Zeus

Eureka Stockade (1949)

• Director
  • Harry Watt
• Writers
  • Harry Watt(screenplay)
  • Walter Greenwood(screenplay)
  • Ralph Smart(additional scenes)
• Stars
  • Chips Rafferty
  • Jane Barrett
  • Jack Lambert

  Released in the U.S. as Massacre Hill, the Australian Eureka Stockade was one of that country's biggest and most expensive postwar productions (it was nearly two years in the making!) Set during the 19th-century Australian gold rush, the film top-bills Chips Rafferty as boisterous prospector Peter Lallor. The gold bonanza is threatened by the arrival of claim-jumpers, usurpers and government bean-counters. At first, the prospectors intend to use random mob violence to ward off the invaders, but Lallor organizes the group into a strong, united front, as willing to mediate as to bust heads. Future star Peter Finch is eighth-billed as "Humffray." Eureka Stockade was remade years later as a TV miniseries.