DECEMBER 3 SUNDAY
The awful day of the attack made at
the Eureka at 5 in the morning.
DECEMBER 4 MONDAY
All day long funerals passing.
DECEMBER 5 TUESDAY
Somewhat similar.
DECEMBER 6 WEDNESDAY
Mrs Lane staying with me for a week.
So Maggie Johnston recorded the events of that weird, savage week. Life went on. By the end of the month, most of the funerals were over, the shops were once again open, mining operations were in full swing and the rattle of the windlass chimed in with the usual goldfields din.
Peter Lalor was in hiding in Geelong, under the care of his fiancée Alicia Dunne. Along with Lalor, Frederick Vern, George Black and James McGill had a price on their heads. Anastasia Hayes made a reckless attempt to broker a secret communication with her husband while he was in the lockup, and was lucky to escape with her life. A dozen rifles were pointed at the moving object, recorded Samuel Huyghue when a ray of moonlight befriended her (for it proved to be a woman) and she got off scatheless. Thirteen men—including Timothy Hayes, Raffaello Carboni and the African-American John Joseph—were sent to Melbourne to be tried for treason. Henry Seekamp had been arrested in his home, with Clara and her children looking on, and would face a charge of sedition. The rest of the prisoners were released to the ruins of their burnt-out tents, grief-stricken families and uncertain futures.
Robert Rede’s report for the last week of December notes an increase of 855 women and 1955 children, and a decrease of 4130 men. A better state of order is returning, he writes, and the miners are resuming work…little gold has been raised.
Eureka Wright, whose parents Thomas and Mary Wright were in their tent inside the Stockade when it was stormed, celebrated her first birthday.
Dear Jamie and I spent a quiet day alone, wrote Maggie. Our first Christmas.