Information for volunteers

The Crocodile Creek Uprising - Cultural Conflict in the Goldfield aims to provide students with a range of opportunities to research the facts behind the Crocodile Creek Uprising as well as develop an understanding of life on the early gold fields. They will be endeavoring to understand the attitudes that European miners developed towards their Chinese counterparts and how those attitudes led to the adoption of the White Australia Policy. They will need to develop perspective, knowledge, values and attitudes to carry out tasks such as:

• developing a list of push and pull factors that led the Chinese to travel to the Australian goldfields
• creating a model of living conditions on the goldfield
• creating a table/poster illustrating the similarities and differences between the ‘white’ miners and the Chinese miners
• role playing the Crocodile Creek Uprising to gain an insight into the passions that led to the rioting
• listing other activities undertaken/services provided by the Chinese on the goldfield, (eg: market gardens, stores, public houses)
• discussing/debating the roll of the media in inflaming anti-Chinese sentiment
• creating a timeline of events surrounding the Chinese in Australia
• writing a persuasive essay demonstrating the links between anti-Chinese sentiment on the goldfields and the eventual adoption of the White Australia Policy through research and hands on sensory experiences in real life historical settings in and around 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 needed to negotiate 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.

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

• The Museum - where students can see a wonderful collection of objects and photos which re-create the past.

• The cemetery - where students can see the Chinese “Heung Lew” or ‘Prayer Oven’ and graves dating back to 1888 especially those that reflect the harsh living and working conditions of days gone by. Students may make grave rubbings to take back to school.

• The Court House - where students could reenact the trial of rioters, learn the roles of people within the court, or just view the courtroom and the cells attached.

• The Irish Quarter - where students can see the cramped living arrangements of the lowest class of ‘white society’.

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 they 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 on how living conditions in the early mining camps contributed to the development of anti-Chinese sentiment.

It may also be interesting for the students to learn that the Chinese were not the only ones on the gold field to be singled out for poor treatment, (eg: the Irish, women, the Aborigines).

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 assignments is accurate and balanced.