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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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THE
EUREKA REPUBLIC An
Alternative History of Australia Part
One (1788-1918) by
Pete Townsend Acknowledgment
& Prelude I
would like to acknowledge and thank David Atwell, whose AH of "New
Britannia" part 1, was inspirational in the development of my ideas for the
Eureka Republic. Initially I had penned a storyline of Australia's rise to super
power status and alternate development that by coincidence tied in with David's
New Britannia. David's
willingness to share his experience and thoughts, constructive criticism and
encouragement, have been a real help. Thanks David! Taking
AH 'givens' from his New Britannia will set the scene for the development of
this storyline, which I hope you'll find both interesting and entertaining. As a
first-timer in AH writing, I know I'm setting myself a big task. Nothing
ventured, however is nothing gained. Perhaps a coin of phrase wholly appropriate
to an Australia in any time line! So,
lets start with David's assumption in New Britannia, that following the loss of
the American War of Independence, Britain's only foothold in the continent lay
north, in Canada. But the Loyalists from America, en masse, took up the
opportunity to relocate to "New South Wales". And tens of thousands
did, revitalizing the atmosphere in the harsh conditions that were the NSW and
Tasmanian colonies. By
the early 1800's, tens of thousands more in Canada left to join the initial
waves of Loyalists, the total number arriving from North America near to
350,000, swelling the total population in the NSW (Australian) colonies to
almost 1 million by 1810. Again,
following the AH in "New Britannia", the Gold Rushes and the American
Civil war provide together another influx of immigrants close to a further
million, instrumental in making the population up to 12 million by the mid
1870's. BIRTH
OF THE EUREKA SPIRIT 1854-1890 Most
great republics have been born out of war and revolution. Australia would be
different. Unique among the modern nation-states, it would see some small
violent uprisings, but moreover, it would be the use of popular will and
common-sense to achieve independence, without great turmoil. It all really began
during the Gold Rush in Victoria, at a place known as Eureka, near the mining
town of Ballarat in the winter of 1854. With
the surface gold now close to exhausted, deep lead mining had become the only
means to secure significant finds, but the water soaked clay and silt that
needed to be sunk through to the bedrock, proved both an unsafe and uncertain
proposition to the miners. The
implementation of severe taxes, and outright cruelty by the British garrisons in
collecting these taxes and the endless inspecting of licenses, had led to
relations between the establishment and the mostly immigrant gold miners to a
volatile state. When a crippled Armenian Roman Catholic priest was arrested for
the assault of a garrison trooper, riots erupted across Eureka. The garrison put
this down in brutal fashion and stepped up license inspections and tax
collecting. The
uneasy calm that followed was soon broken by the aquittal of one James Bentley,
a publican, who had been accused of murdering a miner. 1000's of miners
descended upon Bentley's pub, the Eureka Hotel, burning it to the ground. Realizing
the danger of losing all control in the area, Governor Hotham agreed to commence
negotiations with the newly formed Miners Reform League. The issues of unlawful
arrests, high taxes, garrison brutality, near-constant license inspections and
democratic representation began in late October 1854. Barely a month into
sporadic discussions however, Hotham had ordered military reinforcements into
the area, which upset a mob on Nov 28th. A small boy was accidently shot, and
close to 100 miners severly injured in the ensuing riots with mounted troops. The
following morning, Hotham awoke at his Bakery Hill rooms to view the 14,000
miners and their families who completely surrounded the complex. The blue
"southern cross" flag flying brightly atop a makeshift dais for the
speakers. The
flag had been designed by a Canadian emigrant miner, based on the Southern Cross
constellation that lights up the southern skies. The white cross signifying
defiance, and the blue background the sky. One
might argue today whether this was the first demonstation of mass people-power,
or outright mass-treason, since the French revolution. A tense day long
stand-off amid negotiations avoided what in other lands may have turned into an
instant bloodbath. A lack of diplomacy on the behalf of the miners however,
sidetracked the whole affair, and several scuffles with police led to the huge
crowd quickly dispersing for fear of the British troops. Many in the crowd were
woman and children. The tense atmosphere continued to bubble for several days,
until the outbreak of "the shortest civil-war in history". This civil
war lasted just 20 minutes. But the infamous British assault on the Eureka
Stockade on December 3rd, such a short-lived battle, would however, shape the
future of the country. The Eureka flag was torn down by the British troops, and
dragged through the dust as it might seem had the hopes of fair treatment for
the miners. ( the original flag is proudly
displayed in the Eureka museum in Ballarat to this day, and considered the most
sacred icon of the nation. ) The flag maker, the Canadian named Ross, died
in the assault with 55 others. It was not until the emergence of an eloquent
advocate for the miners, one Peter Lalor, who later became the parliamentary
representative for the Ballarat region in the Victorian state legislature, that
any meaningful dialogue and progress began. Primarily,
after the order was restored at Eureka, the Governor agreed to reduce the
numbers of troopers by 50%, and lessen the gold tax. Democratic representation
however did not come until some five years later, helping to inspire the growing
union movement born in the shearers’ struggle for better working conditions.
