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Eureka Centre

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LenR
LenR
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Eureka Centre

  • October 23, 2007
  • Rated 4 of 5 by LenR from Townsville, Australia
Eureka Centre

The Eureka Centre occupies pride of place at the Eureka Stockade site in suburban Ballarat. It is home to the Ballarat Visitor Information Centre. The state of the art center, under its gigantic Eureka Flag, employs a range of multi-media technology to bring the Eureka rebellion story vividly to life. It is very successful.

The rebellion came about because the goldfield workers (known as 'diggers') opposed the government miners' licences. Licence fees had to be paid regardless of whether a digger's claim resulted in any gold.

In 1854 there were about 25,000 diggers on the Ballarat goldfields. Law and order on the goldfields was enforced by the Gold Commission's police force which was later reinforced by a garrison of soldiers.

Official corruption was another concern for the diggers. This issue came to a head after a group of men beat to death a drunken Scottish digger. The group included local publican James Bentley. Bentley was a friend of the local magistrate and he escaped prosecution, as did three other men from the group.

This led to the diggers meeting to try to bring the men to justice. After the meeting a crowd of diggers burnt Bentley’s Hotel to the ground. Soon after three diggers were arrested and charged with arson for their part in setting fire to the hotel.

Later, 10,000 diggers met to demand the release of the three diggers, the abolition of the licence and the vote for all males. This was followed by an even larger meeting where the diggers decided to publicly burn their mining licences. At this meeting the famous Southern Cross flag, which was to become known as the Eureka Flag, was displayed

A day later another mass burning of licences took place at a meeting on Bakery Hill. Under the leadership of Peter Lalor, the diggers then marched to the Eureka diggings where they constructed the famous stockade - a makeshift wooden barricade enclosing about an acre of the goldfields.

The Government was forced to act and troops and police stormed and ransacked the Stockade on the morning of December 3rd 1854. Twenty-two diggers and five troops were killed.

At the Eureka Centre there are five exhibition galleries, a theatrette and a contemplation space. Outside there are the 1880s monument, the 2004 Eureka Circle and an adventure playground. The exhibition is well worth seeing and a highlight is a court room set up as it was during the trial of the miners. Incidentally, they were all found not guilty at their trial.

The Centre has a gift shop (with several sizes of Eureka flags) and a coffee shop as well as the tourist information centre.

From journal Ballarat's Gold History and Culture

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