WHAT A DAY IN AUSTRALIAN HISTORY, 11th Nov

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1) Ballarat Reform League and the start of Eureka

On Saturday, 11 November 1854 an estimated at more than 10,000 miners gathered at Bakery Hill, directly opposite the government encampment. At this meeting, the Ballarat Reform League was created, under the chairmanship of Chartist John Basson Humffray. Several other Reform League leaders, including Kennedy and Holyoake, had been involved with the Chartist movement in England. Many of the miners had past involvement in the Chartist movement and the social upheavals in Britain, Ireland, and continental Europe during the 1840s. In setting its goals, the Ballarat Reform League used the British Chartist movement's principles. The meeting passed a resolution "that it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called on to obey, that taxation without representation is tyranny". The meeting also resolved to secede from the United Kingdom if the situation did not improve.

2) Elizabeth Scott first woman to be executed in Victoria.

At nine thirty in the morning of Wednesday 11th November 1863 at Old Melbourne Gaol, Elizabeth Scott stood on the scaffold with Julian Cross and David Gedge for the murder of her husband. Moments before the hangman released the trapdoor, she turned her hooded face to David and asked, ‘Davey, will you not clear me?’. For an hour after the hanging Elizabeth’s lifeless body swung from the scaffold. Her head and face were grossly swollen. So great had been the effect of the fall, her head was nearly severed from her body.

3) Ned Kelly's executed

He was hanged on 11 November 1880 at the Melbourne Gaol. Kelly's gaol warden wrote in his diary that when Kelly was prompted to say his last words, the prisoner opened his mouth and mumbled something that he could not hear. The Argus reported that Mr. Castieau, the governor of the gaol, informed the condemned man that the hour of execution had been fixed at ten o'clock. Kelly simply replied "Such is life." His leg-irons were removed, and after a short time he was marched out. He was submissive on the way, and when passing the gaol's flower beds, he remarked "what a nice little garden," but said nothing further until reaching the Press room, where he remained until the arrival of chaplain Dean Donaghy. The Argus reported that Kelly intended to make a speech, but he merely said, "Ah, well, I suppose it has come to this," as the rope was being placed round his neck. Although the exact number is unknown, it is estimated that a petition to spare Kelly's life attracted over 30,000 signatures.

4) Remembrance Day

Marks the anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War on the 11th of November 1918. Each year Australians observe one minute silence at 11 am on 11 November, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.

5) Sacking of the Prime Minister Gough Whitlam

Edward Gough Whitlam, served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia from 1972 to 1975. Whitlam led the Labor Party to power for the first time in 23 years at the 1972 election, retained government in 1974 before being controversially dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam remains the only Prime Minister to have his commission terminated in that manner.