All thirteen gold miners tried for high treason after the Eureka Stockade rebellion were acquitted, exposing limits of colonial authority in Australia.
Key Facts
- Trial period
- 22 February – 27 March 1855
- Defendants indicted for treason
- 13
- Treason verdicts
- All returned not guilty by juries
- Withdrawn indictment
- Thomas Dignum
- Henry Seekamp sentence
- 6 months imprisonment for seditious libel
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The Battle of the Eureka Stockade in late 1854 pitted gold miners against colonial authorities over mining licences and governance. In its aftermath, colonial authorities arrested rebels and chose to prosecute thirteen of them for high treason rather than following the Goldfields Commission's recommendation of a general amnesty.
Between 22 February and 27 March 1855, thirteen Eureka rebels stood trial for high treason in the Victorian colony. Juries returned not-guilty verdicts in every case, and the indictment against Thomas Dignum was withdrawn entirely. Separately, Ballarat Times editor Henry Seekamp was found guilty of seditious libel on 23 January and sentenced to six months in prison.
The acquittals embarrassed the colonial government, with the colonial secretary rebuking Governor Sir Charles Hotham for pursuing so serious a charge as high treason. The trials were widely condemned as farcical and reinforced popular sympathy for the miners, contributing to political reform on the Victorian goldfields.