Exploring+Tall+Tales


 * Brainstorming:**

//Our research question:// **What 'tall tales' may occur in Broken Hill in modern times?**
We plan to research this question using the information we were given during the police talk/the stories Paul Armstrong shared with us/stories that members of the local community we hope will tell us about. In order to develop an answer to this question we will need to be able to understand what sort of events happened in the past/what affected them and why 'tall tales' may be very different today. Using things like common crimes, recent events in the community and so on, we hope to be able to come up with our very own tall tale.

We've just discussed some ideas about what we want to achieve with our assignment while we're here in Broken Hill. Each group member read different stories, recounted by Paul Armstrong, to begin our research into the topic. Initially we wanted to chose one story and re-enact it through a movie however after discussing the idea with a teacher and the rest of the group, we settled the idea of making up our own story to perform and film. Gathering inspiration from Paul's stories as well as information from members of the Broken Hill community, especially the elderly, the police and the library archivists, we are going to use factual information to create a modern, realistic tale that we can recount in a movie. Paul Armstrong came in after dinner to recount tales and stories about Broken Hill. We found that ghost stories really stuck in our minds after Paul told them to us. Hopefully using his stories as an inspiration for our project might help the project to be memorable to all who see it. The story will take place at mulberry vale and hopefully the end result will leave students who are going to Broken Hill in the future mystified and chilled to the bone!
 * Group Blog- 20/3/12**

Alice and I are in the library reading old newspaper clippings and articles from the archives about crime in Broken Hill. We've found out that a lot of the murders and crime that takes place here are assaults that often lead to death. This supports what the police man last night told us. He said that the most common crime that takes place in the Broken Hill region is physical assault. We can use this piece of information when creating out movie. Maybe the crime that takes place in our movie could be an assault of some form to fit in with factual information.
 * Taylor Jones Blog- 21/3/12**

I am currently at the Broken Hill Library with Taylor Jones. We are reading many of crime stories in old newspaper articles from the town that date back all the way to 1910! Although we are not quite sure what might be helpful for our assignment, we really need to get to know our questions and focus points!
 * Alice Zahalka Blog- 21/3/12**

Researching tall tales and old crime articles in the Library.

We have decided to create our own modern "tall tale," which draws from past tales as well as crime trends evident today in the Broken Hill community. We have decided to compare the past and the present as Broken Hill's history contains many mysteries. To present this, we develop our tall tale into an iMovie which will resemble a modern horror film. This will display our research creatively and entertainingly.
 * Presentation Idea**

Taylor and Alice spent some time on Wednesday at the local library studying crime stories and a tales, specifically murders. Their goal was to discover trends that were evident in most stories. They found out, through looking over old newspaper articles found in the archive, that most of the murders in Broken Hills past took place between family members or relatives. There were a fair amount of stories related to mental diseases causing people to kill others or themselves. We discovered that, because many of these cases took place around/ during the time of World War I and World War II, there was very little help for people with mental illnesses. The trend in murder cases related to mental illness isn't evident in Broken Hill today.
 * Sources**

We were also visited by Senior Constable Paul who showed us a presentation of Cyber Safety and gave us time to ask him questions about his work and what he has experienced in the line of duty. We asked him about his input in the community and what were some of the major problems facing Broken Hill. He told us about the work that he does for the surrounding indigenous communities and what programs have been set up to re-establish relationships between the Indigenous population and the Police. He also talked to us about the "Min Min" lights which are mysterious "illusions" that appear on the horizon and look like flaming balls of fire. These have only been spotted a few times and some people believe they do not exist. These rumors can help enhance our project.

Later on, Mr. Paul Armstrong dropped by to introduce himself and his works. He is a well-known writer around Broken Hill and he has released two books, all containing short stories and tales that took place in the community. Many of them are mysterious and have a crime aspect to it. It was very rewarding hearing him speak and it definitely benefited us and our topic. He told us many legends and answered our questions. It was a great night.


 * Script ideas**
 * 1) 1 - Tourists getting lost/elderly people getting lost
 * 2) 2 - Locals have an argument resulting in abuse
 * 3) 3 - Event caused by intoxication

We have decided that our favourite idea is one about tourists getting lost and disorientated. We have began the plot summary: - 3 girls (the tourists) on a road trip. - They discuss stopping overnight in Broken Hill to camp. 2 of the girls are hesitant due to stories about BH including the Min Min Lights, ghosts etc, but eventually decide to stop after some argument. - After more fighting over silly things, 1 girl storms off into the night. - She starts to become flustered and can't find her way back to their campsite. - She then sees the Min Min Lights and follows them consequently disappearing. - The other two girls awaken the next morning to find their friend gone and begin to question exactly what has taken place. They call the police but are told that she has not been gone long enough to be classified as a missing person and that they don't have the extra manpower. - When nightfall comes again, and the girls still haven't found their friend. - The story closes on the two girls seeing the Min Min lights themselves and wandering into the same fate as their friend.
 * Plot Summary**

We want to leave the stories end as a mystery similar to the way other tales from Broken Hill do. It will give a sense of tradition and make the whole plot much more exciting and chilling!!

