Ballarat City Council voted at its Wednesday night meeting to go ahead with plans for 22 large golden posts to be placed in a triangle behind a statute of Wee Jock, the Irish terrier who refused to leave his owner’s side even after his death during the 1854 Eureka Stockade battle.

Each of the posts, which represents a digger killed in the fight, will be spaced far enough apart for people to walk through them.

The statue will be placed on high ground overlooking the grassed amphitheatre outside the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka after being removed during the former Eureka Centre’s development.

Artists, Charles Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith, visited Ballarat twice to inspect the site and consider its redesign.

It is expected to be completed in December to coincide with the Eureka Stockade’s 160th anniversary.