After losing his parent and most of his family in the Gundagai Flood of 1852, James Gormly and his two elder brothers ( and ) went gold mining to Bendigo, Ballarat and the Ovens.
On the 3rd of December, 1854 the 40th Military Regiment attacked a miners stockade at the Eureka goldfield -16 miners were killed then and there with another 9 dying later from their wounds.
Eureka was the culmination of a series of clashes between miners and the police starting soon after the discovery of gold in 1851.
It would appear that the event he witnessed occurred on 3rd February, 1853. According to Ian McFarlane's Eureka: From the Official Records p.188
"At Reid's Creek diggings on the Ovens field a digger, William Guest, was accidentally killed by a policeman. Over one thousand enraged diggers took over the Reid's Creek Government Camp and destroyed weapons after disarming the remaining police. Assistant Commissioner James Clew was able to defuse the situation by promising to properly investigate the incident."
Writing for the Wagga Express around 1916, The Hon. James Gormly recounted his view of the incident:
"I was only a couple of yards away when the trooper (who had shot the prisoner) was disarmed and his sword and carbine broken. Most of the crowd were willing to see the man lynched as it was thought he had committed murder with the sanction of the Commissioner. Still most of the men were not willing to see the man maltreated. A great number of the diggers were anxious to prevent the man's life being taken without giving him a fair trial.
So the prisoner was brought up for trial. The man was allowed to stand on a butcher's block. Then he was asked to make his defence. He said, 'I am 28 years of age; I am an Englishman; I have been six months in this country: give me a drink of water'.
Those were the last words I heard him utter, for a lassoo whizzed through the air and caught the man around his neck. The rope end was then thrown over the fork of a tree.
Just as the man was about to be strung up, John Fennell and my brother arrived on the scene. Both John and my brother roared out that the shooting was an accident. but as that seemed to have no effect, John Fennel took out the butcher's knife he carried in a leather sheath attached to his belt, and cut the rope.
There was pandemonium. My brother was an excitable person, and while endeavoring to save the man from being hammered to death got his clothes torn to pieces, while John Fennel fared much the same fate.
The following is a synopsis of the EURAKA SAGA.
"We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties". (Oath sworn by diggers at Bakery Hill, 29 November 1854)
The Eureka uprising took place on 3rd December
1854. It followed years of constant discontent on the Victorian
goldfields and has come to be regarded as a `milestone in
Australian democracy'. The Eureka flag is closely associated with
this struggle for democracy.
In 1851 gold was discovered in the creeks and
gullies surrounding the present day site of Ballarat. As much of
Victoria was Crown land, gold could not be mined without
permission and a system of licences was introduced. Struggling
against bankruptcy and believing that many diggers were wealthy,
the colonial government doubled the cost of the licence in early
1854 and the police intensified their preoccupation with licence
hunts'. The diggers had to pay their dues on demand and were
harassed by officials - yet they had no voice in the
administration of the goldfields.
A number of important events occurred in the months before the Rebellion. The most dramatic occurred in October 1854 when an angry mob burnt down James Bentley's otel. On 29th November when a `monster meeting' of some 12,000 Ballarat residents took place at Bakery Hill, licences were burnt and two new developments took place. Hastily devised as a symbol of resistance, the Eureka flag was flown for the first time at the meeting and secondly, a little known Irishman, Peter Lalor (1827-1889) addressed the crowd. He reputedly called on all those present to "salute the Southern Cross as a refuge of all the oppressed from all countries on earth". Lalor and a band of diggers then marched to the Eureka gold lead, the Southern Cross flag flying before them, on 2nd December, 1854. Here they erected a roughly built slab stockade. The goldfields Commissioner Robert Rede believed the police camp to be in danger and sent for reinforcements. By midnight only about one hundred and twenty diggers remained at the barricade. Around 3.30am on Sunday 3rd December, at least two hundred and ninety well-armed troops attacked the Stockade. A brief but bloody battle ensued; - "coarse cries and oaths came from the police, soldiers and rebels alike - cries of fear, of pain; shouts of rage, threats and ... screams of horses, the crackling roar of weapon fire. Men fell, bleeding ...". (Transcript of incidents at Eureka derived from evidence at Eureka trials, February-March 1855 in B. O'Brien, Massacre at Eureka (Melbourne, 1992) p.89). Over thirty diggers and bystanders were killed. It was all over in a matter of minutes.
Thirteen of the diggers tried for treason after the Eureka uprising - `in arms against Her Majesty's Forces' - were found not guilty. Peter Lalor's concern with justice was furthered in 1856 when he entered the Victorian Parliament as a member for Ballarat. A number of important social changes and political improvements arose out of the events at Eureka. These included;
Greater democracy for the diggers.
