il disobedience in Ballarat led to Australia's first and only armed civil uprising, the Eureka Rebellion (colloquially referred to as the Eureka Stockade) which took place in Ballarat on 3 December 1854. The event, in which 22 miners died, is considered to be a defining moment in Australian history.
The city earned the nickname "The Golden City" in the 1850s. The gold rush population peaked at almost 60,000 mostly male diggers by 1858. However the early population was largely itinerant. As quickly as the alluvial deposits drew prospectors to Ballarat, the rate of gold extraction fluctuated and as they were rapidly worked dry, many quickly moved to rush other fields as new findings were announced, particularly Mount Alexander in 1852, Fiery Creek in 1855, Ararat in 1857. By 1859, a smaller number of permanent settlers numbering around 23,000, many of whom had built personal wealth in gold, established a prosperous economy based around a shift to deep underground gold mining.
Confidence of the city's early citizens in the enduring future of their city is evident in the sheer scale of many of the early public buildings, generous public recreational spaces, and opulence of many of its commercial establishments and private housing. The railway came to the town with the opening of the Geelong-Ballarat line in 1862, As Ballarat grew, the region's original indigenous inhabitants were quickly expelled to the fringe and by 1867 few at all remained.
Victorian city
From the late 1860s to the early 20th century Ballarat made a successful transition from a gold rush town to industrial age city. The ramshackle tents and timber buildings gradually made way for permanent buildings, many impressive structures of solid stone and brick mainly built from wealth generated by early mining.
Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh visited between 9 and 13 December 1867 and as the first ever royal visit, the occasion was met with great fanfare. The Prince
