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GETTING IT TOGETHER from Colonies to Federation

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GETTING IT TOGETHER from Colonies to Federation GETTING IT TOGETHER From Colonies to Federation victoria People and Places INvEStIGATIoNS oF aUSTRALIa’S JoUrNEYInvestigations of Australia’s journey TO NATIoNHOOD FOR tHE MIDDLE to nationhood for the middle years classroom YEARS cLaSSROOM GETTING IT TOGETHER vIctorIa – PEoPLE aND PLACES © COMMoNWEaLtH oF aUSTRALIa i Getting It Together: From Colonies to Federation has been funded by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. Getting It Together: From Colonies to Federation – Victoria ISBN: 978 1 74200 096 1 SCIS order number: 1427626 Full bibliographic details are available from Curriculum Corporation. PO Box 177 Carlton South Vic 3053 Australia Tel: (03) 9207 9600 Fax: (03) 9910 9800 Email: [email protected] Website: www.curriculum.edu.au Published by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House PO Box 7088 Canberra BC ACT 2610 Tel: (02) 6270 8222 Fax: (02) 6270 8111 www.moadoph.gov.au September 2009 © Commonwealth of Australia 2009 This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Attorney General’s Department, National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600 or posted at www.ag.gov.au/cca This work is available for download from the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House: http://moadoph.gov.au/learning/resources-and-outreach Edited by Katharine Sturak and Zoe Naughten Designed by Deanna Vener GETTING IT TOGETHER vIctorIa – PEoPLE aND PLACES © COMMoNWEaLtH oF aUSTRALIa People and Places The colony of Victoria, like Queensland, was named after Queen Victoria. She ruled the British Empire – including the six Australian colonies – from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Her reign lasted 63 years and seven months. Before the first British settlers arrived in Victoria, Indigenous Australians had already lived there for thousands of years. They had established ways of land management that allowed their communities to thrive. But, this changed dramatically for the worse as British settlement became established in the colony. Victoria’s first, short-lived British settlement was in 1803 when Lieutenant-Governor David Collins set up a camp at Sullivan Bay, just inside Port Philip Bay. The oldest permanent European settlement was established along the colony’s west coast at Portland in 1834. The land around Portland and Warrnambool was eventually occupied by farmers and graziers who were attracted by the rich grasslands. At this time, Victoria was part of New South Wales, and was known as the Port Philip District. Victoria became a separate colony in 1851, and in 1855 it achieved responsible government, with a parliament elected by the people. Prior to this, Governors were appointed by the British Government to rule the colony. Wool was the most significant rural industry for many years, but the discovery of gold in 1851 brought enormous social and political change. Victoria’s population grew from 77,000 people in 1851 to 540,000 in 1861 as eager gold miners from Europe, China and other Australian colonies surged to the new goldfields. By the mid-1850s, Victoria had become the most populous of the Australian colonies. Formed in 1871, the Australian Natives Association became very influential and was a powerful voice in favour of Federation. Membership was restricted to Australian-born offspring of British ancestry. By 1901, with 484,103 residents, Melbourne had the largest population of the six colonies’ major cities, a distinction it held until 1905. During the 1890s’ depression, it reverted to being the second most populous colony after New South Wales. Investigations 1. What was life like in Victoria in the late 1800s? 2. What were Victorians like in the late 1800s? 3. What was the Australian Natives Association? 4. Who were some Victorian political figures that played a role in the Federation movement? 5. Who were some of the Victorian women that made important contributions to social and political change in the late 1800s? GETTING IT TOGETHER vIctorIa – PEoPLE aND PLACES © COMMoNWEaLtH oF aUSTRALIa 1 You Will need Resource sheet 1 photographs: Melbourne InvestIgatIon 1 . accounts: Melbourne, Bendigo, Echuca and Portland film clip: ‘Melbourne buildings’ from ‘marvellous’ What was life like Melbourne: Queen city of the south in Victoria in the late 1800s? 9 May 1901. Gold-mining towns, such as Bendigo, Victoria was a very prosperous colony following had also flourished as a result of Victoria’s gold rush. the discovery of gold in 1854. Taxes collected from The rich grasslands around Portland had been settled decades of gold mining meant that Melbourne was by farmers and graziers; Echuca, along the Murray able to build many fine buildings, which still stand River, for example, became a thriving