Life in Colonial Victoria was difficult, with colonists facing challenges such as flies, maggots in their blankets and food, and a lack of infrastructure. Sources provide insights into the daily lives of colonists, including primary sources like diaries, artworks, and photographs of dwellings, as well as secondary sources like recreated buildings at Sovereign Hill. Students learn about significant events, people, and developments that shaped the Australian colonies. Key questions examine what is known about colonial lives and how, and how the colonies developed over time.
1. Life in Colonial Victoria
HTAV Primary School Conference
20th August 2012
2. The Australian Curriculum: History is organised into two
interrelated strands:
Historical Knowledge and Understanding and
Historical Skills.
Historical Knowledge and Understanding
Content descriptions
specify what teachers are expected to teach
elaborations illustrate the content descriptions
3. History / Year 5 / Content Descriptions
Historical Knowledge and Understanding
The Australian Colonies
Reasons (economic, political and social) for the establishment of British colonies in
Australia after 1800. (ACHHK093)
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. (ACHHK094)
The impact of a significant development or event on a colony; for example, frontier
conflict, the gold rushes, the Eureka Stockade, internal exploration, the advent of rail, the
expansion of farming, drought. (ACHHK095)
The reasons people migrated to Australia from Europe and Asia, and the experiences and
contributions of a particular migrant group within a colony. (ACHHK096)
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. (ACHHK097)
4. History / Year 5 / Historical Knowledge and Understanding / The Australian
Colonies
Content description
The impact of a significant development or event on a colony; for example,
frontier conflict, the gold rushes, the Eureka Stockade, internal exploration, the
advent of rail, the expansion of farming, drought.
Elaborations
• investigating an event or development and explaining its economic, social and
political impact on a colony (for example the consequences of frontier conflict
events such as the Myall Creek Massacre, the Pinjarra Massacre; the impact
of South Sea Islanders on sugar farming and the timber industry; the impact
of the Eureka Stockade on the development of democracy)
• creating ‘what if’ scenarios by constructing different outcomes for a key
event, for example ‘What if Peter Lalor had encouraged gold miners to pay
rather than resist licence fees?’
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Year5?a=H&layout=1
5. The Australian Curriculum, History Key inquiry questions
Year 5
The Australian Colonies in the 1800s
1. What do we know about the lives of people in Australia’s
colonial past and how do we know?
2. How did an Australian colony develop over time and why?
3. How did colonial settlement change the environment?
4. What were the significant events and who were the
significant people that shaped Australian colonies?
6. What do we know
about the lives of
people in Australia’s
colonial past and
how do we know?
8. Queen Victoria
[ 1819-1901 ]
By
Franz Xaver
Winterhalter
1837 Victoria crowned Queen of Great Britain and Ireland
9. Queen Victoria's family in 1846
by Franz Xaver Winterhalter
left to right: Prince Alfred and Prince Albert, the Prince of Wales;
the Queen and Prince Albert; Princesses Alice, Helena and Victoria
11. George Baxter, News from Home
1854
George Baxter, News from Australia
1854
[Penny post 1840]
12. The Vulcan, the first steam locomotive on the Great Western Railway.
It ran on a short stretch of completed track on 28 December 1837.
13. 1838 Oliver Twist
1839 Nicholas Nickleby
1841 The Old Curiosity Shop
1843 A Christmas Carol
1849 David Copperfield
1850 began his weekly journal
Household Words.
Charles Dickens
1812 - 1870
Frontispiece, first edition 1838
14. The Victorian Christmas
First edition frontispiece and title page (1843)
The Queen's Christmas
tree at Windsor Castle.
First commercially produced Christmas card, Illustrated London News, 1848
designed by John Callcott Horsley for Henry Cole 1843
16. Edward Jenner
by James Northcote
1840 Smallpox vaccination - using cowpox - provided free in Britain
- other treatments of smallpox banned
17. Colonization spread
Britain’s Industrial
Revolution, culture,
language, religion and
politics to Australia.
Henry O’Neil, The Parting Cheer
18. An artist's impression of John Batman's treaty with Port Philip
aborigines in 1835 for the purchase of 600,000 acres of land.
