To Pierce the Tyrant’s Heart is the epic account of the battle for the Eureka stockade, an iconic moment in Australia’s history. On a chilly dawn morning 3 December 1854 soldiers and police of the Victorian colonial government attacked and stormed a crudely built fortification erected by insurgent gold miners at the Eureka lead on the Ballarat gold fields. The fighting was intense, the carnage appalling and the political consequences of the affair profound.

In this book Gregory Blake for the first time examines in great detail the actual military events that unfolded during the twenty minutes of deadly fighting at Eureka. Many of the old assumptions about what occurred at Eureka are turned on their heads raising in their place provocative questions. Were the intentions of the Eureka diggers as pacific as tradition insists? How was it that men supposedly poorly armed and taken by surprise in their sleep were able to deliver sharp and well directed fire against their attackers? How close in fact did the assaulting infantry come to failing in their task, and why has the pivotal part in the battle played by the police never been acknowledged? Why has the very signficant contribution made to the defence of the stockade by the Americans been all but ignored? The author argues convincingly that Eureka was not a massacre, as it has been portrayed. Rather it was a hard fought military engagement.

Eureka was a decisive moment in Australian history and in this book it comes alive in a rousing and original manner.

242 pages, Hardback, full colour dust jacket, quality paper, illustrated, maps.

You can buy this book in bookstores or get a signed copy direct from the author for $40.00 (Australian) plus postage.

To do so email: gregoryblake@bigpond.com