Thylacine Poetry – Grade 5/6 EE

This term in HASS we have been researching the importance and implications of the colonisation of Australia, following the arrival of the First Fleet from England in 1788.

We have learnt about the relationships between the Europeans and local aboriginal people including the very unusual friendship between Governor Arthur and Bennelong.

Other discussions have focussed on the life of early settlers and the impact of changes of land use and farming practises on the Australian environment. We focused on how land management included bounties on ‘pest’ species such as the Thylacine, and how this contributed to the extinction of this species.

Students wrote senses poems about Benjamin, the last known living Thylacine, who was captured and placed in the Beaumaris Zoo. Benjamin, along with many other animals in the zoo, died of exposure one cold night when the zookeeper forgot to return them to their shelter at dusk.