But most importantly, the events at Eureka had ignited a spirit of independence
that slowly but surely would manifest over the next half century. Henry
Lawson later wrote "20 minutes freed Australia at Eureka long ago" and
American writer Mark Twain, described this lost struggle against tyranny as
"another instance of a victory won by a lost battle". The
same reversed sense of victory would appear again in a pivotal point in
Australian history, at Gallipoli, during the First World War. THE
BEGINNING OF THE UNION MOVEMENT William
Spence, a Scot who grew up in the Goldrush town of Creswick, Victoria and who
himself started mining at the tender age of 14, was deeply affected by the
events of Eureka in late 1854. Before his 20th birthday he had already
established himself as a tireless supporter of miners' rights, and started the
Creswick Miners Union. In
1876 (10 years earlier than the OTL) he founds the Australian Shearers Union, to
tackle the growing discontent and disruption plaguing the industry. Pastoralists,
many of whom hailed from the south US states, expected shearers to work long 14
hour days, with high production quotas, and yet supplied sub-human living and
working conditions. Spence found that appealing to the sense of mateship between
shearers, which in the tradition of bushrangers, was Australia's answer to
European comradeship, would be the starting point to attract large membership
into the union. Within
a further 5 years, and using all the eloquence of the events at Eureka 30 years
before, a political ideology of "fair-go for fair-work" was quickly
establishing itself in the union movement, public sector and most importantly,
spreading throughout the national psyche as a whole. The egalitarian nature of
Australia's population make-up, lack of a large aristocracy, and general
neighbourliness of it's emerging culture was starting to assert itself as an
inevitable force of change in the way Australia saw itself, and as a means of
nation-building. Union
offices, affiliated industries, pubs and private homes all began to openly
display the Eureka flag, not only as in defiance of British rule, but much more
as pride in the belief of "the fair go for all". Essentially, the act
of defiance shown at Eureka had a knock-on effect throughout the entire nation,
with a public acceptance that the true power of this nation should lay firmly in
the hands of the people, using government as a public tool. By 1862, the British
establishment, had begun focusing on building cornerstone institutions, and
except for in the largest goldfields, garrison numbers had been reduced
drastically in comparison to the now overwhelming majority of free settlers.
Convict transportation had ceased some years before in Victoria and NSW, but
continued still to Tasmania, West Australia and Queensland in ever decreasing
numbers. A real sense of excitement and unique opportunity permeated the
colonies, and those in Leadership were not immune to this. The colonies had
joined in somewhat of a "Commonwealth" market, and indeed the evolving
"Eureka Politik" was in theory at least, all about establishing a
common wealth for both workers and employers. The
second great wave of immigrants from North America start to make a huge impact,
with many tens of thousands from the defeated confederate states leaving for
Australia, and also to New Zealand, whose population had now passed the two
million mark. Several thousand British garrison troops, were transferred to NZ
in 1853 to help quell the Maori uprisings there, and never returned to
Australia. By
the mid 1890's the success of unionized industries had led to a respectability
of Spence and others in the union movement, and most importantly, had not
ostracized itself from the established colonial governments. The establishment
saw that although well organized, the Unions had a bouyant effect on society,
and seemed to self-regulate any radical elements. It greatly improved working
conditions and wages, had increased overall wealth, output, exports, and the
economy in general. As everywhere in the late 19th Century, there was a great
deal of hardship and poverty, but for the most part, Australians, particularly
in the larger towns and cities had an already high living standard Australia's
population, now approaching 17 million and growing fast, did put huge pressures
on infrastructure, and unemployment was a large problem. The separate colonial
Governors had all given tax incentives to industrialists wishing to bring new
industries to smaller towns, and "resettlement" grants to married men
in an effort to take the pressure off cities like Sydney and Melbourne which had
grown exponentially. Railways had
grown rapidly, particularly in NSW Victoria and Queensland, providing vital
transport and movement. (EARLY
YEARS OF) THE NEW REPUBLIC 1901-1915 It
was amid this backdrop that Australians of all backgrounds began to be swept up
in the euphoric ideal of the coming new century being the right time to have
complete independent control of the extraordinary new nation they had built over
the last century. In 1898, a referendum although not a national landslide,
firmly supplied a YES to a proposed republic encompassing a federation of the
six colonies. Deep concerns existed in Western Australia, which held a large
