‘Ripe for a republic’: British radical responses to the eureka stockade*

* The quotation is from a letter in the Birmingham Journal, 26 May 1855, supplement: 2. I am grateful to Alex Tyrrell, Glen Barclay and Suzanne Pickering for comments on a draft of this article. My research is funded by the Australian Research Council.

Abstract

From the moment that the news arrived in Melbourne, the Eureka stockade has been repeatedly described, analysed and contested. Surprisingly there has been little attempt to explore reactions to the rebellion in the wider British world of which the young colony of Victoria was a part. By examining the response of British radicals to the events in Ballarat this article illustrates how they sought to contribute to and learn from the actions of their antipodean counterparts. In turn, this reveals an aspect of Eureka—its Britishness—that has often been obscured by the shadow of the Southern Cross.

Notes

* The quotation is from a letter in the Birmingham Journal, 26 May 1855, supplement: 2. I am grateful to Alex Tyrrell, Glen Barclay and Suzanne Pickering for comments on a draft of this article. My research is funded by the Australian Research Council.