Student Worksheet

Thought-starter: Did you know that 'The Hydro' has been going for over 100 years?

Instructions to students

In this lesson, you will complete a NAPLAN style practice creative writing task. Read the Reading Text below and write a story based on the information and photographs provided. You have 40 minutes to write and proofread your story. Write on separate paper and remember to include your name.

Reading text

An Introduction to Hydro Tasmania

Hydro Tasmania provides electrical energy for the people of Tasmania, Australia’s island state. The word ‘hydro’ means ‘water’. Hydro Tasmania has thirty hydropower stations in Tasmania and a wind farm on an island in Bass Strait. Hydro Tasmania operates two wind farms on mainland Tasmania under a joint venture. Hydro Tasmania catches the electrical energy from these sources and sends it to places where it is needed, to power people’s homes and businesses.

The information below focuses on the story of one of Hydro Tasmania’s many workers. As part of its centenary (100 year) celebrations, Hydro Tasmania collected stories like this one from employees and their families. This is Theo Beluch’s story, as told by his daughter, Kirsten. Theo’s father, Alex, was a Polish immigrant who came to Australia to work for ‘The Hydro’, as it was called, in the 1950s.

Theo’s Story (as told by his daughter, Kirsten)

Growing up in Bronte was idyllic for my dad (Theo) – especially for a ten-year-old boy who loved nothing more than to spend the day away from home playing amongst the bush with the other village children. Cowboys and Indians was one of the children’s favourite games, and Bronte was the perfect background for these games. Many of their days were spent scampering the land; rain, hail or shine (or even snow).

The ‘pictures’ was another favourite pastime of Theo’s and the other children, Bronte Park was fortunate to have its own ‘picture hall’ and every Saturday there would be subsidised pictures showing. Matinees (midday sessions) of cartoons were shown before the main film, which was many times a western (Theo’s favourite), such as a Davy Crockett movie.

There were many cultures and nationalities including Germans, Czechs, Yugoslavs, Poles, Italians ... Bronte was an international village of people working together. The only time there was any real animosity was when there was a soccer game being held, Theo fondly recalls. However, at work there was nothing but a small amount of healthy ribbing about one another’s background.

In a life-changing experience Theo began to attend school at Bronte at age ten. Previously in Germany, his school days would finish at lunchtime. The students would attend school at 8am, leaving at 12pm. Of course in Tasmania, school days run from around 8:30am until 3pm. It took Theo many weeks before he could become accustomed to continuing his school day past lunchtime. He enjoyed his schooling – it was of course difficult, as he spoke little English – but what he lacked in spoken skills he made up for with enthusiasm.

He thoroughly enjoyed ANZAC day sports – something that he and the other students looked forward to each year. The event would mean the children would travel to other Hydro camps such as Tarraleah, so there would be the combination of competing in sports against other schools while also having the opportunity to travel away from home – an exciting adventure for any primary schooler.

In 1960 the family moved to Poatina, where Theo attended Cressy High School from Grade 7 through to Grade 9. Theo fondly remembers the mischief created on the school bus from Poatina to Cressy, and recalls memories of the bus struggling in extreme weather conditions. A frozen or over heated engine was not uncommon for the bus, providing entertainment for the students, especially Theo – the less time they had to spend at school the better.

At age fifteen, Theo began work in the fabrication shop where concrete slabs were cast, before they were taken by truck to Arthurs Lake Pump House (still under construction), which would pump water from the lake through to the Great Lake. Not long after, he was transferred to Arthurs Lake where he learnt how to work on a jackhammer, drilling into bluestone down to three metres before it was filled with gelignite and Nobel explosives, and then blown up to separate the bluestone. He had hoped to become a ‘powder monkey’ – working with explosives – but circumstances changed and his parents had made the decision to move away from Poatina.

Writing Task

Using the information about Theo and the family photographs for ideas, write a short creative story.

Make Theo the protagonist (main character). He may also be the narrator – OR you can use another character (e.g. his father Alex) or an omniscient narrator to tell the story in third person.
Don’t try to use all parts of the Reading Text. Choose one or two and expand them using your imagination.
Make sure the details you make up are appropriate and make sense when combined with the information about Theo.
- GOOD EXAMPLE: Theo has an accident while using the jackhammer.
- BAD EXAMPLE: Theo is arrested as a terrorist.

Structure your story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Note: you can begin the story wherever you like. You do not have to go back to Theo’s ‘beginning’ (i.e. when he was born).
Give your story an interesting title.
Write your name on your story ready for submission.
When everyone has finished, share your story with others in the class.

Hydro Tasmania - Theo Beluch (NAPLAN Writing Practice)

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