WAS a second flag flown below the famous Eureka flag in 1854?
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A reward of $10,000 is being offered to anyone who can help find the Union Jack flag believed to have been flown at the Eureka Stockade.
The Australian Flag Society has launched a worldwide quest to locate the flag, which is said to have been hoisted under the Eureka flag during the tumultuous events.
They point to early newspaper reports of the stockade, which claim that both the Eureka flag and Union Jack were captured by police and soldiers.
A cartoon which appeared in 1950s book The Revolt at Eureka shows the arrangement of flags as it would have appeared to eyewitnesses, with the Eureka flag above the Union Jack.
Many of the memoirs written about the period make no mention of the “Eureka Jack” and it has not surfaced since that fateful day.
Australian Flag Society chief executive officer Nigel Morris said he hoped the $10,000 reward would get people looking for the flag.
An artist's depiction of the "Eureka Jack". PICTURE: SUPPLIED
“I think that’s enough of an incentive. You just never know, it could be in an attic or somewhere that we can authenticate,” he said.
“They could have heard granddad talking about it.”
An Australian Flag Society paper on the subject called “What happened to the Eureka Jack?” theorises that the colours were raised in response to divided loyalties in the rebel force.
Mr Morris said there had been other attempts over the years to try to locate the flag but to no avail.
“You don’t know what could come of it – $10,000 for a flag like that, a historic artefact. I reckon that’s a handsome reward,” he said.
“It needs to be in some collection somewhere, a flag like that.”
