OSC – Days of Gold
Our Sunburnt Country is your core book for this study, it is aimed at 6-12 years old. We have created a supplementary booklist and suggested activities to accompany each chapter.
We estimate it will take you 2-3 weeks per chapter, this will enable you to finish within the year. If you wish to take time to read more books, simply take two years.
We have recommended a mix of picture and chapter books, ones that are likely to be accessible via your local libraries. We have given you several options below in the hope that your library will have some of these. We are not recommending you read all of these books!
We encourage you to read one chapter book and at least one picture book per chapter. Or at least two to four picture books if available.
The books suggested are below in a visual grid.
We haven’t highlighted our favourites deliberately, as we want you to work within your local library and inter-library loans. We don’t want you to go into debt.
Create your own personalised list by opening your book choice and simply clicking the wishlist button to add to your list.
Activities are optional, feel free to choose whichever activities best suit your family.
Our Sunburnt Country – Days of Gold pdf
Themes to Cover
Mining
- Gold
- Copper
- Lead and Iron
Gold Fields
- Edward Hammond Hargraves
- Surveyors
- Bathurst
- Ballarat and Bendigo
- Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie
- Victoria’s reward for gold
- Chinese Miners
- Immigration of overseas miners
- Gold Fever
- Digger’s license and license inspections
- Law and Order on the Goldfields
- Eureka Stockade
- Southern Cross flag
Results of Gold Discoveries
- new towns and villages and growth of
- impact of increased population
- demand for better roads
- members of parliament to be paid
- votes for all
- frequent elections
- political change
- Coaching Service: Cobb & Co
- Bushrangers
Bushrangers
- Thunderbolt
- Captain Moonlight
- Ned Kelly
Teacher’s Notes
Gold
Eureka!: A Story of the Goldfields – Mark Wilson
My Australian Story: Banner Bold – Nadia Wheatley
The Night They Stormed Eureka – Jackie French
The Night We Made The Flag : A Eureka Story – Carole Wilkinson
Bushrangers
1841 Do You Dare? The Bushrangers Boys – Alison Lloyd
Ned Kelly and the Green Sash – Mark Greenwood
Our Australian Girl: Meet Poppy – Gabrielle Wang
The Horse Who Bit A Bushranger – Jackie French
The Hunt for Ned Kelly – Sophie Masson
Geography Activities
People travelled to the Australian goldfields from many countries.
- On a world map and colour the countries people emigrated from.
On a blank Australian map mark:
- Sydney
- Bathurst
- Melbourne
- Ballarat and Bendigo
- Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie
On your Australian map mark the areas that the following bushrangers roamed:
- Thunderbolt
- Captain Moonlight
- Ned Kelly
History Activities
Gold
- How, where and why did the gold rush start.
- Life on the goldfields was hard. People lived in tents, had little money for food or the licence fee. Research daily life in the 1840s and 1850s on the goldfields
- Research the various methods of finding gold: panning, cradle etc
- If you were walking to the goldfields from Melbourne to start a new life as a miner, what would you bring with you and why? Remember you would have to carry everything on your list the whole way, think about weight as well as the usefulness of each item.
- What effect did the goldrush have on the First Nations Peoples in this area.
- Many Chinese arrived in Australia during the Gold Rush, research Australian Chinese history. Research the treatment of Chinese people in this time, and how that resulted in the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 which was introduced immediately after federation.
- What was the struggle between the miners and those in power? Research and write about the police; bullying, license hunts, corruption and brutality and how this eventually led to the rebellion.
- Research the impact the Eureka Stockade had on Australian history.
Bushrangers
- Research and write a brief overview of the following Bushrangers:
- Thunderbolt
- Captain Moonlight
- Ned Kelly
- Why was there an increase of bushranger activity at this time?
- What caused each of these men to turn to a life of crime?
Cobb & Co
- Describe a Cobb & Co coach
- Research the history of the Cobb & Co coaches
Language Arts Activities
- Imagine you are a child on the goldfields, write a diary entry to describe your experiences, include descriptions of your everyday life.
- Imagine you are a young Chinese man on the goldfields, pen a letter home to your mother and sister in China.
- Many on the goldfields could not read or write. Write a letter home on behalf of a miner describing his everyday life or the events leading up to and including the Eureka Stockade.
- Bushrangers invaded your home, as a child, write a letter to a family member describing the experience, what happened, your emotions.
- Bushrangers held up the Coach you were travelling on, you are the coach driver, write a report you write to your superiors.
- Fill in some of the Bushranger printables below.
Further Research Areas & Discussion Questions
- Some miners had big strikes and became rich, most diggers struggled to find enough gold to buy food and to pay for their mining licences. Discuss why so many people continued to try to find gold when it was
a dangerous life filled with backbreaking work and their chances of finding enough gold to get rich were so low. - What part did the Eureka Stockade play in helping to shape democracy in Australia?
- Some Australians have a romanticised view of Bushrangers, others see them as criminals, undertake some research and discuss what is your view of our Bushrangers?
- What was the impact of Cobb & Co in Australia?
STEM Activities
- Visit a local creek and try panning for gold. Finding gold is not likely, but see what interesting things you can discover in the bottom of your pan.
- Build a mining cradle, pan for gold.
- The diggers on the goldfields ate lots of mutton stew and damper. Make a stew or damper, enjoy.
- Ned Kelly wore homemade armour. Try your hand at making a similar helmet from either cardboard or another material.
Craft & Art Activities
- Create a diorama of an everyday scene of the goldfields. It may depict the miners, shopkeepers, women etc
- Paint a mural telling the story of the Eureka Stockade.
Online Resources