Hard Road Ahead Reflection

The past weeks we have been building a diorama of Sovereign Hill, after visiting the real, full size sovereign Hill. I learnt that in the 1850s many people died because of sicknesses that we now have cures for. We went to school at Sovereign Hill while on camp and we learnt many things but one that will stick in my head is the 17 times tables. We also learnt copperplate hand writing and how it was like to live in the gold fields. 

Our task while at Sovereign Hill was to study a building of our choice with our partner, my partner was Oliver. We were assigned The Eureka Hotel, unfortunately there was no replica of The Eureka Hotel at Sovereign Hill, so we looked at the United States Hotel, which was quite different. We inferred that the downstairs of the hotel was a pub and the upstairs was the hotel rooms and James Bentley’s living quarters. We also had to study what main events this building was involved in. The Eureka Hotel was in voles in the James Scobie and James Bentley affair, where Scobie was murdered outside the hotel by Bentley for breaking a window of the hotel. The establishment was burnt down on the 18th of November 1854 after Scobie paid the magistrate working on the case to let him free without charge. Other businesses during the gold rush were the Saddlery, Tent Makers, Blacksmiths, Confectioners and the Apothecaries Hall. 

The Eureka Hotel

After looking back, I have realised that there have been many challenges that I have faced and many highlights that I can think of in the future. For starters, the top level of the building didn’t match up with the bottom of the building, so we glue together some popsicle sticks to make sure the second level wouldn’t fall inside the first. One of my major highlights was finally finishing our diorama because I felt a sense of achievement when I saw the whole building completed. 

I really enjoyed this unit and hope we cane do something like this in the future. It was really cool to have the task base off the school camp, because we have never done anything like this.

-Esther 

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