The Eureka Flag

The Eureka Flag was the battle flag used at the Eureka Stockade, a gold miners' revolt in 1854 in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It has since become, among other things, a symbol of protest for a wide variety of causes in Australia. The flag is located at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Eureka Flag The Eureka Stockade was a gold miners revolt in 1854 in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, against the officials supervising the mining of gold in the region of Ballarat. ... This article is about revolution in the sense of a drastic change. ... A view of Ballarat East and Eureka from Sovereign Hill. ... Motto: Peace and Prosperity Other Australian states and territories Capital Melbourne Governor HE Mr John Landy Premier Steve Bracks (ALP) Area 237,629 km² (6th)  - Land 227,416 km²  - Water 10,213 km² (4. ... Ballarat Fine Art Gallery is the oldest and largest regional art gallery in Australia. ...

Background

Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross on December 1, 1854 — watercolour by Charles Doudiet

The Eureka Flag was flown for the first time on Bakery Hill, Ballarat, Australia as a symbol of the resistance of the gold miners during the Eureka Stockade rebellion in 1854. Beneath this flag, Peter Lalor, leader of the Ballarat Reform League, swore this oath to the affirmation of his fellow demonstrators: "We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties." According to the Ballarat Times, at "about eleven o'clock the 'Southern Cross' was hoisted, and its maiden appearance was a fascinating object to behold. The flag is silk, blue ground with large silver cross; no device or arms, but all exceedingly chaste and natural."^[1] Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 589 pixel Image in higher resolution (2112 × 1556 pixel, file size: 480 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This was a historical moment. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 589 pixel Image in higher resolution (2112 × 1556 pixel, file size: 480 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This was a historical moment. ... is the 335th day of the year (336th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Charles Doudiet (1832 - June 13, 1913) was a Canadian artist and digger present at the Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Australia, in 1854. ... A view of Ballarat East and Eureka from Sovereign Hill. ... The Eureka Flag The Eureka Stockade was a gold miners revolt in 1854 in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, against the officials supervising the mining of gold in the region of Ballarat. ... The Hon. ... This January 2007 article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... CRUX is a lightweight, i686-optimized Linux distribution targeted at experienced Linux users. ...

According to Frank Cayley's book, Flag of Stars, the flag's five stars represent the Southern Cross, and the white cross joining the stars represents unity in defiance. Professor Geoffrey Blainey has advanced the view the Eureka flag is an Irish cross rather than a configuration of the Southern Cross.^[2] The design of the flag was taken by Captain Henry Ross, one of Eureka's miners and a Canadian expatriate, to three women, Anastasia Withers, Anne Duke and Elizabeth Hayes, to sew up in time for a large rally at Bakery Hill, at 2.00pm on 29 November 1854. There is no evidence on who exactly designed the flag, although Ross was known on the diggings as the 'bridegroom' of the miners flag. The flag looks similar to the Federation Flag, on which it was based according to some historians. For other uses, see Flag (disambiguation). ... Captain Henry Ross, in a photo displayed by the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Captain Henry Ross (1829 - 5 December 1854) was a Canadian gold miner at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, and was known on the goldfields as the bridegroom of the miners flag, the Southern Cross, the Eureka Flag. ... is the 333rd day of the year (334th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Australian Federation Flag was illustrated in the NSW Calendar and Post Office Gazette of the early 1830s on a flag chart signed by Captain John Nicholson, Harbour Master, Sydney. ...

During the battle of the Eureka Stockade on December 3, 1854, Henry Ross was mortally wounded near the flagpole and the Eureka flag was torn down, trampled, hacked with sabres and peppered with bullets. It ended up in the possession of Trooper John King, and the King family kept the flag for forty years, until it was loaned to the Ballarat Art Gallery in 1895, where it remained in continued obscurity "under a cloud of scepticism and conservative disapproval". The flag was "re-discovered" by Len Fox during the 1930s, but it took decades to convince authorities to properly authenticate the flag. The final irrefutable validation of its authentication occurred when sketchbooks of Canadian Charles Doudiet were put up for sale at a Christies auction in 1996. Two sketches in particular show the flag design as contained in the tattered remains of the flag at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. The remnant of the original Eureka Flag remains today, preserved for public display in Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, along with Doudiet's sketches. is the 337th day of the year (338th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1854 (MDCCCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Charles Doudiet (1832 - June 13, 1913) was a Canadian artist and digger present at the Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, Australia, in 1854. ... Ballarat Fine Art Gallery is the oldest and largest regional art gallery in Australia. ...

In 2001 legal ownership of the flag was transferred to the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery who expect the King family and the gallery to be acknowledged every time a replica of the original flag is displayed.

Eureka Flag today

Woman holding material from the organisation "Patriotic Youth League" at the 2005 Cronulla riots.

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The Eureka Flag is listed as an object of state heritage significance on the Victorian Heritage Register and was named as an Icon by the National Trust in 2006. Image File history File links PYLsydneyraceriots. ... Image File history File links PYLsydneyraceriots. ... The Victorian Heritage Register is maintained by Heritage Victoria, part of the Department of Sustainability and Environment a department of the Government of Victoria, Australia. ...

