Year 5 Excursion to Maitland and Morpeth

At 8:15 am our class group of excited students boarded the bus headed to Maitland. We arrived at our first stop Maitland Gaol 45 minutes later. At Maitland Gaol we experienced and saw what life would be like in a Gaol.

We learnt that inmates measured their years in Goal by counting their desserts. They got dessert pudding each Sunday and special cake for Christmas. If a man had been in Gaol for 3 years and 7 weeks he would have had 3 Christmas cakes and 7 puddings. Once the prisoners had woken up each day they all would go outside and line up on one of the three lines that were marked on the ground. If one of the prisoners misbehaved the guards would do a warning shot with their rifles.

After we left the Gaol we went to eat recess and Mr Schultz came to talk to us about Morpeth. He spoke to us about Stockade Hill which was where the army was stationed. We then got on the bus and started heading towards Morpeth.

When we got there we split into our groups and started to walk up the trail that was marked on our maps. My group walked up the hill towards the Morpeth Sourdough bakery which used to be the old Arnotts Bakery. When we were in the front of the bakery we saw a special tile on the bakery floor which had been there since 1850. We all tried to copy the tile which was green with gold painted words on it.

Our group leader bought us some sourdough bread to taste and it was absolutely amazing. The Morpeth Sourdough bakery was such an enjoyable experience that I would love to do it again. My favourite part of the bakehouse was seeing the special tile and smelling the fresh cooked bread, which was magnificent.

We continued on walking down the street until we got to Bronte Guesthouse. It was an old looking place and was quite interesting to see and was built for Mr Paterson who started Soul Paterson chemist. Once we crossed the road we walked straight up the pathway to get back to the bus.

Afterwards we all drove up to a little undercover shelter made out of brick and ate some lunch. The little place smelt funny and felt strange. Once we finished lunch we got back onto the bus and passed Caroline Chisholm’s house on the return trip to school. Caroline Chisholm was famous for all the work she did taking care of the poor. Caroline Chisholm was also on the old Australian $5 dollar note.

The bus trip back to school felt like it went by quickly.   I thought about all the different things that I learned and saw and I must say, it was an amazing excursion.

Report by Kendra (Year 5Q)