While the children were on their Beechworth Camp they visited the Chinese Cemetery in that town. The two grey buildings with the red roofs buildings are the ovens used for cremations and the altar is in the centre. The ovens were erected in 1857 and the altar was added between 1883-84. A number of Chinese came to the area seeking gold after the main gold rushes in the early 1850s.The existence of the Chinese Cemetery at Beechworth is an indication of the many different races of people arrived in Victoria during the 1850s seeking gold and their influence as they spread across the Colony. A non-digital coloured photograph of a Chinese Cemetery Showing the ovens and the altar with the graves in rows behind.beechworth chinese cemetery, school camps

Students from Bulla and MIckleham Primary Schools attended a camp at Beechworth in 1988 where they undertook a number of different outdoor activities such as busk walking, fishing, visits to the Chinese Cemetery and boomerang throwing. In this photograph the children met with one of the local First Nation's people and were shown the art of boomerang throwing. This activity allowed the students to become familiar with aspects of the culture of First Nation's People.A coloured non-digital photograph of six children listening to a man who is holding a boomerang in each hand and instructing them in boomerang handling.The group are standing in a large sports ground with clubrooms nd tall trees in the background.school camps, mickleham primary school, bulla primary school, boomerang handling

This reproduced photograph is of Pennyweight Flat near Beechworth, a notable area of the 1850's gold rush in Victoria. Donald Fletcher, migrating to Beechworth from Scotland in 1855, had substantial claims at Pennyweight Flat and was amongst the first in the district to utilise hydraulic sluicing and water diverting methods.The flat is said to have seen a flurry of 200 miners to the area around 1857, and by 1861 when work commenced on extending Fletcher's tail race the census recorded 644 people residing there (European males, females and Chinese). Pennyweight Flat is also significant for the cemetery that resides on the hilltop and which noted approximately 200 burials from the gold rush period 1852-1857, known for a long period as a children's cemetery due to the number of children's graves present.This photograph has historic and research potential for study on the gold mining of the Beechworth region, as a record of the topography of the time, and the effect the activity had on the environment and the people. The clarity of the original photo, and the good preserved condition of the reproduction, means it can continue to be used for research into Pennyweight Flat area, Donald Fletcher's water diversion and hydraulic sluicing methods, and the history of gold mining in the area.A black and white rectangular reproduced photograph printed on matte photographic paper.Reverse: Pennyweight Flat / copied from the collection of / Robert O'Hara Burke Memorial Museum, Beechworth / (copyright) / this photograph may not be resold, copied, displayed or republished in any way without / the written permission of the Robert O'Hara Burke Memorial Museum, Beechworth / A few applies for commercial use.pennyweight flat, burke museum, gold rush, beechworth, gold mining