The Eureka Flag is used by a variety of groups. The University of Ballarat, for instance, uses a stylised version of the 'Southern Cross' as its official logo. It is also the logo of the Patriotic Youth League (PYL), a youth organization in Australia whose members describe themselves as 'radical nationalists'.(unreferenced) The University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. ...

The flag was flown prominently above the Barcaldine strike camp of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, and thus has had a strong association with the Australian labour movement from this time. Construction unions such as the Builders Labourers' Federation in particular adopted the Eureka flag, and it is one of the flags that flies permanently over the Melbourne Trades Hall. Barcaldine is a small town located in Western Queensland, Australia, approximately 520 kilometres by road west of the city of Rockhampton. ... The 1891 Shearers Strike is one of Australias oldest and most important industrial disputes. ... Eight-hour day banner, Melbourne, 1856 University of Melbourne site where Stonemasons won the 8 hour day in 1856 The history of the Australian labour movement reaches back to the 19th century and the movement has a long tradition of organised unions of workers and links to political activity. ... The Eureka Stockade Flag, used as the flag of the Builders Labourers Federation The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was an Australian trade union organisation which existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian States by the federal Labor government... Melbourne Trades Hall entrance on Lygon Street Melbourne Trades Hall is a Trades Hall building located in the suburb of Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and home to the Victorian Trades Hall Council. ...

NSW Parliament Building, Macquarie Street, Sydney, 3 December 2004

In the event the design of the Flag of Australia is ever reviewed some Australian republicans have suggested the Eureka Flag design be among the alternatives offered to the electorate in a plebiscite. Whilst some Australians view the Eureka Flag as a symbol of nationality [1] (see Australian flag debate), it is more often employed by historical societies and re-enactors and by political radicals as a general purpose symbol of protest for a wide variety of anti-establishment non-conformist causes. The flag has been used as a symbol of rebellion by groups on both sides of the political spectrum, such as noted nationalistic group National Action, communists and neo-Nazis,^[3] who see it as representative of the efforts of the miners to free themselves from what they view, depending on their political persuasion, as either political or economic oppression, and by white supremacists at flashpoints for racial confrontation. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... National flag and state ensign. ... The current Australian flag The Australian flag debate is a low-key but persistent debate over whether the Australian flag should be changed in order to remove the Union Flag from the canton, often in connection with the issue of republicanism in Australia. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... The terms Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism refer to any social or political movement to revive Nazism or Fascism, respectively, and postdates the Second World War. ...

The flag is also been adopted by the Melbourne Victory fan group, The Blue and White Brigade (aka BWB) Melbourne Victory FC is a football (soccer) club based in Melbourne, Australia. ...

The sesquicentenary of the Eureka Stockade occurred in December 2004, and the Eureka Flag was used extensively during the events that were organised to promote awareness of the occasion. It was flown within each State Parliament building in Australia, the Federal Senate, and most prominently atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Eureka Flag was also the focus of a major [philatelic] series through Australia Post, as well as being depicted on a commemorative coin series obtainable from the Royal Australian Mint.

Standardised design

Standardised design

The modern design of the Eureka flag is an enhanced and different version from the 1854 original. There has been a move to standardise the flag which involves the creation of a small blue fimbriation around the stars. It is frequently made in the proportions of 2:1. Although the flag is designed as a representation of the Southern Cross, a constellation located in southern skies and thus only visible to viewers in the southern hemisphere, the stars are arranged differently to the arrangement of stars in the constellation itself. The "middle" star (Epsilon Crucis) in the constellation is off-centre, and near to the edge of the "diamond", while the Eureka flag shows it in the centre. The Eureka flag is only a stylised version of the more widely known pattern. Image File history File links Eureka_Flag. ... Image File history File links Eureka_Flag. ... This article is about the star grouping. ... southern hemisphere highlighted in yellow (Antarctica not depicted). ...

Anti-Chinese variant

The Roll Up banner around which a mob of about 1,000 men rallied and attacked Chinese miners at Lambing Flat in June 1861. The banner is now on display in the museum at Young, New South Wales.

At the time of the anti-Chinese Lambing Flat riots in 1861, there was used a variant known as the "Roll Up Banner" with the words "Roll Up - No Chinese" added. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1965x1146, 1418 KB) Banner from 1860 and 1861 anti-Chinese rebellion on the Lambing Flat goldfields, now present day Young, New South Wales, , Australia. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1965x1146, 1418 KB) Banner from 1860 and 1861 anti-Chinese rebellion on the Lambing Flat goldfields, now present day Young, New South Wales, , Australia. ... Young is a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia and is the centre of Young Shire. ... The Roll Up banner around which a mob of about 1,000 men rallied and attacked Chinese miners at Lambing Flat in June 1861. ...

See also

• Southern Cross Flag

Southern Cross Flags are flags which depict the Southern Cross. ...

References

1. ^ Eureka flag history at EurekaBallarat.
2. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/stories/s290806.htm
3. ^ Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 2006. Australian Flags. Australian Government Publishing Service ISBN 0 642 47134 7.

External links

• Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
• Eureka Flag website
• He Found and Raised Eureka's Trampled Flag: a Tribute to Len Fox R.D. Walshe.