What is the story about? The Night They Stormed Eureka

• Where is it set?  It is set in Ballarat.

 

• Where did the main character come from? Sam came from the future or 2009.What was their reason for going to the goldfields? She was sitting on a grave with names on it and wished that she could be with the people on the grave and suddenly she was transported to the past and met them.

 

• What was the journey to the goldfields like? It was a great whoosh of wind, then her vision clouded up and when she could see again, she was in the past.
• How did people get there? They went by cart, horse, foot

 

• What was life like on the goldfields? She had to pretend to be a boy and worked with Mrs Puddleham (she and her husband were the people who she met) on the goldfields making food for the hungry miners. She had to sleep in a shelter but she had better food than she had ever had in her life there.
• How were people treated on the goldfields? She saw the license chase and didn’t have a gold digging license like Mr Puddleham even thought they had a shopkeepers license Mrs Puddleham had to go and pay them off.

 

What were some challenges that people faced? It was pretty good for her but for everyone else… life wasn’t so good. They had the chance of dying and the license hunts were pretty bad. If you didn’t have your license you then had to pay 5 pounds then if you didn’t have that then you would stay in the jail and be put in front of a magistrate.

What jobs did people have on the goldfields?Miner, Shopkeeper, Doctor, Laundress, Teacher, Priest.

• Which job would you like and why? I’d rather be a doctor because I’ve always wanted to be a doctor but I don’t want to do someone’s laundry or make someone’s food, I want to save people.

 

• What positive learner attributes did people have to show on the goldfields? People had to show courage in the license hunts and going down mines.
• What time period is it set in? It is set in the 1850s.
• It could cave in on you, you could breath in to much bad air and die in the dark without even saying goodbye to your family and friends.Share some examples from the story. Sam had to show courage when she got caught by the troopers and was chained to a log. She showed connectedness to the Puddlehams when she accepted them as her family.

 

• Did the book refer to the Eureka Stockade? The book was at it’s end when the Eureka Stockade happened.If so, describe the event from the main character’s perspective.  She wanted to warn them and went into the street but she was to late. She ran along and saw people being stabbed and shot and where she ran there was blood mixed with the mud under her boots.How did life in Victoria change as a result of this event? She was transported back shortly after that so she didn’t get to see anything

 

• How did life change in Victoria as a result of the Gold Rush? We remember the gold rush as a terrible matter

 

• How did the Gold Rush impact Indigenous people? They were able to sell skins, fish and meat to the miners

Do you have a gold rush related book? If so, what is it?

Write in the comments below,

Charlotte