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There were key people involved in the Eureka Rebellion who subscribed to the ideals of Chartism and saw the struggle on the Victorian goldfields as a continuation of the activism in Britain in the 1840s and "the centuries of heroic struggles in England which preceded the Australian Federation"[1] such as the 1688 Glorious Revolution, that resulted in the enactment of the English Bill of Rights.[2] From 1837 to 1848, 129,607 incomers to Australia arrived from the British mainland, with at least 80 "physical force" chartists sentenced to penal servitude in Van Diemens Land. Currey agrees that the population at the time would have been sufficiently politically awake such that: "it may be fairly assumed that the aims of the Anti-Corn-Law League and the Chartists were very familiar to many of the Victorian miners."[3]
The Ballarat Reform League's charter was heavily influenced by the one adopted at the 1839 Chartist National Convention held in London.[4]
Gregory Blake has conceded that the so-called "Eureka Jack" may well have been flown beneath the Eureka Flag according to the first reports of the battle,[5] as the miners were claiming to be defending their British rights.[6]
- ^ Michael Kirby (13 August 1996). The Blessings of the Constitution (Speech). Constitutional Centenary Foundation, South Australian chapter. University of Adelaide.
- ^ An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown. England. 1689.
- ^ Currey 1954, p. 8.
- ^ Weiss 2000, p. 34.
- ^ "By Express. Fatal Collision at Ballaarat". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 December 1854. p. 5. Retrieved 12 July 2023 – via Trove.
- ^ Blake 2012, p. note 78.
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