Ideas for teachers

 Using In Lonnie's Shadow in the classroom?
The following lesson ideas include:
  •     Language activities
  •     Research project headings
  •     Themed essay questions: Identity and belonging; The imaginative landscape; Justice and survival
  •     Persuasive writing activity: Save our City campaign
  •     VCE Context resource material: Reimagining homeland- Little Lon.

Language activities

Activity 1

These words appear in the novel, In Lonnie's Shadow.

Test your knowledge about them. Match the word with its meaning from those given below. Then check your answers.   
  1. Blinkers                                                                                  
  2. Bustle
  3. Dark lantern
  4. Duck shoving
  5. Filigree
  6. Fob watch
  7. Glass and Bottle
  8. Hobble
  9. Horse brass
  10. Larrikins
  11. Macassar
  12. Night horse
  13. On the wallaby
  14. Plum duff
  15. Stave
  16. The Push

a. A cabman’s phrase. Think of our modern taxi rank but with horse drawn cabs! Instead of the cabbies lining up at a cab rank and waiting their turn in a queue for a fare, they would pick up clients who waved them down in the street, or go touting up and down in the neighbourhood of the taxi rank. These days we call it ‘queue jumping’.

b. Tramping around the country on foot, either looking for work or food, or aimlessly wandering by day and begging for food and shelter of a night. Often in the bush the only tracks visible were those worn down by the wallabies. Going along these tracks may lead to water, or be aimless and rambling.

c. Tying legs together to keep horses from straying. Causing horses to walk lamely.

d. A gang of larrikins who roamed the streets using broken bottles as weapons.

e. Term commonly used for a quiet old horse, kept outside overnight on a homestead and used to muster the other horses in the morning.

f. Playful youngsters or youthful hoons. Used for streetwise gangs also known as ‘roughs’ (1891 Argus) who roamed around the town. Thought to come from ‘larking about’, or from the French larron which signifies a thief.

g. Once a prison term. Thieves' English for a crowd or a group involved in a robbery. Commonly used to describe a gang of larrikins who often took on the street or place name (e.g. The North Melbourne...).

h. Hair oil.

i. An ornament worn on a horse’s harness.

j. Flaps on a bridle to stop a horse from seeing sideways.

k. A pad, cushion or wire framework worn under the dress of women. This puffed out the dress on the back part of the body below the waist.

l. Lacy, delicate and ornamental ironwork used to decorate building exteriors.

m. One of the thin narrow pieces of wood used to form the sides of a cask, tub or barrel.

n. Watch, commonly attached to a chain, which fits into a small pocket.

o. Suet pudding with raisins and currants.

p. Lantern with shades to cover the light if needed.

Activity 2

In the 19th century, many of the jobs were done by men or boys. The names of the jobs often included the word ‘man’ or ‘boy’. Match each job below with its description. Then check your answers.
 
(One of the jobs listed is charitable work. Which one do you think it is?)
    1. Nightrakers
    2. Lever man
    3. Lamplighter
    4. Nightcart man
    5. Barrow boy
    6. Phrenologist
    7. Madam
    8. Milliner
    9. Rescue Brigade

a. A street vendor who sold wares from a pushcart or horse-drawn cart, mainly fruit or vegetables; also hot, roasted, horse chestnuts or potatoes.

b. A worker who operated a tram car.

c. Person employed to light street lamps.

d. Person employed to remove the contents of privies and outhouses.

e. Youngsters employed to clear the streets of horse dung.

f. Hat maker.

g. Manager of a brothel.

h. Sought out children who were being exploited and took them away from the source of the problem. These children were often then trained as domestics.

i. Reader of lumps and bumps on the skull. The practitioner aimed to draw conclusions about aspects of personality. Popularly used by employers as an indicator of the worthiness of potential employees.

ANSWERS
Activity 1
1j, 2k, 3p, 4a, 5l, 6n, 7d, 8c, 9i, 10f, 11h, 12e, 13b, 14o, 15m, 16g
 
Activity 2
1e, 2b, 3c, 4d, 5a, 6i, 7g, 8f, 9h

The RESCUE BRIGADES often formed as a wing of a church or charitable organisation. These groups helped children who were in difficult circumstances and/or at risk. Often they removed the children to what they considered a safer place. Miss Selina Sutherland, was the secretary of the Scots Church Neglected Children's Aid Society and was well known for her work in Little Lon. 

