Eureka Stockade(Dec. 3, 1854), the most celebrated rebellion in
Australian history. It involved the gold prospectors of
Ballarat, Victoria, and was named for the rebels’ hastily
constructed fortification in the Eureka goldfield.  The
rebellion was the culmination of long-standing grievances on the
part of the miners, or “diggers,” over exorbitant prospecting-
license fees, brutal police procedures for collecting those
fees, lack of the vote, and lack of representation in the
Legislative Council, and a prohibition against prospecting on
crown lands. While Charles J. La Trobe, the former lieutenant
governor of Victoria who had introduced the license fee in 1851,
pressed the Legislative Council for reform on these issues, the
diggers underwent increased harassment by the police and
responded with greater militancy. The murder of a digger named
James Scobie in October 1854 and the acquittal of his alleged
killers by a government board of inquiry further inflamed the
situation. Demonstrations and clashes with the p