Eureka Centre and Eureka Flag

Modern museum on the 1854 Eureka Rebellion — home of the original flag

Address 102 Stawell Street South, Eureka

The Eureka Centre, a modern museum on the site of the 1854 stockade, houses the original tattered Eureka Flag — the most politically loaded textile in Australian history. The permanent exhibition tells the story of the rebellion: the licence hunts, the murder of James Scobie, the oath on Bakery Hill, the dawn attack on the stockade, the trials in Melbourne that all ended in acquittal, and the lasting effect on Australian democracy.

The presentation is multimedia-heavy and reasonably balanced — the rebels were not unambiguously heroes — and is the best primer in the country on the period. The flag itself is in the central viewing room, displayed flat in low light. Allow 90 minutes.

things to do museum
A story
The Eureka Flag — five white stars of the Southern Cross on a blue ground — was raised on Bakery Hill on 1 December 1854. Three days later government troops attacked the stockade in the pre-dawn dark. Of the original flag, only sections survive; they were torn into pieces as souvenirs by the troops and have been reassembled here.

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