killed immediately, or died soon after, and a further 12 were wounded, but survived. Five police were killed and 12 were wounded. Many of the surviving stockaders were taken prisoner and many hid in the bush after martial law was declared following the Stockade.
In the aftermath of the battle, the traps (police) started bayonetting anyone in the area. They killed one store owner Martin Diamond in his shop.
The brutality of police brought the population to support the miners who many had previously regarded as rogue elements. Some groups are still demanding an apology from the police for their brutal role in the killing of unarmed miners and civilians. Time for an apology. This is not likely given the insanity of today's corrupt Victorian police culture, and links with gangland murders including a descendant of Peter Lalor. Instead of an apology for the Eureka Stockade police brutality, Victoria police still deny any wrong doing to this very day and about current matters in 2007, even when witness against corrupt police, the Hogsons were murdered in their bed in 2004. At the 2004, 150th anniversary dawn ceremony, aggressive insensitive police parked their "paddy wagon" metres from the memorial to miners killed by police in 1854.
After the 1854 Eureka battle was over, innocent bystanders were killed. The police also set fire to the miner's tents and destroyed all they could find. After the battle was over and won, police brutality murdered unarmed men and women. Many elements of society considered the miners to be lawless elements, until the police violence caused the population to turn against them. The miner's were acquitted by a jury as they had the public's support. There were protest meetings to support the miners in Geelong Melbourne and Ballarat. Public support was overwhelming.
Thirteen of the miners (including Carboni)were tried for treason in Melbourne in 1855, all were acquitted to great public acclaim. Pressure for reform forced change. The miners licence was reduced to a small fee, Police numbers were dramatically cut and electoral reforms followed.
Michael Tuohy was one of the prisoners tried for treason and acquitted after the Eureka Stockade in 1854. Ballan cemetery has an inscribed head stone on why Michael Tuohy is to be specially remembered.
Rafaello Carboni, was the redhaired Italian chosen by Peter Lalor to lead the International Brigade of miners from non-English speaking countries. The Chinese were conspicuous by their absence from the otherwise diverse group of miners who were around 50% Irish.
Michael Tuohy always spoke highly of Carboni. They shared a cell in prison awaiting trial for treason. The Victorian Premier Hogan was Tuohy's good friend who spoke highly of Tuohy in parliament which is reported in Hansard, in the early 20th Century. The spelling of Michael "Tuohy's" surname varies in accounts by Carboni.
Michael is mentioned again by Carboni
In this Eureka veterans reunion photo taken in 1904, Michael Tuohy is the gentleman in the front row fourth from the left, with the longer beard and his knees up.
Michael Tuohy is second from the right, one of the 13 other miners for high treason before Justice Redmond Barry. The trial was documented and posted online in the Eureka archives. QUEEN vs. JAMES BEATTIE AND MICHAEL TUOHY (1855)
The Supreme Court trial found that the police and the Crown Government had caused the Eureka Riots and Stockade Incident due its harsh and unbending Laws in place on the Ballarat gold fields which drove the diggers to the point they felt so threatened that they had to defend themselves which brought in the "Not Guilty" verdicts of High Treason by the jury. The Government had to accept this decision because it failed to maintain peace and order at those Ballarat disturbances including the Bentley's Hotel Riots which became known as the Ballarat riots of 1854.
Michael Touhy died on 10 Sept Aged 85 His address was Daylesford Rd. Ballan. He died of Hypostatic Pneumonia Senility. Mr. Touhy was buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Ballan cemetery in grave no. 308 next to his wife Mary (grave 307) who died of influenza many years earlier aged 60 Years. His son Michael was responsible for the funeral. His son went off to the First World War immediately after burying his father and never returned to live in Ballan but lived in Essendon with his relations until he died. At this stage the grave is unmarked but we the Hanrahan - Touhy connection plan to have a monument placed on the grave, perhaps with a little ceremony before the end of the year.
