The Industrial Revolution
brings
change to Colonial Victoria
Marion Littlejohn
Education Officer, Sovereign Hill Museum
HTAV Annual Conference, July, 2012.
Year 9
The Making of the Modern World
Depth Study 1 Making a Better World?
Choose ONE
1 The Industrial Revolution (1750 – 1914)
2 Movements of Peoples (c. 1757 – 1914)
3 Progressive Ideas and Movements (1750 – 1914)
Making a Better World ? (1750 – 1914)
Content description
Students investigate …the experiences of men, women and children during the
Industrial Revolution, and their changing way of life
The Industrial Revolution (1750 – 1914)
The technological innovations that led to the Industrial Revolution, and other
conditions that influenced the industrialisation of Britain (the agricultural revolution,
access to raw materials, wealthy middle class, cheap labour, transport system, and
expanding empire) and of Australia
Elaborations
•the impact of steam, gas and electricity on people’s way of life
•The experiences of men, women and children during the Industrial Revolution
•The population movements and changing settlement patterns
•changes to the cities and landscape in European countries and Australia as the
Industrial Revolution continued to develop, using photos
•The short and long-term impacts of the Industrial Revolution, including global changes
in landscapes, transport and communication
The Australian Curriculum; Year 9 - History
George Baxter, News from Australia 1854
Pierre Edouard Frere, Washing Day
c. 1837
[Penny post 1848]
Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution
A revolution in agriculture in Britain in the 1700s created
conditions that favored the Industrial Revolution.
• Farmers began growing new crops and using new
technology such as the seed drill and the iron plow.
• Increased food production improved people's diet and
health, which in turn contributed to rapid population growth.
• More efficient farming methods (enclosures) meant that
fewer people were needed to farm.
• As a result, unemployed farmers created a large new labor
force.
Why Britain took the lead.
• It had plentiful iron and coal resources and a good transportation
system (canals).
• It was a leading commercial power so merchants had the capital to
invest in new enterprises.
• It had colonies that supplied raw materials and bought finished goods.
• The British government encouraged improvements in transportation
and used its navy to protect British trade.
• Political stability – secure property rights encourages investment
• British ideal that people could move ahead in society by hard work and
talent. The Protestant Work Ethic.
The Industrial Revolution
began in the textile industry.
Between 1733 and 1793,
inventors produced new
machines, such as the flying
shuttle, the Spinning Jenny,
and a water-powered loom,
for spinning and weaving of
wool and cotton.
New machines led to the growth of
the factory system, which brought
workers and machines together in
one place. By the late 1700s, steam
began to replace water as a source
of power after James Watt greatly
improved Thomas Newcomen’s
1712 steam engine. Steam engines
gave a boost to two other industries
that were essential to the Industrial
Revolution; coal and iron.
Replica of Richard Trevithick's 1804 locomotive at the
National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.
1808 Trevithick charged one shilling at his Steam Circus
to view his “Catch me who can” steam locomotive.
c.f. What is happening in NSW in 1808?
1829 George Stephenson’s
Rocket successfully pulled an
open carriage carrying
30 passengers at 45 kph.
Rocket (with some post 1829 innovations) as
preserved in the Science Museum, London.
Benefits of rail travel
• ability to transport fresh meat, milk, eggs & vegetables
→ better diet → improved health
• Information/news spreads faster - newspapers and letters delivered next day in UK
• Shrinking world
• Cheaper transport costs → cheaper goods → raising sales → more jobs
• Population more mobile, day return ticket to seaside now possible
William Powell Frith - Life at the Seaside (Ramsgate Sands) 1854.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
(1806-1859)
Brunel’s Great Western railway linking London to Bristol included this twomile-long Tunnel at Box; then the longest railway tunnel in the world.
The first train ran in 1838.
A famous Great Western engine, the "Vulcan," built in 1837
SS Great Britain
Launch of the SS Great Britain by HRH Prince Albert in 1843
The Crystal Palace,
Hyde Park, London.
1851
1851
THE GREAT EXHIBITION
Queen Victoria opens the Great
Exhibition in the Crystal Palace.
Hyde Park, London, 1851
North Transept – waiting for the Queen
India
Agriculture
Machinery
Moving machinery
The Port Phillip District of NSW 1835 - 1851
S.T. Gill, Homeward Bound
The Forest Creek Diggings, Mount Alexander, Port Phillip 1852,
The London Illustrated News, 3rd July 1852
Colonization spread
Britain’s Industrial
Revolution to
Australia.
Henry O’Neil, The Parting Cheer
Between 1852 and 1875
the ss Great Britain made
32 round trips to Australia
bringing 15,000 passengers.
2% of present day Australians are
descended from a Great Britain passenger.
S.T. Gill, Deep Sinking Ballaarat, 1852
Star of the East Quartz Gold Mine, Ballarat c.1890s
Water wheel at Chewton
Stamper Batteries, crushing ore to release gold
Phoenix Foundry Ballarat, 1873
B class locomotive, Ballarat
Ballarat 1872 by William Bardwell.
Early stripper/harvester c. 1883
H.V. McKay Sunshine Harvester factory showing
harvester combs, comb teeth, wheels and other
metal parts are being packed for shipment c1918
Reproduced courtesy of Museum Victoria
Ballarat station 1903.
A load of Sunshine Harvesters leaving Hugh V. McKay’s Ballarat
works for export to Argentina
Both train and farm machinery made in Ballarat.
1858 “the Great Stink”
Joseph Bazalgette, Chief
Engineer of the London
Metropolitan Board of Works,
proposes to build 82 miles of
intercepting sewers, that will
link with over 1,000 miles of
underground street sewers.
Teaching resources
http://www.teacherlink.org/content/social/instructional/industrialrevolution/home.html
Useful outline for teaching a unit on the Industrial Revolution in England – some of the links no longer
work
http://www1.umassd.edu/ir/welcome.cfm
Interesting site from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth which contains an excellent Image Gallery
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IndustrialRevolution.htm
Amazing site produced to support the UK History curriculum with easily searchable sections on History
topics from Romans to World War 2
Google Images – type in Industrial Revolution and go ballistic!!