Eureka and the Editor: A Reappraisal 150 Years On

Editors of colonial newspapers in the Australian provinces in the 1850s were foolish if they did not keep one eye on the cash flow while the other focused on the copy flow. Survival was the priority. Many country papers in the 1850s and 1860s were as short-lived as the rushes for gold to the districts where some papers were established. Rare was the country newspaper that did not engage vigorously in promoting the material and social advancement of its town and district. This boosterism tended to dilute editorial vigour in other directions, such as attacking the Establishment when appropriate. This paper deals with an exceptional editor in exceptional circumstances: an editor confronted with an increasingly explosive situation on goldfields several days from the seat of government. The developing crisis was fuelled by a belligerent and arrogant authority and an increasingly resistant mining community that saw no hint of a fair go in how its members were being treated. This paper reappraises, 150 years on, the performance of the local editor in the events that led to and followed what is known simply as "Eureka", a bloody battle provoked by an arrogant and uncaring administration