Extension activity webquest: Investigate Trove for an interesting case involving Selina Sutherland and the 'disputed custody of a child'. The case was covered in detail by the Argus, Tuesday 25 February 1890, p 6.
Go to: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8591226 or google the Australian National Library's Trove website and search through the Argus.
  • What judgement was made in the case?
  • Why do you think the judge handed down this judgement?
 
Research Project
Use the headings below to complete a research project about Melbourne during the late 19th century (80s and 90s):
                            
Marvellous Melbourne - boom and bust
 
Entertainers of the time, theatres, vaudeville
Melodrama
The Princess
Her Majesty’s
Sarah Bernhardt
 
Architecture
The Australian Building
Exhibition Building/Carlton Gardens
The Federal Coffee Palace
Parliament House
 
Transport
Hansom Cabs
Trams
Railways
Drays
Barrows
Shipping in Hobson's Bay
 
Trade
Eastern Market
Building society
Expo 1888
Employment
 
Social conditions
Poverty
Housing  - Casselden and Cumberland Place
Military rifle brigades
The workers’ marches
Social Class - Collins Street versus Little Lonsdale Street
Capital Punishment/Corporal Punishment
Threat of Russian invasion
Mission work - Salvation Army, rescue brigades
Temperance groups
Education
Health - epidemics, hygiene, slum clearance
Larrikinism - The Glass and Bottles; The Push;
Food and take away – oyster bars; plum duff; currant buns...
 
Link your research to what happens to the characters in the novel.
 
Extension activity webquest: 
Do a web investigation to find a map of the Little Lon alleyways in the 19th century. Draw a map showing the location of Casselden Place and Cumberland Place, the Leitrim Hotel, the Wesley Church, the Carlton Gardens, the Exhibition Buildings, Parliament House. 
Compare and contrast your map with a modern map of the area. In what ways are they alike or different?  
 
 
   
 1
1.  Identity and Belonging
 
 
  • 'In Lonnie’s Shadow is more about belonging than isolation.’ To what extent do you agree?
     
  • "‘That scum as you call them,’ he found himself saying without apology, ‘are the people I have to live with everyday.’" Does Lonnie have anything in his life to apologise about?
     
  • ‘It is not what you say that is important in life but what you do.’ Consider the characters in the novel as you reflect if a person’s worth is determined by his/her actions alone.
     
  • ‘While many of the characters act as positive influences on each other, there are some characters who have nothing good at all to offer anyone.’ Discuss.
     
  • ‘There are many people who make claims on Pearl. Despite this she remains true to her own sense of self.’ Discuss.
     
  • 'In Lonnie's Shadow shows that goals and ambitions are always achievable, in spite of the obstacles life puts in the way.' 
     
  • ‘Friendship often ends in love, while love in friendship never happens.’ How do the characters in the novel put these romantic notions to the test?
     
  • "Don’t go worrying about me. I can take good care of myself." Do the characters ever rely solely upon themselves to get by in life?
     
  • "I was always going to be on a winner." ‘The trouble with Lonnie is that he is too cocksure for his own good.’ Do you agree?
     
  • "There’s nothing vulnerable about any of the characters in the novel. They all know how to take care of themselves, even if it means deceiving others.’ To what extent do you agree?
     
  • ‘When friendship is put to the test it often fails.’ Does the novel portray a negative or positive image about friendship?
     
  • ‘There is nothing more precious than a faithful friend.’ Is this shown in the novel?

    •  

  • "Believe it or not we mugs from Little Lon do try and help each other." Is this sentiment shared by anyone in the novel other than Lonnie?

     

    2. The Imaginative Landscape (essay questions)

    •  
    -     ‘Marvellous Melbourne...’ Is the novel sympathetic or unsympathetic to this 19th century label of Melbourne as a marvellous town?

     

    • ‘There are few redeeming qualities in the people of Little Lon, or in their way of life.’ Discuss with reference to In Lonnie’s Shadow.

     

    • ‘Melbourne in 1891 had flourishing businesses, beautiful architecture, technological advances, art and culture. It was a modern town in many ways.’ What does the novel say are the main issues one should consider when defining 19th century Melbourne as a modern town?

     

    • ‘Michaels portrays the harsher side of 19th century Melbourne at the cost of all that was decent and good.’ To what extent is this true?
     
    • ‘The trouble with a historical novel is that there is nothing to connect it with modern adolescent readers.’ What issues do the four youths in In Lonnie’s Shadow grapple with that are similar to modern teenage preoccupations?
     
    • ‘In Lonnie’s Shadow is a story of historical significance.’ To what extent do you agree?
     
