Information for volunteers

The Mount Morgan Experience aims to provide students with a range of opportunities to express their feelings, understandings and opinions of historical and contemporary life in and people of Mount Morgan. They will need access to perspectives, knowledge, values and attitudes to carry out tasks such as;

• writing an anthology of poems about Mount Morgan
• creating a photo essay to support their impressions of Mount Morgan
• performing a poem/ballad of their own creation for an audience of their peers
• discussing and debating topics such as the environmental impact of the mine on the district, the future of Mount Morgan, the preservation of history versus progress.
• through research, hands on and sensory experiences in real life historical settings in and around Mount Morgan.

Possible themes for their poetry could include:

• The 1909 Mine accident
• The Mount Morgan fires
• Life in a Mining Town
• The pollution caused by mining in Mount Morgan
• The old School of Arts Hall
• The Mine payroll robbery attempt
• The women of Mount Morgan
• The aborigines of Mount Morgan
• The running of the cutter
• The Leichhardt (or other) Hotel
• Morgan Street
• The characters of Mount Morgan

By the time the students visit Mount Morgan they have a basic idea of the facts surrounding each site. However the object of actually visiting each site and listening to the guide is to bring each site to life. Guides and volunteers may need to clarify with teachers the time available for each site, the interests of the students and the topics or Mount Morgan sites investigated during the pre-visit activities. The guides should provide factual information about the objects and sites visited as well as try to tell stories about Mount Morgan to help bring to life the sites and events that occurred, thus providing the students with a greater feeling for the place.

Possible sites that the group may wish to visit during their tour include:

• Bouldercombe and Struck Oil – where students can view the sites where the Mount Morgan gold rush began. Sites like Crocodile Creek where racism against and jealousy of the success of the Chinese diggers led to riots in 1867.

• Razorback – where students can see the steep back track that bullock teams negotiated on their way to and from Mount Morgan.

• The Lookout – where students can experience a panoramic view of the town and the famous Mount Morgan Mine.

• The Railway Station – where students can ride the old steam train, look at old train memorabilia and learn how to pan for alluvial gold.

• Mt Morgan High School – where students can see the first high school opened in Queensland.

• School of Arts Hall – where students can see the site of many an entertaining evening throughout Mount Morgan’s history. Debutante balls, live theatre, local dances, school graduations, wedding receptions and local meetings have all been held within these walls. It may be possible to arrange a local bush poet to perform for the students from the stage of this once grand hall.

• John Cani Nursing Home – where permission may be sought to interview residents and document their memories and impressions of Mount Morgan.

• Cutter and Cutters Lane – where students can see where children once ran billy- cans of beer to thirsty miners.

• The Museum – where students can see a wonderful collection of objects and photographs that re-create the past.

• Mount Morgan Mine – where students can see the famous site where fabulous fortunes where made and many lives lost. This mine created the finance responsible for creating one of the world’s most powerful multinational enterprises, British Petroleum (BP).

• The Cemetery – where students can see the Linda Memorial, built in 1909 in memory of 26 miners who lost their lives at the Mount Morgan mine; the Hayes Memorial built in memory of three members of the Hayes family killed in a plane crash in 1934 on the beach near Yeppoon; a Cairn under which lie the remains of Aboriginal people taken to a Scottish University and now returned and laid to rest; the Chinese “Heung Lew” or Prayer Oven where money and gifts were burnt as a means of transferring them to the spirit world; the large number of children’s graves as a result of various epidemics that passed through the town. Grave rubbings can be made to take back to school.

• The Dee River – where students can see the environmental costs of mining techniques used throughout the twentieth century and modern attempts at rehabilitation.

It would enhance the quality of students’ experience to pause at the conclusion of each site visit for a de-briefing and reflection. Depending on the focus the students and teacher have chosen, the guides may wish to develop leading questions to improve the insight the students have gained, to help them reflect on their feelings, and to increase their awareness of the issues involved.

The students may need to take photographs, sketch and/or jot notes about the site. This information will form the basis of their reflections and their poetry writing when they return to the classroom.

At all sites the students should clarify their impressions, opinions and attitudes with the guides to gain another opinion or perspective. This will ensure that the information the students present in their poetry/ballads is accurate and balanced.