STUDENT NAME: ____________________________________________________
ABBOTSLEIGH
YEAR 8 HISTORY
ASSESSMENT TASK 1
Source Skills Task
TERM 2 2020
Aboriginal and Indigenous Peoples,
Colonisation and Contact History
5 MINUTES READING TIME
30 MINUTES WRITING TIME
Total Marks: 15
Instructions: Answer on the pages provided
SOURCE A: An Australian Historian writing about the impact of Smallpox on my
place, an Australian History website. 2018. https://myplace.edu.au/home.html
From April to May 1789 an outbreak of smallpox devastated Aboriginal clans around the
New South Wales colony. It has been estimated that somewhere between 50 and 70 per
cent of the Aboriginal population in the Sydney area died within two years of the British
arrival. The Cadigal people, who are the recognised owners of Sydney Cove, suffered great
losses from the disease. Aboriginal people had never experienced smallpox and had no
immunity against the disease. The origin of this epidemic remains uncertain, whether it
came with the First Fleet or whether it spread from the north of the country, introduced by
the Macassan traders from the south-west corner of Sulawesi (one of the islands that
makes up Indonesia). The groups most affected within a clan were Elders, pregnant women
and children under five. Those least affected were people aged between five and fourteen.
Use Source A to answer questions 1 and 2.
1. Source A is a Secondary source. How do we know this? (2 marks)
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2. According to the source what was origins of the small pox. (2 marks)
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SOURCE B: The Rev Francis Tuckfield, A Methodist Missionary writing in 1837.
Tuckfield travelled the East Coast of Australia between 1837 and 186. He lived
among the Indigenous people establishing schools and missionaries.
The Government is fast disposing of the land occupied by the natives from time
immemorial *. Settlers may establish themselves in any part of this extensive territory
they please and since the introduction of the numerous flocks and herds. . . a serious
loss has been sustained by the natives. Their territory is not only invaded, but their game
is driven back, and their valuable roots are eaten by the white man's sheep and their
deprivation, abuse and miseries are daily increasing. In less than twenty years we have
nearly swept them off the face of the earth. We have shot them down like dogs. We have
made them drunkards*, and infected them with diseases which have rotted the bones of
their adults, and made such few children as are born amongst them a sorrow and a
torture from the very instant of their birth. We have made them outcasts on their own
land, and are rapidly consigning them to entire annihilation."
Immemorial – the very distant past
Drunkards – addicted to alcoholic
Annihilation – complete destruction
Use Source B to answer questions 3 and 4.
3.What does Source B reveal about what was happening to the Indigenous
Population? Explain your answer with reference to specific evidence from the
source and your own knowledge.
(6 marks)
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4. Source B is written by Francis Tuckfield , a non-Indigenous, British Settler
in 1837. In this source, he is describing the early years of contact and
colonisation and the impact this had on the Indigenous people.
Identify and explain ONE advantage and ONE disadvantage of using this
account as an historical source.
You may like to consider the following:

Perspective

Interpretation

Construction of history

Motive
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