Work in groups of fourteen or more students for these activities.

Activity 1: Why is land so important to us?

List as many ways as you can in which people use land today.

Use the activity sheet, How people use land today to sort these land uses or decide upon your own categories for grouping land uses. Think of additional examples for any categories on the activity sheet for which you had no examples.

Look through old magazines and internet sources to find photographs to use together with information on the activity sheet to prepare a visual presentation explaining why people value land.

Activity 2: When did they buy land?

Again, we meet seven Victorians living here in 1855. They are:

• Lucy Bell
• Thomas Henty
• William Barak
• Elias Andrews
• John Chandler
• Frederick Thomas Sargood
• William Foster Stawell

As a class or in groups read and discuss the text Who can buy land? When?. Decide what (if anything) you think is fair and what is unfair in each Land Act. Discuss the ways in which you think each Land Act might have made it easier (or more difficult) to buy or lease land than the previous Land Act allowed.

Cut up the seven sections of the activity sheet, Who can buy land? When? and the seven life stories used earlier when investigating voting.

Distribute these to members of your group. Each student will either have a biography about one of the seven people living in Victoria in 1855 or text about one of the Land Acts that operated in Victoria between 1847 and 1884.

Students with the Land Act cards make a 'human timeline' from the first act to the last act.

The 'biographies' move along the timeline to find the Land Act which they think would first help their person to buy or lease land. There could be more than one person for a particular Land Act. Some Land Acts may not have anyone linked to them.

Compare the timelines made by different groups in your class. Students with 'biographies' explain why they chose a particular Land Act. The Land Act representative next indicates whether or not he or she agrees with the biography's decision. Resolve any differences of opinion within and between groups.

Add these Land Acts to your 'Landmarks of Victoria' timeline.

Activity 3: What are the needs and challenges for land owners?

Think of as many things as you can that might have happened that made it difficult for people to make repayments and to improve their land. Some of these would be natural disasters, others are human-made. You could read stories by Australian authors such as Henry Lawson and A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson to help you to respond to this question.

Keep a record of your ideas to use in later activities.

Back to top | Next activity

• Introductory activities
• Investigating the past
• Visiting the exhibition
• Going further

• Activity sheet A: How people use land
• Lucy Bell
• Thomas Henty
• William Barak
• Elias Andrews
• John Chandler
• Frederick Thomas Sargood
• William Foster Stawell
• Activity sheet B: Who can buy land? When?
• Activity sheet C: Seven life stories
• Anti-Women's Petition
• Record of Legislative Council debate on women's vote
• Punch cartoon