Old days Old Ways

WALTZING MATILDA

The essays on the website also provide background material for A Dramatic

Presentation.

Some scenarios have been suggested, but students should be free to range

beyond the examples given.

Working within a group will give students opportunity for

social interaction and co-operation will be required to produce a script and stage

instructions.

The choice of scene, dialogue and action should be student initiated, with

teacher supervision of the writing process, allocation of roles, costuming and rehearsals.

The culmination of this activity is the video recording of the production in the Woolshed at the time of the

students’ visit.

This activity fits both cultural and operational strands of the curriculum

and involves using information extracted from the website to make choices and create a

text appropriate to the chosen social context, situation and setting.

A broad range of writing tasks across a variety of genres and audiences is offered in the

Worksheets.

Students must practise both speaking and listening skills to interact with

the guides when gathering the information needed to complete the writing exercises.

Teacher monitoring of responses can reinforce awareness of appropriate form and tone

for the chosen audience.

There is opportunity for students to employ idiom and jargon

appropriate to the speaker they have chosen so that both cultural and operational strands

of the curriculum are addressed by means of speaking and listening and writing and

shaping.

There is a strong cultural emphasis in the exercise where students watch a demonstration

of blade shearing and participate in a discussion of the idiom of the traditional song,

“Waltzing Matilda”.

This is further emphasized by hearing Australian poetry in a setting that gives the humor relevance and sets up necessary follow-up work in the classroom.

Students will be able to deconstruct these and other balladsagainst the background of the reality of the woolshed and an informed awareness of the challenges of rural life.

Discussions in the classroom should move into the critical strand so that the outcome is a rounded view of bush ballads and traditional songs. An informed appreciation of the genre will equip students to write their own poems.

The formal letter of appreciation is a real-life application of writing in another genre so falls into the operational strand.

The context is unambiguous and its relevance obvious Read carefully the essays on this website.

Choose an event or a person from the history of Megalong . Use your selection as inspiration for creating a scene that shows your awareness of the event or character(s).

Working in a small group, write the script and stage instructions for this scene.

Allocate roles and arrange costuming and simple props.

Rehearse the scene you have written.

Examples of suitable scenes could be:

AT THE BUSHRANGERS HUT ON STRINGYBARK RIDGE:

Present the scene you have scripted and rehearsed as a performance for your class and

teacher(s).

Once the children have gathered they will be approached by "the troopers" who are tracking down the bushrangers who held up the gold transport. The children will be asked if they would like to help in this task and taken on a walk to the one of the bushrangers houses to search for the stolen gold. Once there there will be some dialogue with the bushrangers wife, she will invite the children to sit round the campfire and make some damper and have a cupp a billy tea. While they are sitting round the children will be asked to sing waltzing matilda and the words of the song will be explained to them using a flip board.

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
"Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?"

Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong:
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee.
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker-bag,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me."

Up rode a squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred;
Down came the troopers, one, two, three:
"Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.
Who's that jolly jumbuck you've got in your tucker-bag?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"

Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong;
"You'll never catch me alive!" said he;
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"

* swagman: an intinerant farmhand, carrying his "swag" (his blankets) rolled into a cylinder
* billabong: a creek (normally with a pronounced "oxbow" bend)
* coolibah tree: a eucalypt (gum) tree )
* waited till his billy boiled: a billy is a tin can used to heat water over a campfire to make tea
* jumbuck: sheep
* tucker-bag: bag or box used to store food
* squatter: farmer/grazier who simply found good land and took possession; some became extremely rich
* trooper: policeman or soldier on horseback

STORYLINE WRITING TASK

Imagine that you are the occupant of the hut; give yourself a name and background.

Think who else would be in your family. Try to imagine your mum or dad or nana living in those days.

As this person, write one of the following:

(a) A letter to your employer, giving details of the conditions under

which you work and requesting improvements to these.

(b) A diary entry describing a day in your life and your thoughts on that

day.

doing and where you are employed.