My mother who passed away last month new Michael Touhy as she lived near him. He died in hospital in Ballarat shortly after a fall from a horse-drawn vehicle. She can remember her mother visiting him in hospital. Mum told us of him going to campaign meetings for Premier E. J. Hogan. Her grandfather Martin Touhy when told that Michael Touhy was released from Prison and now free said "Free! He wasn't free. He cost me a lot" This fits in with what Carboni wrote "His bother paid some forty pounds for a solicitor for his defense but when Mic was tried for his neck the Hog was not there. GOD SAVE THE PEOPLE" (P123-124)
The Death of Mr Michael Touhy, sen. which took place in the Ballarat hospital on Saturday, removes one of the few remaining links between the Golden Fifties and the present day. He was born in Scarif, Ireland in 1830 and in 1849 decided to seek his fortune in Australia, arriving in Sydney after a long and hazardous voyage of five months.
He had a keen remembrance of the Irish famine of 1847 and 1848 and helped to bury many of the unfortunate victims who died of starvation. To the end of his days he had a bitter hatred of the tyrants who, through misgovernment, brought such terrible suffering on his fellow-countrymen.
He never failed to impress on his listeners the fact that while his people were starving, shiploads of produce were leaving Ireland so that the absentee landlords might get their pound of flesh. Although the memories of the land of his fathers were of the blackest, he loved the Green Isle of Erin, and the men and women that it produced. On his arrival in Sydney he secured employment in a candle store and retained his job until the lure of gold and the tales of the fabulous fortunes made by the diggers induced him to try his luck at the goldfields of Victoria.
He travelled overland and being unused to sleeping with only the sky for a roof, found the journey irksome and dangerous. He prospected several fields, but unearthed no huge nuggets, and was mining at Creswick when the trouble with officialdom occurred. The miners at Creswick had insufferable grievances, and approbation was expressed when it was made known that the representatives, of the Ballarat diggers, Black and Kennedy, were on the field and intended to give an address. At the conclusion of the speeches they called for volunteers, and Touhy and 40 more proceeded with Black and Kennedy to Ballarat. They reached the Eureka stockade the night before the battle and camped on the ground. As he lay under the stars that December night in 1854 the awful treatment meted out to his people in Ireland, and which he had travelled 12,000 miles to escape, flashed through his mind, and saw the same system and tyrannical swashbucklers in poser here. He had no doubt to the righteous of the cause for which he was prepared to fight and die.
Touhy related that very few men were in the stockade that night. They were surprised, when at the break of day, they saw the "Red-coats" about 150 yards away. Then followed a couple of volleys from the soldiers, a scattered fire from the miners, which failed to check the charge, and the military were in with the bayonet and the diggers routed. Touhy thought that the shot which bailed over Capt. Wise was fired by a little barber who was standing near him. The miners broke and as Touhy escaped from the stockade a soldier ran at him with a bayonet. He side-stepped the thrust by the narrowest margin, the steel ripped his clothes. He and others were rounded up by the police, who treated their defeated foes in a most brutal manner.
One bloodthirsty scoundrel singled Touhy out and aimed a blow at him with his sabre. His agility again saved him and he escaped further molestation by pushing his way into the thick of the prisoners who were driven like sheep to the camp that was situated where the Ballarat West police station now stands. Touhy and twelve others were handcuffed and taken to Melbourne, but he always spoke highly of an officer named Smith, who was in charge and stated that he was a good fellow and did everything he could for his prisoners.
On arrival at the Melbourne goal he and Rafaello were placed in the same cell. The courage of the fiery little Italian was undimmed by adversity. The haughty governor of the goal threatened to confine him to the solitary cell. Rafaello retorted by saying he had no doubt that he would put him in Hell if he had the power. In due course they were tried for high treason, were defended gratuitiously by Aspinall and Ireland, and to the intense joy of the populace, acquitted.
As far as can be ascertained, the deceased was the last survivor of those who stood their trail. Although the miners were defeated most of the changes they advocated became law, and almost immediately the digger's license was reduced and finally abolished. The mounted police most of whom were the scions of the English aristocracy, had provoked the conflict by their brutal and supercilious actions, were recognised and became more democratic and in touch with the people.
After his acquittal, he decided to go in for farming, and settled in the Ballan district where he has resided for the past 40 years. He always took a keen interest in democratic movements, and although old and feeble, he insisted on being driven to Ballan on the occasion of the last State elections to record his vote for the Labor candidate.
