Swearing Allegiance to the Southern Cross, watercolour by Charles A Doudiet, 1 December 1854

On 30 November 1854, miners from Ballarat in Victoria swore an oath to the Southern Cross flag at Bakery Hill and built a stockade at the nearby Eureka diggings. They were unhappy with the way the colonial government had been running the goldfields. Early on 3 December 1854, government troops attacked the stockade and at least 22 diggers and six soldiers were killed. The events at Eureka later led to changes in how people were governed as well as people’s attitudes towards democracy and ‘a fair go’.