Eureka Stockade (fortification)
After the oath swearing ceremony, where Peter Lalor mounted the stump armed with a rifle declaring "liberty" and called for the formation of paramilitary companies, about 1,000 rebels marched in double file from Bakery Hill to the Eureka lead, where construction of the stockade took place between 30 November and 2 December 1854.
[3] There were existing mines within the stockade,[4] which consisted of pit props held together in the form of diagonal spikes by rope and overturned horse carts.
[9] The location of the stockade has been described as "appalling from a defensive point of view", as it was situated on "a gentle slope, which exposed a sizeable portion of its interior to fire from nearby high ground".
[10][note 1] A detachment of 800 men, which included "two field pieces and two howitzers" under the commander in chief of the British forces in Australia, Major General Sir Robert Nickle, who had also seen action during the 1798 Irish rebellion, would arrive after the insurgency had been put down.
[12][13] In 1860, William Withers stated in a lecture that "The site was most injudicious for any purpose of defence as it was easily commanded from adjacent spots, and the ease with which the place could be taken was apparent to the most unprofessional eye".
It contains the dated signatures of Redmond Barry (four times), and on the reserve side, there is a cartoon figure and the words "one of the volunteers" and William à Beckett's initials "W.A.B.".
Government surveyor Thomas Burr, draftsman James Gaunt, and Eugene Bellairs, whose party was fired upon from the area a couple of days prior, all knew the location of the stockade but were not examined as to the fidelity of the trial map when called as witnesses.
Charles Doudiet was an associate of Henry Ross and aided the wounded rebel, noting his death at the Free Trade Hotel two days later in his sketchbook.
He was present at the burning of Bentley's Hotel, the oath swearing ceremony on Bakery Hill and may have been an eyewitness to the early morning battle.
[29] Samuel Huyghue recalled that "the irregular enclosure of the Stockade comprised about an acre" and that "this rude barricade was continued between the mounds of earth thrown up in mining, the open spaces separating the 'claims' being thus filled up and rendered defensible".
[30] Henry Powell, a miner from Creswick Creek, in a deposition stated that he "Looked in the ring", which appears to imply a circular perimeter.
However, the diary of Charles Evans describes a funeral cortege for a woman who was mercilessly butchered by a mounted trooper while pleading for the life of her husband.
[180] Following the fall of the stockade, Hotham proclaimed martial law on 6 December 1854 with no lights allowed in any tent after 8 pm "even though the legal basis for it was dubious".
[184] Unrelated first-hand accounts variously state that a woman, her infant child and several men were killed or wounded in an episode of indiscriminate shooting.
