Each year, Australian nationalists commemorate the miners’ rebellion at the Eureka Stockade on December 3, 1854.
The date is of spiritual significance, for it was when the gold-diggers at the Ballarat mines stood up to an unjust system of mining licences overseen by callous, corrupt officers, many of whom were recruited from the ranks of former prisoners. A miner’s life was not worth too much to the law.
D.H. Lawrence considered Australia a virgin country because he argued it hadn’t been paid for with blood. He was right in a sense, but then he never considered Ballarat or Lambing Flat.
The stirring passions of a national idea could be found in the uprising at the Eureka Stockade. Of course, back then, the states were different colonies, each under the control of a governor appointed by Her Majesty.
The Eureka uprising occurred in Victoria, then under the stewardship of Sir Charles Hotham.
To be fair, Hotham was a reasonable man, appointed to the invidious task of governing a colony in bankruptcy. He understood the miners’ quarrels with the crown, and ironically, he was in the process of making the necessary reforms to satisfy them. But circumstances spiralled out of control.
This year, we forego the obligatory retelling of that brave and defiant stand to conflate the legacy of the miners with the pluck shown by Victorians—and indeed Australians—in their struggles against a Premier who, unlike Hotham, is a true villain. We mean, of course, the despised dictator Daniel Andrews, who, from the very sight of him, is less a man than a creature.
The idea of stiff governance is particularly popular now and has gained traction ever since the west surrendered its freedoms in the wake of 9/11, twenty years ago. The making of the politics of fear has escalated since the Twin Towers crumbled in an avalanche of toxic rubble.
Today, it is not Al Qaeda that we worry about, but the fabricated bogey of “white supremacists” from an ill-defined “far-right” and a virus that escaped from a Chinese laboratory.
COVID-19 is the smokescreen used by the cabalists at Davos, in Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum has its headquarters. Every strand of capital in the world ties back to Davos and its partners, such as the World Health Organisation.
They have made no bones about publicising their agenda, so it’s not like we are promoting a conspiracy theory, just the facts about the conspiracy, which they happily share. Indeed, they are shameless about telling us that following the economic restructuring they plan under a green banner, we will own nothing and “be happy.”
Part and parcel of this “progress” is the seizing of civic freedoms. We live in an absolute surveillance society, and our everyday tools, such as our phones, computers, and gadgetry, all link back to a surveilling eye. Anyway, we know the story—right now we’re sick to death of it.
But it is not the Victorian Premier alone who has seized the moment to rake in greater and unwarranted powers through parliament: Mark McGowan, the WA Premier, is just as blinded by the excitement of power afforded by the pandemic [sic] as is Anastacia Palaszczuk, the Qld Premier, whose stringent approach has generated death and misery. Gladys “Gulag” Berejiklian has stood aside over integrity issues being investigated by ICAC.
We have watched as, over the past two years, police in every state has behaved like the gung-ho police and soldiers at the Ballarat goldfields. Apparently, some things never change. It’s just more vicious kelpies to round up the sheep.
However, the unending stream of protests around Australia—but especially in Victoria—demonstrates that the people are cattle to be prodded and moved around the urban paddocks. The contempt that the political and corporate classes have shown the people is unconscionable. Wherever an Australian has stood with the Eureka standard, flown the red ensign, or just the ordinary Australian flag, they have channelled the spirit of Eureka.
Our nation is still undergoing growing pains, but if it is to grow correctly, it must resist the eternal forces from outside that migrate here and demand obedience to a foreign system.
The year was 2021. The people resisted, were shot at, bludgeoned, and thrown into cells.
These are the true Australians, and wherever those brave miners are now in Eureka Valhalla, they look down and nod approvingly. ■