This term’s integrated subject was the Hard Road Ahead. It’s  how life was on the goldfields in the 1850’s. We made a diorama (which is a recreation of something but smaller, e.g. shoe box could be a tower) of Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, we went to camp there and had a great time. We were part of it in the ‘Schools Program’. We were given a building to study with a partner.

What I learnt

Life in the 1850’s

It was hard in the 1850’s was bloody and hard. Chinese miners were treated horribly because they were smart and spoke a different language, so people were not happy and treated them poorly because they were different. They had their own small village. The toilets were bushes in the wilderness. This was on the hill so the liquid would run down the hill and polluted the river, which they used to drink and make stew. 

Businesses

Businesses were also different, not many people could read so the Newspaper wasn’t big, but it sold. The medicine shop was called an apothecary, it would also be the doctors.

Eureka Stockade

The Eureka stockade was made when the miners were fed up with paying an expensive licenses.

They built a ramshackle stockade or wall. And then early in the morning December 1854, 300 soldiers stormed the stockade, 24miner, 1women, 6 soldiers died in just 15-20 min battle. It was very unexpected. Peter Lalor, the leader of the miner (who made them swear an oath) survived without an arm, later he got into parliament. And a Miners right was made.

Important figures:

• Peter Lalor, Leader of the miners in the rebellion 
• Captain Cook, supposed founder of Australia 
• Abel tasman, explorer
• 3 woman who made the Southern Cross flag
• John Batman, founder of Melbourne  
• Queen Elizabeth, the queen

Important dates

1770- Captain Cook discovered Australia

1788 – the first fleet arrived at Botany bay

1835 – John Batman made Melbourne

1851 – gold was found in Ballarat 

1854 –  1. The Eureka Stockade

            2. Bentley caused a death of a miner

            3. Miners burnt down the Eureka Hotel

            4. Meeting at Bakery Hill

Ballarat Times -Newspaper

The printers in the 1850’s were mono or only made one at a time. Which means they had to make them separately. It took two to work the machine. Sometimes they could have 20 machines working a time. The papers would just be one sheet. The pictures had to be carved into metal, which was hard and the picture would only be black and white. There would only be one newspaper per week. Most people couldn’t read or write so limited people could do this job. The words had to be place in reverse and backwards for it to print the right way round, then you press.

 What I applied this project?

Reading

In the 1850’s their speak and writing were different, so we had to learn how they spoke. We also used our reading skills to make a compare and contrast with pieces about the rebellion. We needed to know what was the some information and what was different.

Writing 

We used writing this unit because we had to write a letter to sovereign hill pretending we were children from the 1850’s in Australia. We had to make sure that we didn’t use conjunctions (e.g. didn’t, won’t, I’ll, isn’t).

Mathematics 

In this unit we created a diorama of Main st, then we had to code a robot around the diorama and make it speak about 3 places. We needed to know how maps work. We needed to learn angles for the turns in the road. We learnt about 3d shapes so we knew what shape our buildings are.

P.L.A.’s we used this unit

Thinking:

• Imagination, we needed this to help us create the diorama when we didn’t have everything in front of us
• Curiosity, we needed this to search Main st and the shops at Camp
• Reflection, we used this to write this reflection

Relationships:

• Communication, we need this for when we coded the robot in partners
• Collaboration, to make the diorama 
• Connectedness, to make sure everyone knew what they were doing

 Self-Management:

• Knowledge, to remember everything for our post test
• Resilience, when things didn’t go our way
• Courage, to face new experiences 

A challenge I faced was when my partner was away a lot, so I resolved this by working really hard. I really liked camp, it was a new experience and it made me feel positive. The diorama was a big task, which you need to face positively. 

Have you been to Sovereign Hill? Was it fun?