    • ‘Lonsdale Street and its inner Melbourne surrounds may have been considered the underbelly of the town but the true heart of the area was in its people.’ Does In Lonnie’s Shadow portray a compassionate side to life?
     
    • ‘In Lonnie’s Shadow
      • gives a beating pulsing heart to a vanished community.’  Does it?

     

    • ‘While descriptions of place may evoke an historical landscape, authenticity comes from the characters who inhabit the story.’ How does Michaels' novel treat place and characterisation?

     

    • How does the narrative structure of using artefacts from the Little Lon digs contribute to the story, or to an understanding of what life may have been like in Melbourne 1891?
     
     
    3. Justice and Survival (essay questions) 

    -     ‘Lonnie is deluding himself if he thinks his actions are always honourable. He is driven more by a desire to get his own way than he is by any sense of fairness.’ To what extent do you agree?

     

    • Can the end ever justify the means? Discuss this question in reference to the characters’ actions in In Lonnie’s Shadow.
     
    • ‘Decent people don’t behave the way the characters do in Little Lon.’ What arguments can you put forward in their defence or prosecution?
     
    • ‘What goes around, comes around.’ Do all the characters in the novel get what they deserve?
     
    • Was Lonnie acting morally? Discuss.
     
    • ‘Fairness has nothing to do with the law.’ How is the theme of justice portrayed in the novel?
     
    • ‘It is possible to succeed without betrayal or deceit.’ Discuss with reference to the novel.
     
    • ‘Lonnie is driven more by revenge than by a sense of justice.’ Discuss.
     
    • ‘Daisy is the only moral conscience in the novel.’ Do you agree?
     
    • ‘We must do all we can to succeed in the world, no matter what the cost.’ Do you agree? Make reference to the characters’ actions in In Lonnie’s Shadow.

         ‘In Lonnie’s Shadow may be "brutal, a story of survival at the grassroots level", but above all else it shows the value of mateship.’ Do you agree?

    • ‘Money is not important; unless you don’t have enough.’ What are the consequences of the pursuit of money, or the lack of it, for the people in the novel?

     

    •  "What does he know about hardship?" Does the novel comment about life being hard or the way people strive to better themselves?

     

    • "Consider what we’re doing the spirit of the law…" Does Lonnie have any sense of responsibility?

     

    • Is In Lonnie’s Shadow an authentic picture of the struggle to survive in early Melbourne?
     
    Persuasive writing Little Lon Terraces - save our city campaign
    February 2010...
     
    A few doors down from Daisy's Leitrim hotel, at 120-122 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, two of our Little Lon 19th Century terraces are under threat of demolition and redevelopment.

    There is a proposal to replace them with an apartment tower.

    Why we need to save these terraces...

     The terraces are part of the 19th century streetscape which became known as Little Lon, home to the poor, the newly arrived immigrants and the ordinary working people, as well as a few of the more notorious members of the community. So the terraces are representative of this 'colourful' historical landscape.

    Soon after 1855, the ground floors of these terraces were built. This is not long after Victoria's famous Gold Rush, which makes these buildings amongst the oldest built in the city. In 1865 the top floors were added. They remain close to their original condition and number among the few remaining residential terraces in the inner city.

    While the National Trust has objected, at this stage the terraces are not heritage protected. Unfortunately, without any heritage control their future looks bleak. 

     

    Writing Task:

    Write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper, giving your point of view about the proposed demolition.

    		  
     For ideas go to: www.nattrust.com.au/campaigns/save_our_city                               
     
     
    July 2011 Update...
    The terrace houses are up for sale!
     
     
    Study resource for Senior Context studies:  
    Reimagining homeland - Little Lon

    We all do it at one time or another, give voice to a sense of homeliness to the area where we grew up. When asked ‘Where do you live?’ we answer ‘Brissie’, or ‘Dandy’, or ‘the Pines’. Naming the place colloquially is a way of determining our sense of territory, our sense of belonging.

    Originally Little Lon was such a place, an idiom naming the people who lived in the Melbourne block of laneways and alleys bordered by Spring Street (to the east), Exhibition (west), La Trobe (north) and Lonsdale (south). To put it simply, Little Lon was the vernacular for where these residents came from.

    By the 1890s, the place had already been settled for nearly 50 years, moving from weatherboard dwellings of two rooms to stone and brick houses and shops; then to residences for the newly arrived immigrants―a multicultural community of Italians and Syrians, Chinese and the Irish―who lived alongside the commercial properties: the furniture makers, ice cream vendors and the working girls.

