Often referred to as the ‘birthplace of Australian democracy’, the Eureka Rebellion remains a pivotal, and contested, event in history. Is it the moment people gathered under a new flag to demand a democratic ‘fair go’, or when greedy foreigners tried to avoid a tax, demanding the right to dig up gold without paying for it?1 Its significance was noted early on with Mark Twain remarking it as ‘the finest thing in Australian history’, ‘a revolution small in size but great politically’.2 It has also been played down by others, including Manning Clark, as more about aspiring capitalists than radicals or revolutionaries.3
For a country that has not had many moments of revolution, Eureka takes on a certain symbolism fuelled by the bloodshed of the stockade battle and the popular…