British born majority, and had been the last to end convict transportation, but
these fears were not enough to derail the movement. Britain,
aware that Australians held deep affection for the Crown, but being too far away
to intervene militarily, decided that any hinderance to republicanism on its
behalf would be the cause of much instability, and thus gave its blessing to
Australia's independence. However, it insisted on Britons in Australia to have
the right to dual nationality, and spared Royal humiliation by brokering a
"member status" for Australia to be both a free republic, and remain
part of the Empire. Spence
and others in the union movement, saw the need for official status in the
electoral process for this Eureka spirit, and so was born in 1899, the
Australian Labor Party, a loose affiliation initially with labor movements in
each of the colonies, becoming a federal party in 1901. Former NSW party leader,
Chris Watson was it's first federal leader, winning the first national elections
to form a minority government, and thus rising to become the new Commonwealth
Republic of Australia's first PM, with Spence as his Deputy. The
new Republic, now proudly flying the Eureka flag, had a parliamentary elected
President, who was a figurative non-politically aligned Head of State, with
limited powers, to function primarily as cosmetically replacing the King, but
most importantly being an Australian of distinction. A Prime Minister, leader of
the ruling party, would head the government in a parliamentary system, with a
House of Representatives, A Senate, a High Court and a written constitution.
Voting was compulsory and universal for all 21 years and older. The popular
patriotic song "Advance Australia Fair" was the official anthem. Some
of the richer land owners and many connected to the Garrisons who were relieved
from duty by the British Government immigrated to New Zealand after the birth of
the Republic, these numbering perhaps as many as 5,000, but the majority stayed,
and ex British soldiers were reinstated immediately into the new State police
forces, or into the newly formed Republic Defence Forces.
In
keeping with David Atwell's "New Britannia part 1", the influence of
immigrants from the former US southern states had a particularly profound affect
on Australia's development at this time. As pastoralists, entrepreneurs and
industrialists, and a great deal of wealth behind them, they soon realized that
although they would never recreate the American south down under, they could
take advantage of their new surrounds through industrialization. This
in turn would lead to two of the most extraordinary engineering feats of the
20th Century. In little more than a century, Australia had become 6th most
powerful nation in the world, and suddenly was getting thirsty. Literally,
thirsty. With the continent having the world's lowest annual rainfall, and the
existing dams alone not enough to sustain the burgeoning populace, water
resources were a serious concern, and also the major obstacle to progress and
stability in the future. Commencing
in 1907, the Great Snowy Mountains Scheme would provide through a system of dams
and tunnels, drinking water, land irrigation and electric power to millions,
over a wide area of southern NSW-northern Victoria borderlands, and flow on to
eastern South Australia. It was more than half complete at the outbreak of WW1. At
the same time, the new Republic had set about a massive ship building program to
establish a worthy navy. Although based almost entirely on existing British made
destroyers, the republic had a fleet of 34 ships, including 10 destroyers
arriving from Britain shortly before the beginning of WW1. There was a thriving
industrial sector. The strong union environment of the workplace ensured good
conditions for many, often with pre-arbitrated contracts from both government
and private employers that provided housing and services in return for a ban on
wage increase demands from the workforce. The Government was openly encouraging
such pre-arbitrated contracts and other incentives especially in regard to
provincial centres. It wanted to promote the growth of mid sized towns and
cities to take the pressure from the major capitals. Concurrently,
an agreement by NSW to cede an area not quite mid way between Sydney and
Melbourne, would provide land for a new capital city, to be called Canberra, in
an Australian Capital territory, separate from the States in the same manner as
the American capital, Washington DC. An international competition saw the plan
by an American, Walter Burley Griffin the winner, and work began almost
immediately to create a "Bush Capital", and finally end the phoney war
between Sydney and Melbourne as which city should be the capital. Although many
cabinet meetings were held in Sydney, Melbourne had been the unofficial first
city of the Republic since 1901, and was the undisputed financial hub. In
effect, Australia was developing a "Eureka economy"...that is, where
negotiated compromises on all parties involved agreement to limits on profits
and exploitation, for the common wealth of all. Working
accords were based around legislated minimum wages, which while something akin
to OTL “Rhineland Capitalism” was a totally unique system in the world.
