The Eureka Flag is the first Australian flag.

It was first raised over a meeting of several thousand miners and citizens at Bakery Hill in Ballarat, on Wednesday, November 29th 1854.

“….they assembled round the Australian flag, which has now a permanent flag-staff.”
The Age: 4th December 1854, p. 5.

“….and called on my fellow –diggers, irrespective of nationality, religion, and colour to salute the ‘Southern Cross’ as the refuge of all the oppressed from all countries on earth. – The applause was universal.”
From Raffaelo Carboni’s speech that day.(Nov 29th)

It was regarded by those present as the Australian flag, and called  “The Southern Cross”.

“………during the Eureka trials, it was sworn that the flag was also known as “the diggers’ flag” and also as “the Southern Cross”.”
The Age February 24th 1855 p5

It was by this flag that the miners pledged their allegiance, at Eureka on Thursday Nov 30th, the oath being: “We swear by the ‘Southern Cross’ to stand truly by each other, and fight to defend our rights and liberties.”

“there is no flag in Europe or in the civilised world half so beautiful……”
The Ballarat Times 30th November 1854.

The flag was probably designed by a Canadian, Captain Charles Ross and made by three women including Anastasia Withers, and Anne Duke wives of diggers.
This flag was flown from the top of a 24 metre pole for the meeting and was carried then to the Eureka diggings by Ross.

“The ‘Southern Cross’ was hoisted up the flagstaff - a very splendid pole, eighty feet in length, and as straight as an arrow. This maiden appearance of our standard, in the midst of armed men, sturdy, self-over-working gold-diggers of all languages and colours, was a fascinating object to behold. There is no flag in old Europe half so beautiful as the ‘Southern Cross’ of the Ballarat miners, first hoisted on the old spot, Bakeryhill.
The flag is silk, blue ground, with a large silver cross, similar to the one in our southern firmament; no device or arms, but all exceedingly chaste and natural.”
Raffaello Carboni ‘The Eureka Stockade’ December 1st MDCCCLV

It is the first Australian flag, a flag chosen and designed by the people, not by government, aristocracy or bureaucracy. The original still exists, and is on display at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. Many would support its transfer to the Eureka Centre in Ballarat.

It was not the flag of a revolution but an assertion by the people that their dignity and rights will be defended against an insensitive, uncaring, and despotic government, determined to tax as highly as possible, these independent miners and the small business people of the goldfields, through the hated licence system.

That group of men and women, of mixed race and nationality were offended by the lack of justice, and apparent favouritism and corruption. Petitions had no effect.

Aboriginal people were not apparently involved. They were not gold seekers, although the 200 weight nugget found near Bathurst was found by an aboriginal shepherd boy.

Perhaps some were police trackers. But at the time Raffaelo Carboni talks of aboriginal people still living in a tribal state at Tarnagulla, where he watched a corroboree and spent time with them while being a shepherd.

Nor would it seem were the Chinese, who were a large group on the goldfields. They were in their allotted section and apparently obeyed the instructions given to them to stay there. Some Chinese had signed the Bendigo petition of the year before, but there was in Bendigo strong anti Chinese feeling from some of the  diggers. Perhaps some letter written back to China might one day be unearthed, and give us a glimpse of Eureka through Chinese witness.

Fr.Smith’s servant Gregorius, a disabled Armenian who spoke ‘imperfect’ English, was arrested and accused unjustly by the troopers. He gained the sympathy and support of the miners, adding to the tension that was building in the days leading up to the stockade.
Fr. Smith, the Catholic priest supported the miners, and had written to the governor, Hotham seeking reforms. He did not support the taking up of arms.

The flag with its five stars, silver on blue suits the nation. There is no vestige of colonialism, which so many find offensive, but the flag itself does not deny the English speaking British tradition that we enjoy, from Magna Carta to today. Rather as the maple leaf asserts the federation of Canada, so then this flag with the stylised southern cross can assert our federation, our commonwealth, our past and future.

Some object that it looks like the flag of Quebec. That flag is a more recent addition to Canada’s flags. Eureka is Australian, designed by a Canadian, who died there the day after that hot December day, on the hill in Ballarat.

Another North American, Mark Twain wrote that it was, “the finest thing in Australian history.…..it is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle. It adds an honourable page to history; the people know it and are proud of it. They keep green the memory of the men who fell at the Eureka stockade.”
An illustration of a miners’ picnic from 1865 verifies Twain’s words. There above the fern gully flies the ‘Southern Cross.’(The Illustrated Melbourne Post December 1865)
(Collection Ballarat Fine Art Gallery)

The men and women who flew this flag were not revolutionaries. They were people who were hurt, and who saw no redress through the legal system. They were threatened and so they took to arms and made their own camp. They did not march on the government camp, but the troopers marched at dawn on Sunday to attack the ramshackle barricades. Their declaration is not one of revolution, but an assertion of a fair go for all. We could return to their idealism, and perhaps be proud of our government and nation once again.

The first flag, the flag for the nation. Designed, made and flown by the men and women of Eureka.

 

 

This site is dedicated to establishing the Eureka flag as the National Flag. It is a not for profit site, with all surplus turned back to achieving the objective.