Rafaello Carboni, an Italian digger

Linguist, traveller and author from Italy, Raffaello Carboni travelled to the Ballarat goldfields after reading about the gold rush in the Illustrated London News. After some initial success, he moved on to working as a shepherd after his digging equipment was stolen. Returning to Ballarat he was then caught up in the protests about the mining licenses. Peter Lalor, leader at the Eureka Stockade, appointed him to organise the foreigners in the stockade and Carboni was among 12 diggers who were charged with high treason.

Carboni wrote his eyewitness account of the Eureka Stockade and published it himself a year after the event. His aim in writing was to vindicate himself and also to pay tribute to those killed.