The discovery of gold was to give Australia its start as a nation. Gold was treated as ready money. The Colonial Gold Show is based on the unit GOLD in the Human Society and Its Environment (HSIE) Syllabus and can ALSO be incorporated in the Connected Outcomes Group Support Curriculum (C.O.G.S) Syllabus.

The Colonial Gold Show allows students to learn in an enjoyable way and participate as the GOLD RUSH comes alive right in front of them. The show heavily relies on students becoming involved and taking on the roles of characters as they, the students begin experiencing life on the goldfields.

The Colonial Gold Show presents a Gold Experience - living history of the diggings - a journey as seen through the eyes of the diggers on the Goldfields of New South Wales. This insight is presented by the characters from the gold diggings near Hill End and the Turon River of New South Wales in the Bathurst and Sofala area.

The Colonial Gold Show is designed to take students back in time, where GOLD was the currency and have them relive some of the experiences the miners, troopers and wives went through.  Developed around the musical antics of the bush band with traditional Australian music of the era, children not only laugh with Lucky as he walks them through the ways of the miners, they also feel the sadness of the hardship of those days and help Lucky out of a Jam with the Troopers of the day.

Students will meet Lucky, that’s his nickname on account of the luck he has on the diggings – or is it? They will get to work with his wife Ellen and be baffled by the antics and weird nature of their hired help Bluey. The students will learn about Reef and Alluvial gold and the ways of mining each type in the 1850s, an era when the Military and Gold Commissioners had control of the gold fields. The Colonial Gold Show is a time-travel back back to the period of time between 1851 from the first public discovery of gold at Ophir to 1855 and twelve months after Peter Lalor led the Eureka Stockade in Victoria and the Sovereign Queen is Queen Victoria of England.

With our Colonial Gold Show the students have every opportunity throughout the performance to interact with the characters. The performance interactively begins depicting each character conducting half hour demonstration throughout the first part of the morning focusing on the their life on the diggings, diet and food, games, mud brick building, gold panning, Miner’s Rights and the talk of rebellion against the Miner’s Licences with the digger’s cry “No Licence Without  Representation” and bushrangers. This will allow students to explore the influences gold had on the Australian identity. They will interact with the Troopers, nick named Joes and Traps, and hear the stories of the main characters and discover the reason they are in the Colony. A recruitment of troopers by the Sergeant of Troopers involves the children even more as they carry out a license hunt which results in the arrest of Lucky for not having his Licence.  And to add that spark of imagination, the students decide on whether Lucky goes to trial in a Public Jury with the local magistrate of the time.

This continues with the trial of the Lucky ... can he be Lucky again? and the possible Flogging of the Miner (which every student loves to see) if found guilty.

This show is the perfect way to star of the unit "Gold" or a clencher in summarizing what they have learnt in class.  Ideal in helping students, encouraging them, stimulating their interest in Australian History and developing a taste of Australia and how it began.

There is only one way to find out if Lucky will be Lucky and that is to book THE COLONIAL GOLD SHOW and let your students experience the most productive and worthwile educational incursion in Australia right in the safety of your school grounds.

The question is "Are you or your students LUCKY" enough?