131-222 Digging for Gold: Cultural Landscapes

Overnight accommodation will be available in Castlemaine and Vaughan during the weekend field trips for this subject. Contact subject coordinator for details.

Usually 12.5 points of first-year history or Australian studies.

This is an intensive fieldwork subject in central Victoria. The Australian gold rushes have been cloaked by celebratory tales about European men building a nation and fashioning a distinctive Australian way of life. This subject strips back these overlays to reveal the actualities of social life in the central Victorian goldfields. Its focus is the crucible of Australian gold seeking: the Mount Alexander Diggings between Castlemaine and Maldon, which is reputedly the world's greatest shallow alluvial goldfield. Its approach is to integrate historical and material-culture analysis, and thereby to explore and decode the evocative cultural landscapes within the study area. Its scope is inclusive: to describe in full the diverse communities that formed on the diggings and that endured long after the booms had passed. Its goal is to identify and explain the forgotten objects and hidden histories of the Australian gold rushes. On completion of the subject students should have a detailed appreciation both of the historiography of the Australian gold rushes, and of the application to it of new historical concepts and methods. Students should also understand the interplay between historical interpretation and heritage management in fragile cultural landscapes today.

• demonstrate research skills through competent use of the library and other information sources;

• show critical thinking and analysis through recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by determining the strength of an argument;

• demonstrate understanding of social, ethical and cultural context through the contextualisation of judgements, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument;

• demonstrate time management and planning through managing and organising workloads for recommended reading, essay and assignment completion.

A 1000 word reflective essay 25% (due one week after the fieldwork) and a 3000 word research assignment 75% (due at the end of semester). Students must attend at least 80% of the subject programme in order to be eligible for assessment.