EPISODE 3 FAIR GO © ATOM 2015 A STUDY GUIDE BY ROBERT LEWIS http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-554-4 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au OVERVIEW Australia: The Story Of Us is an extraordinary narrative about the people, places and events that have shaped the continent from the first inhabitants to the present day. This groundbreaking drama- documentary series weaves together stories of the nation’s origins and offers fresh insights into how Australians came to create the homeland we inhabit today. Alongside astounding CGI and cinematic sequences, the series features interviews with important thinkers, Episode 3: CONTENT OF notable celebrities and Fair go THE SERIES national figures who take us Gold brings new wealth to the The series of eight episodes cov- inside the stories that have Australian colonies but not everyone’s ers these stories and curriculum influenced Australian history. prepared to dig for their share. emphases (see pages 3-4). Bushranger Frank Gardiner attempts CURRICULUM Australia’s biggest heist and forges a RELEVANCE legend. John McDouall Stuart versus Burke Australia: The Story Of Us is a suitable and Wills in a race across a pitiless resource for use with continent that will connect Australia to the global telegraph network - the • Australian History at Years beginning of the end of the tyranny 5 and 9 of distance. • English at Years 5 and 9 • Film Studies Year 9 High wages and time off encourage the evolution of our unique football The series can be viewed as a whole, code. or as individual episodes, or even indi- vidual segments within episodes. Dame Nellie Melba faces a daunt- ing audition for the chance to be- In the classroom it can be used as a come the most famous Australian 2015 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION series of creative starting points for in the world. students to begin their exploration of aspects of Australian history and the When our longest boom ends in people who made it. bitter crash, Australia goes to the brink of civil war over who will share in the wealth of the continent. 2 EP/ YEAR, CURRICULUM THEME SEGMENT EVENT STARTING POINT EP 1 Worlds Collide 1.1 The Death Fleet Foundation of Australia Convict Australia 1.2 Megafauna: Prehistoric Australia Ancient Australia. Aboriginal Australia 1.3 Sealing Early economic development of the colonies 1.4 Pemulwuy and the Frontier Wars Aboriginal resistance. Frontier wars 1.5 Rum Rebellion Early economic and social development of the colonies EP 2 Break Out 2.1 The Great Escape Convict Australia 2.2 John Foley — The Convict who Saves the City of Convict Australia Churches 2.3 Caroline Chisholm — Mother of the Nation Nineteenth century immigration 2.4 Gold Fever Gold 2.5 Eureka Stockade Gold EP 3 Fair Go 3.1 Gold Robbery Bushrangers 3.2 The Overland Telegraph Explorers. Communication. Technology 3.2 Inventing AFL Sport. Aboriginal culture 3.4 Nellie Melba Famous Australians. Heroes 3.5 Fight for a Fair Go Wool. Unionism EP 4 New Nation at War 4.1 Gallipoli Submarine The AE2 at Gallipoli 4.2 Billy Sing’s Deadly Gift Gallipoli 4.3 The Gallipoli Letter Gallipoli 4.4 WW1 Nurses Western Front 4.5 Villers-Bretonneux Western Front. Heroes EP/ YEAR, CURRICULUM THEME SEGMENT EVENT STARTING POINT EP 5 Hard Roads to Glory 5.1 Charles Kingsford Smith 1920s and 1930s. Technology and communications 5.2 Sydney Harbour Bridge 1920s and 1930s. Technology and communication 5.3 Phar Lap 1930s Depression. Heroes 5.4 Ruby Radar World War 2 5.5 Kokoda World War 2 EP 6 Nation Building 6.1 Holden Post-war industrial development 6.2 Lang Hancock Post-war economic development 6.3 Snowy Mountains Scheme Post-war migration. Post-war economic development 6.4 Melbourne Olympics and Television Technology and communications. National identity 6.5 Sydney Opera House Technology. National identity EP 7 Revolution 7.1 Rock ‘n’ Roll Riot Popular culture 7.2 Beach Wars Surf culture 7.3 The Rise of the Larrikin Popular culture 7.4 Evonne Goolagong Aboriginal achievements. Heroes 7.5 Cyclone Tracy Environment EP 8 New Frontiers 8.1 Operation Babylift Vietnam War 8.2 Bionic Ear Technology and innovation 8.3 America’s Cup Sport 8.4 Exporting Australia Popular culture 8.5 Sydney Olympics National identity EXPLORING can come back to these ideas and see 3 Why did they want to rob the gold IDEAS AND if you would change any. coach? ISSUES IN Understanding the story 4 What strategy did they use? THE EPISODE 5 The police were better armed, so 2 What was Frank Gardiner’s why did the bushrangers succeed? background? SEGMENT 1 6 What happened to the gold? 3 Who were the