Later in the day he met with an accident, which resulted in a broken thigh. Mr. Touhy was conveyed to the Ballarat hospital, and although pneumonia supervened, his marvellous constitution and courage triumphed over both complications. The double shock however hastened the end. He was never able to leave the hospital, his grip of life gradually relaxed and on Saturday last he passed away.
The funeral took place on Monday, the remains being conveyed t o their resting place, the Ballan new cemetery, per motor hearse. The coffin bearers were Messrs M., S., and T. Greene and M. O'Hehir; the pall bearers being Messrs E. J. Hogan, MLA., T. Ryan, T. Walsh, F. Egan, W. Nagle, J. H. Walsh, John Egan, D.C. McKensie. Service at the grave was conducted by Rev. Father Cusack, and the mortuary arrangements were carried out by Messrs S. Wellington and Son. So ended the struggle of one of the Eureka band who struck so valiantly for common freedom.
He was a miner who participated in the storming of the Eureka Stockade. Born in Scariff, County Clare, Ireland, he came to Australia at the age of nineteen. During the storming of the Eureka Stockade he was arrested inside the stockade. Charged with treason he was taken to Melbourne, but was acquitted. He described the Eureka uprising in the Ballarat Courier (5 December 1904):
A digger named Scobie, who was drunk, kicked at the door of the Eureka hotel, kept by Bentley, who came out. He carried what appeared to be a bat or iron, and with it he struck Scobie, knocking him down, and kicking him. Mrs Bentley also came out, and she said, "Give it to the wretch." That was the evidence of Burke and his wife at the court, when Bentley was tried for the murder of Scobie. The police magistrate, John D'Ewes, discharged Bentley "without the smallest stain on his character." Immediately after the trial Peter Lalor held a meeting at the Gravel Pits, and he spoke as follows:-
Lalor is dogmatically certainly sure of himself to proclaim the guilt of someone acquitted at trail. It seems that without Peter Lalor there may have been no riot and no eureka Stockade, that Lalor was as James Bentley stated the main instigator.
One reason the miners and especially Lalor hated James Bentley was because he appeared to be in cahoots with the police as the Eureka Hotel was allowed to trade on Sunday, but the Bentleys had a legal right to trade on a Sunday which the miners did not appreciate.
Peter Lalor took the law into his own hands. Bentley had already been discharged as not guilty of the murder. There is some indication that Lalor may have held a grudge against the Policeman John D'Ewes who closed down his Melbourne sly grog selling business and that Bentley may have been framed for the murder of a man (not Scobie) who was killed in a claim jumping war by the miners and not Bentley.
A hand written note from Catherine Bentley in 1892 states that Lalor spirited the real James Scobie out of Ballarat and hid him in a Melbourne convent.
The Bentley's Hotel property was destroyed in the Eureka Riots and in 1859 in illegal land sales by Humffray, the Bentley's land was illegally sold by the crown in unadvertised auctions, including Catherine Bentley's butcher's shop to a parliamentary friend of Humffray's called Smith. The Bentley's land was illegally taken from them! James Bentley attempted suicide on the steps of Parliament House in protest, but the Eureka Hotel lands have never been returned to the Bentley family who are fighting an ongoing international legal battle for justice against corruption in the current Bracks/Brumby Victorian government.
Peter Lalor then made those present kneel down and swear each man to stand by the other and defend themselves. They then marched to Bentley's hotel to have Bentley re-arrested and send him on to Melbourne for re-trial. Being disappointed at not finding Bentley, and being excited at the time, they burned the hotel to the ground. The authorities from the camp and the police came down to the burning building. Angry words were said, and blows were struck. That was the start of the Ballarat riot.
The authorities at the camp drew in police from outside stations, and Lalor on the other side called on the diggers to stand by him. They then began to erect the Stockade, form companies, and to drill. The Thursday before the riot there were several hundred diggers present. A great many had inferior arms, and several none at all. Lalor sent 10 men to the Eureka camp, which was about 300 yards from the Stockade, to look for arms and ammunition. There was no-one in the camp but Mr Amos when we went to demand the arms. He told us that the police had taken all the arms and ammunition to the camps, leaving none. There were two large boxes, which we demanded to have opened. Mr Amos lifted the lids of these, but there was nothing in them but clothes and wearing apparel. The diggers did not interfere with the clothes or say any angry word to Mr Amos, and left the camp. On Friday the police came out from the camp marching towards the Black Hill in great force. The diggers used to run down to try and cut them off from the camp, but the police would cut back as hard as they could. Things continued that way until late on Saturday, when a great many men in around Ballarat went away, leaving in the Stockade between 50 and 60 diggers.