46. Part of cargo for sailing ship 'Samaco' specially chartered for Hugh V. McKay's machinery
train load of Sunshine Harvesters leaving Ballarat for export to Argentina 1903
50. History Achievement Standard
By the end of Year 5, students
• identify the causes and effects of change on particular communities,
and describe aspects of the past that remained the same.
• They describe the different experiences of people in the past.
• They describe the significance of people and events in bringing about
change.
• Students sequence events and people (their lifetime) in chronological
order, using timelines.
• When researching, students develop questions to frame an historical
inquiry.
• They identify a range of sources and locate and record information
related to this inquiry.
• They examine sources to identify points of view.
• Students develop, organise and present their texts, particularly
narratives and descriptions, using historical terms and concepts.
54. 2. Flies! – William Howitt (mp3 file)
“ The little black-devil fly all day attacked our eyes, nose and mouth: and great
blowflies in thousands blew our blankets, rugs and everything woollen, all over
with their maggots, which were at once dried upon by the sun. They covered
spaces of a foot square at once with them, all adhering by a sort of gluiness.”
(William Howitt Land, Labour and Gold; or Two Years in Victoria Longmans, London, 1855 quoted in
Nancy Keesing (ed) History of the Australian Gold Rushes by those who were there. Angus and
Robertson, Melbourne 1981 edition. P 110)
http://sheducationcom.ascetinteractive.biz/?id=audiolibrary#Flies
Search
Sovereign Hill Education
Teachers → Pod Casts
(Primary Sources) →
Audio Library → Flies.
S. T. Gill, Butchers Shamble,
Forest Creek
55. USEFUL WEB SITES for Australian History
Life in Colonial Victoria
TROVE http://trove.nla.gov.au/
THE PUBLIC RECORDS OFFICE OF VICTORIA PROV
http://prov.vic.gov.au/
SOVEREIGN HILL www.sovereignhill.com.au/education
HISTORY PIN www.historypin.com/community-schools/
Notas del editor
Although a number of people laid a claim to the concept of the postage stamp, postage stamps were first introduced in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 May 1840, as part of postal reforms promoted by Sir Rowland Hill. With its introduction the postage fee was to be paid by the sender and not the recipient, though sending mail prepaid was not a requirement. The first stamp, the penny black, put on sale on 1 May, was valid from 6 May 1840; two days later came the two pence blue. Both show an engraving of the young Queen Victoria and were a success though refinements like perforations were instituted later. At the time, there was no reason to include the United Kingdom's name on the stamp, and the UK remains the only country not to identify itself by name on the stamps (the monarch's head is used as identification).Following the introduction of the stamp in the UK the number of letters increased from 82 million in 1839 to 170 million in 1841.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamp
Note spinning wheel in News from Australia from pre-industrial times but letters possible after the introduction of the penny post in 1848. This family is living in a rapidly changing world.Domestic technology largely unchanged by Industrial RevolutionPaintings from National Gallery of Australia online collectionhttp://artsearch.nga.gov.au/Detail.cfm?IRN=45588&PICTAUS=TRUE
European settlement of Australia coincides with the birth of rail travel
The first commercial Christmas cards were commissioned by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843 and featured an illustration by John Callcott-Horsley. The central picture, of a family with a small child drinking wine together, proved controversial, but beside it were scenes of people performing acts of charity - an important part of the Victorian Christmas spirit. The idea was shrewd: Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. Two batches totaling 2,050 cards were printed and sold that year for a shilling each.Early English cards rarely showed winter or religious themes, instead favoring flowers, fairies and other fanciful designs that reminded the recipient of the approach of spring. Humorous and sentimental images of children and animals were popular, as were increasingly elaborate shapes, decorations and materials. Postman in Victorian England were nicknamed “Robins” because their uniforms were red. Victorian Christmas cards often showed a robin delivering Christmas mail.Sir Henry Cole (15 July 1808 – 18 April 1882) was an English civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century Britain. Cole is credited with devising the first stamp, the concept of sending greetings cards at Christmas time and introducing the world's first commercial Christmas card in 1843. He also conceived the idea of the 1851 Great Exhibition and was a great friend of Prince Albert.
