Australia Lesson Activities - Literacy

THEME: Timber Creek
SUBJECT AREAS: literacy
TOPIC: story telling of the early explorers

“The rushing tide forms whirlpools several yards across…by which we were whirled round and round like a teetotum, being cast forth from one only to be sucked into another (Oldtimer 1913)

What job occupations could you have that would lend themselves to great story telling material? Many of the early adventurers in the Victoria River District lived very unique lives by today’s standards. Being the newcomers to an untamed land (which still has appearances of that today!), tough enough to survive the harshness of the region, plus being involved in an occupation that could be relatively dangerous, are all components that stories naturally spring from!

In 1839, Captain John Wickham and his lieutenant, John Stokes, sailed the HMS Beagle, of Charles Darwin fame, into the mouth of the Victoria River. Navigating a previously uncharted river was no easy task and could be a hazardous and exciting challenge. The Victoria River held its own set of natural hazards, however, in subsequent reports, Stokes painted a glowing picture of the river valley. He expressed the desire that ‘ere the sand of my life glass has run out…smoke may rise from Christian hearths where now alone the prowling heathen lights his fire.' Stokes’ words encouraged future exploration and settlement in the Victoria River region. (reference today’s ESD update)

In the early days of exploration, mail and supplies were brought to the isolated cattle stations via river steamers and schooners. . These steamers even played a role in the exporting of cattle from this region to Australian and Asian markets. Treacherous shoals, sandbars and tidal flows in the crocodile infested waters of the Victoria River made these trips anything but tame. Imagine navigating a schooner in changing river tides with a boatload of wild cattle!

Charles Mugg, skipper of the Wai Hoi, was a colorful character. The Wai Hoi, a Chinese built, ‘two dragon’ steamer (in reference to the power she produced), was under contract to ship mail and general cargo. As legends go, the Wai Hoi had an unreliable engine, her skipper was rarely sober, and the cockroaches aboard were infamous. One sailor on the crew remarked, “These ‘whiskers’ were a joy to us. They forecasted meal hours as a barometer forecasts a storm.”

Tales of early life in the Victoria River region provide us with a glimpse into a wild and woolly era gone by.

Suggested activities: Examine the quotes contained in the preceding update. ‘Translate’ them into modern day word usage. What are these quotes trying to tell us of life 150 years ago? Why are the use of quotations important when retelling a story? How do they reflect the early history of an area?

April

THEME: Creepy Crawlies
SUBJECT AREA: Literacy
TOPIC: Aboriginal stories of the Dreaming - Lightening Spirits

Stories of the Dreamtime reflect the relationship of the various Aboriginal groups to the surrounding environment. These stories often involve weather patterns as well as insects and animals native to the region. Today’s Dreamtime story reflects our daily theme of ‘Creepy Crawlies’ by having as its main character a grasshopper, common insect in the Top End of the Northern Territory. It also centers around fierce lightning storms, which are beginning to occur as the Wet season approaches. Images of the Lightning Spirits can be found throughout this region in caves and on rock surfaces.

“The sacred site of Namarrkon, the Lightning Spirit for the Kunwinjku people…is about fifty-six kilometres (thirty-five miles) away to the east of Nimbuwah rock, which towers into the sky from the surrounding plains. It is here that Namarrkon dwells throughout the dry season. Sometimes he assumes the form of a grasshopper to forage for food among the cabbage tree palms and bush shrubs growing nearby. He is also said to have created ‘aljurr’, (Leichhardt’s grasshopper) who goes looking for Namarrkon during electrical storms.

When the wet monsoon season starts to build up in November, Namarrkon flies up into the sky and sits on storm clouds made by the Rainbow Serpent. From there he emits deep growls of thunder and sends lightning flashes across the sky, although no rain falls until the Rainbow Serpent releases it. This high vantage point allows Namarrkon to keep a close watch on the Aboriginal people living below to see if they are observing codes of good behaviour, conducting sacred ceremonies, and passing on history and religion to the uninitiated in their tribe. If Namarrkon sees anything which displeases him, he plucks one of the stone axes from his knee or elbow joints and hurls it at the offender. Sometimes he misses and cleaves a tree in two.” (Wisdom from the Earth, Voigt&Drury)

Suggested learning activities: Create your own Dreaming story using your favourite insect as the main character. How do they represent a natural phenomenon such as the weather? How do they utilise this phenomenon to carry out their story? (a Dreaming story could correspond to another tribal legend of creation from the various indigenous groups from around the world)

April

THEME: Pine Creek
SUBJECT AREA: Literacy
TOPIC: Furphy’s

2001 October 15, Monday. North of Pine Creek.

The Furphy’s Farm Water Cart is as much an Australian icon as the Hill’s Hoist, and the Victa Rotary Mower. The one in the garden of the Pine Creek library was crafted in the early forties, and must have been brought at that time from Shepparton, in the far south east of the continent, where it was manufactured by J. Furphy and Sons Specialty Farm Products Manufacturers.

