Australia Lesson Activities - Literacy

This passage was taken from ‘River of Gold – the wild days of the Palmer River Gold Rush’ by Hector Holthouse.

…After finding a track over the coastal range, the party at last came down into the valley of the Normanby River on Monday, 3rd November. “Some blacks were shot here,” wrote Webb. “I don’t know why, as they had not interfered with us”. But another digger, J. J. Canley, writing later to the Queenslander, gave a different account of it. “When the horses were turned out, the blacks put in an appearance and attempted to drive them away.” He wrote. “This led to the blacks being dispersed and the horses secured.”

Primary resources, such as direct quotations from journals written by participants in an historical event, provide the reader with important information. Suggested activities to test student comprehension could include researching the impact of the meeting of cultures in your local community. Students might explore the reasons why language and traditional communication skills were often ineffective as the cultures tried to occupy the same area.

April

Quinkan

We spent the day here in the deep Eucalyptus Savannah organizing and
preparing for the crossing of the Maytown track, an especially rough
and
remote route leading from Laura, Jowelbinna, Maytown and the Palmer
goldfields.

We're deep in Quinkan country. Quinkan is the spirit from the
Dreamtime
living in the rocks around Jowelbinna. Quinkan has two sides, two
distinct beings. There is the long, thin wisp-like Quinkan, rounded
head, usually drawn with vertical lines like energy spikes coming out
of
his head. He's the good Quinkan and lives in small cracks in the
rocks. And there's the opposite Quinkan, the bad Quinkan, big and fat
and scary Quinkan, who does all kinds of mischief and bad things.

Yesterday it might be said that the bad Quinkan paid us a visit. We
had
a hard, hard afternoon in cycling and logistics, and had to cycle back
down the steepest, sandy section we'd ridden yet. Then again, maybe it
was the good Quinkan, because we chose to have a nice day here at this
bush camp getting completely reorganized and prepared for tomorrow's 40
kilometers to Maytown and the 200 k's beyond that through wild bush.

In the evening we climbed the hill behind our camp and explored the
rock
outcroppings for signs of Aboriginal art work. Walking up the trail
through the woods I thought of the other people who've walked this same
way. 40,000 years of culture here in Cape York, the peninsula where
the
original people entered Australia from across the Torres Straits. Up
in
a small cave we found a number of paintings, and of course Quinkan was
there. I sat and looked at the faded, red-ochre figures and watched
the
sunset over the forest. It felt good to be above the forest, after a
week of cycling and camping down under the tree level. I thanked
Quinkan, both sides of him, for getting us along our way and teaching
us
how to deal with both the good and bad during our Cape York cycling
adventure.

Have you ever heard of spirits in your area like Quinkan, who have a
good and a bad side? How about the boogieman, which parents say will
get children if they go where they aren't supposed to go, or don't do
what they're told? Or how about your good angel and bad angel? Good
witch, bad witch? Kokopelli's good side and mischievous side?

So for now, we're organizing for a night walk up to caves by the
half-moonlight. We'll then get up at 5:00am and begin a long day's
ride, or perhaps two-day ride if we have to camp up in the mountains
before Maytown. We hope the good Quinkan is with us.

Jim