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form y separately published work icon Eureka Stockade single work   film/TV   historical fiction   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1949... 1949 Eureka Stockade
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Based on the real incidents that occurred on the Ballarat goldfields in Victoria during the early to mid 1850s, Eureka Stockade follows Peter Lalor, a boisterous prospector who leads a rebellion against the colonial authorities over excessive licences and restrictions. At first, the prospectors intend to use random mob violence, but Lalor organises the group into a strong, united front. The climax sees them take on the troops under the flag of the Southern Cross.


Lalor is portrayed in this version as a man of doubts and principles rather than as the charismatic rebel leader traditionally associated with the legend.

Notes

  • 'Harry Watt conceived Eureka Stockade as the first of a series of films to be made around the British Commonwealth showing the birth of democracy. A brief prologue made this intention clear: "The story of the world is the story of man's fight for freedom. In that fight England has her Magna Carta, France her revolution, America her Declaration of Independence and Australia her Eureka Stockade"... [His] pursuit of the greys and mediocrities of historical truth [were however] undermined by compromises during the arduous physical difficulties of the production, and above all by the miscasting of Chips Rafferty in the role of Lalor' (Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, 1980, p. 271).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Related Works

Who Would Be Free : A Novel Rex Rienits , 1943 single work novel historical fiction 'Arrived in Victoria in 1854, Jerome Whitelaw tries his fortune on the goldfields in partnership with Barney O'Neil. On the way to Ballarat they prevent Black Maconachie, a bushranger, from robbing a coach in which are travelling Catherine Slade, daughter of the Goldfields Commissioner, and her maid, Maggie At Ballarat, they become involved in a fracas at the Eureka Hotel, where Barney is wounded by the licensee a notorious scoundrel named Bentley. He is treated by Tom Bourke, an American doctor, and Marie Parkes, an actress employed by Bentley's dance hall. Barney an Jerome stake out a claim, but on the way to register it are arrested by Lieutenant Hamilton, Catherine's fiancé, and Sergeant Haines, for not having diggers' licences although they explain they are on the way to take them out. Commissioner Slade dismisses the charges, but pointedly tells them that the service they were able to render his daughter is now squared. By now Jerome has discovered that the Ballarat goldfields are seething with discontent, and that the diggers are ripe for trouble. Sergeant Haines visits Jerome's claim and provokes him into a quarrel, but further trouble is avoided by the intervention of Peter Lalor, champion of the digger's rights, and Marie Parkes.' (Australian Journal, publisher's abstract)
y separately published work icon Eureka Stockade Rex Rienits , London : Convoy Publications , 1949 Z1380028 1949 single work novel historical fiction
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (2)

Works about this Work

Unsung Aussie Filmmakers – Grant Taylor : A Top Ten Stephen Vagg , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: FilmInk , 29 July 2019;
Cinematic Visions of Australian Colonial Authority in Captain Thunderbolt (1953), Robbery Under Arms (1957) and Eureka Stockade (1949) Andrew James Couzens , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 2 2016; (p. 237-249) This paper interrogates representations of colonial authority, in particular the police force, in three films with a colonial Australian setting that were produced following the Second World War by British or Australian producers: the local production Captain Thunderbolt (1953) directed by Cecil Holmes; Jack Lee’s British adaptation of Australian literary classic Robbery Under Arms (1957) and Harry Watt’s Eureka Stockade (1949), which was the British production company Ealing Studios’ second production in Australia. I argue that the three films reflect differing approaches to understanding Australian national identity through their representations of authority, ideologically influenced by left-wing politics, the global marketplace and British imperialism. Where Captain Thunderbolt treats the colonial police and government with the sardonic irony and distance of a resistant community, both Eureka Stockade and Robbery Under Arms reinforce and justify Australia’s colonial administration. By detailing the economic, political and social contexts that contributed to these films, I demonstrate how various interest groups appropriated notions of Australian character and history to suit their ideological goals in line with Richard White’s (1992 White, Richard. 1992 arguments in ‘Inventing Australia’. Turning to history and folklore, these interests – including the Australian government, British media conglomerate the Rank Organisation and various left-wing organisations – infused the past they evoked in these films with new meanings that suited their vision of the future.' (Publication summary)
South of Ealing : Recasting a British Studio’s Antipodean Escapade Adrian Danks , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 2 2016; (p. 223-236) 'The five films made in Australia by Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s have largely been analysed and ‘reclaimed’ (by figures like Bruce Molloy) as key works of Australian National Cinema, movies that occupy and populate a period of meagre feature film production while reworking popular genres such as the Western and the crime film. Although these films can be read symptomatically in terms of their ‘localised’ renderings of landscape, character and narrative situation, they have seldom been discussed in relation to the broader patterns of Ealing film production, the studio’s preoccupation with interiorised communities, work, Britishness and small-scale settlements on the geographic fringes of Britain and the Empire (such as Whisky Galore!), and the various other films (such as the Kenya shot and set Where No Vultures Fly and West of Zanzibar) that light upon far-flung or peripheral locations and settlements. This essay re-examines the Ealing ‘adventure’ through a transnational lens that focuses attention on the largely unacknowledged parallels and production symmetries between films such as Eureka Stockade and those that sit within the ‘mainstream’ of the studio’s output (e.g. Passport to Pimlico). It also places these five films (The Overlanders, Eureka Stockade, Bitter Springs, The Shiralee and The Siege of Pinchgut) in relation to the broader commercial fate of the studio throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.' (Publication abstract)
y separately published work icon Making Settler Cinemas : Film and Colonial Encounters in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand Peter Limbrick , United Kingdom (UK) : Palgrave Macmillan , 2010 10659321 2010 multi chapter work criticism

