The book chat book that I have read is Rebellion at Eureka. While we still are given a choice on which book we read, we are all reading books about the gold rush for our unit next term, The Hard Road Ahead.

Rebellion at Eureka is set towards the end of the Ballarat gold rush and goes into a story about a fictional character’s story during the gold rush and the Eureka Stockade. The main character, (Alfred, or Alf) came from melbourne, where he and his mum had a store, to Ballarat to set up a store there for the diggers on the goldfields.

They came to Ballarat with the necessities to set up a stall, their dog Joe, and their horse Sam pulling the cart. Lots of diggers and residents alike came to the diggings with a horse and cart. This was the easiest form of transport available.

On the goldfields, life was tough. Diggers, without another source of income would suffer if they didn’t strike gold that day. Mining was not a good way to earn, and lots of diggers didn’t stop and get a different job. Goldfield officials were corrupt, and the licence hunts they performed were merciless. Without a licence, they could be jailed or worse.

Rebellion at Eureka’s perspective as far as the Eureka Stockade was this. Alf thought that it was merciless, but he believed in what they were fighting for. At one point, he even wanted to fight with them. Life in Victoria was totally different after the gold rush and the Eureka Stockade. The state was bigger due to gold fever expanding the population. The whole gold rush was very disrespectful to the Indigenous people of the land.

Rebellion at Eureka was a great book chat book to read and had a great story.

What was your book chat book?