Workers had better conditions and regular wages, the private sector had little
employee unrest when compared to Europe or the United States, had reliable
labour and a fair return for investment, and the nation as a whole was largely
stable and cohesive. The relative
prosperity of the young republic saw to creating a very significant baby-boom,
with the population standing at 21 million before the outbreak of WW1. WORLD
WAR ONE and THE RIFT WITH BRITAIN At
the outbreak of war, Australia's new navy immediately set out and took control
of all German held territories in the near Asia-Pacific and Papua. The nation
celebrated and bolstered by its initial success, sent forth troops to North
Africa and Turkey to support Britain. The euphoria would however be short-lived. The
events at Gallipoli, as in the OTL, would be both a bench mark in Australian
history, and an unmitigated disaster. Under the command of the British, the
ANZAC ( Australian and NZ ) forces were diverted to the Dardanelles to keep
Turkey distracted. It was a suicide mission, as in the OTL, however the reaction
to the disaster in Australia was wholly different in this AH. In
Perth, the most Anglophile of all the cities, months of bloody news from
Gallipoli galvanized public opinion against the use of Australian troops
(Diggers) by "the Pommie Overlords" in a suicide campaign. The
legendary 10th Lighthorse were local lads, after all. Eventually, on 11th Jan
1916 (two days after the final
troop evacuations of all the landings on the Peninsula) thousands took to the
streets of Perth, walking from Town Hall, and transforming St. Georges Terrace
into a sea of blue Eureka flags marching up to Government House. Here stood not
only the local State parliament, but also the British Commission. The demand
being that Australian ( and NZ ) forces be deployed independently of British
authority. The sense of the British betrayal was palpable, and the protests soon
spread to be nation wide. For
this 'anti-British/independent Australian' sentiment to erupt from Western
Australia before any of the other States, was a fundamental event in Australian
history. A significant and powerful minority of Monarchists in the state had
always had a big effect on the attitudes, politics and identity of "the
West". This part of the country was parochial and conservative at heart,
being so isolated from the rest of the nation. Such a change of heart toward
British authority brought the state "emotionally" closer to the rest
of the Republic, which for all intensive purposes in the times was a distant
reality across 1000's kilometres of desert. When
a British MP was overheard, and consequently reported in The Times as calling
the Aussie Diggers "cannon fodder colonials", all hell broke loose
across the Antipodes. It led to both Australia and NZ dismissing their British
ambassadors, when after 4 days, no punitive action on the loose-lipped MP had
been taken by British PM Asquith. Union Jacks were being burnt in the streets
across Australia, and a great threat to Allied cohesiveness was looming. The
Canadians acted as peace-maker, to disfuse the situation, and managed to
influence a cooling in the tensions between London and Canberra. (Effectively
the capital was still Melbourne, though some cabinet meetings were held at the
now ramshackle town of 10,000 that Canberra really was, largely inhabited by
builders and public servants.) Suffice
to say, Australia deployed its troops independently throughout North Africa and
the Middle-east, and in France and Belgium, and maintained an uneasy
relationship with the British, but never again under their direct authority.
British politics had been a hotbed of conflicting opinions on the wisdom of
allowing Australia its independence. In essence, Gallipoli proved another
victory had come through a battle lost. But her forces proved to be crucial in
the most fearsome battles the world had yet known, and on many occasions saved
both British and American regiments from annihilation against the Germans. In
North Africa, Australia's troops were central to ridding the Germans from Egypt,
Libya and Palestine. It
was in the ensuing peace after WW1 that Australia would find itself isolated,
though strong. And conditions would become ripe for a fundamental change in
direction leading the young nation to develop into a unique and powerful force
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