Following my post on St Joseph's Girls Orphanage I have continued to wonder what children thought about and what was important to me at the turn of the 1900's. I have been exploring these through some of the newspapers of the time. More thoughts about what was important to children in their daily lives was published in Catholic newspaper, The W.A. Recorder in Western Australia in the early 1900's.
Early in 1904, Aunt Nora, the coordinator of 'Children of the West Corner' announced that the owners were offering prizes for essays on Australian History. The competition was open to all children attending Catholic schools and Catholic children attending state schools where Catholic schools were not available. (There was a clear distinction in the eyes of The Recorder about Catholic children receiving a Catholic education and those practising Catholics in State schools.)
Three prizes (1st, 2nd, 3rd) were awarded in two divisions. The senior division was 12 years and upwards; the junior division was under twelve. The prizes were books of various values. Each essay had to be written in ink, have the name of the student and school to which each student belonged. The essay had to be endorsed by the priest of the district and the teacher that the essay is the bona-fide unaided production of the student. If there was no priest then just the teacher would be accepted.
The essays were referred to a competent and impartial committee whose decisions in fixing the awards were final. The three winning essays in each division to which the prizes were awarded were published with photographs of the winners.
The winner of second prize in the senior division was Miss Lillian M. Burns from St Joseph's Convent in Subiaco. As promised the essay was published along with a photograph of the prize winner.
Lillian M. Burns provides interesting and insightful comments on Indigenous Australians and their relationship with the colonialists for a young person at the turn of the 1900's.
Of particular interest were Lillian's comments concerning legendary Australian explorers Burke and Wills and Indigenous Australians..."Had the brave explorers Burke and Wills known of such roots, in all probability they would have lived until the relief party had arrived." Noticeably absent were any comments about the role of women in the Australian history but with the role of women clearly home front it is understandable.
It is hard to imagine a student essay today without them writing something about the conflicts that Australia had been involved in including Gallipoli. But in 1904 Gallipoli was just over 10 years away. Lillian concludes with an interesting comment about Australia becoming a great country..."Australia is yet a very young country, but it has so many sources of wealth that as time advances it will probably become one of the great countries in the world." Of course it has.
Lillian M. Burns wrote a wonderful letter which was published in November, 1904 thanking The Recorder for her prize of a book called the Life of Pope Leo XIII. She went on to explain she had been studying hard for her examinations and the results were not yet known and had not to read it. The Recorder also has letters from the children at St. Joseph's Convent over the years.
This essay is copied from Trove The National Library database.
Miss Lillian M. Burns, Covent School, Subiaco
Our children of the west their own corner in the record
Australian History
Second prize The WA Record 3 September 1904
By Lillian M. Burns, Convent School, Subiaco
Australia was first discovered by an English sailor named Captain Cook, who landed in Botany Bay in the year 1170, just 134 years ago. Nine years after his discovery he was killed by the wild natives in Hawaii. England made use of the new country to transport prisoners for the use of the new settlers, and for many years New South Wales was a penal colony. However, the discovery of gold in Australia attracted a different class of people thither.
When the early European navigators coasted along the Australian shores, the blacks were very numerous. They are now rapidly disappearing before the advance of the white man. The Australian Aborigines are not naturally the thieving and treacherous vagabonds that many people have represented them to be. Many of the convicts and early colonists thought no more of shooting a blackfellow they would of shooting a dog. It is no wonder that the black should at times steal a stray sheep from squatters' flocks. The natives show great affection for their male children giving them their choicest food, carrying them when weary and lamenting their death for months even years. In his wild state the black is most observant . He distinguishes himself as a tracker of persons and animals which may have become lost in the bush. The blacks eat nearly every living thin, including snakes, and in many parts of the interior plants and roots, such as yams and narrow are largely used as articles of food. Had the brave explorers Burke and Wills known of such roots, in all probability they would have lived until the relief party had arrived.
Gold was first discovered in Ballarat, Victoria, in 1852, and shorty afterwards in New South Wales and Queensland; then it was that the live interest in Australia began. Men flocked from all parts of the known world to its shores. Ships were deserted in the bays, the captains could not get sailors to man them to go back to England and other ports.
