1838: Davey
Davey is a stable boy who loves the mare, Duchess. When he learns she’s been sold to the tannery, he risks everything to save her. Along the way, he encounters bushrangers and teasing from the Owen boys, and must rethink his ideas about courage, loyalty and justice.
1830s Decade Overview
The 1830s were a decade of pastoral expansion, frontier settlement, and growing conflict as colonies pushed into new lands for wool and grazing. New towns and pastoral runs reshaped landscapes and local economies.
1835: Early land deals and settlements around Port Phillip accelerated invasion of the district.
1836: The colony of South Australia was proclaimed, formalising new patterns of settlement.
1838: Frontier violence, including the Myall Creek killings, exposed the harsh realities of frontier conflict and prompted legal and public debate.
1830s: Wool exports and pastoralism expanded rapidly; bushrangers and escaped convicts challenged the colonial order; migration increased to meet labour and settlement needs.
First Nations Focus: Students can explore how pastoral expansion, introduced disease and frontier violence disrupted access to Country, food systems and movement. Despite dispossession and intense pressures, First Nations Peoples maintained strong cultural identities, knowledge systems and ongoing responsibilities to Country, and continued to care for Country in ways that sustained communities and knowledge across generations.
Provocation Question
When is loyalty brave and when is it risky? How do communities decide what is right?
Clip 1: Horsewhipping
Mr Owen has Davey demonstrate whip cracking to his grandsons but then gives Davey some sad news about his favourite horse, Duchess. Despite Davey's protestations, Duchess is headed for the tannery.
Tuning In
As you watch, notice:
- How Davey cares for Duchess and what that care looks like
- How adults talk about animals, work and value
- The moment the tannery decision is revealed and who benefits from it
As a class, discuss:
- What does the clip show about who has power in the town?
- How do people decide what is valuable?
- How do emotions and economics come into conflict?
Finding Out & Sorting Out
Work in small groups to explore the economic, ethical and emotional dimensions of what Davey is experiencing and the adult perspectives. Choose one of the following group tasks:
Stakeholder map: list everyone affected by Duchess’s sale (owner, stable boy, tannery workers, townspeople, the animal) and annotate motivations and power.
Primary source hunt (teacher‑led): examine short-period sources or images about tanneries, horse use and 1830s town economies; identify one fact that explains the tannery decision.
Role-play: write a short monologue from Duchess’s perspective or from Davey’s point of view the night before the sale.
Ethics checklist: create a classroom checklist for making decisions that affect others (people, animals, community). Use it to evaluate Mr Owen’s choice.
Making Connections
Individual or paired task:
Recall a time you felt powerless about something you cared for. What did you do and what might you do now?
Design one small, practical action a class could take to show care for animals or community resources (poster, fundraiser, letter to a local shelter).
Extension Task: Compare 1830s animal economies with a modern industry (e.g. factory farming) and present findings.
Clip 2: The Bushranger
While out with Duchess, Davey and Alice see a bushranger fleeing soldiers. They misdirect the soldiers to help him escape and later face teasing about Duchess’s fate.
Tuning In
By working together, we can help each other in times of need. As you watch, notice:
- How fear, sympathy and loyalty influence Davey and Alice
- How stories about bushrangers shape community attitudes
- The social consequences of helping someone on the run
As a class, discuss:
- How do rumours and stories change how we judge people?
- When does loyalty become risky?
Finding Out & Sorting Out
Work together in pairs or small groups to investigate motives, community context and consequences as you complete a mini research task. Find short, teacher‑selected extracts about bushrangers (who they were, why they existed).
After you have completed your research, rewrite the scene as a newspaper report from the town the next day. Practise objective vs sensational language.
Making Connections
As you examine the actions of Davey and Alice, write a short reflective piece: Was helping the bushranger brave or dangerous? Use evidence from the clip and your research.
Class discussion: Identify modern parallels where people help someone who is breaking the law. What factors influence public sympathy?
Clip 3: The Shooting
On the run with Duchess, Davey witnesses bushrangers shoot Mr Owen and steal from him. The violence forces Davey to reassess his assumptions about bushrangers and justice.
Tuning In
Violence and the emotions involved in violent acts can have a lasting impact on children and adults. As you watch, notice:
- How violence changes the moral landscape of the story
- Davey’s emotional and cognitive response to seeing someone he knows harmed
- How the clip complicates simple ideas of heroism and villainy
As a class, discuss:
- How does witnessing violence affect what someone believes about a person or group?
- What responsibilities do witnesses have?
- How do communities respond to violent crime in small towns?
Finding Out & Sorting Out
A teacher-led class discussion will assist students in choosing one of the following group activities to deepen ethical reasoning and practical responses.
Moral Decision Tree: build a decision tree showing Davey’s possible choices after the shooting and likely consequences for each path (reporting, hiding, confronting, fleeing).
Witness responsibilities task: research (teacher‑selected) historical practices for reporting crime in the 1830s and compare to modern procedures. Create a short poster: What to do if you witness a crime.
Perspective swap writing: write a letter from Davey to Alice explaining how his view of bushrangers has changed.
