The Spirit of Eureka
Fred's story took out first prize in The Ballarat Courier's 1997 Southern Cross Literary Competition. The theme that year was, Eureka - The Birthplace of the Australian Spirit.
Read it below and discover the spirit of Eureka and its vital place in Australian history.
Page Contents at a Glance
Prize-winning writer, Fred Ludbrook
"The Eureka Uprising - but why uprising? Everyone else called it the Eureka Rebellion."
The Class of 1932 - Humffray Street State School
Written by Fred Ludbrook
A large blackboard dominated the platform of grade eight - written in bold chalked letters, the words - "The Eureka Uprising" - but why uprising? Everyone else called it the Eureka Rebellion.For the first hour our teacher had been giving us a history lesson about the uprising. He placed the chalk on a small ledge on the blackboard and left the room. He was a tall, thin man and walked with a very bad limp - it was said that he was wounded some sixteen years ago on the killing fields of Europe, on the Western Front, where sometimes 30,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in one day.
"People said he was decorated but he never spoke of war; only man's inhumanity to man!"
People said he was decorated but he never spoke of war; only man's inhumanity to man!Whatever he told us was gospel and he was a hero to that grade of '32, not for what his war deeds were, for hadn't he coached our football team to three state school premierships, we would have followed him anywhere! As he spoke about Eureka that morning he told us our great, great grandparents had probably been at Eureka, for were we not born and bred from Brown Hill, Ballarat East and Golden Point and we had the Eureka spirit flowing through our veins. I looked around the classroom. Surely not this motley mob - 5 Chinese, 2 sons of Indian hawkers, an Aboriginal - all descendants of another time and my best mates Tuffy, Brownie, whose father had a sweet factory, and Charlie Cheong, who brought us long pull and short pull toffee from his father's Chinese grocers shop at the corner of Main Road and Barkly Streets.
My thoughts were interrupted abruptly by five elderly Chinese walking past in single file in the street outside yabbering away in their foreign tongue. Every Monday morning they walked back to their market gardens near the Yarrawee Creek returning from the Joss House in Main Road where they probably smoked an opium pipe or two and dreamed of old Cathay and played Fan Tan and gambled as they were wont to do each weekend, and possibly just like us, descendants of Eureka!
It was soon lunchtime and the kids with lunches ate them slowly, while the others hungrily looked on for a time, then made off to the fruit shops and picked over the specs thrown out by the fruit shops and fruit market. We were in the midst of a great depression, some said not only in Australia, but all over the world, and many people went hungry every day.
I started thinking about that Eureka mob who fought against injustice, what have they left us - people starving, no jobs, no future, they fought in vain, they left us with bloody nothing, that Eureka mob!
As I left the school that afternoon to catch my Brown hill bus a young man in his early twenties was singing "Mother Macree", his tattered old hat alongside his swag contained a few pennies and halfpennies. I wondered how he felt begging so that he could eat, would it be my lot? Further down the street another played an old accordion, for in 1932 there were no pensions or social welfare if you didn't work, you didn't eat!
As I left the bus the noisy batteries were crushing stone, Ryans on the hill behind the Brown Hill swimming pool, the Metrop further up, and the one on Black Hill worked day and night. Mining had been resurrected and men were working small alluvial mines to get a crust and batteries crushed the stone for them to extract the gold.
I rushed home, brandishing my Merit Certificate and a permit to work - I was just thirteen and a half years old. The State had done its duty to educate me to merit Certificate standard, and now with thousands of other kids throw me onto the impossible work heap, with 40% unemployed and little prospect of work.
"Suddenly, like a born again Christian it became loud and clear. I felt like crying out 'Eureka' ..."
I finally got a message boys' job at twelve shillings a week and as I became older the firm kept me on - then suddenly the world was at war again and that class of '32 rallied to the cause to become soldiers, sailors and airmen - we were just 21 years old.I joined the army and my mates from school days were posted to various units and after training some went to the Middle East, and some went to New Guinea, like me, and in behind Salamaua as I 'stood to' with my mates, in that dreadful hour before dawn and waited for that attack to come, or didn't, my whole life appeared before me, my school days and that teacher and his Eureka spirit!
Suddenly, like a born again Christian it became loud and clear. I felt like crying out "Eureka" I've found it, like that miner long ago, the message of our teacher was trying to get through about the Spirit of Eureka in that class of '32, "it's all around us", it's me and you and you, to know what's right from wrong - and against all odds stand up and be counted when you know that things are wrong - like what we are doing in this battle as we drive the enemy from Kokoda, Salamaua and Lae - it's the "Spirit of Eureka" that says the enemy will not pass those last thirty miles to Australia and take away the very things those miners fought for, the right to choose and that might isn't the right, to dictate to your fellow man.
In retrospect, that class of '32, we are left with but a few, many died on foreign soil for you and you and you, to keep that "Eureka Spirit" flowing, and me, I was wrong when I said they had left us nothing, that Eureka mob, they have left us everything that we hold dear, our principles, the knowledge of right from wrong and to speak out and stand up when things aren't right.
