Ansh Siddhpura, a 12-year-old student from Perth, recently won the prestigious 'National History Challenge' held at Canberra.
A year-seven student at Harrisdale Senior High School, Mr Siddhpura, along with his three friends, Gabriel Eing, Rhylee Hand and Gladson Sam built a website on the Eureka Rebellion for the research-oriented competition.
After qualifying at the state level, the group went on to submit their project at the national level, where they were declared winners of the challenge.
The 'National History Challenge' is a platform that encourages students to function as historians, researching history, examining the Australia's past, investigating their community and exploring their roots.
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It emphasises and rewards quality research, the use of community resources and effective presentation.
What is the Eureka Rebellion?
Mr Siddhpura's team created a website and interactive video presentation on the Eureka Rebellion that took place in Victoria’s Ballarat region back in 1854.
The rebellion was caused by worker anger over unfair labour laws and policies of the colonial authority. All the workers and miners came together fighting for their rights and liberties, in the end losing the battle but paving the way for modern Australia.
Talking to SBS Gujarati about his achievement Mr Siddhupura said, "I am so happy at winning the state level and now the award at the national level. I believe that smart choices and hard work always pay off."
We wanted to present something unique and less-known chapters of the Australian history, and we started researching about the Eureka Rebellion.
"The website and interactive video with commentary got us higher numbers in presentation and finally, we won the national award for our effort," added Mr Siddupura.
Ansh is certified 'Python' programmer
Ansh is currently studying in year-seven, but he is in an ‘extension’ class - meaning he studies year-eight-level maths and science at the school along with his regular units. He also likes to code on a computer, programming languages and is a certified Python language programmer already.
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'Proud of Ansh’s success'
Mr Siddhupura's parents, Dr Arti and Dr Milind Siddhpura, who work as professors in the Mechanical Engineering department at the Engineering Institute of Technology in Perth said they were "ecstatic" at their son's achievement.
“As parents, we feel proud and thrilled to learn that Ansh has won a national-level award.
"We are delighted to learn that our son is perfectly blending our Gujarati and Indian culture with the Australian culture and has won the prestigious competition," said the proud parents.