Ethical debate: hold a structured debate on the motion: “People who break the law can never be trusted.” Use evidence from the clip and historical context.
Making Connections
Civic action prompt: draft a short class code of conduct for responding to dangerous situations that prioritises safety and reporting.
Extension task: Analyse how Davey’s moral understanding changes across the three clips, using specific evidence and historical context. Students produce a short podcast episode interviewing classmates about how they would respond to moral dilemmas, editing together diverse viewpoints.
Australian Curriculum Links
|
|
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
Year 6 |
Understanding – Civics and Citizenship |
why people participate within communities and how students can actively participate and contribute to communities |
|
|
|
Skills – Questioning and Researching |
develop questions to guide investigations about people, events, places and issues locate, collect and record information and data from a range of sources, including annotated timelines and maps |
develop questions to guide investigations about people, events, places and issues locate, collect and record information and data from a range of sources, including annotated timelines and maps |
develop questions to investigate people, events, developments, places and systems locate, collect and organise information and data from primary and secondary sources in a range of formats |
develop questions to investigate people, events, developments, places and systems locate, collect and organise information and data from primary and secondary sources in a range of formats |
Skills - Interpreting, analysing and evaluating |
analyse information and data, and identify perspectives |
analyse information and data, and identify perspectives |
|
|
Skills - Concluding and decision-making |
draw conclusions based on analysis of information propose actions or responses to an issue or challenge that consider possible effects of actions |
draw conclusions based on analysis of information propose actions or responses to an issue or challenge that consider possible effects of actions |
develop evidence-based conclusions propose actions or responses to issues or challenges and use criteria to assess the possible effects |
develop evidence-based conclusions propose actions or responses to issues or challenges and use criteria to assess the possible effects |
Skills - Communicating |
present descriptions and explanations, using ideas from sources and relevant subject-specific terms |
present descriptions and explanations, using ideas from sources and relevant subject-specific terms |
present descriptions and explanations, drawing ideas, findings and viewpoints from sources, and using relevant terms and conventions |
present descriptions and explanations, drawing ideas, findings and viewpoints from sources, and using relevant terms and conventions |
|
|
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
Year 6 |
Language |
understand how the language of evaluation and emotion, such as modal verbs, can be varied to be more or less forceful
|
identify the subjective language of opinion and feeling, and the objective language of factual reporting |
understand how to move beyond making bare assertions by taking account of differing ideas or opinions and authoritative sources |
|
Literacy |
recognise how texts can be created for similar purposes but different audiences use interaction skills to contribute to conversations and discussions to share information and ideas plan, create, edit and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive written and multimodal texts, using visual features, appropriate form and layout, with ideas grouped in simple paragraphs, mostly correct tense, topic-specific vocabulary and correct spelling of most high-frequency and phonetically regular words plan, create, rehearse and deliver short oral and/or multimodal presentations to inform, express opinions or tell stories, using a clear structure, details to elaborate ideas, topic-specific and precise vocabulary, visual features, and appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume |
compare texts from different times with similar purposes and audiences to identify similarities and differences in their depictions of events listen for key points and information to carry out tasks and contribute to discussions, acknowledging another opinion, linking a response to the topic, and sharing and extending ideas and information plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, using visual features, relevant linked ideas, complex sentences, appropriate tense, synonyms and antonyms, correct spelling of multisyllabic words and simple punctuation
plan, create, rehearse and deliver structured oral and/or multimodal presentations to report on a topic, tell a story, recount events or present an argument using subjective and objective language, complex sentences, visual features, tone, pace, pitch and volume
|
describe the ways in which a text reflects the time and place in which it was created use appropriate interaction skills including paraphrasing and questioning to clarify meaning, make connections to own experience, and present and justify an opinion or idea plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive, developing ideas using visual features, text structure appropriate to the topic and purpose, text connectives, expanded noun groups, specialist and technical vocabulary, and punctuation including dialogue punctuation plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations that include relevant, elaborated ideas, sequencing ideas and using complex sentences, specialist and technical vocabulary, pitch, tone, pace, volume, and visual and digital features |
examine texts including media texts that represent ideas and events, and identify how they reflect the context in which they were created use interaction skills and awareness of formality when paraphrasing, questioning, clarifying and interrogating ideas, developing and supporting arguments, and sharing and evaluating information, experiences and opinions plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive, using paragraphs, a variety of complex sentences, expanded verb groups, tense, topic-specific and vivid vocabulary, punctuation, spelling and visual features plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations that include information, arguments and details that develop a theme or idea, organising ideas using precise topic-specific and technical vocabulary, pitch, tone, pace, volume, and visual and digital features |
Critical and Creative Thinking
Students analyse complex questions about loyalty, justice, courage and consequences, evaluating different perspectives before forming evidence-based conclusions about Davey's choices.
Ethical Understanding
Students explore ethical issues relating to animal welfare, fairness, honesty, law-breaking and responsibility as they consider whether actions can be justified by good intentions.
Personal and Social Capability
Students develop empathy, resilience and decision-making skills by reflecting on relationships, moral dilemmas and the impacts of individual actions on others and the wider community.