The authorities from the camp, through the agency of spies, like Dr. Carr learned the strength of the Stockade and between day and dark on Sunday morning the army fired three volleys into the Stockade. A good many diggers were asleep about the fires. The bugle sounded, and the soldiers coming on with cheers, made a charge with the bayonet for the Stockade. They were met by a few pikemen, who fought gallantly, but were overpowered. The mounted police on the south side of the Stockade were bringing diggers out of their tents - men who had just got up when they heard the firing - and were bringing them up to the Stockade where the other diggers were made prisoners. I believe more of them were then killed than by the firing. We replied that anything was fair in war time, and we should take what we got and bear it.
After Tuohy's acquittal, he returned to the diggings and when the alluvial gold started to run out, he started farming at Ballan. Martin Touhy when told that Michael Touhy was released from Prison and now free said "Free! He wasn't free. He cost me a lot" This fits in with what Carboni wrote "His bother paid some forty pounds for a solicitor for his defence but when Mic was tried for his neck the Hog was not there. GOD SAVE THE PEOPLE" (P123-124)
In 1908 Tuohy applied to the government for a consideration of his grievance dating back to 1854. At that time he was running a farm two miles north of Gordon. In the state elections in 1915, Tuohy went to the polling station to vote Labor but was injured in an accident while returning home. His thigh was broken and he was taken to hospital where pneumonia set in. He died on 10 September 1915 at the Ballarat Hospital after falling from a horse-drawn carriage, and was buried in an unmarked grave at Ballan Cemetery (grave 308). His wife, Mary, is buried in the adjacent grave (307) grave Argus 28 September 1915, p9; Ballan Times 23 September 1915; Bob O'Brien, Massacre at Eureka; notes from Fran Hanrahan 2004
From the Public Record Office of Victoria, complied and edited by Ian MacFarlene
P148 Prisoners Michael Touhy and James Beattie were tried and acquitted on 23 March. Raffaelo Carboni attended, seated between two barristers in the back row of the court, encouraging the prisoners with nods, gestures and smiles. The judge was Redmond Barry, J. Counsel Ireland and Dunne Attorney: Hogan
Michael settled down on a farm about 10km north of Ballan on Daylesford Rd around 1875. Some sections of his home are still standing, it has been unoccupied for many decades. This wallpaper shows some of the success Michael had a miner. The colours are faded and weather beaten, close inspection reveals that it had a velvet pattern with hand painted flowers and would have been very expensive at the time it was purchased some 130 years ago.
The small building is set among many large trees and has a peaceful serene feeling that makes a stark contrast with his courage and bitter hatred of tyrants.
Henry Seekamp was the fiercely pro-digger editor of the Ballarat Times, a new newspaper which appeared in March 1854. He was very critical of the government and the police (traps) over the license hunts. After the Stockade, Henry was charged with sedition, and sentenced to six months prison. He sold the Ballarat Times in 1856, and is thought to have then gone to Queensland.
Try and imagine that you are the new replacement Editor of the Ballarat Times, it is late December 1855, your employer Henry Seekamp who supported the miner's rebellion has just been arrested for sedition and you have been asked to take over the publishing of the Ballarat Times. Unlike the 13 miners arrested for treason who were acquitted, Henry Seekamp was found guilty of sedition and served six months in jail.
The miner's leader Peter Lalor is in hiding and writes you a letter to the editor to publish which justifies the miners' violent rebellion.
You know that the British government is looking for Peter Lalor who is in hiding and the government is ready to jail anyone for sedition to prevent anyone encouraging others to be rebellious against English rule, especially the Irish and Americans who are considered a bad influence with a history of being rebellious against the British.
