On Common Ground

French and British find common ground; Silk tie by Louis Feraud, Cufflinks by London Badge and Button. And adding flavour to cultural diversity, native wildflowers from Australia.

The Battle of Waterloo and The Eureka Stockade

On February 26th 1815, barely ten months after the end of the Peninsular War, Napoleon sailed from Elba to bring about the end of his brief period of exile. It was the beginning of the final, momentous chapter of the Napoleonic Wars that would culminate in the great battle of Waterloo and Napoleon's final downfall.

The campaign was also to result in a head to head between the two great commanders of the age, Wellington and Napoleon, two men who had yet to face each other in battle. Napoleon landed in France on March 1st and entered Paris on March 20th. He immediately set to work raising an army, the so-called Army of the North which, by the time of the Waterloo campaign consisted of 125,000 men. Facing Napoleon were the armies of the Seventh Coalition - it had declared Napoleon `an enemy and disturber of the world' - which numbered as many as 800,000 men. But of the various armies opposed to him it would be the Anglo-Dutch army, under Wellington, and Marshal Blucher's Army of the Lower Rhine that would be the object of Napoleon's thrust in June 1815.

The Eureka rebellion, which is often referred to as the 'Eureka Stockade' is a key event in the development of Australian democracy and Australian identity, with some people arguing that ‘Australian democracy was born at Eureka’ (Clive Evatt). In addition, the principles of mateship, seen to be adapted by the gold diggers, and the term ‘digger’ was later adopted by the ANZAC soldiers in World War I.

The rebellion came about because the goldfield workers (known as 'diggers') opposed the government miners' licenses. The licenses were a simple way for the government to tax the diggers. License fees had to be paid regardless of whether a digger's claim resulted in any gold. Less successful diggers found it difficult to pay their license fees.
1854 - The year of the rebellion

In 1854 there were about 25,000 diggers on the Ballarat goldfields. The majority of these were British, especially Irish, but also included Americans, French, Italian, German, Polish and Hungarian exiles as well as many other nationalities. The largest nationality group was Chinese. Aboriginal people were also present on the Ballarat goldfields in many capacities: as Native Police, guides, wives and gold diggers, as well as trading cultural items and food. Women on the gold fields were assisted by Caroline Chisholm.

Law and order on the goldfields was enforced by the Gold Commission's police force which was later reinforced by a garrison of soldiers.

Heritage is style too.