'Through a shrewd analysis of the historical experience of imperialism and settler colonialism, Limbrick draws new conclusions about their effect on cinematic production, distribution, reception and filmic discourse.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.
The Australian Western, or A Settler Colonial Cinema par excellence Peter Limbrick , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cinema Journal , Summer vol. 46 no. 4 2007; (p. 68-95)

'This essay considers the production history and reception of three of Ealing Studios' Australian films—The Overlanders, Eureka Stockade, and Bitter Springs—to better understand the films' imperial and colonial underpinnings and to position these "Australian westerns" as examples of a settler colonial mode of cinema.'

Source: Abstract.
In Passing Ronald Campbell , 1948 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian Journal , 1 April vol. 83 no. 985 1948; (p. 276)
South of Ealing : Recasting a British Studio’s Antipodean Escapade Adrian Danks , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 2 2016; (p. 223-236) 'The five films made in Australia by Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s have largely been analysed and ‘reclaimed’ (by figures like Bruce Molloy) as key works of Australian National Cinema, movies that occupy and populate a period of meagre feature film production while reworking popular genres such as the Western and the crime film. Although these films can be read symptomatically in terms of their ‘localised’ renderings of landscape, character and narrative situation, they have seldom been discussed in relation to the broader patterns of Ealing film production, the studio’s preoccupation with interiorised communities, work, Britishness and small-scale settlements on the geographic fringes of Britain and the Empire (such as Whisky Galore!), and the various other films (such as the Kenya shot and set Where No Vultures Fly and West of Zanzibar) that light upon far-flung or peripheral locations and settlements. This essay re-examines the Ealing ‘adventure’ through a transnational lens that focuses attention on the largely unacknowledged parallels and production symmetries between films such as Eureka Stockade and those that sit within the ‘mainstream’ of the studio’s output (e.g. Passport to Pimlico). It also places these five films (The Overlanders, Eureka Stockade, Bitter Springs, The Shiralee and The Siege of Pinchgut) in relation to the broader commercial fate of the studio throughout the late 1940s and 1950s.' (Publication abstract)
Cinematic Visions of Australian Colonial Authority in Captain Thunderbolt (1953), Robbery Under Arms (1957) and Eureka Stockade (1949) Andrew James Couzens , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 10 no. 2 2016; (p. 237-249) This paper interrogates representations of colonial authority, in particular the police force, in three films with a colonial Australian setting that were produced following the Second World War by British or Australian producers: the local production Captain Thunderbolt (1953) directed by Cecil Holmes; Jack Lee’s British adaptation of Australian literary classic Robbery Under Arms (1957) and Harry Watt’s Eureka Stockade (1949), which was the British production company Ealing Studios’ second production in Australia. I argue that the three films reflect differing approaches to understanding Australian national identity through their representations of authority, ideologically influenced by left-wing politics, the global marketplace and British imperialism. Where Captain Thunderbolt treats the colonial police and government with the sardonic irony and distance of a resistant community, both Eureka Stockade and Robbery Under Arms reinforce and justify Australia’s colonial administration. By detailing the economic, political and social contexts that contributed to these films, I demonstrate how various interest groups appropriated notions of Australian character and history to suit their ideological goals in line with Richard White’s (1992 White, Richard. 1992 arguments in ‘Inventing Australia’. Turning to history and folklore, these interests – including the Australian government, British media conglomerate the Rank Organisation and various left-wing organisations – infused the past they evoked in these films with new meanings that suited their vision of the future.' (Publication summary)
The Australian Western, or A Settler Colonial Cinema par excellence Peter Limbrick , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cinema Journal , Summer vol. 46 no. 4 2007; (p. 68-95)

'This essay considers the production history and reception of three of Ealing Studios' Australian films—The Overlanders, Eureka Stockade, and Bitter Springs—to better understand the films' imperial and colonial underpinnings and to position these "Australian westerns" as examples of a settler colonial mode of cinema.'

Source: Abstract.
y separately published work icon Making Settler Cinemas : Film and Colonial Encounters in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand Peter Limbrick , United Kingdom (UK) : Palgrave Macmillan , 2010 10659321 2010 multi chapter work criticism

'Through a shrewd analysis of the historical experience of imperialism and settler colonialism, Limbrick draws new conclusions about their effect on cinematic production, distribution, reception and filmic discourse.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (7)
Last amended 31 May 2017 13:48:35
Harry Watt
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