Eureka Stockade

Chips Rafferty - Peter Lalor
Jane Barrett - Alicia Dunne
Jack Lambert - Commissioner Rede
Peter Illing - Raffaello
Gordon Jackson - Tom Kennedy
Ralph Truman - Governor Hotham
Sydney Loder - Voder
Peter Finch - Humffray

Eureka Stockade was the second film that Harry Watt made in Australia, mostly on location, but with some 20% of its scenes shot in the Ealing-controlled Pagewood Studios in Sydney. Set in the 1850s, it tells the story of the problems following the gold rush in Victoria and New South Wales. After clashes with the police the miners organise themselves under the leadership of Peter Lalor (Chips Rafferty) and engage the authorities in a full-scale battle. But public opinion stands on the side of the miners and their rights, and all the ringleaders are acquitted. Lalor is later elected Member of Parliament for the gold town of Ballarat, and marries a schoolteacher (Jane Barrett) from the goldfields. It was a major production for Australia, with some seventy speaking parts and several hundred extras, most of whom were recruited from the army, with official blessing.

Bad weather and primitive working conditions combined to make it a difficult operation, and many of the unit had not worked on a feature film before. An elaborate set of Ballarat in the 18509 with a main street and miners' tents surrounding it was blown down twice. Eureka Stockade is an average feature of its kind, making up in sincerity for what it lacks in polish when compared with the treatment Hollywood might have given the subject. But it did not spell the end of the Australian venture for Ealing, in spite of the considerable difficulties that were placed in the way.
Extract© George Perry: Forever Ealing.