The pepper box pistol as revealed by x-ray
The Heritage Victoria conservation laboratory has conserved artefacts from the area where the Eureka Stockade may have been.
These artefacts include:
No one knows exactly where the Eureka Stockade was located. The surviving documentary evidence is not conclusive and as the site was mined continuously before and after the uprising in 1854, it is unlikely that much - if any - archaeological evidence survives. Despite the uncertainty, the enormous significance of the event has been recognised through listings of the Eureka Stockade Reserve on both the Victorian Heritage Inventory and the Register of the National Estate.
When the City of Ballarat proposed to build the Eureka Stockade centre on the site, Heritage Victoria required an archaeologist to undertake a watching brief during the excavations. Much to everyone’s surprise a small mine shaft filled with water and mine tailings was found to contain artefacts.
The mine shaft was filled with material dating between 1854 and 1865. The artefacts provide a rare glimpse of materials used by miners at the time of the uprising.
The water and lack of oxygen in the mine shaft ensured unusually good preservation of the artefacts especially the wood, metal and leather. The x-ray shows just how well preserved the metal of the gun is. However these items require specialised conservation storage and treatment if they are to survive into the future.