The Eureka Stockade

It is often said that there were not too many 'battles' in Australian history that took [lace on Australian soil. I'm not sure how big or how long a fight has to be to be counted as a battle. Mostly we are talking about skirmishes between settlers and Aborigines, a brief revolt of convicts in NSW and the Eureka Stockade in Victoria. In the 1850s Miners, resentful of paying license fees without political rights, took up arms. The stockade was makeshift and did not hold off the government troops and police troopers; the battle was over in about fifteen minutes.

Among the defenders were Irishmen armed with pikes. There were also pistol armed Americans and others were armed with muskets. The defenders lacked military discipline.

The rebellion was lost militarily but was followed by the political rights the miners wanted. Most likely only a minority of the miners wanted a republic.

The figures are cowboy conversions from Airfix, Britains zookeepers and others. The British figures are conversions from Timpo Action Pack and were originally made for the Indian Mutiny. For police troopers I used Britains Detail ACW. I set up some wargames for students some years ago. The miners won the game, which meant I made them too accurate with their shooting!