My old mates "Tuffy" who didn't make it back and "Brownie" a prisoner of the Japanese on the infamous Burma Railway came home with one leg instead of two, and Charlie Cheong, a fighter pilot, died while fighting for his beloved China.
Our teacher, long gone, God love him, taught me something those miners fought for so long ago - the fight for justice!
"THE SPIRIT OF EUREKA" - "THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE AUSTRALIAN SPIRIT".
Copyright © 1997 Fred Ludbrook
John Black Henderson's painting of The Eureka Uprising
The Eureka Uprising Background Information
The Eureka Stockade
If you are not familiar with the history of the Eureka Uprising, this article from Wikipedia will give you some helpful background information.
The Eureka Stockade the setting of a gold miners' revolt in 1854 near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, against the officials supervising the mining of gold in the region. The revolt was prompted by grievances over heavily priced mining items, the expense of a Miner's Licence, taxation (via the licence) without representation and the actions of the government and its agents (the police and military). "The government was forced to abandon the license substitute it with a cheaper miner's right which also conferred on men the right to vote" The Victorians: Arriving; Richard Broome, 1984. P.92. Withers, WB History of Ballarat and some Ballarat Reminiscences, Facsimile Edition Published by Ballarat Heritage Services 1999, First Published 1870, Pp 63-64. While the events which sparked the rebellion were specific to the Ballarat gold fields, the underlying grievances had been the subject of public meetings, civil disobedience and deputations across the various Victorian gold fields for almost three years. The miners' demands included the right to vote and purchase land, and the reduction of License fees. Agitation for these demands commenced with the Forest Creek Monster Meeting of December 1851 and included the formation of the Anti-Gold License Association at nearby Bendigo in 1853. This gave an advantage in our work rights today.
Although swiftly and violently put down, the Eureka rebellion was a watershed event in Australian politics. The preceding three years of agitation for the miners' demands, combined with mass public support in Melbourne for the captured 'rebels' when they were placed on trial, resulted in the introduction of full male suffrage for elections for the lower house in the Victorian parliament."The government was forced to abandon the license and substitute it with a cheaper miner's right which also conferred on men the right to vote." The Victorians: Arriving; Richard Broome, 1984. P. 92 The role of the Eureka Stockade in generating public support for these demands beyond the goldfields resulted in Eureka being controversially identified with the birth of democracy in Australia.'Dr. H.V. Evatt, leader of the ALP, wrote that "The Eureka Stockade was of crucial importance in the making of Australian democracy"; Robert Menzies, later Liberal Prime Minister, said that "the Eureka revolution was an earnest attempt at democratic government"; and, Ben Chifley, former ALP Prime Minister, wrote that "Eureka was more than an incident or passing phase. It was greater in significance than the short-lived revolt against tyrannical authority would suggest. The permanency of Eureka in its impact on our development was that it was the first real affirmation of our determination to be masters of our own political destiny." (from , quoting Historical Studies: Eureka Supplement, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1965, pages 125-6)Geoffrey Blainey commented in 1963 that "Eureka became a legend, a battlecry for nationalists. republicans, liberals, radicals, or communists, each creed finding in the rebellion the lessons they liked to see." ..."In fact the new colonies' political constitutions were not affected by Eureka, but the first Parliament that met under Victoria's new constitution was alert to the democratic spirit of the goldfields, and passed laws enabling each adult man in Victoria to vote at elections, to vote by secret ballot, and to stand for the Legislative Assembly."
The Spirit of Eureka Guestbook
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poddys wrote...
Nice lens.
I remember watching the dramatisation of the Eureka Stockade more than 20 years ago on tv. I knew nothing of it then of course, but there were several programs in England about the Australian legacy at that time, maybe because the bicentenery was due.
I spent 9 months in Auckland in 87-88 and then returned to London via Australia. I spent a day at Sovereign Hill, and the memories of the events really came to life. Of course it was a freezing cold July day, and we had only summer clothing on... It must have been terrible in the 1850's.
Posted May 05, 2008
auntfeefee wrote
Cool digger, spot on. Proud of being Fred's daughter!!
Can see there's a literary inheritence as well as a political one for us Ludbrook's. The site is fantastic!
That Eureka legacy is a very multicultural one!
Justice and a fair go for all!!
A 90 year old meets 21 century technology!!!
Posted May 04, 2008
AussieDigger wrote...
Thanks for your feedback cappuccino136. I've added a Wikipedia article with some background information about the Eureka Uprising. Great idea!
Posted April 26, 2008
cappuccino136 wrote...
Wow, what an inspiring story. I'm glad that he wrote this down for the generations that follow. Thanks for publishing it on this lens. I think it would be great to add some links to other information about the Eureka Uprising for people like me who don't know the history of it.
Posted April 26, 2008
