Many meetings

John Pascoe Fawkner

As a free person doing business in Melbourne, Fawkner often comes across the conflict between convicts and non-convicts (free settlers). Read about the lives of convicts and free settlers in the National Archives, the Argus and Journals. Create a Venn diagram (like the one below) that compares convicts and non-convicts. Include things that are the same as well as things that are different (employment, living conditions etc).

John King

The expedition that King goes on, the Burke and Wills expedition, ends in disaster. Everyone except for King dies of thirst and starvation. King is rescued by some indigenous people and is the only one who makes it back to Melbourne. This shows that there were positive interactions between indigenous people and colonists. Read the section in the Wisdom of the Elders about ‘friendship and good intentions’. Write a persuasive paragraph (at least 150 words) on the topic of interaction between indigenous people and colonists. The topic is “Interactions between Aborigines and Europeans weren’t all bad”.

Millie Simpson

Millie is fascinated by the relations between indigenous and settler peoples. She has learnt a lot about some of the many conflicts between indigenous people and colonists. Read about the Myall Creek massacre in the Argus. What was the massacre? Write a paragraph (150 words minimum) describing it. Why do you think it happened?

Georgiana McCrae

Georgiana’s friend is a gold digger, and was involved in the “Eureka Rebellion”. Georgiana wants to find out more about this situation. Read about the rebellion in the Argus and the National Archives. Create a timeline for the rebellion, with at least eight key events on it. For each event, include at least one dot point explaining what happened on that date.

GROUP TASK

When learning about history, is it important to ask interesting questions. Complete and fill in this grid. You can decide as a group how to split up the work. The questions all have to be about colonial Australia. Remember, you’re just asking the questions, not answering them.

	EVENT	SITUATION	PERSON	REASON	MEANS
PAST	What is…	Where/When did…	Who is…	Why is…	How is…
PRESENT	What did…	Where/When did…	Who did…	Why did…	How did…