THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (IR) was a period 1700s to 1800s when new-found energy uses of coal and revolutionary steam-powered machines reduced human labour and dramatically increased production and population. New technologies changed the nature of labour, society and farming.
This Industrial Revolution resulted in the British settlement of Melbourne in 1835 by accelerating exploration, worldwide commerce and emigration.
Our school tour explores these impacts on Melbourne of the Industrial Revolution including settlement, ports, technologies, transport, inventions, land use, shipping, geography, railways, buildings, mills, emigration and impact on Indigenous people. SEE: IMAGES
WHEN: Our school tour dates are by arrangement and are usually two hours in length normally starting and finishing at Federation Square Students explore the surrounding river, park and urban CBD.
APPROX ROUTE: From Federation Square we travel east down the Yarra River promenade via Federation Wharf, Princes Bridge and Flinders Street Station, then north to Flinders Lane and Lt Collins Street, returning via Howie Place, Presgrave Lane, Melbourne Town Hall and Swanston Street to St Pauls Cathedral to Federation Square.
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SEE: Our other SCHOOL PROGRAMS
PLACES WE VISIT (depending on time available and events in the CBD):
FEDERATION SQUARE:
Federation, industrialisation, colonial borders and trade barriers
KULIN WORLD:
Impacts on Indigenous people by the IR. Firestick farming supplanted by wool, beef, gold and wheat industries using tools including weapons of iron and steel.
HODDLE GRID:
Horses, bullocks, railways, trams and towns
FEDERATION WHARF:
Ships and bluestone, From Dreamtime trail to the highway of British colonists and explorers, steam-powered ships, chronometers, cannons, ports, immigrants and quarries.
PRINCES BRIDGE 1886:
The New Iron Age with concrete and steel and the Watt steam engine. The Melbourne Crest 1842.
FLINDERS STATION:
Following the Iron Horse of the Industrial Revolution. Impacts of rail and suburbs. The first steam train in Australia. The Southbank Factory Hub, Industrial pollution.
FLINDERS LANE:
Gold Rush lanes and warehouses. The Degraves flour mill. Mass immigration.
BLOCK ARCADE:
Weights and measures. Wool Mills. Photos and promenades. Basements and refrigeration. 1881 World Fair.
GPO:
Mass communication, stamps, telegraphs and phones.
COLES BOOK ARCADE:
Printing presses, books and free education.
PRESGRAVE:
Warehouses, winches, horse-posts, bricks and sewage.
MANCHESTER UNITY:
Depressions and occupations. Telephones
MELBOURNE TOWN HALL:
Markets
ST PAULS:
Churches and social services. Eureka, gold and democracy..
NICHOLAS BUILDING:
Medicines.
IMPACTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ON MELBOURNE:
The IR era created great wealth for some, great hardships for others and increases and movements in population. It also created the British colony of Melbourne in 1835:
-Tasmanian wool farmers settled Melbourne to provide wool for the industrial mills of England to make textiles (clothes).
– Ships with new technologies such as compass, chronometers, maps, steam engines (1843) brought vast numbers of migrants seeking gold and land.
– New transport – railways, steamships, trams, horse coaches, bicycles – enabling mass movement of people and goods and the building of Melbourne’s suburbs.
– New inventions enabling mass communication including stamps, telegraphs, phones, vacuum tubes, printed newspapers.
– Factories and utilities (eg roads and bridges) using new technologies powered by coal and steam.
– Free education, books and newspapers enabling people to gain skills.
– Gold and currency enabling people to transact and exchange goods easily.
– New weapons, ships and machines enablng occupation of new colonies including the Kulin Nation clan estates.
– New pastoralism using fenced lands, vastly increasing food but shifting most people into cities.
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