Name: Class: Date: Worksheet: Chapter 2, page 39 New industries whaling and sealing During the 19th century, industries such as whaling and sealing provided people with the raw materials needed to make a huge range of products. Because seals were unafraid of men, they were easily caught and killed. The seals were clubbed to death, with care being taken not to damage the skin. Some of the earliest sealing and whaling was carried out along the shores of Bass Strait European sealers had been visiting the area for some time. By 1831 the seal rookeries were already depleted. Whales were to suffer the same fate as seals. In 1791, whales were plentiful and hunting was profitable, with a regular trade from Britain to Australia. Whaling has been called Australia s first industry. By 1803 it was recognised that uncontrolled killing of whales, especially during the breeding season, would result in the destruction of the industry. By the 1850s, whales had become rare. The last whale chase in Portland Bay in Victoria was in 1866, and was such an unusual event that most of the town turned out to watch the spectacle. Before 1835 the seal and whale industries earned more money than sales of wool. The industries were important and were responsible for the establishment of many major coastal towns, and provided a considerable amount of wealth for the colonies. Australian whalers were also in part responsible for the establishment of the settlement of New Zealand. However, the industry was not sustainable. A range of other industries developed as a result of whaling, including shipbuilding, sail-making, rope production and other assorted maritime skills. 1 Why was whaling such an important industry? 2 Why did whalers also hunt seals?
3 Draw two of the products made from whales and seals. The modern whaling industry Whaling stopped in the 1850s and started again in the 1950s. It was not stopped again until the Whale Protection Act was passed in 1980. Save the whale was a popular slogan at the time. Recently there has been a huge international outcry over Japanese whaling for research and their request to increase the numbers and types of whales taken. Whaling remains an emotional and very contentious environmental issue. 4 Design a poster to heighten people s awareness of the issues about whaling. 5 Imagine you are a 19th century whaler. Write a detailed, descriptive and informative story of a whale chase. Write it in the first person to capture the danger and excitement of the hunt. It might help to watch the film Moby Dick, which shows vivid images of the harpooning and capture of a whale at sea. 6 Boydtown on Twofold Bay in New South Wales was a famous whaling station. Use the internet and the library to find out about the founder, Benjamin Boyd, and about the whaling industry there.
7 Select a number of products that were obtained from whales and find out what is used instead today. Present this information in a table (see the examples below) and answer the questions. Whale products Whale bones for underwear Whale oil Whale bones for umbrellas, hoops for skirts, furniture and ornaments Substitutes used today Wire and plastic a Where are these substitutes found? b What are the environmental issues, if any, about the substitutes?
Worksheet: Chapter 2, page 60 Women on the goldfields: Céleste Céleste de Chabrillan came to Melbourne from Paris in 1854, as the wife of the representative of the French government, the French consul, in Melbourne. Céleste kept a detailed journal during her time here in which she commented on life in Melbourne. Her previously published memoirs, which revealed Céleste s scandalous past, made her unwelcome in polite society. However, in the two-and-a-half years she spent in the colony, she met notable people of the time such as Lola Montez (see below) and travelled to the diggings at Ballarat. Coming from Paris, a large and beautiful European city, Céleste was critical of colonial Melbourne and its rough and ready way of life. Her writings are a fascinating first-hand report of gold-rush Melbourne. The sources below are extracts from her diary. Céleste found that she had to buy water that was dearer than wine at home and it s dirty; you can t use it to wash anything white. The fact is that the Yarra Yarra is the main sewer of the town. 5th April 1854 We crossed the main street of Melbourne; it looks like a fairground except that the shopkeepers are not dealing in gingerbread but in gold. They are almost ape-men these shopkeepers who stand beside their open-air shops, grimacing and contorting their bodies to attract the attention of successful miners and to buy their gold. There is movement everywhere, everyone yells; it s exactly like the Paris money market. There are a few brick houses surrounded by huts and tents. As for the shops when you need to enter one you must lift your dress with one hand and hold your nose with the other... they sell everything. Dresses made from antique moire [a type of silk], York hams, ladies hats, miners boots, candles, perfumery, pickaxes and children s toys, they even trim beards. Upon arriving at Ballarat the sight of the mines frightens me: it s like a large cemetery where each person digs his own grave... Their camps on the goldfields, which are fortunately a fair distance from Melbourne are frightful to behold. They are like colonies of moles, digging their holes. The women work like the men and the children likewise. There is not an idler to be seen in the place: gold obsesses them, fascinates them. The miners dig such deep holes that accidents often occur. Pits excavated without any forethought cave in and bury those who built them. They lower me very carefully, but I am plunged into a sort of pit that is at least eighty feet deep. I am given a light and I arrive at the bottom feeling very apprehensive. A miner does the honours and shows me around his cramped underground passage.
I went with my husband to take a horse ride around the mines. We stopped in a village of Chinese emigrants and were nearly given a less than warm reception. These miserable souls are exasperated by the English who treat them like harmful animals... [the English] beat them and chase after them on the pretext that they don t spend all they earn and because they eat rice. P Clancy & J Allen, The French Consul s Wife: Memoirs of Céleste de Chabrillan in Gold- Rush Australia, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 1998 1 Why would a lady need to lift her dress and hold her nose when she went into a shop? 2 Explain why there were tents and huts in the streets of Melbourne. 3 Céleste had to buy water. Explain why she did this and her complaints. 4 What is the evidence in her journal that Céleste is not visiting the goldfields in the early years of the gold rushes? 5 Write ten questions you would like to ask Céleste about her life in Melbourne.
6 Create a poster advertising goods for sale at a Melbourne shop in the 1850s. 7 Imagine you are Céleste. Write a letter home to your family giving your impressions of Melbourne in the mid 19th century.
8 What does given less than a warm reception mean? 9 Céleste was French. How would this have saved her from unpleasantness? 10 Who is Céleste referring to when she mentions the English? 11 What reasons does Céleste give for the behaviour of the English towards the Chinese? 12 As a Frenchwoman, would Celeste s opinion about how the English treated the Chinese be a valuable one?
Women on the goldfields: Lola Lola Montez came to the goldfields to entertain the miners. She had had many unsuccessful career liaisons with the rich and famous, including a European king, Ludwig I of Bavaria. Because of her scandalous background, Lola was also not welcome in polite society. Her performance in goldfields theatres of her famous spider dance shocked many people who watched the suggestive display. Lola pretended to be covered in spiders and writhed about as she tried to get them off her body. The Argus wrote that the dance was utterly subversive of all ideas of public morality. When Ballarat newspapers condemned her, Lola retaliated by publicly calling her major critic, Henry Seekamp, editor of the Ballarat Times, a drunk. She also hinted that he had enjoyed her company. The upshot of the argument was that Lola beat Seekamp with a horsewhip in public and he in turn whipped her. The story made sensational reading in the press. In later life Lola changed her ways and became very religious and conservative. She dressed plainly in grey wool and publicly announced on one occasion that she had given away all her perfume! She died, in poverty, in America when she was only forty-two. 1 Lola Montez was photographed in 1851 smoking a cigarette. Why would this photo have shocked many people at that time? 2 Suggest reasons why Lola may have come to the Australian goldfields. 3 Why did women like Lola live outside polite society, not being accepted into homes or other places visited by decent married women? 4 Henry Seekamp was famous for his involvement in Eureka. Like the other rebels, he was charged and acquitted of sedition. Was he in a position to judge Lola?
5 What effect do you think the newspaper publicity about her spider dance and the horsewhipping had on attendances at Lola s shows? 6 Design a poster attracting miners to watch the spider dance.