Eureka - The Unfinished Revolution (87 page)

‘Democracy,’ he said, ‘is much more than a system. It is an ideal and a spirit born day by day in those who believe in it. Eureka had its brief and bloody day 150 years ago. Eureka lives on in the heart and will of every Australian who understands, believes in and acts on the principle that the people are “the only legitimate source of all political power”.’

Such a principle had, of course, been first enunciated by the moral-force Chartists in Great Britain in the early 1830s, affirmed by the Ballarat Reform League in 1854 and even asserted by Charles Hotham shortly after arriving in Victoria that same year. But the battle of the Eureka Stockade aptly demonstrated the truth of it, and thereafter the example was before all the governments of all the colonies on the continent that the common people had political
rights
– and they were more than prepared to fight for them. Any denial of those rights could lead to dreadful consequences. The battle in Australia between the English elite who felt themselves born to rule in this new land and the muddied mass who felt that not only was Jack as good as his master but wanted a say in who that master
was
–
and maybe even
be
that master himself – Eureka was a definitive victory for the mass and weakened the ability of the elite to resist change.

The degree to which Eureka has been celebrated for this in the time since has varied.

The shearers at Barcaldine, for example, flew the Southern Cross in 1891 as a symbol of their preparedness to – as the revered oath went – ‘stand truly by each other and fight to defend our rights and liberties’, as both unionism and the Labor Party were formed. And on the 100th anniversary in 1954, there was a three-day festival at Ballarat, with no fewer than 70,000 attending, climaxing in a re-enactment of the event where the people jeered as the ‘Redcoats’ and ‘Police’ attacked – and it all became so heated that it had to be broken up.

It was all a lot quieter on the 150th anniversary, however, as 700 people gathered around a small lake down from the Eureka Centre – built on the site of the old Stockade – at dawn of 3 December 2004. Many were unionists with their modern trade union flags, chanting, ‘A union, united, will never be defeated!’

Meanwhile, however, on this same day the Prime Minister, John Howard, declined to allow the Southern Cross to fly above Parliament House – despite the fact that it flew above every state and territory parliament and myriad town halls around the country – and did not attend any commemorative events himself.

‘Ah, it’s, part of the Australian story,’ he carefully allowed to the ABC on the day, ‘not quite the big part that some people give it, but equally a significant part.’ For all that, not a single member of Mr Howard’s Cabinet attended the 150th anniversary at Ballarat, and it is the claim of then Opposition Leader Mark Latham that the PM had even
banned
them from attending – though, to be fair, parliament was sitting at the time.

Nevertheless, Labor Senator Gavin Marshall criticised the Prime Minister individually, and the Coalition generally, for their overall attitude.

‘Howard is an arch monarchist,’ he told the
Sun-Herald
, ‘and clearly they are running from what the Eureka flag represents; independence and people determined to fight for their rights.’ John Howard did release a short statement, noting that ‘the events at Eureka 150 years ago were central to the development of Australia as an independent democratic country’, but that was it. At the same time, however, the Victorian Premier Steve Bracks could find a great deal of inspiration when, in his own 150th anniversary address, he observed, ‘I believe Eureka was a catalyst for the rapid evolution of democratic government in this country – and it remains a national symbol of the right of people to have a say in how they are governed. I am not saying there would be no democracy without Eureka. However, I doubt our democracy would have come as quickly – and I suspect our democracy would not be as egalitarian – without Eureka.’

As Geoffrey Blainey noted in 1963, ‘Eureka became a legend, a battle cry for nationalists, republicans, liberals, radicals, or communists, each creed finding in the rebellion the lessons they liked to see.’ The surprising thing, however, is that the Liberals specifically and the Conservative side of politics in general, at least in the modern era, has not embraced Eureka strongly – given that one could look at the whole uprising as a collection of small businessmen/entrepreneurs rising against iniquitous taxes and over-regulation that was stifling their creation of wealth. Right up the Libs’ alley!

A devotee of the above view is the conservative columnist Gerard Henderson. In a
Sydney Morning Herald
column in 2004, he decried the lack of John Howard’s involvement in the sesquicentenary, and finished, ‘Let’s hope that, by 2054, the federal Liberal leadership recognises that the battle for the Eureka legend requires more than a brief written message. After all, culture wars can be fun – and they are important.’ To be fair, even some senior Labor figures can downplay the significance of Eureka. Early in the course of my writing this book, one famous identity of the ALP – let’s call him Bob Carr – waved a dismissive hand, and said, “Eureka? Local tax revolt

I passionately believe it was a lot more than that.

