The historical setting
The Eureka Rebellion involved gold miners who revolted against the British administration of the colony of Victoria, Australia, during the Victorian gold rush. It culminated in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, which took place on 3 December 1854 at Ballarat between the rebels and the colonial forces of Australia. The fighting resulted in an official total of 27 deaths and many injuries, the majority of casualties being rebels. There was a preceding period beginning in 1851 of peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience on the Victorian goldfields. The miners had various grievances, chiefly the cost of mining permits and the officious way the system was enforced. Tensions began in 1851, with the introduction of a tax on gold mines.
Miners began to organise and protest the taxes; miners stopped paying the taxes en masse. The October 1854 murder of a gold miner, and the burning of a local hotel (which miners blamed on the government), ended the previously peaceful nature of the miners' dispute.
Ballarat Reform League meetings
On 11 November 1854, a crowd of more than 10,000 gathered at Bakery Hill, directly opposite the government encampment. At this meeting, the Ballarat Reform League was formally established under the chairmanship of Chartist John Humffray. (Several other reform league leaders, including George Black, Henry Holyoake, and Tom Kennedy, are also believed to have been Chartists.) It was reported by the Ballarat Times that at the appointed hour, the "Union Jack and the American ensign were hoisted as signals for the people to assemble". It was at this time the Union Jack became a national flag while being "inscribed with slogans as a protest flag of the Chartist movement in the nineteenth century".
Throughout the following weeks, the league sought to negotiate with Rede and Hotham on the specific matters relating to Bentley and the death of James Scobie, the men being tried for the burning of the Eureka Hotel, the broader issues of the abolition of the licence, suffrage and democratic representation of the goldfields, and the disbanding of the gold commission. Hotham sent a message to England on 16 November which revealed his intention to establish an inquiry into goldfields grievances.
Paramilitary mobilisation and swearing allegiance to the Southern Cross
On 29 November, a meeting that drew a crowd of around 10,000 was held at Bakery Hill. The miners heard from their deputies news of the unsuccessful outcome of their meeting with Hotham, demanding the release of Westerby, Fletcher and McIntyre. The Eureka Flag was flown there for the first time. The crowd was incited by Timothy Hayes shouting, "Are you ready to die?" and Fredrick Vern, who was accused of abandoning the garrison four days later as soon as the danger arrived, with suspicions of being a double agent. Rede responded by ordering police to conduct a licence search on 30 November.
There was further rioting where objects were thrown at military and law enforcement by the protesting miners who had refused to cooperate with licence inspections en masse. Eight licence defaulters were arrested. Most of the military resources available had to be summoned to extricate the arresting officers from the angry mob that had assembled. There was another gathering on Bakery Hill where a militant leader, Peter Lalor, mounted a stump armed with a rifle and proclaimed "liberty". He then called for volunteers to step forward and be sworn into companies, and rebel captains to be appointed.
Aftermath
Blainey has commented that "Every government in the world would probably have counter-attacked in the face of the building of the stockade". Hotham would receive the news that the government forces had been victorious the same day, with Stawell waiting outside Saint James church, where Hotham was attending a service with Foster. He immediately set about firing up the government printing press to put out placards calling for support from among the colonists. A state of martial law was proclaimed with no lights allowed in any tent after 8 pm "even though the legal basis for it was dubious". It was around this time that a number of unprovoked shots were fired from the government camp toward the diggings.
Unrelated first-hand accounts variously state that a woman, her infant child and several men were killed or wounded in an episode of indiscriminate shooting. The same day several thousand people attended a public meeting held in Swanston Street, Melbourne. There were howls of anger when several pro-government motions were proposed. When the seconder of one motion, which called for the maintenance of law and order, framed the issue as "would they support the flag of old England...or the new flag of the Southern Cross", the speaker was drowned out by groans from the crowd.