"A Visit from St. Nicholas", also known as "The Night Before Christmas" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and generally attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, although the claim has also been made that it was written by Henry Livingston, Jr.The poem, which has been called "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American", is largely responsible for the conception of Santa Claus from the mid-nineteenth century to today, including his physical appearance, the night of his visit, his mode of transportation, the number and names of his reindeer, as well as the tradition that he brings toys to children. Prior to the poem, American ideas about St. Nicholas and other Christmastide visitors varied considerably. The poem has influenced ideas about St. Nicholas and Santa Claus from the United States to the rest of the English-speaking world, including Australia, and beyond.
Edward JennerIn 1796, he carried out his now famous experiment on eight-year-old James Phipps. Jenner inserted pus taken from a cowpox pustule and inserted it into an incision on the boy's arm. He was testing his theory, drawn from the folklore of the countryside, that milkmaids who suffered the mild disease of cowpox never contracted smallpox, one of the greatest killers of the period, particularly among children. Jenner subsequently proved that having been inoculated with cowpox Phipps was immune to smallpox. He submitted a paper to the Royal Society in 1797 describing his experiment, but was told that his ideas were too revolutionary and that he needed more proof. Undaunted, Jenner experimented on several other children, including his own 11-month-old son. In 1798, the results were finally published and Jenner coined the word vaccine from the Latin 'vacca' for cow.http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/jenner_edward.shtml
An artist's impression of Batman's treaty with Port Philip aborigines in 1835 for the purchase of 600,000 acres of land.Date1886 (First Published)SourceA. Garren (ed), Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, 2 vols, Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company, Sydney, 1886. Vol 1 p161
The Australian Sketchbook 1865A collection of lithographs by the artist S.T. Gill commissioned by the State Library of Victoria as a record of the early days of the colony.Printed in colour, from multiple stones in 1865.Gold Museum Collection
Attack on Store Dray 1865planographic lithograph, printed in colour, from multiple stonesImpression: undesignated impression as issuedEdition: print run unknownGold Museum Collection
Homeward Bound 1865planographic lithograph, printed in colour, from multiple stonesImpression: undesignated impression as issuedEdition: print run unknownGold Museum Collection
Wool Drays 1865planographic lithograph, printed in colour, from multiple stonesImpression: undesignated impression as issuedEdition: print run unknownGold Museum Collection
Bushman's Hut 1865planographic lithograph, printed in colour, from multiple stonesImpression: undesignated impression as issuedEdition: print run unknownGold Museum collection
Cattle Branding1865planographic lithograph, printed in colour, from multiple stonesImpression: undesignated impression as issuedEdition: print run unknownGold Museum Collection
Map of Indigenous tribal boundaries pre European Settlement
Map of Pastoral holdings i.e. squatters runs, of the Port Phillip District of NSW as they were in 1851. This is only 16 years after the first permanent settlement in Melbourne.
Homes such as this and Barwon Park, Werribee Park and Koort Koort-nong near Camperdown illustrate the money made by successful squatters.
http://www.nla.gov.au/pict/colonial/t468.jpghttp://www.nla.gov.au/pict/colonial.html This website has a small collection of images on the topic Colonial Life.
Use primary sources such as early photos to compare with a secondary source such as Sovereign Hill to establish what homes were really like.
Photo is in the Ballarat Gold Museum collection Reg. No. 70.1653, meaning it is a Sovereign Hill owned imaged. The catalogue record tells us that the image shows the home of Mr & Mrs Oswell with two daughters and two unknown people. The note says the home was probably at Ross Creek and the image taken around 1871-1872. The baby in the picture (sitting on the ground) was the donor’s mother. It was donated by Mrs Myrtle Clarke around 1981 when she was living at the Q.E. centre. The note also refers to a postal box for mail in the front wall of the cottage and notes the man playing a clarinet.
Don’t forget the plumbing.Make links between sewerage and health.
