Two of Ballarat's cultural institutions have dusted off their collections for a series of online classes teaching local children about the Eureka rebellion.
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The Eureka Centre and Art Gallery of Ballarat highlighted a series of items from historical Ballarat, and the artworks of Eugene von Guerard and ST Gill to give a glimpse of life in goldrush times to students from Warrenheip, Wendouree, Little Bendigo and Caledonian primary schools.
For the organisations' education officers who took part in the hour-long classes it was the first time they had presented to children since March.
During the online lesson the education officers worked to give students an introduction to important Eureka figures and artists on the goldfields, explain the importance of the Eureka Flag and demonstrate an art-making activity based on images of the goldfields.
Eureka Centre education officer Hermione Higgins showed off items from the collection including a police truncheon, silver mechanical pencil, an old wooden thimble and a gunpowder belt pouch.
"They are objects from the 1850s that would have been used by people who would have been important in the Eureka story, shedding light on the characters through those objects," she said.
"We really wanted to connect as much as we could face-to-face to local schools to deliver this live."
The content was also recorded and will be delivered to schools who had been booked in to visit the centre this year.
Art works from ST Gill depicting the journey to the goldfields and life in the diggings sparked discussion among the children, while the works of von Guerard held special meaning to the local students.
"One of the key images they were looking at was Mount Warrenheip as a clear landmark. The Warrenheip Primary School children were really excited - they knew what it was, could recognise it and were able to figure out where other areas of Ballarat might be," Ms Higgins said.
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"With the von Guerards we were looking at the changing landscape and how we can use artwork to see the world around us and see how things are different."
Eureka Centre manager Anthony Camm said that the events of the Eureka had an importance place in the education curriculum, and programs at the Eureka Centre and the Gallery had been popular with schools visiting Ballarat.
"During the COVID lockdown, both the Eureka Centre and the Gallery have had to cancel bookings, so we are looking at looking at online delivery of these programs to schools," he said.
