Investigating Bonegilla - A virtual site study
This set of learning materials provides an inquiry-based examination of an historically significant location. It addresses the concepts, skills, outcomes and content specified in the Australian History Curriculum. The emphasis throughout the kit is on doing history.
Learning about Bonegilla
The resource kit helps visitors to locate, probe and use contemporary newspaper and magazine reports held in Trove and files in other archives such as the National Archives of Australia. The kit consistently asks ‘how do we know?’; ‘how do we find out?’ and ‘why visit this place?'
Getting Started
Investigating Bonegilla’s Past
Change and continuity
What changed and what did not change in Australia’s immigration policy between 1947 and 1971?
Troubled times
Visitors are invited to explore different sources about an incident at Bonegilla that caught the attention of the nation – a health scandal in 1949.
Migration experiences
What challenges did non-British people face in migrating to Australia in the post-war years?
Protests and riots
Bonegilla became newsworthy nation-wide with protests and riots in 1952 and 1961.
Acknowledgements
The development of this virtual study site has been a collaborative effort involving Albury City Council, Wodonga City Council and Charles Sturt University.
The Charles Sturt University team included the authors, Paul Grover and Bruce Pennay, working with the help of consultant Jessie Lymn. The university’s Division of Learning and Teaching and its Institute of Land Water and Society helped fund and facilitate the project.
Justin Dallinger of Foto Supplies Camera House gave generously of his professional skills in developing the 3D Walkthrough. The staff of Albury LibraryMuseum and the Bonegilla Migrant Experience helped in lots of ways.
Two recent books have guided this work.
Most of the images and film footage used have been drawn, with permission, from archives of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the National Archives of Australia, the Bonegilla Collection at the Albury LibraryMuseum and the Border Mail archives. The project team thanks the people who have made them available. All reasonable efforts were made to identify the source and obtain reproduction permission. In some cases, copyright holders could not be traced. The publisher and author welcome information with regard to copyright or privacy concerns. The views expressed are those of the text author, Bruce Pennay, and do not necessarily represent those of the institutional partners or the publisher.