Bill Melody and the Eureka.

William Melody’s obituary in the New Zealand Tablet, December 1899, stated that William Melody had been present at the Eureka Stockade during his time in Ballarat  in the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. 

I had some knowledge of the Eureka incident. This was the event in December 1854 was the beginning of the formation of Australia as a nation, a catalyst in the separation from British rule and eventual Federation in 1901. It was to some extent Australia’s Boston Tea Party in that it was a protest against taxes without representation.

A Brief History of the Eureka Stockade.

Ballarat in 1854 was a powder keg. Gold had been discovered in large quantities in the area in 1852 and it had sucked tens of thousands of men, women and children from all around the globe. People from all walks of life threw in their lot to for the chance of quick wealth.

The cash strapped government headed by Governor Hotham exploited the situation by imposing an exorbitant £10 license fee to dig for gold. On  top of that the Ballarat Police who were in charge of licenses for the sale of alcohol and other goods. It was well known that they were open to bribery which created mistrust and unease.

Only landowners could vote in the State of Victoria, but diggers feel if they were paying taxes, they should have the right of a vote.  

After months of discontent a chain of events lead to a confrontation. The diggers of Ballarat began to organise themselves.  A ‘Monster Meeting’ attended by 10,000 was organised in November 1854 in protest at police corruption and injustice. They elected a young Peter Lalor as their leader. The Flag of the Southern Cross flew over the crowd for the first time and hundreds of diggers swore an oath to defend their rights and liberties under it. Many of the diggers burned their licenses in a symbolic protest.

 The original Southern Cross flag that flew at Eureka.

The situation became inflamed when word came from Melbourne that the government was sending in troops to enforce order, and conduct a license hunt. The protesters of Ballarat formed a stockade using whatever was available in the area around. It was not just miners inside the Stockade but whole families in tents and flimsy structures.

In the early hours of December 3 1854 a well armed contingent of more nearly 300 soldiers and police reach the Eureka Stockade. At dawn the stockade is attacked and a brief battle followed. It was fast and brutal. Twenty two diggers and seven military are officially listed as being killed though unofficial reports are of numbers much higher. Many wounded were bayonetted where they lay. Approximately 120 diggers were arrested and marched to the Government Camp.

Eureka Riot. J.B. Henderson 1854

In the weeks to follow 13 members of the rebel forces were tried for treason. The tide had turned for Hotham as a meeting 6000 members of the public amassed in Melbourne to condemn the actions taken by the Government and the administrators in Ballarat. All the men were found not guilty and the license fee was revoked.

Peter Lalor, the leader of the rebellion, was elected to the Legislative Council in 1855 (sans his left arm which was amputated due to a gun shot wound during the battle). Universal male suffrage in Victoria was achieved just two years later.

So what was Bill up to?

Except for the Obituary mentioned above, my knowledge of William Melody’s life extended to what I had read in a small life history my uncle Paul Melody had written some years ago where he has scant detail of his time in Australia and makes no mention of Eureka.  

I had scanned a few histories of the Eureka and with hopeful eyes cast through the indexes at the back of these books. No mention of a Melody. 

Last year one of my reading highlights was Clare Wright’s award winning book, ‘The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka'. She planted a germ of an idea in my brain. The protesters who became the Eureka Rebels were made of up many diverse groups from around the globe and from all walks of life.  A distinct group were the Americans who joined the rush. Many had already come through the hardship and triumphs of the great Californian gold rush of 1849. They had the advantage of experience, having being hardened with prior escapades and had technical experience of the art of extracting gold.  

Claire Wright describes them as dressing flashily with an air of cockiness. They were heavily armed with pistols and Mexican Knives.

Until reading this I had always thought of William Melody as Irish, and certainly later in his life he was well known for playing the Irish card. He was born in Bonnyconnellan, County Mayo, Ireland in 1828 but his family moved to Chicago, Illinois when he was 12 years old. At age 21 he followed his brothers and tens of thousands of others to the goldfields of California.

Of course he would identify himself as American in Ballarat. They were full of bravado, flashy and stylish and he was a worldly young man of 26. I’m sure they got all the girls.

In the days before the battle the Americans formed themselves into a troop calling themselves The

Painting of the California Rangers by G Blake

Independent Californian Rangers. On the day of the battle most of the California Rangers were ordered out of the Stockade and up the road to meet the possible incoming troops. They missed the action but some of the Rangers stayed behind.

Finally in the Eurekapedia, an extensive research project covering the Eureka Stockade event, I found reference to Bill.

“BILL MELODY: He was said to be in the Eureka Stockade, and a member of the Independent California Rangers. When Captain Robert Burnette cried ”California Rangers to the fence” Bill Melody was the first to obey.^”

Burnette was a member of the Independent California Rangers and was one of the digger leaders. He claimed to have killed Capt. Henry Wise with the first shot fired of the battle (though this is unprovable and somewhat disputed by historians). Either way, Bill was right in the thick of it - and he lived to tell the tale.

Now, here I was imagining him up on a hill overlooking the mayhem and he was first to the fence in one of the seminal events in Australia’s history! I know he was a fighter as events later in his life stand testament to it.

I am sure there is more to be found about Bill Melody and the Eureka in research libraries and primary source materials. More digging to be done – this time not for gold.

Lesley Melody 2015

Reading.

Claire Wright “The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka.”

Raffaello Carboni “The Eureka Stockade: Consequences of Some Pirates Wanting on Quarter-Deck a Rebellion.”

Peter Fitzsimons, “Eureka, The Unfinished Revolution.” (particularly Chapter 13 for an account of the battle.)

http://eurekapedia.org/William_Melody