Eureka Jack Mystery
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The Eureka Jack Mystery relates to the reported flying of two rebel battle flags during the Eureka Rebellion in 1854.
Since 2009, various theories have emerged, based on the Argus account of the fall of the Eureka Stockade, and the affidavit of Private Hugh King dated four days after the battle that mentions a flag being seized from a prisoner detained at the stockade, concerning whether a Union Jack, known as the Eureka Jack was also flown along with the Eureka Flag. In a report published the day after the armed uprising in Ballarat, readers of the Argus were told that:
The flag of the diggers, "The Southern Cross," as well as the "Union Jack," which they had to hoist underneath, were captured by the foot police.
The Eureka Jack has been commemorated and investigated since the 19th century. The oath swearing ceremony in the 1949 motion picture Eureka Stockade features the star-spangled Eureka Flag with the Union Jack beneath. Ray Wenban depicted the Eureka Jack in a 1958 pictorial history series for students. In honour of the 160th anniversary of the battle in 2014, the Australian Flag Society released "Fall Back with the Eureka Jack", which illustrates Gregory Blake's two-flag theory in folk art.