[GOLD RUSH; EUREKA] Second report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on the Ballarat Outbreak Petition, together with the proceedings of the Committee and minutes of evidence.

Ordered by the Council to be printed, 14th March 1856. Melbourne : John Ferres, Government printer, 1856. Foolscap folio (340 mm), pp iv, 3; a fine example.

The Ballarat Outbreak Petition was submitted to the Legislative Council in December 1855. Its 752 signatories demanded compensation for citizens who lived in the vicinity of the Eureka Stockade who had had their property destroyed or damaged during the riots of early December 1854. The Chairman of the Select Committee appointed to review the Petition was none other than Eureka hero Peter Lalor, who had been elected to the Victorian Legislative Council in November 1855 as Member for the new district of Ballaarat. Lalor remained in this role until March 1856 – around the time of the present report – and in November 1856, under the new, more democratic constitution Lalor was elected unopposed to the Legislative Assembly seat of North Grenville (Ballarat West).