river port. In today. These include Parliament House, The (Old) many ways, we can only imagine what the colony was Treasury Building, Law Courts, Melbourne Town Hall, like so long ago. However, there are photographs from the General Post Office and the Royal Exhibition which we can draw information, along with reports and Building, which was used to host the opening of the stories in which writers of the time vividly conveyed first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia on details and impressions of people and places. Your Explore the similarities and differences between life in task Melbourne and life in other parts of Victoria in the late 1800s. activities 1. As a class, look at the photographs of Melbourne 3. In your groups, re-read the descriptions of and read the accounts of Melbourne, Bendigo, Bendigo, Echuca and Portland. Discuss the Echuca and Portland. Use a dictionary to find the following questions and record your answers. meaning of any words you don’t know. Although the accounts were written in the 1890s, they refer to earlier times in the towns’ histories. You may want to view the film clip ‘Melbourne . What information about each town’s past can buildings’ at http://australianscreen.com.au/titles/ you identify? marvellous-melbourne/clip2. You may also use the What types of occupations existed in Bendigo, National Library of Australia’s Picture Australia . Echuca and Portland in the late 1800s? website www.pictureaustralia.org to locate other photographs of Melbourne, Bendigo, Echuca and . What might you see, hear, feel and smell if you Portland in the late 1800s. were living in Bendigo, Echuca and Portland in the late 1800s? Use an X-chart to record your 2. Form small groups. Re-read the description responses. of Melbourne. Discuss the following questions . How are the three towns unique? What do they and record your answers. have in common? Why might George Augustus Sala have referred . How do your answers help you to build up a picture to Melbourne as being ‘marvellous’? about the way of life outside Melbourne at the time? . In terms of town planning, how was Melbourne Use your responses to create a Venn diagram to different to Sydney? What evidence is there to 4. identify the similarities and differences between the suggest the original town planners had foresight lives of people in Melbourne and the lives of people and were forward-thinkers? in other parts of Victoria in the late 1800s. What types of occupations existed in Melbourne in the late 1880s? . What are the differences? What are the similarities? . What might you see, hear, feel and smell if you . Would they have had the same kinds of hopes? were living in Melbourne in the late 1800s? . How would their opportunities have been different? Record your responses on an X-chart. Share your Venn diagrams with the rest of the class. How do your answers help you to build up a picture about the way of life in Melbourne at the time? 2 GETTING IT TOGETHER vIctorIa – PEoPLE aND PLACES © COMMoNWEaLtH oF aUSTRALIa GETTING IT TOGETHER vIctorIa – PEoPLE aND PLACES © COMMoNWEaLtH oF aUSTRALIa InvestIgatIon 2 activities 1. As a class, examine the data about people living in Victoria in 1901. What were Victorians . Make a list of the most striking or surprising like in the late 1800s? things that you notice when you look at the graphs. Why do the things on the list surprise you? In the 1890s, Australian-born Victorians became . Was there any data contained in the graphs the dominant group in the colony. Before this that did not surprise you? time, the population had been mainly made up of 2. Form small groups. Discuss the following people who had come to the colony from Britain. questions about Victorians in 1901, and record Although Indigenous Australians had lived in your answers. Victoria for thousands of years, their population . Where were most Victorians born? began to fall with the arrival of European settlers in the 1830s. For the 1901 census, the Official . Where were most Victorians living? What Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia percentage of the population was living outside recorded that the number of Indigenous people Melbourne? remaining in Victoria ‘was only 271’. Records . How were Victorians employed in 1901? What related to Indigenous Australians’ place of birth, were the most common occupations? What where they lived or their occupations were were the least common? not recorded in official figures collected by the 3. In your small groups, use evidence to support Commonwealth of Australia. your hypotheses when discussing the following questions. Your . Would communication among the people of task Victoria have been easy? Consider the languages spoken by people born in Australia and overseas. Examine where the Victorians of Would the types of occupations that people had 1901 were born, where they lived .
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