On Sunday, December the 3rd 1854 at dawn a battle was launched on the goldfields. The Eureka Stockade battle occurred because the miners were furious about government laws and they were sick of corrupt police.

The stockade was only a wooden barricade enclosing about an acre of the goldfields. The battle lasted only 15- 20 minutes and five soldiers were killed and thirty diggers killed or later died of their wounds.

The immediate result of this rebellion was public reaction against the government. Licence hunting became almost non-existent and the Victorian jury aquitted all but one of the 13 miners.

After the Eureka Stockade battle gold licences were abolished and replaced by a miners’ right costing one pound a year and miners were able to vote in elections.

This event was the birth of Australian democracy as the miners fought for their rights and finally got what they wanted.