midnight
Diggers were brutally man-handled ; in some cases their clothes were torn from their backs , in others they were insulted and beaten by the troopers . The hunt was manifestly an organized and deliberate effort to display the contempt officialdom felt for the men and their cause . Blood ran hotly ; there were casual skirmishes between the people and the police , who , while serving as the zealous and willing instruments of oppression , offered the diggers absolutely no protection from the thieves and ruffians infesting the fields . Arrangements had been made to convey the news of a general rising to the men at Simpson 's Ranges in time to enable them to reach the disturbed centre before the outbreak of hostilities , and on a Friday morning , shortly after midnight , Jim Done , Mike Burton , and the three Peetrees set off together . They left their tents as they stood , and carrying only a blue blanket apiece and such arms as they possessed , started on their long tramp to Ballarat as gaily as if bent upon a pleasure excursion . They slept in the Bush on Friday night , and reached the Australian Eldorado on Saturday at about noon . Approaching the field from the north , they were bailed up on the edge of wide lagoon fringed with gum-trees and scrub by a party of men on horseback .