I’m delighted to tell you that the new version of the Ghost Boy tour, based on my novel of the same name, is now up and running at the Quarantine Station in Sydney. The tour is available for school students (primary and lower secondary) who are reading the novel in school, and it’s a great way to bring those characters ‘to life’ as well as immersing students in the past, to find out more about immigration and the class system, plus the early treatment of disease. Ghost Boy has a flashback to a (real) outbreak of smallpox in 1881. Conditions at the QS were so terrible that a royal commission was held into the station in 1882, and evidence from that commission was a great source of research for my novel. The station is a magnificent site but it has a really creepy past; it is full of atmosphere and guides who work there swear the place is haunted!
To find out more, go to their website: http://www.qstation.com.au or tel: (02) 9976 6220 or email: reservations@qstation.com.au PLEASE NOTE There are now teachers’ notes available to download from the website. Click on ‘education’ in the top bar, and scroll down to where the Ghost Boy tour is featured. The notes are fantastic and very comprehensive, with information on the book and on the history of the QS + there are learning and fun activities for students.
HI Felicity,
Bronwyn Sandeman here
I am now also working at the Australain Christian Schooling headquarters at Erina where we are developing Distance Education curriculum.
I brought up your name and the book Ghost Boy along with QStation excursion
Is your book still linked to a tour at QS?
Also would you be willing to come on board and talk with Jo Ryan who I am working alongside with the thought of incorporating your book into our curriculum?
Hi Bronwyn,
Good to hear from you, and it sounds like you’re as busy as ever! So far as I know, the QS is still running the Ghost Boy tour, although they were closed for a while and I’m not sure if they’re back running school tours yet. I’ll ring them tomorrow, and check, and let you know. And yes, of course I’d be very happy to talk to Jo Ryan (zoom or in ‘real life’??) Either is fine. I really appreciate all the interest you’ve taken in Ghost Boy; it’s very good of you. I’m not sure how far ‘Distance Education’ extends, but if it’s Australia-wide there are, of course, old quarantine stations in Victoria and in WA – and possibly other states as well. I’ve visited the two in WA (Albany and Perth) and they’re quite similar, though smaller, to the one on North Head so they would give students an idea of what the book is all about. And so timely given our current ‘plague’!! I hope you’ve managed to cope with it all okay – it really has been a horrible year. All the best, Flick