Either end of the tank is cast iron with lettering moulded into it. Across the centre is a type of writing often confused for Arabic, but which is in fact Pitman’s Shorthand for “Water is the gift of God, but beer and whisky are concoctions of the devil: Go and have a drink of water.” This is a temperance message from the manufacturers. A stork with a swaddled baby hanging from his beak sends another message of family and stability.

Furphy’s also advertise their other products on the tank end, all agricultural machinery and parts – Plough Wheels, Land Graders, Spike Rollers and Iron Castings among others.

The verse at the bottom of the tank end, near the tap, is Furphy’s motto, a jingle, which reads:
“Good, Better, Best
Never Let It Rest
Till Your Good Is Better
And Your Better – Best”

Today, each of these tank-ends is worth hundreds of dollars, because of their uniqueness, and the amount of work and thought which have been put into them.

Suggested learning activities: Can you find other examples where a moral is disguised in a piece of writing or a presentation? - Aesop’s Fables for example. Try writing your own entertaining piece, to read or perform to the class, with a message or moral to be “read between the lines”. Find examples of different styles of shorthand, and find out why it they are used.

bel

THEME: Pine Creek Region
SUBJECT AREA: Literacy
TOPIC: Women in the Northern Territory

‘No Place for A Woman’

You are familiar with the logistics of our daily travel as we’ve crossed Australia; our camping/living conditions and distances travelled per day. But imagine the year 1927, you are eleven years old and your family is to undertake a journey through the same country we’ve travelled. Quite different, you think? The following is an excerpt from “No Place for A Woman” by Mayse Young. Mayse’s father was employed as a railroad construction worker, building miles of railroad to facilitate the mining industry in the Northern Territory as well as other locations.

“His gang was the lifting gang, and their function was to pound and pack the gravel and soil under the sleepers, (railroad ties/planks in the railway bed) and set the railway lines firm and straight, ready for the trains to travel over.”

After learning of railway work near Pine Creek, the family considered the move from the north Queensland coast, through Mt. Isa, north toward Katherine with their final destination, Pine Creek. They would travel in two vehicles; one, a truck, the other as backup, a Dodge car. A total of seven people would be in transit. Upon learning that Mayse’s father would move with the entire family, he was told, “It’s a man’s country,” the friend said. “You’d be foolish to take a family up there. It’s no place for a woman.” Mayse’s mother pointed out that it couldn’t be worse than the dry red earth, dust storms and flies around the Isa. Being a plucky soul, she was willing to take the chance.

As they set up camp each evening, it is reminiscent of what we’ve faced each day on the road as we prepare our evening camp.

“When we set out for a new camp, the wagon was loaded with folded tents, swags, tucker (food) boxes, our home-made utensils…hurricane lamps, water bags, and rope (hanging) from the sides. It is little wonder when we set up camp near one little town that a kid driving a billy-goat cart came down to ask when the circus was opening.”

It is interesting to compare distances travelled per day between a 1920s vehicle and a twenty first century push-bike. We have, on the average, completed approximately eighty kilometres per day (fifty miles) depending upon terrain and road surfaces. Mayse paints a similar picture as her family made their way through the Outback.

“We nursed the vehicles along, never pushing too fast, especially over the rough patches, averaging about fifty miles a day. One treeless plain was 125 miles wide - three days' travelling. We had to carry firewood, and water, and took care to check these supplies carefully each day before setting out.”

Bore water has played an important role in selecting our campsites or midday stops. If we are fortunate enough to locate one near the route, it provides us with water and a way to cool off in the midday sun. It was even more important to a family of seven and their chosen route followed the bores.

“As the ‘road’ was really a stock route, approximately every twenty-five miles we found a bore and windmill to water travelling stock. We played “I spy the black dot’-which would be a windmill. From the time we lost sight of one windmill our eyes were searching the horizon for the dark spot that meant another one was coming up.”

As we near our journey’s end, we think back to the memorable places we’ve visited. The toughness of the terrain, the wild, untamed land that we’ve cycled through, though often difficult, has left us with lasting memories. To a child, Mayse’s overland adventure was concluded with much the same thoughts.

“After days of travel on the roughest roads we had encountered, we finally crossed over…into the Northern Territory…a very lonely drover’s route. We had to carry water in drums: six drums to last fifteen stops. We camped one night on the banks of the beautiful Victoria River, with its pandanus palms and tropical growth along the banks…”

Suggested activities: Identify the use of primary (first person) resources as research material in writing of another era. Why is this type of resource important in learning of the past? How does it contribute to a ‘visual’ description for the reader? Why is the use of a primary resource important in recounting a historical event? In literature, why are primary resources a valuable tool used in story telling?

April