The right to vote for political representatives.
Abolition of the oppressive licensing fee.
A realisation that all colonists had to be treated in a more civilised manner.
Australia's political system was strongly influenced by the events at Eureka. Early members of the labour movement sought inspiration in the stand taken by the diggers and striking shearers in Queensland during the 1890s flew the Eureka flag as a gesture of defiance towards police and government. The daily events, the role of the diggers and the uprising have all become a part of Australia's popular culture and mythology. They continue to be commemorated in books, songs, films, plays, poems, and stories.
The above details were obtianed from: The 'Eureka Flag
Click the flag for more details or read below
Flag Adopted: No legal status, in use since
1854
Flag Proportion: 2:3
This is a famous but unofficial Australian flag, that features a white vertical cross on a blue background five white, blue-margined, 8-pointed stars superimposed at the end of each arm of the cross and at the intersection of the arms, a stylized Southern Cross. First used in Victoria in 1854 by a group of rebellious gold-miners protesting the cost of prospecting licences at the 'Eureka stockade', this flag has become the symbol of Australians prepared to fight to defend rights and liberties. It has been adopted as a symbol by some of the more militant trade unions and has also been used as symbol of the republican movement.
The Eureka Flag is thought to have been designed
by a Canadian gold miner by the name of "Lieutenant"
Ross during the Eureka Stockade uprising in Ballarat, Victoria,
in 1854.
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. The blue background is
believed to represent the blue shirts worn by many of the
diggers, rather than represent the sky as is commonly thought.
The flag above is considered to be the Eureka Flag (a number of
variants seem to have existed), as it is the design of the flag
torn down at the stockade by Police Constable John King on the
morning of the miners' uprising - Sunday, 3 December 1854. The
torn and tattered remains of this flag is kept at the Ballarat
Fine Art Museum.
The "Eureka Stockade" uprising was essentially a
short-lived revolt by gold miners against petty officialdom and
harassment by a corrupt Police force, who would often ask miners
to show their gold digging licences several times a day. The
miners also objected to the high cost of the licences.
Led by Peter Lalor, who later became a respected Victorian MP and
Minister, the Eureka uprising was a spectacular failure in a
military sense. The revolt had its roots in the killing of a
miner, James Scobie, by a publican. An inquest was held, but
despite the evidence of miners, no conclusion was made about who
was responsible. Instead, the miners who pressed for the arrest
of the publican were taken into custody.
This sparked protests by the miners who held many public
meetings, and sought to take the law into their own hands by
seeking out the publican and burning down his hotel. When the
culprits were arrested and imprisoned, the situation in the
goldfields became explosive and expanded to cover general
discontent with unequal laws and inequal rights.
The miners elected Lalor to lead them, and they built a stockade
at the goldfields to defy the authorities. It was at this time
the Eureka flag first appeared. Within a few days, a military
force of about 300 men had assembled to attack the Stockade, and
within 15 minutes of the commencement of the attack, had smashed
the stockade and killed many of the rebels.
Today, the Eureka flag is often used as a symbol of rebellion
against authority by people at the extreme left and the extreme
right of the political spectrum in Australia. It has been used in
marches by neo-Nazis on the one hand and draped over the coffins
of deceased Communists on the other.
http://www.ausflag.com.au/flags/eureka.html
During the attack on the Stockade, the Eureka
flag was hauled down from a flag pole by Trooper John King and
brought in triumph to the Government Camp. King showed the flag
to all those who were curious, allowing small pieces to be torn
off as souvenirs. The flag remained in the King family after his
death and was eventually presented to the Ballarat Fine Art
Gallery in 1895. Raffello Carboni, who published an account of
the uprising (R. Carboni, The Eureka Stockade (Melbourne, 1855) )
wrote of the flag; "There is no flag in Europe, or in the
civilised world half so beautiful... the flag is silk, blue
ground, with a large silver cross; no device or arms, but all
exceedingly chaste and natural". Restoration carried out on
the flag in 1973 revealed it to be made of a fine woolen mohair
fabric, possessing a `silky' sheen commented on by Carboni. The
stars were constructed of a transparent white `petticoat' lawn.
Several different groups and individuals have been suggested as
the makers of the flag. A number of diggers attending a meeting
before the uprising are reported to have looked at the sky, seen
the Southern Cross star formation, acquired material from a tent
maker and constructed the flag, possibly with the help of miner's
wives. It is also thought that a Canadian digger, `Captain' Ross
may have designed the flag and commissioned miner's wives to make
it. Although flagmakers were common on the goldfields during the
1850s, the irregularly shaped stars and finely woven seams
indicates that the flag was more likely to have been sewn by
several women.
© 1995 Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
http://www.avg.com.au/bltag/eureka.htm