Personally, from the perspective of 2012, I think there is enormous inspiration to be found in Eureka for Australians of all political persuasions, pursuits and backgrounds.

Firstly, and most obviously, it is a great story of democracy, of a group of brave people fighting for, and
winning,
their democratic rights. Yes, it is right that we honour those men who fell at Gallipoli and elsewhere, but surely at least an equal debt is owed to those who died fighting for the ‘liberties’ we all enjoy today?

Obviously, those of us who believe that it is archaic that Australia should, in the 21st century, still be politically aligned with the British monarchy, even to the extent of having the British flag on our flag, can and do find great inspiration in Eureka, and I also agree with former ALP leader Mark Latham that it was one of the first great moments of multiculturalism in this country. (Notwithstanding the widespread mistreatment of Aborigines and Chinese in other parts of the goldfields.)

Let’s hear from you, Raffaello Carboni, as you reflect on a gathering of native-born Australians, Irish, Swedes, Germans, black and white Americans, Canadians, Italians, French and Jamaicans, all acting as one for the greater good: ‘We were of all nations and colours.’ The diggers had come together, ‘irrespective of nationality, religion or colour to salute the Southern Cross as a refuge of all the oppressed from all countries on Earth’.

Witness Peter Lalor, as he mounts the stump beneath the Southern Cross and focuses on the vast sea of his fellow rebels, not unified by a common race but by something else entirely: ‘I looked around me. I saw brave and honest men, who had come thousands of miles to labour for independence. I knew that hundreds were in great poverty, who would possess wealth and happiness if allowed to cultivate the wilderness that surrounded us. The grievances under which we had long suffered, and the brutal attack of the day, flashed across my mind; and with the burning feelings of an injured man, I mounted the stump and proclaimed “Liberty”.’

All put together, I entirely concur with the words written by Macgregor Duncan, Andrew Leigh, David Madden and Peter Tynan for their book
Imagining Australia: Ideas for Our Future
, which appeared in
The Sydney Morning Herald
for the 150th Anniversary of Eureka, in a piece entitled ‘Time to reclaim this legend as our driving force’.

They wrote: ‘Australia should re-elevate Eureka to its previous position as a central legend of Australian nationalism, standing for those distinctly Australian values – egalitarianism, mateship, fairness – together with democracy, freedom, republicanism and multiculturalism . . .

‘Obviously, Australian nationalism can never be reduced to just one legend, but Eureka offers great potential to a nation floundering for a national story.’

And their idea that I love most of all: ‘Our rather limp citizenship oath could be revitalised with a fragment of the bold Eureka oath: “We swear by the Southern Cross to stand truly by each other and to defend our rights and liberties.” And when we become a republic – as we surely some day must – what better flag to choose than the Eureka flag?’

Say it loud. Say it proud.
Exactly!

At the beginning of writing this book, as I mentioned in my introduction, I fancied that the image of the Eureka flag was too associated on the one hand with a certain right-wing, redneck, racist element – those who ludicrously brandish it as a symbol of white Australia – and on the other hand with the hard left of the trade union movement for it ever to be embraced by Australia as a whole.

But no more. Now that I
get
it, I understand that the Eureka story really is the great Australian story; that we can take enormous inspiration from what occurred and that the Eureka flag more truly represents what is great about Australia than our current flag, which states to the world that we are still Great Britain in the South Seas. (Cue Jerry Seinfeld on his visit here in 2000: ‘I love your flag – Great Britain, at night!’)

The reason I added
‘
the unfinished revolution
’
to the title is because, though those who fought at Eureka accomplished a great deal for this country, the last part of the job that Lalor enunciated as his goal on the eve of the battle – ‘Independence’ – has
still
not occurred.

But it will come. And when it does so, I believe that the story of Peter Lalor and the valiant men and women of the Eureka Stockade will rightly take their place at the very forefront of Australian history.

They were good and brave people, fighting for a great cause, laying the very foundation stones on which modern Australia has been built.

I salute them. And their flag.

Our flag.