Rich gold was struck at Castlemaine and Bendigo. The forests of those days soon changed into large towns and cities. Homesteads were deserted, offices given up, all with the desire of making a fortune on the new diggings. The rush for wealth began in earnest. A whisper of a new find, with nuggets as big as emu eggs, flashed through the wild bush. The warning came that provisions were scarce, and that water sold as wine, and that men already died of thirst. But it made no matter ; thousands flocked thither by land and sea. The warning was unheeded, and the population increased. Wealth beyond the dreams of avarice aroused the ambition of rich and poor alike. The cost, though, was never reckoned. Hopes were blighted, hearts were broken, prospects ruined, strong men that stood wrecks of their former selves. Many men made large fortunes in a few weeks; others not so lucky continued to make a living by puddling and sluicing. But in this West Australian goldfields the diggers dryblow the gold bearing dirt.
The bones of many who perished in the Australian wilderness are silent witnesses to the tragedy of the poor runners in life's race. The mounds of forgotten dead hard by very great goldfield hold secrets that make us wish the rush for gold had never been. Australia is yet a very young country, but it has so many sources of wealth that as time advances it will probably become one of the great countries in the world.
Our children of the west their own corner in the record
Australian History
Second prize The WA Record 3 September 1904
By Lillian M. Burns, Convent School, Subiaco
Australia was first discovered by an English sailor named Captain Cook, who landed in Botany Bay in the year 1170, just 134 years ago. Nine years after his discovery he was killed by the wild natives in Hawaii. England made use of the new country to transport prisoners for the use of the new settlers, and for many years New South Wales was a penal colony. However, the discovery of gold in Australia attracted a different class of people thither.
When the early European navigators coasted along the Australian shores, the blacks were very numerous. They are now rapidly disappearing before the advance of the white man. The Australian Aborigines are not naturally the thieving and treacherous vagabonds that many people have represented them to be. Many of the convicts and early colonists thought no more of shooting a blackfellow they would of shooting a dog. It is no wonder that the black should at times steal a stray sheep from squatters' flocks. The natives show great affection for their male children giving them their choicest food, carrying them when weary and lamenting their death for months even years. In his wild state the black is most observant . He distinguishes himself as a tracker of persons and animals which may have become lost in the bush. The blacks eat nearly every living thin, including snakes, and in many parts of the interior plants and roots, such as yams and narrow are largely used as articles of food. Had the brave explorers Burke and Wills known of such roots, in all probability they would have lived until the relief party had arrived.
Gold was first discovered in Ballarat, Victoria, in 1852, and shorty afterwards in New South Wales and Queensland; then it was that the live interest in Australia began. Men flocked from all parts of the known world to its shores. Ships were deserted in the bays, the captains could not get sailors to man them to go back to England and other ports.
Rich gold was struck at Castlemaine and Bendigo. The forests of those days soon changed into large towns and cities. Homesteads were deserted, offices given up, all with the desire of making a fortune on the new diggings. The rush for wealth began in earnest. A whisper of a new find, with nuggets as big as emu eggs, flashed through the wild bush. The warning came that provisions were scarce, and that water sold as wine, and that men already died of thirst. But it made no matter ; thousands flocked thither by land and sea. The warning was unheeded, and the population increased. Wealth beyond the dreams of avarice aroused the ambition of rich and poor alike. The cost, though, was never reckoned. Hopes were blighted, hearts were broken, prospects ruined, strong men that stood wrecks of their former selves. Many men made large fortunes in a few weeks; others not so lucky continued to make a living by puddling and sluicing. But in this West Australian goldfields the diggers dryblow the gold bearing dirt.
The bones of many who perished in the Australian wilderness are silent witnesses to the tragedy of the poor runners in life's race. The mounds of forgotten dead hard by very great goldfield hold secrets that make us wish the rush for gold had never been. Australia is yet a very young country, but it has so many sources of wealth that as time advances it will probably become one of the great countries in the world.
