Eureka

Eureka is a small eastern suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia – (AU).

Eureka is a small eastern suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia – (AU). It was originally part of Ballarat East but became its own suburb in 1946 in recognition of the area's significance to Australian history. Eureka is bordered by Specimen Creek to the north, Canadian Creek to the south, Queen and Joseph streets to the west and Kline and Stawell Street to the east. The suburb takes its name from the Eureka Lead – a lead is an ancient river bed that contains gold – of the Eureka Mining Company and is most notable as the site of the historic event of the Eureka Rebellion. This was the site where the rebel miners flew the Eureka Flag for the first time; a flag that has since become a symbol of the working class and trade union movement and, at times, Australian republicanism.

The Eureka Stockade Memorial Park - at the purported site of the Eureka Stockade - is the key site for the interpretation and commemoration of the events and legacy of the Eureka Rebellion. The park is built around the foundational 1889 Eureka Stockade Memorial.In 1998 the Eureka Stockade Centre was established at the Eureka Stockade Memorial Park to provide an interpretation of the Eureka story and site and present education programs. Following a second building redevelopment, a new museum called the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka (M.A.D.E) was opened in May 2013, this time presenting the original Eureka Flag, on loan from the Art Gallery of Ballarat. The City of Ballarat ended its arrangement with the independently operated MADE and it closed in March 2018.[3] The building reopened to the public in April 2018, with the flag retained as the centrepiece of a visitor experience now branded as the Eureka Centre Ballarat. At the 2016 census, Eureka had a population of 626.

Civil disobedience in Eureka led to an armed civil uprising, the Eureka Rebellion (colloquially referred to as the Eureka Stockade) which took place on 3 December 1854. The event, in which 22 miners died, is considered to be a defining moment in Australian history.

For many years, Eureka was simply a locality in Ballarat East, however in 1946 it was officially gazetted as a suburb in its own right.