other gang members with him? 7 What happened to the bushrangers? » GOLD ROBBERY Frank Gardiner and his gang commit the biggest gold heist in Australia’s history. Bushrangers become the celebrities of the day and enter our mythology. Some will be shot down in a hail of bullets, others face the hangman’s noose. But Gardiner does something few bushrangers do… he retires to Queensland. Before you watch the story 2015 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION 1 What is your image of bushrang- ers? List the words that express your ideas. For example, you might write ‘criminals’. Or ‘Robin Hood types’; or rebels. At the end of this segment you 5 Putting the story in time and place 8 Mark on the map where this took place. See Timeline 1 and map this page. 9 If the first block of time below rep- resents 60,000 years, and then each other block of time represents 25 years starting at 1700 and continuing until today, in which block of time did this story take place? Write the main date or dates for this event in that block. Reflecting on the story 10 List at least three things that you have learned from this story about Australian history. TIMELINE 1 11 List at least three feelings or emo- tions that you think Gardiner would have felt during the robbery. 12 List at least three feelings or emo- tions that you think the police guards and driver would have felt during the robbery. Analysing the story 14 What is the main message or Applying or Testing meaning in this segment about what the story 13 There are several people who give happened in Australian History? their opinions about the bushrangers. Summarise what these people say are 15 The series is called Australia. The 16 One effect of this robbery was for the significant aspects of bushrangers Story of Us. Does this story have the boxes in which the gold was car- and what they can tell us about out any relevance to who we are today? ried to be changed. Read the following history. See Table this page. Explain your views. information from the National Museum SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 © ATOM SCREEN EDUCATION 6 Hugh Dolan Andrew O’Keefe Peter Fitzsimons of Australia, and then see if you can identify what changes were made, and why. The heist had been carefully planned and led by a man calling himself Frank Gardiner, and with him was a group of eight or nine others, including John Gilbert, John O’Meally and, probably, Ben Hall. Bullion boxes and bags were loaded on to pack horses and at a camp about five kilometres away from the hold-up site, the men smashed open the boxes with an American tomahawk that Gilbert had bought in Forbes for this purpose. Gardiner had, in the preceding weeks, mingled among the crowd in Forbes on escort one of the immediate ramifications Creating the story day and had probably observed that of the affair at Eugowra was that the boxes were secured only with the flaws in the gold escort system Chubb padlocks. The boxes were solid needed to be fixed. Boxes that could 17 Look at the way the filmmakers and heavy, but ultimately each was be hacked open in minutes offered no have created the story to appeal to the only as strong as its weakest link – a security for the wealth that the gold- audience. Comment on how they have padlock. fields were generating for the Colony. used these aspects of filmmaking: When news of the Eugowra hold-up http://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/ • Computer effects broke around the Colony, people were pdf_file/0009/9954/Gold_Bullion_Box. • Music to create mood stunned. Never had there been such pdf • Narration to tell the story a violent assault on law and order, or • Reconstructions or re-enactments on the smooth running of commercial Look at the box (see photo this to give a feeling for the times enterprise. But back on the Lachlan, page) and see if you can identify the • Editing to influence the rhythm and most of the ‘bushrangers’, notorious ways that this new box was ‘bush- movement of the story though they were by then, quietly ranger-proof’ from being opened with • Use of experts to help provide facts slipped back into the local communi- a tomahawk or a lever. You should find and to apply the story to today ties in which many had grown up. at least two good innovations. • Any other aspects you can identify Over time, all were caught, or died in You can check your ideas at the end Extending the story shoot-outs with the police, and most of the Study Guide. of the booty was recovered. However, 18 Imagine that you could meet Frank Gardiner later in life. List five questions that you would ask about his life and behavior.