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The Australian Gold rushes

Film clip by Bill Peach about Victorian gold rushes

Film clip by Bill Peach showing how music hall songs on the diggings showed up the "traps" or police as they enforced the inspection of mining licences

Film clip enactment (with early paintings included) explaining how the miners' licences came to be created

Film clip of the largest nugget ever found

A Journey to the Diggings at Forest Creek in Victoria, described by Ellen Clacy in 1852
This primary source, published in the "Australian Heritage" Magazine, is illustrated with coloured paintings of the era.

Forest Creek in Victoria described by Ellen Clacy who visited the diggings in 1852
This primary source, published in the "Australian Heritage" Magazine, is illustrated with coloured paintings of the era.

Eureka Stockade

Film clip of the Eureka Stockade and Peter Lalor, with original photographs and paintings


 * ===== The night we made the flag : a Eureka story / by Carole Wilkinson ; illustrated by Sebastian Ciaffaglone =====

A very good introduction to the story of the Eureka Stockade, which values the contribution of women and girls.
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The night they stormed Eureka / Jackie French. Pymble, N.S.W. : HarperCollins Australia, 2009.
Samantha runs away from her home in the twenty-first century and finds herself transported back to the Victorian gold diggings at Ballarat to a time just before the Eureka Stockade in 1854. Because of her jeans and short hair, she is befriended by a kindly couple as their son and becomes embroiled in the miners' troubles that led to the Eureka uprising. The story evokes all the sensory impressions, the sights, smells, sounds, tastes and even touches on the skin, that bring the reader right into life on the goldfields. Jackie French herself writes at the end of the book: "This book should be read as a story with a historical background, not as history." Her notes at the end of the book, however, provide good contextual detail about the troubles at the diggings. Her descriptions, in particular, of the actual events that culminated in the attack on the miners are vivid and her questions about them are thoughtful. || || St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 1999. To the Goldfields! vividly recreates the details of daily life at the diggings, from family doings to sly grog shops, water shortages and political protests. It is a remarkable evocation of a crucial and colourful period in Australia's history. Although out of print, this colourful picture book is still held in stock by many school libraries. || ||
 * To the goldfields! / written and illustrated by Rachel Tonkin

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