Gold rush: level 1

TLF ID L702

Dig for gold on the Ballarat goldfields in 1865. Try your luck at alluvial or shaft mining. Buy a miner's permit, tools and enough supplies to last a month. Discover how hard life was on the goldfields. Explore a map showing the countries migrants left to join the gold rush in Australia. Find out which towns developed due to the discovery of gold. Look at an illustrated timeline to find out how the gold rush led to a boom in the Australian economy and rural development. This learning object is the simplest in a series of two learning objects that differ in complexity of navigation and basic calculations.





Educational details

Educational value
  • Illustrates the impact of the Gold Rush on late 19th-century Australia's population growth, ethnic make-up and economic prosperity, and on Australia's Indigenous peoples.
  • Simulates the life and hardships of a miner on the Victorian goldfields.
  • Provides timelines of the gold rush period marking key dates, events and gold mining towns, and a world map showing the gold rush routes.
  • Features a currency converter to help students to trade in the currency of the 19th century.
  • Underlines the egalitarian spirit of the era and the impact of the Eureka uprising on democracy in Australia.
  • Features a child mentor character to engage interest.
  • Includes authentic sound effects and music of the Gold Rush era.
  • Features authentic photographic images of mining life and legal documents.
  • Rewards task completion with a printable mining permit including the student's name.
Year level

2; 3; 4

Learning area
  • Humanities and Social Sciences
  • Studies of society and environment
  • History

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: National Museum of Australia
  • Organization: National Museum of Australia
  • Description: Subject matter expert
  • Address: ACT, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.nma.gov.au/
  • Name: The Swish Group Ltd\; Learning Curve Pty Ltd
  • Organization: The Swish Group Ltd\; Learning Curve Pty Ltd
  • Description: Technical implementer
  • Address: ACT, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.learning-curve.com.au/
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Colour independence
  • Device independence
Learning Resource Type
  • Interactive
Rights
  • © Education Services Australia Ltd, 2016, except where indicated under Acknowledgements. Unless otherwise indicated, this material may be used in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.