    Little Lon, this homeland, this place for workers and families who settled here from all parts of the globe, became notorious. The living conditions were regarded by many Melbournians as primitive, unsanitary, poverty stricken and, we can only imagine at times, barbaric. This was in part because of much sensationalised coverage from the media, but there is no doubt some of this was grounded in truth. Subsequently, the tag Little Lon settled into the public consciousness as the place of Melbourne’s underbelly, the core of slumdom. By the time CJ Dennis centred his sentimental bloke there, it was regarded only as a place for ‘low degraded broots’ where roughs ‘deals it out wiv bricks and boots’1. 

    17 Casselden Place is heritage listed. Chrissie Michaels © 2010.          

    Hence, as an orchestrated construct Little Lon became the dividing line between the mainstream homeland and the foreign, shadowy badland where thugs ran rampant. The glass and bottle gang existed, as did the local push.

    The view of Little Lon became fixed. It was the unofficial name for Melbourne’s depraved slums. It is not surprising that mission workers penetrated the place with zeal in order to rescue the neglected and the fallen. The recently canonized saint, Mother Mary McKillop, set up a mission in 1891. The Salvation Army ran Hope Hall. Selina Sutherland, secretary of the Scots Church Neglected Children's Aid Society did extraordinary work to help children.

     

    The old Governor Bourke Hotel exists today under another name, the Elms Family Hotel, situated on the corner of Little Lonsdale and Spring Street. Chrissie Michaels © 2010

    By the 1950s the workplaces had shut down and the immigrant communities had moved onwards (and upwards). Little Lon vanished as a community, cleared in parts, built over in others, well-nigh erased from existence, except for a few remaining buildings. Cumberland Place, home to Carlo's Ice Cream factory, was demolished in 1978 for the construcion of the Telstra Exhibition Exchange. Some of the remaining buildings in the surrounding area are still under the threat of demolition due to recent planning manoeuvres to erect a 30 storey apartment tower2. It looks as though soon we will have no choice but to relegate Little  Lon further into the recesses of our imagination.

    However the modern view of Little Lon has shifted from the earlier perception. Several archaeological digs, with up to 500 000 artefacts discovered (many are housed in the Melbourne Story exhibition at Museum Victoria), have helped us to better understand the diversity of this community. It was a place where, yes, conditions were hard but families made homes there, carved dolls out of wood for their children, boiled down goat bones so the children could play a game of Knucklebone or Jacks. People raised families, worked, ran businesses, partied, had dreams, made plans for the future,

    In the 21st century we may remember Little Lon as a place where the conditions were harsh, but we cannot, nor should we, forget that Little Lon was indeed 'home' to the people who lived there. Maybe the residents never considered themselves as being any different from anyone else, or ever felt that they were underprivileged or deprived. 

    We can only imagine that this place of shadows in the heart of Marvellous Melbourne had its share of the sunlight as well.

    Chrissie Michaels is the author of the YA novel, In Lonnie’s Shadow published by Ford Street Publishing.

    ENDNOTES

    1. Dennis CJ, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, 1915

    2. http://www.nattrust.com.au Refers to the Feb 2010 plan to demolish two Little Lon terraces and replace them with a 30 storey apartment tower.
     
    FURTHER RESEARCH -
    After your reading of In Lonnie's Shadow link the setting with an event.
    1. What circumstances caused Daisy to live at the Leitrim hotel?
    2. What was the significance of the Governor Bourke hotel to Pearl?
    3. Several scenes in the novel take place in buildings which once existed in Marvellous Melbourne.
    Find out what happens between:
    Lonnie and Rose at the Eastern Market

    Lonnie, Rose and Billy at the Australian Building

    Lonnie and Rose at the Federal Coffee Palace.

     4. The fountain (seen below) is important to Lonnie in two separate events. Decribe these events and what part the fountain played.
                                                                                    
     

     

     

     
     
     
     
     The fountain at the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings,
    one of Melbourne's finest historic buildings, just up the road from Little Lon. Chrissie Michaels © 2010
     

    Chrissie Michaels © 2010. Apart from any fair dealing  for the purposes of study and research, criticism, review, or as otherwise permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the permission of the copyright owner.  

    For questions relating to this article, as well as more
     
    Lonnie lessons, go to the teacher's notes at:
     
     
     

    Chrissie Michaels © 2010 - 2012. Apart from any fair dealing  for the purposes of study and research, criticism, review, or as otherwise permitted under the Australian Copyright Act, no part of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the permission of the copyright owner.