Your competition, The Argus newspaper did publish Peter Lalor's letter on 10 April 1855, when Lalor was still in hiding from the government, Peter Lalor's Letter to the Editor. Justify your position to your loyal readers, why you did not publish the letter in the Ballarat Times in 1855 and also why you might not publish the same letter in 2007.
Instruct your cadet Ballarat Times reporters, how should they report the Eureka rebellion, without breaching sedition laws enacted by the Howard government in 2005. For example, this quote from Lalor's letter; miners"have been forced to take up arms" might be promoting violence in response to injustice and would probably breach current Australian sedition laws, including the praising of terrorist acts. Make a list of seditious quotes that could be encouraging the violent rebellion and the miner's actions. Make another list of quotes praising the miner's rebellious actions.
Try and Imagine you are the Chief of the AFP, the Australian Federal Police, or head of ASIO the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, under the 2005 law of sedition and praising terrorism related to the 1854 Eureka Stockade rebellion, who would you first arrest and why? You already have Henry Seekamp in jail and 13 miners charged with treason. You are furious when you see Lalor's letter published in the Argus. You think that Lalor is a criminal inciting violence, a traitor against British colonial rule who killed police, a criminal on the run. But Lalor, is in hiding, so who do you immediately arrest for two weeks detention without charge and who else do you formally charge with sedition or treason? The publisher or editor of the Argus newspaper, the cadet reporters, the printer, the author quoted (when caught), the distributor, or even the readers of the paper?
Short History of Australia
Australian History Hugh Capel's website picture and story archive pre 1901.
Genealogical research
Australian rebellions
Trinity College Eureka resources
Encyclopaedia of revolutions of 1848
The Eureka Stockade by Tom O'Lincoln
Reclaiming the Radical Spirit of the Rebellion
Memories of the Stockade
SBS Eureka Links
Defending Victoria website pictures Ballarat Stockade:
Outline of the events at Eureka Harvey's book :
Link to genealogical Society website:
New in late 2004
The Eureka Encyclopaedia
Hot off the Press
Packed with Eureka Stockade research
Corfield J, Wickham D, Gervasoni C,
Ballarat Heritage Services 2004.
PO 2209 Ballarat VIC 3354.
Email Ballarat Heritage Service
Anderson Hugh (editor.)
Report on Condition of the Goldfields
Red Rooster Press, Melbourne, 1978.
Blake Les.
Peter Lalor: The Man From Eureka
Neptune Press, Belmont, Vic., 1979.
Currey. C.H.
The Irish at Eureka
Angus and Robertson Sydney, 1954.
Desmond O'Grady.
Raffaello! Raffaello!: A Biography of Raffaello Carboni
Hale and Iremonger Sydney, 1985.
Despatches From Sir Charles Hotham
Public Record Office, Melbourne, (1981?).
Eureka: Rebellion Beneath the Southern Cross
Rigby, Melbourne, 1977.
Fox Len.
Eureka and its Flag
Mullaya Publications, Canterbury, Vic., 1973.
MacFarlane Ian.
Eureka: From the Official Records
Public Record Office of Victoria, Melbourne, 1995.
Potts E. Danieland Annette Potts.
Young America and Australian Gold
University of Queensland Press St. Lucia, Qld., 1974.
Raffaello Carboni.
The Eureka Stockade
Currey O'Neil Blackburn Vic., 1980.
Full text of Carboni online
Riddley Matt.
Nature via Nurture.
Fourth Estate Harper Collins London 2003
Ross R.S.
Eureka:Freedom's Fight of '54
Fraser and Jenkinson, Melbourne, 1914.
The original copy of the 11.11.1854
Meeting resolutions
Public Record Office in Laverton Victoria: "27 Nov. 1854:
Bakery Hill Ballaarat Resolutions
(VPRS 4066, Unit 1, File 69).
Turner Ian.
Peter Lalor
Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1974.
Weston Bate.
Lucky City: The First Generation at Ballarat 1851-1901
Melbourne University Press, Carlton Vic 1978
Wickham Dorothy
Deaths at Eureka
Withers William Bramwell.
The History of Ballarat
From the First Pastoral Settlement to the Present Time
Queensberry Hill Press, Carlton, Vic., 1980.
First-hand accounts of the Eureka rebellion(EDP1:158)
