4. Gold fever
Gold panning dish. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Australia.
What were the Gold Rushes? Why did people from all over the world get ‘gold fever’?
What was life like on the Ballarat goldfields of Victoria, on Wada Wurrung Country?
With so many different groups of people, how did everyone get along?
Did First Nations people mine gold too? What was the Eureka Stockade?
How did the Gold Rushes change Australia?
Students from Preshil Primary School and Westbourne Grammar in Melbourne tell us what they know about the Gold Rushes.
Fred Cahir, Andrew Pearce, Sarah Van de Wouw and an oral history about a Chinese miner share the different experiences of goldfields life.
Voices
Professor Fred Cahir is a professor in Australian History at Federation University.
Andrew Pearce is the Learning Program Leader at Sovereign Hill, Ballarat.
Sarah Van de Wouw is the Education Officer at the Eureka Centre, Ballarat.
Gabrielle Wang interviewed by Anna Zhu for the Australians with Chinese heritage oral history project, from the National Library of Australia online catalog.
Thanks to all the students whose voices you hear in this series, and their schools and teachers:
Princes Street Primary school, Marrickville West Primary School, Westbourne Grammar School,
Preshil Primary School, La Perouse Primary School, and Yirrkala Bilingual School.
Episode outline with timecodes
A quick overview of the episode in sections, the duration in minutes and seconds, and a short description of each section.
eg Opening question – camping analogy 1:00 - 2:04
Host Axel asks listeners about camping with lots of people, using this as a way into imagining life on the goldfields.
Download Convict Kids episode outline as Word
Download Convict Kids episode outline as PDF
Transcript
Use this episode in class
Play all the way through (28 minutes) or play half the episode (14 minutes) and pause.
We'll tell you when you've reached halfway, and recap the episode.
Get the Curriculum guide and Scope and Sequence for your state or the Australian Curriculum.
Use the 4 page Learning Materials worksheet PDF with your class.
More learning resources
National Museum of Australia’s Digital Classroom
The discovery of gold: ‘Gold fever!’ Go through each evidence file to answer the questions.
The Gold Rushes begin: video 5:15 mins
ABC Education
State Library of NSW
Stage 3 Learning Activities for The Gold Rush.
Music
Lady Marie, Rush to the Clearing, Borough and Jespen by Blue Dot Sessions.
With My Swag All On My Shoulder sung and guitar by Tom Clark.
How to cite this episode:
Clark, A., Curtis, J., Wright, C., & Jorgensen, B. (2024, June 11). ‘Gold fever’. Hey History! (Season 1). UTS Impact Studios. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11557916