Aruma Lodge- Luci and Emma visited the elderly residence and asked them if they knew of any haunted stories or tales! = **OUR NEW RESEARCH QUESTION: What effect does crime have on the Broken Hill community? ** =

After much discussion with our teachers, it was decided that we should change our over-arching question in order to give our project a more open focus/direction. Our new question will be more focused on getting primary sources, such as talking to and interviewing local community members.

__Interview with Brian__

We started our research with Brian, the archivist at the library, who has lived in Broken Hill for 63 years.

Brian: Everybody in Broken Hill knows everyone else, or someone who knows another person. If a crime is committed, everyone is affected by it because everyone knows either the victim or the offender.
 * Do you think the size of BH, compared to major cities, affects the way the community reacts? Why?**

Brian: Broken Hill Police have better relationships with the community members and can get help from them more easily than in major cities. For example, when Joan went missing, every man and their dog were out looking for her on the property.
 * Do you think the community would be willing to lend a helping hand in order to solve crimes, more so than in more populated places? Why?**

Brian: Everyone has varying opinions of their families and friends and so when a crime is committed and travels quickly throughout the town, a lot of conflict arises based on personal views of the victim/offender.
 * Do crimes divide the town? Why?**

Brian: Definitely. Such as now having screens on the backdoors because we were more crime conscious after more break and enters have taken place over the past few years than they have before.
 * Do crimes have long lasting affects on the community? Why?**

Brian: In a small town like BH everyone knows what everyone is doing and when, so people notice things that are out of place e.g. seeing a car that isn’t normally there. This means that people can inform the police of criminal activity quite easily.
 * What factors do you think affect how crimes are solved?**

__Interview with Constable Steven__

We next spoke to Constable Steven, a police officer who has lived and worked in Broken Hill for a year.

Steven: Yes, the community is very interconnected and everyone is familiar with each other. This can be good or bad – Word travels around the community very quickly and soon after a crime is committed everyone knows what happened and who did it. This makes confidentiality a problem for police.
 * Do you think the size of BH, compared to major cities, affects the way the community reacts? Why?**

Steven: Since the community is so small and connected, everyone tends to have a personal involvement with victim crimes and are directly affected by it. People also know the criminals so they usually watch out for them and report them when they do something wrong.
 * Do you think the community would be willing to lend a helping hand in order to solve crimes, more so than in more populated places? Why?**

Steven: High profile crimes have long lasting affects as everyone knows the people involved. Also, as major crimes don’t often happen in BH, the town will continue to talk about it until the next major crime in committed.
 * Do crimes have long lasting affects on the community? Why?**

Steven: Yes. There is quite a bit of violence related to family issues, especially in the Indigenous community.
 * Do crimes divide the town? Why?**

Steven: Groups and people are sometimes unwilling to share information that will betray their loyalties and us as police often find “a wall of silence” when the crime affects a particular group.
 * What do you think is the major factor in Broken Hill that affects how crimes are solved?**

__Interview with Kathy__

Our final interview was with Kathy, who has lived in Broken Hill for her entire life (46 years).

Kathy: The crime in BH is often hushed up, for example, the local newspaper only reports certain crimes, meaning that the community is left in the dark about the majority of crimes. There are a lot of alcohol crimes and robbery. People become panicked because in the 50’s and 60’s in BH no one locked their doors, left their wallets lying around but nowadays people will just break in even when everything is locked up. That’s only happened in the last 20 years.
 * Do you think the size of BH, compared to major cities, affects the way the community reacts? Why?**

Kathy: We used to have neighbourhood watch but it’s sort of gone out. I would say no although people with personal involvement may try to help out the police more so than in a city like Sydney.
 * Do you think the community would be willing to lend a helping hand in order to solve crimes, more so than in more populated places? Why?**

Kathy: I think it particularly affects the older generation. Take my mother for example, she is very frightened now and doesn’t feel safe in her home the way she used to all those years ago.
 * Do crimes have long lasting affects on the community? Why?**

Kathy: Although I’m not racist, some people blame Aboriginal people when it comes to crime without even thinking about it, even though nowadays, it mostly white girls and boys committing crime.
 * Do crimes divide the town? Why?**

Kathy: The police don’t have enough manpower, for example, a place got robbed a year ago and it took about 1½ hours for all the police to come out and by then, they were useless.
 * What do you think is the major factor in Broken Hill that affects how crimes are solved?**



We have just discussed exhibiting options for our task. We tried to think of an achievable presentation format that could combine our research within a time frame and entertain the audience. In the end we decided to make an iMovie showing different peoples perspectives on crime in Broken Hill. It will be set out like a court case to enforce the theme of crime and justice. So far, we have talked to three members of the Broken Hill community and each of their responses to our interview questions will be used in the iMovie. If we feel that the presentation isn't coming together well, we might compare the responses of the three people to show how views on crime are similar and different between different people in the community.
 * Group Blog 26/3/12**

Today we filmed and completed our final assignment! We are so proud of how it's all come together. Out final presentation shows a bush court case explaining how crime affects the Broken Hill community. We also wrote our presentation. We are going to adjust it and talk form our characters perspectives in the movie. We will do that on Tuesday when we present our final product to an audience!
 * Group Blog 29/3/12**