I can see it, glistening in my pan. EUEKA! I found gold!

This term we have been learning all about the Ballarat Gold Rush, During the 1850s. Life was hard. It felt like Redcoats were always on your tail trying to track you down if you didn’t have a license. And you were living under a strict law, no license no digging for gold. All the food that you were trying to buy your family cost so much. 

But sometimes you would find a lucky miner who had struck it rich and could feed his family every night. In this post, I’m going be talking to you about my experience at throughout this unit and what we have learnt this term.

Some businesses during the 1850s were: The Hope Bakery, C. Spencer lolly shop, Ballarat times: news paper printing and many more.  These shops and businesses were located on the Main Street Sovereign Hill. They were some of the most well known shops. 

The Eureka Stockade was a structure made out of wood. A miner by the name of James Scobie, was murdered by the owner of the Eureka Hotel, James Bently. James was found not guilty because he was friends with the magistrate.

 The miners were furious. They burnt down the Eureka Hotel to show their anger. But three miners were jailed. Then they burnt their licences, over the next week more and more licence hunts were going on. This made the miners even more mad. They then had a Monster Meeting at Bakery Hill where they made a promise on the Southern Cross to stand by each other. 

The Ballarat Reform League was made and then they started constructing the  Eureka Stockade. The Stockade was attacked in the early hours of December the 3rd 1854. 13 miners and 8 Redcoats were killed in the battle. 

We learnt about some important people that were involved with the gold rush and the Stockade. One person I found really interesting was a man by the name of Peter Lalor. He was greatly involved in the Monster Meeting and nearly everyone knew him. In the battle of the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor got his arm badly injured and it had to be later amputated. 

Some important dates in Australian history were 1770, 1788, 1851 and 1854. 1770 was the year Australia was discovered by Captain Cook. 1788 was the year that the First Fleet arrived in Australia. In 1851, gold was first discovered in Ballarat, and in 1854 it was the year of the Eureka Stockade.

I really liked working on my diorama. I did the Hope Bakery. My partner and I, took some of my sisters tiny knives, forks and other things that you would find in a bakery and stuck them down. Our building was so detailed and I am really proud of our efforts. 

A quick summary of this unit would be… 

FUN! Just kidding, I loved learning about the Gold Rush era and what shaped Australia. Also, if you haven’t been to Sovereign Hill, you should totally go! It is so cool to see what the diggings would have looked like and seeing what going to school was like back then. I hope you enjoyed my post about the ‘Hard Road Ahead!’ 

Have you been to Sovereign Hill?

By Grace