Pierre-Édouard Frère was a Realist painter who became the leader of the “sympathetic art” movement in France, a vein of Realism which sensitively portrayed the lower classes with dignity and charm, glorifying the simplicity of their lives and their work. While many Realists focused on the gritty spectacles of the streets of Paris, Frère became especially known for his sympathetic portraits of women, and especially young children, completing daily household chores and other domestic activities. This form of art had its origins in the eighteenth century French painting by such artists as Jean-SiméonChardin and the Le Nain brothers who, in turn, were inspired by the seventeenth century Dutch artists. Pierre-Édouard Frère reacted to the growing concern over the lower classes by depicting them not as products of a society which had rejected them, as many artists had portrayed them, but rather showed them partaking in their daily activities that at this point in history, were beginning to vanish. Frère’s work provides a record of times past, an idealized version of the difficult life faced by the lower classes of the period. Frère’s sympathetic art seems less concerned with social propaganda than do many other Realist counterparts and more concerned with finding charm in the daily existence of people who had less than others.
History / Year 5 / Content DescriptionsHistorical Knowledge and UnderstandingThe 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
The government responded by creating a state-wide rail system. In 1861 the Ballarat line opened – only 10 years after the discovery of gold.B class locomotives were used after 1863, they were originally imported thenbuilt in Victoria from British patterns. Note spark arrester on front funnel added to cope with Australian conditions. Centre dome was polished brass, train green. Carriage in left rear of photo shows the two containers on the roof which held the whale oil for the lamps.
http://museumvictoria.com.au/sunshine/index.htmThis interactive collection of photographs and moving footage on the Museum of Victoria site illustrates the activities and impact of the agricultural enterprise created by HV McKay from 1900 to the late 1960s.
Oxley Museum Wellington NSWThe Oxley Museum Wellington NSW is run by the Wellington Historical Society. It is situated on thecorner of Warne and Percy Streets and is openthe following hours:Monday to Friday 1.30pm to 4.30pm
Until the invention of the Stump Jump Plough by Richard Bowyer in South Australia 1876, and the later development and perfection by Clarence Herbert, South Australian farmers in the Mallee lands had a soul destroying and almost impossible task to clear their land and make a living from wheat growing.
A visit to a local cemetery is invaluable for introducing stories of local citizens and events. For example the miners and soldiers who fell at Eureka along with James “Scottie” Scobie are buried in the Old Ballarat Cemetery. Cemeteries also poses questions relating to health, infant mortality, accidents and family size.
TROVE http://trove.nla.gov.au/TROVE links to over 247,574,106 Australian and online resources: e.g. Books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more. Images from Picture Australia including all contributions from Flickr users can now be found in the new TROVE service.
SOVEREIGN HILL www.sovereignhill.com.au/educationThis site contains all the information you need to plan an excursion to Sovereign Hill and is continually being updated and added to. It is also a valuable site for researching life and work on the gold fields. The teachers section includes activities for your excursion, free downloadable teaching kits and podcasts. The student section includes research notes, pictures and drawings, podcasts and an audio library of primary documents.
The quote is taken from the Sovereign Hill Education website Audio LibraryAn example of two primary sources – a quote and an image used to illustrate living conditions
USEFUL WEB SITES for Australian HistoryHISTORY PINwww.historypin.com/community-schools/Historypin is an online, user-generated archive of historical photos and personal recollections. Users are able to use the location and date of an image to "pin" it to Google Maps. Where Google Street View is available, users can overlay the historical photograph and compare it with the contemporary location. TROVE http://trove.nla.gov.au/TROVE links to over 247,574,106 Australian and online resources: e.g. Books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives and more. Images from Picture Australia including all contributions from Flickr users can now be found in the new TROVE service. PROV http://prov.vic.gov.au/The Public Records Office of Victoria has many records online and has on line exhibitions on topics including The Native Police, Eureka, and Ned Kelly. They also have a huge collection of photos including the Victoria railways collection.Examples of online recordsPassenger listsIndex to Unassisted Inward Passenger Lists to Victoria 1852-1923Index to Assisted British Immigration 1839-1871Index to Outward Passengers to Interstate, U.K. and Foreign Ports, 1852-1908 SOVEREIGN HILL www.sovereignhill.com.au/educationThis site contains all the information you need to plan an excursion to Sovereign Hill and is continually being updated and added to. It is also a valuable site for researching life and work on the gold fields. The teachers section includes activities for your excursion, free downloadable teaching kits and podcasts. The student section includes research notes, pictures and drawings, podcasts and an audio library of primary documents.