In April 1855, while in hiding from the law after the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor, the rebel Commander-in-Chief, wrote an open letter that has since become the Holy Gospel of Eureka. It is one of the most quoted and referenced documents regarding this event, and is indispensable to any serious study of the Eureka Stockade, or the Ballarat goldfields. But is it all we've been led to believe? Peter Lalor was a smooth political operator with grand ambitions. He wasn't going to let something as big as Eureka pass without using it to his advantage!

In this two-part episode, Juliana unpicks Lalor's famous open letter "To The Colonists" and sorts through the myths to get at the facts. Part II considers the command structure inside the stockade, the attack itself, Peter Lalor's life-changing injury and the treatment of civilians by the military and police. Tune in after the credits to hear the second part of Lalor's letter, read by Juliana.

In April 1855, while in hiding from the law after the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor, the rebel Commander-in-Chief, wrote an open letter that has since become the Holy Gospel of Eureka. It is one of the most quoted and referenced documents regarding this event, and is indispensable to any serious study of the Eureka Stockade, or the Ballarat goldfields. But is it all we've been led to believe? Peter Lalor was a smooth political operator with grand ambitions. He wasn't going to let something as big as Eureka pass without using it to his advantage!

In this two-part episode, Juliana unpicks Lalor's famous open letter "To The Colonists" and sorts through the myths to get at the facts. Part I examines the build up to the stockade, and the events such as the Ambush of the 12th Regiment, the Gravel Pits Riot, the oath beneath the Southern Cross, and the attacks on civilians by roving bands of stockaders. Tune in after the credits to hear the first part of Lalor's letter, read by Juliana, and listen in next episode to hear the dramatic conclusion.

On the 17th of October 1854, just six weeks before the famous Battle of the Eureka Stockade, a mob of furious diggers surrounded the opulent Eureka Hotel in Ballarat and burned it to the ground. The publican had recently got away with murder and the burning of the Eureka has been presented ever since as either a triumph of justice for the people, or the symptom of men pushed too far, too hard, who finally snapped.

But was it quite as spontaneous as the arsonists would like us to believe? This fortnight, Juliana considers the circumstances around this infamous act of violence and unpicks the mythology to reveal a far darker tale than a riot which got out of hand. What were the consequences when the Eureka was burned down? Was there any justification at all? And did it have any connection to the Eureka Stockade? Listen in, and find out.

Just one year after trying to keep activist Egon Kisch out, the Australian government set their sights on excluding Mabel Freer, a British Indian woman who was coming to Australia to get married. She was white, she was a minor aristocrat, she was the very person Australia was trying to encourage to immigrate under the white Australia policy. So why were they excluding her?

As it turned out, it had nothing to do with Mabel's ethnicity and was a stinking cauldron of sexism, classism and nasty-old colonial racism. The Australian Government, the Australian Army, and two private families all worked together to pressure the government to keep Freer out. Unfortunately for the government, they severely underestimated just how much the voting public hated the idea that their elected representatives were acting in a private matter. The result? Listen in and find out.

In 1934, Czechoslovakian activist Egon Kisch, an anti-war, anti-fascist campaigner who had escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany was invited to speak at an anti-fascist rally in Australia. He was stopped at the border by Australian immigration officials and prohibited from entering the country.

Kisch was not the kind of man to go down without a fight, however, and through a series of legal maneuvers he was finally able to speak and lecture to adoring crowds. The government's attempts to keep him out had turned him from a relatively unknown overseas activist into a national celebrity. But what did Australia's infamous "White Australia Policy" have to do with Kisch and how on earth does Scottish Gaelic fit into this story?

In 1851, the colony of Victoria was hovering on the verge of complete collapse as gold fever swept the inhabitants. Unable to cope, facing record high levels of inflation and with a famine threatening the colony, Governor La Trobe wrote in desperation to London to ask for a military force to restore order. They responded by sending one of the most famous regiments of their day: the 40th Regiment of Foot.

But why? The 40th were far away, it took almost twelve months from when La Trobe sent his letter for them to arrive in Victoria. What was it about this famous regiment that made them seem like the perfect men to knock a restless colony back into shape?

Listen in and find out.

On New Year's Eve in Sydney, 1908, things got so out of hands that the council came close to banning the celebration forever! Join Juliana in the very first episode of 2024 to discover what happened, why everything went wrong that year and the lasting legacy that began with a a gang of larrikins with explosive sticks...

The Skeptical Historian Writes A Thesis is available every second Tuesday, wherever your get your favourite shows.

Australia Day. Invasion Day. An arbitrary date in January everyone likes to argue about. Whatever the 26th of January is for you, there's no other day in the Australian calendar that sparks so much passionate debate and fierce hatred, but what what is it about this day that gets people so hot under the collar?

In this special bonus episode, we'll unpack some of the myths abut Australia Day and fact check a post that's been doing the rounds on social media about the Citizenship Act and its link to January 26. Regular programming will continue as usual following this episode.