About this module

The resource engages students with a rich selection of historical sources and challenges them to draw their own conclusions about the development of the Australian colonies.

It highlights indigenous experiences, the role played by significant individuals, convict experiences, daily life in the colonies and the reasons for migration to Australia. The resource also features significant colonial events such as the gold rush in Victoria, the Eureka Stockade and the Burke and Wills expedition, as well as frontier conflict.

The resource gives teachers flexibility. Activities are provided to focus students on key historical people and events that were significant in the development of the colonies.

The highlight of the resource is the selection of sources from the National Library of Australia’s Treasures Gallery.

Each of the seven key sources introduces a theme. The student activities that support the sources cater for a variety of classroom contexts and learning styles. Teachers can explore all seven themes, or choose specific themes to meet their teaching and learning objectives.

Introductory activities

This activity aims to facilitate a shared understanding of the themes and concepts relevant to early experiences in the Australian colonies, as explored in the Australian Curriculum. It provides a context for students before they explore related sources from the Treasures Gallery.

Across the great unknown

Tell students to imagine they are preparing for the biggest camping trip of their lives - crossing Australia by foot. They will only be allowed to take ten items with them. Lead a class discussion on the environment and terrain they will be experiencing, the dangers they may face, and the health risks they may encounter. Tell students they will be wearing strong boots and warm clothes (with some light layers) and they will be carrying a backpack.

• Divide the class into groups of three or four. Provide the groups with the list of items. In their groups, ask students to choose ten items from this list to take with them. Allow twenty minutes for students to discuss the items and to number their selected items in order of importance.
• As a class, use the combined groups’ answers to create an agreed top ten list. As students suggest competing list items, compare the usefulness of each item and prioritise the more important ones. Continue until you have a consolidated list of ten items that the class agrees on.
• This activity has no single correct answer. It enables student groups to consider the potential merits of a range of items for their journey, and to combine their decision-making skills as a class, to understand the importance of the items in ensuring survival.
• Conclude the activity by discussing how students would use each of the top ten items, and how they would compensate for not having the remaining items on the list.

Use this activity as an introduction to studying Burke and Wills or prior to looking at two of the treasures in this resource, Inland adventures  and Frontier conflict.

The format of the program is a current affairs panel show (similar to the ABC’s Q&A, or SBS’s Insight), with you - the teacher - playing the host and facilitating audience questions. (Alternatively, you could simplify the activity by presenting it as mini-press conference. Interviewees could come to the front, one at a time, and be interviewed by all class members for five minutes.)

Choose six students to play the characters and give a role card to each one. The remainder of the class will be audience members (or journalists), putting forward questions to the role-playing panel members. (You could have students swap roles for a stronger level of participation.)

The six students should wear a name badge displaying their character’s name. (These names could also be written on the board to assist with identification.) Students should introduce themselves to the class by reading their character card out loud. They should retain the card throughout the interview to remind themselves of the historical person they are playing.

The six roles are:

• Elizabeth Goslin
• Cora Gooseberry
• Mark Jeffrey
• Mr Jones
• Robert O’Hara Burke
• Sarah Davenport

Once the six characters have been introduced, allow the class some time to form questions. You might like to prompt them with examples, or you could provide the following questions on a handout to which they can add their own:

• What do you want from your new life in Australia?
• What was your crime? Do you regret committing it?
• What do you eat?
• What does your typical day include?
• Do you have any spare time? If so, what do you do in it?
• Is there anything you wish you had done differently in your life?
• What do you think the future holds for you?
• What is the most amazing thing you have seen in your life?
• What do you remember of your childhood?
• What does the place you live in look like?

Engage the class in a debriefing discussion after the activity. Discuss the highlights of the activity in terms of how they imagined each character’s life.

Scrapbooking

The image in this unit depicting Frontier conflict is from an album compiled by Miss Eliza Younghusband. Younghusband was the daughter of the wealthy South Australian merchant, pastoralist and politician, William Younghusband.

The album belongs to the genre of a ‘sentiment album’, popular in the 1850s and 1860s. These albums typically contained a combination of drawings, watercolours, engravings, chromolithographic scraps, keepsakes and botanical specimens. They were intended for display and exchange among family and friends. Younghusband’s album features a very ornate cover with mother-of-pearl inlay, and it contains pencil sketches of landscapes, maritime images, scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, botanical compositions and watercolours.

Younghusband’s album can be compared to modern scrapbooking - a hobby enjoying a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

Have students create their own scrapbook over the course of your Year 5 History unit.

They can collect copies of artwork (such as the Bulla painting and the portrait of Bungaree), playbills for modern-day theatre productions (inspired by the Jane Shore playbill), portraits of key figures (such as Peter Lalor and Robert O’Hara Burke) and botanical cuttings (inspired by bush foods).

They could also create their own illustrations relating to the topic they are studying.

Use the scrapbook as a means to explore primary sources (as distinct from secondary sources). The scrapbooks could be used as a classroom or library display, or a celebration of the year’s work in History.

Curriculum links

This resource has been developed with specific reference to the five History content descriptions for Year 5 students in the Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences.

• Reasons (economic, political and social) for the establishment of British colonies in Australia after 1800 (ACHASSK106)
• The nature of convict or colonial presence, including the factors that influenced patterns of development, aspects of the daily life of the inhabitants (including Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples) and how the environment changed (ACHASSK107)
• The impact of a significant development or event on an Australian colony (ACHASSK108)
• The reasons people migrated to Australia and the experiences and contributions of a particular migrant group within a colony (ACHASSK109)
• The role that a significant individual or group played in shaping a colony; for example, explorers, farmers, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, humanitarians, religious and political leaders, and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples (ACHASSK110).

The resource also has relevance to the Civics and Citizenship strand, the English learning area and to the General Capabilities of Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Intercultural Understanding, and Personal and Social Capability.