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Subject-specific learning materials (Part 2)
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Worksheet 7: Narrative of the Crocodile Field Uprising
Questions:
- What caused the rioting at Crocodile Creek?
- What reason did Solomons and O’Sullivan give for jumping
the Chinese claim?
- Were all of the Australian diggers anti-Chinese? How do you
know?
- Why did so many diggers respond to the “roll-up”
call?
- Why did Jimmy Hughes join the riot?
- Why did the Chinese go to Rockhampton?
- Why were only four convicted of causing the violence when so
many participated?
- In your opinion, was the sentence given to the four suitable?
- Were the real problems on the Gold Field solved by the riot?
- Do you believe this account of the riot is accurate? Why/why
not?
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Worksheet 8: Role Play to Dramatization
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Students will be allocated roles for the role play.
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The ‘white’ miners meet as a group to brainstorm
their motivations and to create a list of their arguments and
rationale for driving the Chinese from the goldfield.
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The Chinese meet to brainstorm how it must feel to live
in a community where you are neither respected nor supported
and where you are surrounded by violent people, who don’t
speak your language, have strange ways and few morals.
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The student who is taking on the role of Mrs Ah Sing
write a paragraph to explain what type of woman ran a pub on
the road to the goldfield and had the personal conviction to
run against general opinion and marry a Chinaman.
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The other miners brainstorm reasons why they might have
involved themselves in the rioting.
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The police, led by Sub-inspector Elliott examine
and list their own motivations.
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Hold an informal debate where students from either side
take turns to make a point in support of their group’s
point of view.
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Make an entry in your Learning Log outlining your own
personal decision and the reasons for it.
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On butchers’ paper mounted on the classroom walls, the
class should then divide the story into scenes.
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One student, or perhaps the teacher, is allocated as the scribe.
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As a class, work through the story scene by scene planning
the setting, costuming, the dialogue and the stage direction.
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Rewrite the final copy into your notebooks. This is your script.
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Memorise and rehearse your lines and your stage directions.
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Present your dramatization to an audience of your peers
Characterization Cards
John Stone and Daniel
Galvin - Two miners down on their luck and looking for someone
to blame.
John O'Sullivan
- You are an Irish immigrant who had come out to make an easy fortune
in Brisbane. Unable to achieve that, you have drifted from gold
field to gold field in search of easy pickings.
Abraham Solomons - A well known trouble maker in search
of a fortune.
Jimmy Hughes - Original owner of Chinese claim, resented
Chinese finding gold where he couldn't.
Ah Sing - Chinese publican
Mrs Ah Sing - White lady married to a Chinese publican
The Chinese Diggers
- You worked a legal claim and found gold, now these louts want
to cheat you out of it.
Sub-Inspector Elliott
- You have a reputation for being fair and for keeping the peace
on the gold field.
The Crowd - Anything for a good ol'donnybrook.
The Police - You probably don't trust the Chinese
much either, but you can't leave them to the mercy of the miners.
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Worksheet 9: Contributions of the Chinese to Mount Morgan
The Chinese people contributed a great deal to the community of
Mount Morgan throughout the goldrush period and beyond. In small
groups, or individually, brainstorm the contributions the Chinese
made in terms of culture, social development and the economy. Write
these down in the contribution
table.
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Worksheet 10: The Lead Up To The Advent Of The White Australia
Policy
Complete the Fishbone Cause and Effect Diagram below by listing
the arguments raised by the lobby groups listed below in support
of adopting a White Australia Policy.
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Resource 1: Further Excerpt about the Crocodile Creek Uprising
“Life was rough and raw on the early fields. Men fought for
a few ounces of gold while 250 tonnes of it waited to be discovered
in the hills behind them. Some Chinese sinking a shaft on the upper
flat close to their vegetable gardens, struck rich wash dirt, a
pennyweight of gold to the bucket. A number of their countrymen
took up adjoining claims but an envious new chum noticed their pegs
were not of regulation height. After the Gold Commissioner declined
to instantly dispossess the Chinese over this technicality, the
new chum and his mates set to and beat the Chinese off. The latter
gracefully retired and began sinking again, closer to the market
gardens and got more gold. This infuriated the diggers, by now a
fair sized mob. They seized the new claim, beat off the Chinese,
ravaged the gardens and set fire to about 30 tents, being none too
careful about their occupants.
Ah Shen was lucky to escape. Seeing the maddened mob waving fire
sticks, he vainly tried to rescue his belongings but a digger struck
a wax match on his boot and threw it into the grass tent fly. Ah
Shen ran for his life while all his possessions including 24 pounds
in notes vanished in flames.
Eliza Sam Ham, the wife of an interpreter, was alone at the time.
She nailed up the entrance, begging the mob to leave. As they were
about to demolish the store with her inside, she grabbed a tomahawk,
ripped open the door and fled. Half an hour later, when it seemed
safe to return, all was in ruins. A spring cart remained and she
went straight to Rockhampton to call help.
The Chinese doctor, Tach Long, fared no better. He closed his door,
but while one hooligan knocked out the windows with an axe handle,
others pelted him with rocks. John Stone wrenched open the door
and pulled him out by the hair.
When the wild, yelling rioters reached the Chinese public house,
they demanded drinks. Emma Yung Sing hastily obeyed, plying them
with free grog until their fury was dissipated in an alcoholic fog.
The Chinese sought refuge wherever they could. James MacLeay responded
to the roll up call ‘Come along boys, come along’ by coming
to the rescue of the innocent. He looked after the property of the
fleeing Chinamen while advising them to hide in the nearby bush.
Law and order were quickly restored. Sub-inspector Elliott and
Commissioner Jardine rode out through the night, and swore in the
local storekeepers as special constables. Chinese may look alike
to Europeans but the Chinese had no difficulty in identifying their
assailants. In the Rockhampton Police Court - the equivalent of
today’s Court of Petty Sessions - both Europeans and Chinese
gave evidence for the prosecution. Of the ten rioters arrested,
four were released when friends provided alibis, however doubtful.
The rest were committed for trial. After a three day hearing in
March at which Attorney General Ratcliffe Pring prosecuted, the
jury deliberated, and found Abraham Solomons,
John Stone, Daniel Galvin and John O’Sullivan guilty of ‘committing
an affray’. The Chief Justice sentenced each to nine months
gaol. None were convicted of the more serious charges of riot and
unlawful assembly. Of those set free, one had been unequivocally
identified by several witnesses.”
(Source: Kerr,J. Mount Morgan - Gold, Copper and Oil JD and RS
Kerr, Brisbane, 1982).
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Resource 2: Further examples of anti-Chinese media
- Deficient
Immigration Laws
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from Vincent in The Bulletin, 1909.
- Chinese
Must Go
- from The Boomerang, 25 January 1888.
- The Only Way
- Melbourne Punch, 8 May 1888.
- Victoria - “Girls, there’s but one way to rid
ourselves of the unsightly thing, and that’s by all taking
hold together. A strong, unanimous heave with this lever and
the job’s done.”
- Chorus - “Yes, and if John should be the means of bringing
us together, we’d have something to thank the Chinese
question for after all.
“All white men who come to these shores - with a clean record
- and who leave behind them the memory of the class-distinctions
and the religious differences of the old world; all men who place
the happiness, the prosperity the advancement of their adopted
country before the interests of Imperialism, are Australian. In
this regard, all men who leave the tyrant ridden lands of Europe…….are
Australians……No nigger, no Chinaman, no lascar, no kanaka,
no purveyor of cheap coloured labour is an Australian.
The Bulletin, 2 July 1887
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