From every corner of the world
They came from all around
When in 1851

They struck gold upon the ground
Every voyage was a long one
Months upon the stormy sea

Some to seek their fortune
Others escaping slavery


What they found on the goldfields
Was rule by brutish thugs
Discrimination and taxation

Mixed with swinging billy clubs
The gold was getting scarcer
And cops were getting worse

The diggers burned their licenses
And vowed to end this curse


They swore an oath
Beneath the Southern Cross
That they would stand together

And break the license laws
From twenty different nations
They gathered here as one

In Ballarat
Beneath the southern sun


The crown tried to divide them
Giving preference to some
The diggers wouldn't have it

They said it's all of us or none
They built a stockade
While the Redcoats massed nearby

And they heard the miners shouting
We are ready now to die


The rebel miners waited
For whatever lay in store
And on one December morning

In 1854
The Redcoats attacked the camp
Dozens there would fall

Among these brave gold diggers
Who had risen to the call


Chorus

The Army thought that it was over

And things now would go their way
But when fifteen thousand miners rallied
A month later on the day

The Crown conceded everything
All of their demands
They'd won an end to license fees

The right to vote and land

So here's to Joe and Charley

Lalor and the rest
They drew the battle lines
And put Crown rule to the test

The diggers may have lost the battle
But they quickly won the day
And those shots fired in Victoria

Were heard ten thousand miles away

Chorus